Calais

“This used to all be trees,” says a French policeman at the Calais approach to the Channel Tunnel, which runs 31 miles under the English Channel to Dover. Mud flats and two-story fences stretch to the horizon. Until a few decades ago, Calais was renowned as a center of lace-making. Glittering gowns and dainty underthings provided jobs for 40,000 people. After World War II, the Communist party ran the city, year in, year out. The cop was not just idly reminiscing. More recently, Calais played a less chic but equally lucrative role as a ferry-port and tourist stop. But now it is best known internationally as one of the more squalid stops on the route of migrants into Britain, and its tourism-related industries are collapsing. Despite a location that should be a license to print money, Calais is the fifth-poorest city in France.