My husband had a big plan to take a train to a town about an hour from Dunkirk, but we were so tired from our adventure with castles, we decided to take it easy and just explore Dunkirk.  The cruise provided a shuttle bus to bring us into the center of the city.  It dropped us off in front of city hall.  

My husband searched for a bakery and when we started walking we saw tents set up for a market. We walked around the market for a bit,  marveling at the bright colors of all the fruits and vegetables.  It looked much more delectable than any farmer’s market we had seen before. They were also selling clothes, shoes, cheeses, meats, and there were trucks with different type of foods, several had rotisserie chicken and it smelled incredible.  

We also drooled over several bakeries and got a couple of goodies for ourselves. There is nothing like a French pastry. 

Since Dunkirk is well known for its evacuation of soldiers during WWII, we went to the Dunkirk Museum, Operation Dynamo. It was originally a military bunker as you can see from how it is built.  It was not very expensive and it was very comprehensive, detailing the events that led to the evacuation.  It also had a lot of memorabilia. 

We went back into town for some lunch. We had some fast food pasta.  It was a good deal. I just wish they had the option of just plain marinara sauce. We tried the four cheese.  One was a little funky, which I should have figured since we were in France. 

We walked around the town a little bit and took some pictures.  We were not in the mood to hike the tower.  

I was surprised that my husband did not go into the church.  It looked very impressive from the outside. 

You can tour this sailboat. 

You can also tour the lightship.  We didn’t really have the time or inclination, but it would have been neat to look around both of them. 

Dunkirk is not a a tourist town, which is why I thought it was really nice to walk around it.  It was a Saturday and when we drove in on the shuttle bus it seemed like the streets were deserted. They were all at the market!  It was very busy.  We saw more people on the streets after lunch.  It’s nice to explore a town that is not geared to tourists.