Europe’s largest aquarium Nausicaa is just a swim across the Channel in Boulogne-sur-Mer
I BLAME Jaws. When actors could look like normal people and a malfunctioning piece of fibreglass could pass for a great white, we went shark crazy – and haven’t looked back since.
How else can we explain all six Sharknado films? (Yes, that is a film franchise about a tornado of sharks.)
But the real thing is only a short hop across the Channel, around 30 minutes’ drive from Calais in the busy port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Nausicaa, the French National Sea Centre, is Europe’s largest aquarium.
It doubled in size this summer with a giant new tank housing thousands of tropical fish, manta rays and, yes, sharks.
But that barely scratches the surface — or beneath the surface — of what you can see there.
The new tank is certainly impressive. It is 65ft wide and 16ft high, and took a month to fill. As a veteran of many such outings, I have never seen anything like it.
Nor had the kids: Ten-year-old Miles and Ava were entranced by the quantity and variety of everything on show.
But even the sorts of things they had seen before — the touch tank with the smaller rays, glass tunnel (yet more sharks), penguins and sea lions and hundreds of clown fish — it is like every aquarium you have ever visited, rolled into a gigantic piscine extravaganza.
Marine conservation is the overarching theme, but it is never rammed down your throat.
You can even have a nice fish lunch in one of the cafés. Being French, they take this very seriously.
Naturally, there is a good selection of wine.
We arrived early and stayed practically all day, but opted for a picnic on the beach instead.
Frites and mayonnaise from the chip van outside, plus a couple of cans of Belgian beer.
What could be more continental? Well, a number of things, all of which are within reach of the Opal Coast.
No, I hadn’t heard of it either, but that’s what they call the 26 miles between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer — the bit most of us skip as we race towards the beaches of Brittany or the Med.
When taking the car, it is all very easy. You get straight off the ferry and make the short drive south, stopping off on the way at Les Deux Caps if you like.
The Caps are two chunky bits of headland, the closest part of France to Britain, and on a clear day you can see Dover’s White Cliffs.
We couldn’t, so it was back in the car and down to our B&B, the lovely Le Prince Gourmand in the rolling green hills a few miles inland.
Being so close to England, war is never far away.
No, not the unseemly scrap over scallops in the Channel, but the twin tragedies of the last century.
The military cemeteries of northern France are a sobering reminder of a time when we really did have something to fight about.
Boulogne Eastern Cemetery contains more than 4,378 Commonwealth burials alone.
At Terlincthun there are another 3,873. It doesn’t matter how many war memorials you see.
Around here there are plenty and all are deeply moving.
It takes a lot to lift the spirits afterwards but the bracing coastline and sandy beaches do the trick.
Wimereux is a delightful resort on a sweeping stretch of golden sand, like a slice of Cornwall in France.
Further on, the old centre of Boulogne-sur-Mer is a treat, a maze of cobbled streets surrounded by impressive medieval walls.
Stop off here for more frites, with a pot of moules and a glass of wine for little more than a tenner.
Fish laid the foundations for this under-sung region of France, now more than ever with Nausicaa looming large.
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If they remade Jaws to match the spectacle of the place, Brody would have to be played by some Hollywood hunk and his wife by an Instagram princess.
And the shark would be a terrifying CGI masterpiece.
But at least you wouldn’t need a bigger boat — just the ferry to Calais then a drive down the Opal Coast.
GO: BOULOGNE
GETTING THERE/STAYING THERE: DFDS and P&O Ferries sail Dover-Calais from £35 return.
See . B&B at the nearby Prince Gourmand is from £94 per night. See .
OUT AND ABOUT: Adult entry to Nausicaa is from £22 (under 12s, £16). See .
FIND OUT MORE: See .