The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Anyone for a road map that takes us back to France?
Pining for a flavour of the Continent? These three drives are all within easy reach, says Anthony Peregrine
Contemplating postlockdown holidays other than in Britain is accounted treachery in some quarters. This is extreme. Naturally, if I lived in Britain, I’d see the case for Dorset, the Dales or the Cairngorms in 2020. But I’d also see the case for abroad, where no one has heard of Matt Hancock. We may neither wish, nor be able, to go far – but abroad starts just over the Channel. And “sea bridge” or tunnel permitting, perhaps we will be heading there later this summer, safe in our own cars. If that sounds like you, here are three week-long trips you might consider. They involve no excessive driving and, in two cases, contain serious patriotic elements.
DAY 3
To Wellington quarry – dug out from ancient Arras quarry workings by Kiwi tunnellers to conceal 24,000 men underground, that they might break out and attack on Easter Monday 1917. A section of the 14-mile labyrinth is open to visitors (carrierewellington. com). Now, the Somme battlefields. War cemeteries and memorials abound, and these may well be the most moving visits you ever make.
On to Montreuil and Tim Matthew’s Maison76, as noble a B&B as this region affords (maison76.com; B&B doubles £155). Dine at Alexandre Gauthier’s Anecdote (anecdoterestaurant.com; mains from £22).
DAY 4
Montreuil. Ramparts and a citadel show the place was once important, the equestrian statue of Haig that it was also British GHQ, 1916-18. The little town retains an elevated aspect. To Azincourt (Agincourt, to you and me) where in a blink-and-you-miss-it village, and with unexpected decency, the French have recently overhauled what was already a pretty good museum to their 1415 drubbing. Now it’s exceptional (azincourt1415.com).
DAY 5
If cramming things in, bob down to Le Crotoy on the Somme bay. It’s a vast seascape of cliffs, sands, dunes, seals and pretty much every bird on the move. The Marquenterre Park packs in many of the bay’s best bits (marquenterrenature.fr). Head north up the coast, skirting Le Touquet for Hardelot, whose neo-Tudor chateau celebrates the entente cordiale (chateau-hardelot.fr). Motor on to Wimereux and the seafront Hotel Atlantic. Dine there at the brasserie (atlantic-delpierre.com, doubles from £124; mains from £16).
DAY 6
Wandering in Wimereux, whose modesty is as disarming as this coast is grandiose. Downs, heath and farmland sweep up to cliffs and headlands. Winds at Caps Gris and Blanc Nez may blast your eyebrows off. Return to Wimereux to dine, for the trip’s last night at the Atlantic’s Michelin-starred restaurant. Menus from £46.
Flattened in the Second World War, it was rebuilt with apparent Stalinist severity: vast avenues fringed with endless concrete apartments, and then some. Closer inspection reveals the project as a ground-breaking post-war way of rehousing 80,000 people in decent, light and airy conditions. And St Joseph’s church – a celestial kaleidoscope – indicates that concrete may aspire to the sublime. Drive up the Alabaster Coast to the cliffs and rock arches of Étretat. Check into the manorial Domaine St Clair Le Donjon, and dine there (hoteletretat.com; doubles from £84, menus from £31).
DAY 2
Explore Étretat, the cliffs and rock formations which frame it. This will stir you sufficiently for a swing south to the Seine valley. Pause at Jumièges, the ruins of whose seventh-century Benedictine abbey merit an hour of anyone’s time (abbayedejumieges.fr). Then it’s on to Rouen and the Hotel Mercure Rouen Centre Cathédrale (all. accor.com; doubles from £99). Dine at the woodily wonky and beflowered La Couronne, established 1345, the oldest auberge in France. From the window seats you might have watched Joan of Arc burn (lacouronnerouen.fr; menus from £33).
DAY 3
Rouen. Dense with half-timbering, the historical centre focuses on the Place du Vieux-Marché. There, a statue, a cross and a church looking (somewhat disastrously) like a pangolin mark the spot where Joan was incinerated. Across town, in the Archbishop’s palace, the Historial Jeanne-d’Arc recounts the extraordinary story: teenage girl smashes English soldiery before leading her king to coronation at Reims, undergoing an amazingly corrupt trial and an appalling death in Rouen, all before her 20th birthday (historial-jeannedarc.fr; £9). Later, take in the Fine Arts museum (mbarouen.fr) and cathedral which obsessed Monet. He painted the facade some 28 times.
DAY 4
Swish west, to the Pays-d’Auge. Stop at Coudray-Rabut (outside Pontl’Évêque) for Calvados Drouin, Normandy’s brandy being the best thing that ever happened to apples (calvados-drouin.com). Now southwest, to the ambitiously named Suisse Normande district. The stretch around Clécy and Thury-Harcourt is more
Pennines than Alps. That said, it rises to crags, rocky hills and gorges. Continue to Bayeux and the townhouse B&B, Hotel Poppa (hotel-poppa. com; B&B doubles from £97). Eat at the Volet Qui Penche (levoletqui penche.fr; menus from £17).
DAY 5
D-Day today. From Sword to Utah beaches, there are 22 museums and many memorials and cemeteries. If it’s your first time, take a guided tour perhaps with Normandy Sightseeing Tours (normandy-sightseeing-tours. com; full day £97, half-day £66pp). Independently, and running east-west, start at Courseulles-sur-Mer, where Canadian grit is celebrated in a shore-side museum ( junobeach.org). Ver-sur-Mer is the site of the British memorial, due to open later in 2020. What’s left of the Mulberry harbour lies offshore at Arromanches, the German batteries at Longues-sur-Mer need seeing, as does the US cemetery at Colleville – affording dignity in death to those denied it in the last hours of life. Finally to the Pointe-duHoc, scaled by 225 US Rangers of outrageous courage.
DAY 6
Walk to Bayeux’s Commonwealth war cemetery. Then walk back to the Bayeux Tapestry and its 230ft needlework coverage of an earlier conflict (bayeuxmuseum. com). Strike out, via Cabourg (Marcel Proust’s holiday spot – Grand Hotel, room 414), for Deauville. Here lies a protectorate of palace hotels, broad avenues and pumped-up villa. Across the river, Trouville is much older, a fishing port with a more bohemian beaumonde grafted on. Make for the townhouse Hotel Fer à Cheval (hotel-trouville.com; doubles from £67). Eat on the waterfront at Les Affiches (facebook.com/ lesaffichestrouville; mains from £11).
DAY 7
Pause in Honfleur, an ancient port. Soar over the Pont de Normandie and into Le Havre for a meal at Le Margote (lemargote.fr; lunch menu £20).
FROM SAINT MALO DAY 1
To Mont Saint-Michel, France’s most mesmerising monument. It rises on its isle as if borne from a more exalted dimension, adding solid magnificence to the bay. Climbing up the granite outcrop, the slab-sided abbey rises to the Romanesque church. Below, the one village street bustles with visitors. You will find it hard to believe such magnificence exists. That said, the Château de Chantore – in grounds across the bay at Bacilly – has a wow factor of its own: one of my top five chambres-d’hôtes (chateaudechantore. com; B&B doubles from £158). Dine at La Pause de Genêts in Genêts (lapause desgenets.fr; menus from £19).
DAY 2
Up the coast to the cliff-perched seaside resort of Granville, overlain with memories of parasols and boaters. Return down the coast to the Bec d’Andaine, the sandy headland from where walkers set out to cross to Mont Saint-Michel. Dine at La Toque Aux Vins in St Martin-des-Champs (latoqueauxvins.fr; menus from £37).
DAY 3
West to Dinan, one of the comeliest medieval spots in Brittany. Now skirt Saint-Brieuc on the N12 for a pause in seaside St-Quay-Portrieux. On to Paimpol, with its port, marina, shellfish and memories of fishing and mugging English ships. “Freebooting,” they called it. Check into the K’Loys, a three-star on the harbour (hotel-kloys. com; doubles from £40, port-view rooms from £57). Dine at Théo Jasmin on Place Gambetta (facebook.com/theojasmin. paimpol; menus from £19).
DAY 4
Take the 10-minute ferry ride to the isle of Bréhat. A treat. Spring and summer flowers overcome the stone island village, Guerzido beach is fab and there’s wilder wandering to the Paon lighthouse at the northern tip of the island. Take the ferry back to Paimpol, dinner on the waterfront at Le Neptune (facebook.com/ leneptunepaimpol; menus from £23).
DAY 5
Head east along the rocking, rolling coast to Cap Fréhel and, on the next-door headland, 14th-century Fort la Latte. Drive to Dinard which, from the late 19th century and into the 20th was a colony for England’s rich and famous. Cross the estuary to St Malo and, within the walls, check in to the three-star Quic-en-Groigne (quic-engroigne.com; doubles from £59) or four-star Maison des Armateurs (maisondesarmateurs.com; doubles from £78). Eat at Le Cambusier (cambusier.fr; menus from £28).
DAY 6
St Malo amply rewards exploration. Walk the ramparts to note the dense labyrinth of dressed stone streets speaking of power, wealth and skulduggery. Beyond, fine beaches are rife with sand-yachts and, back in town, bars and restaurants cater to seafarers’ needs. Dine this evening at Jean-Yves Bordier’s Bistro Autour Du Beurre (lebeurrebordier.com; mains from £19).