ABSTRACT
France has a unique position in Europe in terms of its 5,500 km-long seaboard, as it is the only country with three maritime fronts: the southern North Sea and eastern English Channel, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The western seaboard, comprising the coasts of the southern North Sea, the English Channel and the Atlantic, forms the maritime fringes of tectonically mildly uplifted marine sediments that form plateaux and plains. Transgression and on the abundance of sand stocks on the shallow shoreface. Differences in sand abundance on the shoreface in the Channel/North Sea sector are related to large-scale bedload sorting processes controlled by a combination of tides, dominant westerly winds and Coriolis forcing. The central part of the Atlantic coast of France forms a transitional zone between the rugged coast of Britanny and the long, straight sand coast south of the Gironde estuary. Parts of Wissant Bay show some of the highest rates of historical shoreline retreat in France.
