I'm walking the Côte d’Opale Trek this week — come along

Hi Reader,

By the time you're reading this, I'm somewhere on the Côte d’Opale— probably between Cap Gris-Nez and Ambleteuse, somewhere with the Channel wind in my face and chalk dust on my boots.

My husband and I are celebrating our 14th Anniversary with three days of walking, three nights in small French guesthouses, no rental car, no schedule beyond getting to the next village before dinner.

The route at a glance:

📍 Calais — the start. Most people only know it as the ferry port to England, but it's where the trail kicks off heading south along the coast.

📍 Cap Blanc-Nez — the first big payoff. White chalk cliffs rising 134 meters above the Channel, with England visible across the water on a clear day. This is the photo everyone takes.

📍 Wissant — a small fishing village halfway between the two capes. Wide sandy beach, salt-bleached houses, and the seafood restaurants where we'll be eating moules-frites on night one.

📍 Cap Gris-Nez — the closest point in France to England (just 34 km across the water). Lighthouse, dramatic headlands, and reportedly the windiest stretch of the entire trek.

📍 Ambleteuse — fortified seaside town with a 17th-century fort sitting right on the beach. Built by Vauban, the same military architect behind half of France's coastal defenses.

📍 Boulogne-sur-Mer — the finish. France's largest fishing port, a walled medieval upper town, and the moment we trade hiking boots for one last seafood dinner.

Roughly 51 km over 3 walking days. Easy-to-moderate trails (T2 rated). The kind of distance you can do without training but you'll feel it in your calves.

I'm partnering with Bookatrekking on this one.

If you've been around for a while, you've heard me mention them; they're one of my long-standing brand partners, and I absolutely love using them to find treks beyond the Dolomites.

They handle all the logistics: hotels booked, route loaded into an app, and you just walk. It's the model I keep recommending to readers who want hut-to-hut or village-to-village hiking without the planning headache.

Want to follow along live?

I'll be posting daily from the trail:

📸 Instagram: @kimberlykepharttravels — stories, reels, real-time updates

🎥 TikTok: @kimberlykepharttravels — the walking, the food, the views, the blisters

And here's the thing, I'm not just posting pretty cliff shots. I'll be filming reels you can actually use to plan your own Opal Coast trip: what the trail looks like, what's in my pack where we're staying each night, what we're eating, what I'd pack differently, what I wish someone had told me before we started. In fact, I have my first reel up about what I am packing...

So if walking the northern coast of France has ever crossed your mind, even as a vague someday, save the reels as you watch.

By the end of the week, you'll have a planning starter pack.

Why walking is suddenly all I want to do:

I've spent so much of the last few years in vertical landscapes. Dolomites switchbacks. Polish forest climbs. Korean ridgeline hikes. Beautiful, demanding, every-step-matters terrain.

You probably got my emails about the Via Francigena​. There's just something about walking. Côte d’Opale is 15 to 20 kilometers a day of gentle rolling, mostly along the sea, with stops for moules-frites in fishing villages.

I'll write to you next week with the real story — what surprised me, what I'd do differently, and maybe, the village I want to live in someday.

Until then, come walk with me on Instagram. I'll wave from a cliff.

Kimberly

P.S. — Iceland 2027:Trip page here. I'll be thinking about the women who'll be on it while I walk this week. I cant wait to see who joins me in 2027!