Northern France

[Clive and Kerri]

Here I think is a brilliant little guide book, it's called

Northern France What to do and see within 90 minutes of Calais by Angela Bird, £4.75 from Amazon.

I followed this for a weeks holiday and only scratched the surface of the items listed. It covers a bit of Belgium within the 90 minute range as well. At a guess I've got at least another 5 weeks holiday to just get out of that area.
So instead of just blasting through, buy this book and spend a bit of time in this area.

Please be aware the beer from this area is similar to the Belgium variety, some mornings it was hard to move on.

 

[TheDentons]

Can you get it anywhere else we are off today

 

[Bailey58]

Worth trying in Waterstones if you are anywhere near, not available in Kindle assuming you have one but have a look at this website which is a supplement to the book.

Edit: How's the dashcam?

 

[Nirvanauk]

Hope it's good as I've just ordered a copy.

 

[Clive and Kerri]

Hope it's good as I've just ordered a copy.

I think it is, found lots of things to see and do

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[chaser]

Loads to do and see in northern france, don't know why it isn't more popular, easy to get to , not much traveling when you get there to find somewhere, plenty beaches and war stuff, Dunkirk, ipers , cheap bacca in Belgium, my favourite aire , gravelines only twenty mins up the road from tunnel and if you go for just four or five days cheap fares on the tunnel, anyone who lives close to Folkestone , has got to be on a winner , save your fare in bacca and wine.

 

[Clive and Kerri]

Loads to do and see in northern france, don't know why it isn't more popular, easy to get to , not much traveling when you get there to find somewhere, plenty beaches and war stuff, Dunkirk, ipers , cheap bacca in Belgium, my favourite aire , gravelines only twenty mins up the road from tunnel and if you go for just four or five days cheap fares on the tunnel, anyone who lives close to Folkestone , has got to be on a winner , save your fare in bacca and wine.

Couldn't put it better myself. I also love Bergues and Grand Fort Philippe

 

[scousebird]

Just ordered a copy on your recommendation Clive, as we can easily do long weekends over there it may be useful.

 

[Fenman]

There was a series by Cadogan called the Gourmet Series published nigh on 20 years ago.

They were entitled Lazy Days Out in . . . . . Across the Channel, The Dordogne & Lot, Provence, The Loire and Tuscany there may have been more.

Well out of print now but a lot of the content is still worth reading as the places are timeless. If you go to Awesomebooks.com you can get quite a few of them for £2.49 inc postage.

Pip

 

[sedge]

We have an elderly 'Rough Guide to France' and that's really useful when we are touring with no partic destination in mind - if the book says there's something interesting there, perhaps we'll go and make our own mind up!

Bergues - we had the last night of our recent trip there, first time we'd ever been. Massive aire, wondered what it would be like as we drove along the approach road - bumpetty bumpetty bump - not pothole craters - lumps where previous holes had been mended!

Anyway we parked up and got the spirit level out - I reckon it was the most even surface we had been on all holiday!

Oh and Bergues is quite nice to visit itself !

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[scousebird]

Got my copy yesterday. Alan's perusing it now. Hope to make use of it soon.

 

[Clive and Kerri]

Got my copy yesterday. Alan's perusing it now. Hope to make use of it soon.

Worried in case you don't like it

 

[scousebird]

Alan said it looks quite good

 

[Easyliving]

I thought I would order a copy but according to Amazon this morning they only have used copies 'from' £12.90. Maybe they will get some more stock in, mind you its a 2007 book so it might be time for an update.

I agree with the comments about Bergues and its aire, we were there for a few days last month. Could do with a service point in the aire though, although you can apparently use the facilities at the municipal campsite for a small charge.

Paul

PS Angela Bird's website is here, with info about the book and updates. Apparently the book is no longer available from bookshops or Amazon but Angela has a few copies for sale.

 

[scotjimland]

don't know why it isn't more popular,

probably because the weather isn't much better than the south coast of the UK

yes , Northern France has much to offer and we have spent a lot of time on both Normandy and Brittany but prefer going further south for the sunshine..

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[chaser]

probably because the weather isn't much better than the south coast of the UK

yes , Northern France has much to offer and we have spent a lot of time on both Normandy and Brittany but prefer going further south for the sunshine..

True but how many , never get further than the UK south coast, £150 ferry or less and you can be parked up for free , so no dearer when you take cc ccc prices in to consideration, enjoying different culture with same weather or marginly better , my opinion only , not wanting to start a long conversation on it

 

[scotjimland]

my opinion only , not wanting to start a long conversation on it

no conversation, just gave a possible answer your question as to why it isn't more popular.. I'm sure there are other reasons.

when there were cheap one day return crossings we often crossed with the car and spent a day sightseeing on the coast west of Calais

 

[jockaneezer]

There's a few places round Kent that I wouldn't mind a look at, but when you've driven 400 miles for the crossing, that's what you want to do, get across. On the return, we usually have the mindset of just getting back home although we did stop 2 nights in Canterbury a couple of years back.
Of course there's a major cost saving using Aires, we used them 8 nights of our last 21 day outing, mostly for convenience when travelling or if we wanted to visit a city but the thought of doing a complete holiday just using Aires doesn't appeal to me, I find a lot of them a bit depressing for want of a better word and obviously there's the lack of space issue too. Checked out the big one outside Quarteria in Portugal this March, battery farming for motorhomes

 

[chaser]

no conversation, just gave a possible answer your question as to why it isn't more popular.. I'm sure there are other reasons.

when there were cheap one day return crossings we often crossed with the car and spent a day sightseeing on the coast west of Calais

You can still get cheap fares on the tunnel if you come back within 5 days , I think it is

 

[chaser]

There's a few places round Kent that I wouldn't mind a look at, but when you've driven 400 miles for the crossing, that's what you want to do, get across. On the return, we usually have the mindset of just getting back home although we did stop 2 nights in Canterbury a couple of years back.
Of course there's a major cost saving using Aires, we used them 8 nights of our last 21 day outing, mostly for convenience when travelling or if we wanted to visit a city but the thought of doing a complete holiday just using Aires doesn't appeal to me, I find a lot of them a bit depressing for want of a better word and obviously there's the lack of space issue too. Checked out the big one outside Quarteria in Portugal this March, battery farming for motorhomes

That's the problem , we are "only" about 220 from the tunnel and that's enough but for anyone who lives within 100 of Dover it's a no brainer really, in fact for us france is nearer than Cornwall , are there ferries from Newcastle or hull or somewhere that would be closer for you.

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[jockaneezer]

That's the problem , we are "only" about 220 from the tunnel and that's enough but for anyone who lives within 100 of Dover it's a no brainer really, in fact for us france is nearer than Cornwall , are there ferries from Newcastle or hull or somewhere that would be closer for you.

There's an overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam but the last time we used it, about 5 years ago, it was £300 for the two of us and the motorbike, wouldn't like to guess what Busty would cost to take across We like the Tunnel as it's less hassle for the dogs.

 

[chaser]

There's an overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam but the last time we used it, about 5 years ago, it was £300 for the two of us and the motorbike, wouldn't like to guess what Busty would cost to take across We like the Tunnel as it's less hassle for the dogs.

Just looked for a matter of interest, and for our van from hull to zeebruger would be £338 return

 

[chaser]

Got me thinking now , only 110 miles for us , half going to Dover , will have to look into this a bit more

 

[TheDentons]

Worth trying in Waterstones if you are anywhere near, not available in Kindle assuming you have one but have a look at this website which is a supplement to the book.

Edit: How's the dashcam?

Works great thanks only just picked up this thread so didn't get the book home tomorrow