De Panne Beach

At low tide De Panne has the broadest beach of the entire Belgian coast, some 400m/440yds wide. This extends 12km/7.5miles to Nieuwpoort and in the other direction to Dunkerque in France, 17km/10.5miles distant. It is not surprising that the brothers Dumont constructed their first sailplane here more than 80 years ago. In doing so they instigated a sport which is ideally suited to the beach of De Panne. From time to time a spectacular sailplane race takes place here in November.