Stèle Louis Blériot
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Stèle Louis Blériot
Rue Guynemer - 62231 SANGATTE
Facing England, Calais XXL is a land of remarkable achievements. Numerous and varied crossings took place between France and Great Britain. One of the most famous is that of Louis Blériot, who made the first crossing of the English Channel by airplane. His memory is so vivid that a memorial stands in a town that bears his name! Louis Blériot was an aviation pioneer. He will forever remain the first man to have crossed the Channel by plane. The feat took place on July 25, 1909, with a flight lasting 37 minutes. At daybreak, Louis Blériot took off for Great Britain from the village of Les Baraques (present-day Blériot-Plage). He landed in the hills above Dover. Born in 1874 in Cambrai, Louis Blériot was an engineer and entrepreneur in the automotive industry. He produced headlights for cars and motorcycles. His true passion was aviation. He established a workshop dedicated to prototype design. In 1909, he took up a challenge from The Daily Mail newspaper and succeeded. He died in 1936 in Paris, and a few days later, the hamlet of Les Baraques was renamed Blériot-Plage by the town council. The impact of his achievement was immediate. It was a major event, and as early as 1911, the Aero Club of France erected a memorial stone in what was then the plain of Les Baraques, at the site of the takeoff. At the edge of the village (towards Sangatte), a water tower is adorned with a huge painted portrait of Louis Blériot. Did you know? In the summer of 1909, the British newspaper The Daily Mail offered a prize of £1000 to the first person to successfully cross the English Channel by airplane. Three men were declared candidates; the first to attempt the feat was Hubert Latham, on July 19th and 27th. He failed due to mechanical problems. Between Sangatte and Cap Blanc-Nez, a statue in his likeness commemorates his attempts.
