In this study quartz OSL dating was applied to coastal dunes sediments in Picardy, Northern France. The OSL age estimates are compared to already available radiocarbon ages and deliver important new chronological data especially for those sediment units lacking C-14 datable horizons. OSL dating provides consistent ages with the C-14 dating already obtained on interstratified organic horizons. Periods of landscape instability and sand movement triggered by increased storminess could be verified with the new chronological data. The Holocene record of sand drift in the Dover Strait demonstrates that major periods of Northern Hemisphere cooling, especially from the Roman time, were stormy and responsible for three main episodes of sand movement and dune building along the coast. Transverse or parabolic dunes were mostly built during winter cold and dry gales within a period of centennial cyclonic rainy storms in association with a significant sediment-supply by the rivers. During the Little Ice Age, dry and cold, mostly winter storms caused sediment starvation at the coast due to sand exportation both to the inland and to the offshore. A major difference is evidenced between Picardy, exposed to the Westerlies, and the north-facing Tardinghen: here a nearly complete remolding of the dunes took place during the coldest part of the Little Ice Age.