Holiday recommendations for northern France

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mattf789
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Holiday recommendations for northern France

Postby mattf789 » Sun May 24, 2020 4:50 pm

My girlfriend, myself and our greyhound are planning on holidaying in France next year. We'll be taking the car via the chunnel to Calais, but we don't know which areas are good to visit. We'd be looking at a 2-3 hour drivetime radius from Calais (I drive for a living so anything over that would not be a holiday!). I think we'd like to be in a village close a town or small city. Very flexible on this point though. Also, how dog friendly is France in general? We wouldn't expect him to get in everywhere, but are cafe's and restaurants generally accepting of dogs?
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Re: Holiday recommendations for northern France

Postby DaveAgain » Sun May 24, 2020 6:16 pm

Honfleur has a very pretty little harbour, that's a nice place for an evening meal. I'm not sure how it would be for a longer stay.

https://www.normandie-tourisme.fr/les-i ... /honfleur/

I think Deauville was a holiday spot for rich Parisians pre-war, so that ought to be nice, but I've never been there myself.

https://www.normandie-tourisme.fr/les-i ... deauville/
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Re: Holiday recommendations for northern France

Postby vegantraveller » Thu May 28, 2020 9:19 am

The Nord Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin (Bassin Minier) is also a nice region in northern France to discover: it revolves around Lens (where you also have a branch of the Louvre), and is a proto-industrial landscape definitely worth the detour. It used to be the coal-mining heart of France: many of the old mines can be visited, as well as very interesting cities with Art-Deco buildings and medieval belfries (Lens, Béthune, Douai, Valenciennes). And beautiful Arras lies just a few miles south.

http://www.bassinminier-patrimoinemondial.org/

Lonely Planet France also publishes a guide (in French, so you can get extra practice!) about the region:

https://www.lonelyplanet.fr/destinations/france/lens-et-bassin-minier/itineraires/le-bassin-minier-en-4-jours
https://www.lonelyplanet.fr/catalogue/bassin-minier-et-louvre-lens-en-quelques-jours-1ed
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