Bunker Tombé in Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, France

Impressive spectacle of how a bunker can land on a beach and resist mother nature for the years that have passed since WWII. The Bunker in Sainte Marguerite sur Mer is a massive WWII German blockhaus that originally sat atop the coastal cliffs before decades of erosion caused it to plunge onto the beach below, landing almost perfectly vertically in the sand. Today, it stands as a surreal, monolithic attraction that gained modern fame after street artist JR and filmmaker Agnès Varda featured it in their 2016 documentary “Faces Places,” temporarily covering it in a giant mural that the sea washed away within a single day.

Because it sits on an isolated stretch of pebble shoreline beneath sheer chalk walls, visitors hiking down to this striking concrete ruin must carefully check local tide tables in advance, as the high tide completely covers the beach and leaves no escape route up the cliffs. Get more unusual and extraordinary places each week with the Atlas Obscura Places newsletter. Your newsletter subscriptions with us are subject to Atlas Obscura's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

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