Dunkerque started life in the 8th century as a simple fishing harbour. It became famous as a haven for pirates who preyed on shipping in the North Sea - the most celebrated being the local hero, Jean Bart. Today's the dunes of Dunkerque make it a seaside resort. The city is remarkably green for a major international port and industrial centre, handling bulk cargoes from all over the world, as well as being a ferry port for cars and freight with many lorries crossing between the UK and Europe. You can still discover much of Dunkerque's colourful past in a visit to the town. In the 17th century Dunkerque was the base for French "pirates" who successfully attacked other countries' ships in the North Sea. The most famous was Jean Bart - who, like the English hero Sir Francis Drake, is said to be "not really a pirate". Both were "privateers", with their monarch's written permission to attack other countries' ships, as well as use of royal ships and harbours. Dunkerque was also an important fishing port - a past celebrated in the annual two-month long carvival, featuring weekly parades by the town "giants". In Britain many people first associate "Dunkirk" (the English spelling) with the famous evacuation of British, French and Allied troops in 1940. The German forces had swept through Belgium into northern France, cutting off the retreating Allied armies in this corner of France. Some could be evacuated by ships that braved the German air offensive to enter Dunkerque harbour. The only hope for thousands of other troops was to wait in the dunes and on the flat sandy beaches along this coast. Many unarmed small boats and ships crossed the Channel in an amazing bid to rescue them - in what Churchill dubbed "the miracle of Dunkirk." Constantly revisited by heavy fighting, the town of Dunkerque was 80% destroyed during the Second World War. Its rebuilding in the 'fifties left a legacy of contemporary post-war 'fifties architecture that is slowly coming to be appreciated. Fortunately some interesting reminders of Dunkerque's colourful past can still be seen. Since the last war, the port has greatly expanded along with new industries such as oil refining, chemicals, and steel-making that use the port to bring in raw materials. The steel works and shipbuilding yards, once big industries here, closed in the 1980s. Dunkerque has an international reputation for its efforts to protect the environment whilst finding new jobs: landscaping separates industry from residential areas, and there are notable "green" initiatives, like the "wind farm" on the harbour wall. The old dockside quays, now too small for today's ocean-going supertankers are being redeveloped as a characterful and elegant cultural and tourist area, centring around the Port Museum and the Université du Littoral.