Since I moved to London from the England’s Midlands two years ago, the idea of crossing the channel for a big road trip to Northern France was rolling into my mind. Amiens, Bayeux, Rouen. Places that I vehemently studied during MA’s course in Medieval Art History, were all there waiting for me to plan a road trip. I finally accepted France’s call in occasion of our annual all-together Easter trip. While last year, we ventured out for a Netherlands by bike adventure. This year castles, galettes and medieval villages were what we dreamed about. In this blog, you will discover an epic Northern France 10 day itinerary. I will take you mostly through Brittany and Normandie with also some lovely stop points in Picardie and Oise departments. Allons y!
Table of Contents
How to plan for a 10-day itinerary to Northern France
Planning a road trip to Northern France requires some time and dedication. Indeed, you’ll need to research for both the places you want to visit, but also for your “base camps” (aka where you will sleep along the way). Despite it isn’t strictly necessary to sleep in the same places you will visit, this might save you a little time if you plan to visit that city. Or, it gives you the opportunity to experience another destination, even if briefly.
Northern France 10 day itinerary – Research stage
The planner above, is the general one I used (together with my Google map) to figure it out my main visits and base camps. According to the length of your trip (7 days, 10 days, 2 weeks?), create a list of your main destinations. Only the ones you absolutely want to spend a day or more should be in your column “visit”. With the help of google, check if these places are close to each other (so you can use a same base camp for more than one place). Or they are far enough to require a change of base for the night.
As a last tip for this researching stage, you should be honest with yourself and don’t put too much on the table. As one that wants to see literally everything is possible to see. I always overload my own itineraries and end up skipping something! Unfortunately, time is always against you so you should play smart (don’t be me). If you have five days, plan for 2-3 destinations and so on. For this Northern France 10 day itinerary I managed to visit a good 95% of what I planned originally. I missed a few attractions here and there and completely missed out one of the stops, Rennes. We realised the city was too big for just a stop and it was better to check it properly on another trip.
How to pick up a “base camp” for a road trip?
I use this method for all my road trips and it never fails to get me where I want to go, in the time-frame I want to respect. First, Google maps is my best friend. I literally can’t live without. All my trips start and end with Google maps. Here I research all the locations, distances, restaurants, hotels etc. For my base camps I use 3 criteria:
- Distance from the location I will be and the one I want to visit on my next stage of the trip. This is very important as the base camp shouldn’t be too far from both locations. It’s a road trip, not a marathon!
- The base camp is in a location I want to visit, but I don’t feel like staying a whole day exploring it.
- Quality of the accommodation, price and restaurants around.
Lately, I tend to prefer matching visits and base camps. In fact, this saves a little time when exploring (especially for big cities or if you want to shoot early). E.g. if I want to visit Amiens, I travel there the night before, so I am already in the city early in the morning. Lastly, I have always a plan B. Overloading my itinerary means that I can have a side plan if something goes wrong!
How did I pick up my Northern France stops?
My trip was largely influenced by the fact I wanted to do a combined Brittany and Normandy road trip. Then I added other few stops along the way that happened to be in other regions but still in the Northern coast of France. A second point affecting my decision was that I planned to arrive by ferry from St. Malo and returning by Shuttle from Calais. This determined my West to East itinerary and the direction of the trip. We also tried to stick to the coast/northern part as much as possible to avoid adding extra lengths to our drive.
We ended up driving about 700 km and visiting 15 different cities/villages.
Essential information for travelling to Northern France
Here below you will find all the essential information for travelling to Northern France. This will be also particularly useful if you plan to travel from the UK as we did.
Best season to visit Northern France
I discovered that Northern France weather is pretty similar to the weather we have in London. Indeed, we didn’t find a major shift in temperatures and the same grey weather we left in the City waited for us all the way down to St. Malo. We honestly got a little unlucky as there was a weather alert when we travelled. So, it rained quite a lot and the coast was windier than usual despite being in full Spring.
Because the weather is quite similar to the one in southern UK, seasonality is similar too. This means that winters are pretty rigid, autumn and spring are good season to travel (unless weather alerts) and summer is probably the most appropriate season. Indeed, outdoor life looks amazing in Northern France and summer is probably the best season to enjoy the coast and inland villages.
We also discovered that many places like castles, towers, gardens and even entire village restaurants were completely shut down until summer. In fact, some of them opened in mid May, some other directly in July! 🙁
Of course, travelling in low season gives you some advantages like lower prices for accommodations and not many tourists around (except for Mont Saint Michel), but you’ll need to consider the weather downside and some closures that might impact your itinerary.
What are the regions north of France?
Northern France includes a great variety of regions that have the most different and unique architecture and history. My objective is visiting them all but for the moment I visited just a handful of them. The regions included in Northern France are:
- Brittany
- Normandy (upper and lower)
- Hauts-de-France (which includes also the departments of Picardie, Oise and Nord-Pas-de-Calais)
- Île-de-France (where Paris is)
- Grand Est (which includes the departments of Champagne, Alsace and Lorraine).
How many days should I spend in Northern France
A full tour of Northern France encompassing the 5 different regions would probably take more than one month. The best thing to do is focusing on one or two regions per visit. I think 10 to 15 days is the right amount of time to have a good comprehension of different departments of Northern France. Of course, if you have 5 days to a week, I would suggest focusing just on one region (e.g. only Brittany or Normandy) to have a more coherent experience and a full understanding of the single-region’s history.
For the scope of this blog, I refer to Northern France in relation only to Brittany and Normandy that covered a good 70% of the locations in my itinerary.
How to get to Northern France?
The way you will arrive to Northern France, largely depends from where you travel from. I will divide this paragraph into two sections: from the UK (via ferry/shuttle) or via plane (from everywhere else).
Travelling to Northern France from the UK
The best and probably more convenient way to reach Northern France from the UK (especially if you take your family) is probably crossing the Channel with the Shuttle from Folkestone to Calais. The cross takes just 35 mins and tickets can be as cheap as £59 one way.
You can also reach Lille (or Paris) via Eurostar from London. Tickets start at £39 and the trip last usually around 2 hours.
An alternative way to reach Northern France is by ferry. There are various ports connecting the two countries as well us various companies providing the service as cheap as £30 one way. The crossing (depending where your destination is) can take from less than 2 hours to 8 hours.
For our trip, we decided for a more adventurous start and we actually wanted to do an overnight crossing with a cabin on board. In fact, the crossing to Brittany require a little more time than the one to Normandy. Therefore we decided to save a little time and opted for an overnight Portsmouth to Saint-Malo route (8 hours) with Brittany Ferries. I would like to write more about this experience (stay tuned about it) but I’ll let you know that children absolutely loved it!
Travelling to Northern France by plane
If you are coming from everywhere else in the world, or still from the UK and don’t want to jump on one of the services mentioned above, plane is your way to go. Most international flights will probably arrive in Paris. Here you can opt for a connection flight or a railway route.
Airports in Northern France include Caen and Brest. The latter one is the main hub for any arrival in Brittany and has many direct flights from destinations in Europe.
Is Northern France Expensive?
France is famous for being an expensive country. Particularly if you travel peak season. However, is not more expensive than the UK or northern Italy. We found more or less similar prices when it came to eat out or pay for services. Despite this, we managed to get away with a good budget in the end thanks to good planning and spending on the trip. Here below you can see how I tracked our budget expenses for this trip so you can use this as reference point.
Budget for a 10 day Northern France itinerary
Before analysing this budget, please note this is not 100% accurate regarding food and shopping as I might have forgot to add a few bills here and there. However, I would say it’s 95% accurate as I tried to put in as much as possible. For tracking expenses, I used the app Trabee Pocket. Quite a simple app, but it does the job.
For this trip, I had in mind a budget of 3k max for 10 days/9 nights and I think we kept it well down from what we originally planned. Accommodation was the section we spent more as we paid almost 1k. To note I booked mid-range/family hotels and used also a few status points from my All.Accor account. This helped us saving a little bit. In fact, I generally prefer to splurge on hotels when I travel just with Alessio because I can get more from my stay. Also, I purposely didn’t organise any collaboration for this trip as I limit this when I am with the children.
Food, of course, was a major second expense as we spent almost 70£ per day. This accounts only for lunches and dinners because breakfast was included in the accommodation expenses.
Transport was pretty reasonable considering we were travelling in 4 and carrying also the car with us included in the price!
The Etc. category includes expenses for the fuel and the tolls on the motorway.
Tips for saving money on your trip to France
This change from case to case. On our case there were a few additional things that helped us saving some money. This included using some hotel points and the fact that I have a Press Card so I (almost) never pay for attraction/museum tickets. Moreover, our children are still quite little (3 years old) and don’t eat one full meal each time we go for lunch or dinner. Most of the time they shared one meal and then had some snacks during the day. In general, things we used (and that you can use too) are:
- Planning ahead of time (around 5-6 months before) to get some lower rates, particularly on hotels.
- Opt for alternative transport that can be more convenient if travelling as a family (e.g. car, ferry)
- Avoid external tour operators to plan your trip. These usually charge between 20 and 40 % more on your total budget (sorry!).
- Research restaurants in advance and book them when possible. This will avoid last minute search that will likely get you to tourist traps or super expensive places
- Use hotels or Avios points to pay less on hotels/plane fares
- Book in advance museum tickets (when possible) as online fares are sometimes cheaper
- Limit your shopping expenses (e.g. buying too many souvenirs)
Travel with children to Northern France
We are on a phase with our children that every single trip we take is completely different from the other because something changes in their habits or their interests. This was the first trip we did completely nappy-free and dummy-free! OMG what a liberation! I can’t complain as those two chaps are two wee-holding champions and never urged to stop us in the middle of the road for the whole trip. France, in general is very prepared for families. Even the small little restaurant we tried along the way had a nappy change or baby facilities. We didn’t use is (of course we don’t need it anymore YAY) but it was there!
Children menu options, on the other hand, were a little limited as most places had only a galettes ham and cheese as their kids menu. Unfortunately the twins weren’t very keen on this and we ended up eating their food too. Many small villages have cobblestones roads so maybe they are not the most ideal for strollers but still doable.
If you are travelling with infants you might want to bring an extra luggage with powder milk or food items you need as big supermarkets are well out of small cities and villages. They might also have different brands from the one you use.
When we go on road trips, we always pack an extra luggage for the kids snacks. You never know if a supermarket is near or has everything of what you need. This time, in particular, it was very useful. We also packed some fresh fruit for the first two days.
10-day itinerary to Northern France
Here below you will find exactly the itinerary we followed in Northern France. Of course, you can mix and match it if you are coming from a different direction (e.g. Calais).
Day 1 – Saint-Malo
If you arrive by ferry, Saint-Malo it will be your final destination. We woke up here after our night on the ferry and it was lovely to see the city arriving from the water. Saint-Malo is historically famous as the “city of corsairs”. This because from the Middle Ages until late 1600 no visitor could pass from this city without giving large sums to the many pirates and privateers who called this place “home”. During the Second World War, Saint-Malo was completely destroyed. It was rebuild stone by stone in a period of 12 years and that’s why most of its architecture looks untouched by time.
Things to do in Saint-Malo
We started our day with a filling breakfast at Cafe’ de l’Ouest as our boat docked at 7 pm and we were out by 8.30 am. This is a nice little place in the main square near the castle. It is also an excellent place to start your Tour of the Ramparts. These still encircle the city in a loop of 2.3 km walk and are the best way to kick-start your day. The walk takes about 1 hour. However, if you are with small children it might takes a little more.
We continued our tour with a walk within the Saint-Malo intra-muros city. Here you can check-off some other sights like the Cathedral of Saint-Vincent, the Birthplace Chateaubriand and the Maison de la Duchesse Anne which is apparently the oldest remaining building within the walls of the city. We stopped for a long lunch at La Licorne and here we tried our first galette!
In the afternoon, we continued our walk within the walls to check out the fish market area and shopping streets. We finished our tour in the neighbourhood of Saint Sevran where the majestic Tour Solidor stands peacefully since 1382. From here, we moved into our second destination: Dinan. The drive from Saint-Malo takes less than 35 mins and it’s the perfect place to base yourself for a few days.
Day 2 – Dinan
We decided to base ourselves in Dinan for 3 nights and use this city for our day trips. It was a good decision. In fact, Dinan is located in a very convenient location to explore Brittany. I admit I loved Dinan more than I expected and one can easily spend here a few days in complete relax even without day-tripping. Summer is probably a better period to visit as many places are yet not open in spring and expect to open around May.
We arrived in Dinan on the late afternoon of our first day, after a full exploration of Saint-Malo. We immediately checked-in in the lovely Hotel de la Porte de Saint-Malo and took advantage of the last remaining hours of light to have a quick tour of the historical centre before heading for dinner. The city is very quiet in this period of the year and the children were extremely happy to run down the very steep Rue de Jerzual. We didn’t explore the full length of the street as it was getting dark and we preferred to head for our dinner at La Tomate.
What to do in Dinan
Our hotel was located just at 5 mins walk from the historical centre. This allowed us to take advantage of this great location for a very long and filling breakfast all together. We loved the freshly-baked pains au chocolat! On our second day we decided to fully explore Dinan. We started with a walk in the lovely historical centre, visited both the Basilique Saint-Sauveur and the Church of Saint-Malo. We headed towards the Castle of Dinan but unfortunately this was closed (not sure why). Same also with the Dinan Ramparts. The entire circular walk was closed due to a landslide in one of the walls. I was a little pissed off as this was one of the things I wanted to check out in Dinan.
We decided to ending our morning walks with a long lunch. Unfortunately our planned restaurant was closed (don’t trust Google opening times here!). We ended up eating at Le Connétable, a lovely creperie in Place des Merciers, the heart of the Medieval district of Dinan.
To note, one of the oldest buildings of the square, Chez la Mère Pourcel, still remain under reconstruction following the devastating fire of 2019.
Rue du Jerzual
In the afternoon, we climbed up the fifteenth-century clock symbol of Dinan. Rising up to 46 metres, it’s one of the best viewpoints of the city offering a 360° panorama. As a last, (quite strenuous activity), we decided to fully explore the very long and steep way that connects upper Dinan to its historical port. This street is made of 2 different sections. The upper section called Rue de Jerzual starting at the corner with Rue de la Lanerie and ending at the Jerzual Gate. The lower section called Rue du Petit Fort, which starts immediately after the Jerzual Gate until the crossing bridge over the Rance River. It does look like a never-ending long way down the hill. I really didn’t expect this!
The port area is actually very charming and I recon this is likely one of the most popular spots to chill out in the summer. Indeed, pretty riverside restaurants and a lovely promenade on the river will definitively add 100 points to the already lovely city!
Day 3 – Combourg and Vitré
Our first day trip from Dinan was the lovely city of Vitré. This is at just 1 hour and 10 mins from Dinan and it’s an excellent place for a day trip! Because we wanted to maximise our day, we added also a stop along the way in the small city of Combourg. This added another 13 mins to the drive for a total of 1 hour and 23 mins.
Combourg
We decided for only a short stop at Combourg because I knew the Castle was closed at this time of the year. In fact, this reopened the week after we visit (late March). Being the castle the main attraction of the small city, there wasn’t much to do except a short walk around the lake. Unfortunately for us, we’ve been caught by torrential rain. So we managed to shot only a few pictures from the lake viewpoint. If you are planning a visit to Combourg, I do recommend this being in the summer season
Vitré
Vitré was on my bucket list of cities to visit in France for a couple of years. After finally visiting, I think this is one of the most charming places one can visit in Brittany. The castle looks straight out of a Harry Potter book an the Medieval town is still perfectly preserved with its half-timbered houses and little photogenic alleys. One day is definitely enough to visit all the main sights. However, an additional day can give you some more time to explore the outer walking paths and deep dive in the local culinary scene.
Wether you have or not children, I do recommend visiting the Vitré Castle as this is properly preserved and has a very nice exhibition and sensory room at the top of the tower. The children loved it (and also the adults!). Another think I do recommend checking out is the lovely Pré des Lavandières walk. This is slightly out of the historical centre but it will lead you to the half-timbered ancient tannery that is actually very scenic to photograph.
Where to eat in Vitré
In terms of food, we had quite a bad experience in Vitré (for more details of what happened you can read my review here so you might want to skip this place too, particularly if you travel with children). Luckily we immediately found another place called La Crêperie du P’tit Léon that didn’t have such issues with children and we had a lovely nice lunch all together. To note that I rarely leave bad reviews as I know how much these can impact a business, especially if small. However, this time it was really needed to avoid other families, particularly with small children risking having the same experience.
Day 4 – Mont Saint-Michel
Mont Saint-Michel was our second day trip from Dinan, but on this day we also checked-out from our lovely hotel. Mont Saint-Michel It’s located at just 42 mins (by car) from Dinan and distant about 56 km. As you can expect, also Mont Saint-Michel was another place on my bucket list since forever. However, differently from Vitré, our experience was a little meh. Partly because there was a weather alert for the entire area bringing strong winds and rain. Partly because it was the most crowded place we visited on the entire trip. However, this was expected. Indeed, Mont Saint-Michel is one of the most visited tourist sites in France.
My original plan was to sleep in the island and have it all for our selves early in the morning. However, as we visited during the Easter holidays, prices were absolutely crazy and hotel quality not the best. So I just aborted the whole plan and decided to go with the crowd. It was fine. I regret I couldn’t check-out the famous viewpoint with the water flowing from the grass but you need to find this without (small) children as it not on a obvious close road. It’s easy to spend a good half-a day in Mont Saint-Michel as there are plenty of things to visit.
Things to do in Mont Saint-Michel
I would recommend starting your visit from the Ramparts. The entrance is immediately on the right once you pass the main internal gate. Shortly after you climb the stairs, there is also a nice photo spot (see the picture above of me and Alex). It was incredibly windy but the photo turned out cute. Continue your visit to the small village. This goes up to the main entrance of the Abbey.
I honestly say I wasn’t particularly impressed by the village. It looked somehow very artificial and way too full of souvenirs shops and eateries at every step (this without counting the immense crowd). While going up La Grande Rue, check also the much quieter St-Pierre Church guarded by a statue of Joan of Arc. Once you finish the road heading up, it’s time to visit the main attraction of the island. The Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. This is impressive as it looks and HUGE to visit. We spent a good 2 hours and a half going up and down the many different levels and explore any possible corner. The Abbey it literally built as a fortified castle and it was one of the first French historical locations to be registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Additional info and lunch
To note the Abbey has a price to enter of 13€ per adult (children go free). Also we discovered there are 700+ steps to climb to reach the top. Keep this in mind (especially if travelling with young children or infants with strollers).
We finished our visit with a long lunch at La Vieille Auberge. Food was OK but nothing exceptional. To be honest, most of the restaurants on the island looked like tourist traps and were extremely busy that day so we picked the first one looking decent for a family lunch.
Day 4 and 5 – Fougères
If you never heard of a place called Fougères, well you are not the only one. In fact, until I was planning this trip to France, I never imagine such incredible place existed! After our half-day in Mont Saint-Michel we moved into our next base camp in Fougères. This lovely peculiar city is actually divided into upper and lower part both dating to the Middle Ages but originally belonging to two different parishes that than merged together. The central castle, looks like connecting both sides of the city with a never-ending series of towers and ramparts making it the largest fortress in Europe (at least this is what the tourism board says)
I regretted spending in Fougères just one day in total. However, at the same time, the castle (which is the main attraction) was closed for the season. So it didn’t make sense to stay more days. We had anyway a lovely time in the city. In fact, we explored both upper and lower sides. We stayed in this lovely Belle Maison in the lower medieval city. It was quite a huge house just for us. In fact, there were 3 bedrooms and one sofa bed. We had a great time. To maximise our stay, we also bought some grocery and had dinner in the house. To note, the house was on a lovely central square. In summer, this is very lively and full of restaurants/creperies (that unfortunately were closed in Spring).
Day 6- Bayeux and Caen
After checking out of our lovely little house, we headed straight to Bayeux. The main reason why I included this city on my itinerary was merely to visit the Bayeux Tapestry. An iconic treasure I studied during my MA that was even more incredible to see in person. However, we discovered the city is really nice. So, we decided to spend a few hours and stay for lunch too. As this was our first fully day of sunshine (after a week of rain). We decided to have an outdoor lunch at this lovely place called Oasis. An outdoor terrace serving Pinza and other dishes.
After lunch we headed to the close Caen, but I really didn’t like the feeling of the city. Compared to the many places we checked during our trip until that moment, it was the least appealing. In fact, it was dirty, chaotic and dispersive. We checked out the castle and a few other churches along the way, then stopped for coffee but then we decided to leave towards our new base camp: Rouen. Of course this was just my impression after a few hours spent in Caen. It doesn’t mean the city is not worth visiting or it could be nicer for someone else.
Day 7 – Rouen and Gerberoy
The drive from Caen to Rouen takes about 1h and 30 mins. We were tired from our packed day but we managed to get in time for our 7.30 pm reservation at Les Fils à Maman. Rouen looked already magnificent under the moon and we couldn’t wait to explore it more the day after! For our base camp this time we chose Hôtel Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedrale. We opted for this hotel principally for its location. Indeed, it was literally behind the cathedral and at two steps from all the main sights in Rouen. It was also a good family option.
Things to do in Rouen
Before heading out for our official visit, I decided to do a very early morning walk in Rouen to snap a few pictures. I was very happy of this decision as a few hours later the city was so crowded that everything looked a little different. Of course don’t stress out if you couldn’t get an early morning walk. The city is beautiful anyway!
We started our walk from Rouen Cathedral. This is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture and even with my ultra wide lens I struggled to fit it all inside! We proceeded then to Rue du Gros Horologe, which, as the name says, features the the magnificent medieval clock in the middle of the alleyway. We headed then to Place du Vieux-Marché. Here you will see a strange-looking monument/building in the middle of the square that kinda doesn’t fit well with its surroundings. This is the Church of Saint Jean D’Arc and it rises in the place where the famous French heroine has been burnt alive. As the children were hungry for lunch we decided to stop to the nearby Italian Trattoria which was a nice alternative after days of galettes!
In the early afternoon we explored the quarter of Saint Maclou with a particular focus on the Aitre Saint Maclou and its obscure history. There is probably more to check-out in Rouen. However, given our situation and two pretty tired children we were quite satisfied with our visit. We decided to proceed our new base camp Amiens, but before getting there we wanted to stop at a famous little village called Gerberoy.
Gerberoy
Our visit to Gerberoy wasn’t what we had planned for. Indeed, we arrived in the middle of the worst storm of the week and while we were entering the village, entire coaches with tourists were leaving disappointed by the heavy rain. I was a little sad as I was already seeing myself sipping an afternoon tea at the lovely Gardens Henri Le Sidaner. Instead, we remained stuck in the car for more than one hour hoping the rain would stop at one point. Our triumphal arrival under the rain reminded me a lot of our adventure in Piódão, but this time around we weren’t lucky enough to explore outside all together.
However, since we were already there, I decided to venture alone around the village with just my umbrella and my camera. The village is very, very small. It took just 30 mins to tour it all and take my pictures. And yes. I was the only crazy person going around under the rain and having those lovely alleys all for myself. Gerberoy is famous for being among the limited list of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ( aka the most beautiful villages in France). So I couldn’t miss that opportunity. The pictures turned out amazing (you can barely notice that is pouring!). I’m glad I ventured out despite returning soaking wet.
We continued driving one hour further to our final destination for that day that was Amiens. For this stay we opted for Mercure Amiens Cathédrale. If you are wondering why, I chose this hotel because of its suite’s balcony with a frontal view on the Cathedral. Is the only hotel with this view, and the only room with a balcony.
Day 8 – Amiens
I picked-up Amiens as city to stay and visit because of my Medieval Art professor at University of Pisa. I still have vivid the memory of him telling me (and other students of his subject) how beautiful Amiens’ cathedral was. An architectural masterpiece that needed to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. So, when I was tracing our route on the map and Amiens appeared on the road, his voice resounded immediately in my head. I immediately told my husband “I need to see this”.
Amiens’ Cathedral is the largest in France. So big that could potentially fit 3 Notre-Dame de Paris inside. You just need to look at the photo above to understand the scale of this Gothic beast. The most incredible thing is that it’s standing there since 1270 in all its beauty. My professor was absolutely right. No photo can make justice of this place. It was the first place we checked-off in Amiens and it blew my mind.
Once we finished our tour, we headed to the colourful neighbourhood of Saint-Leu for a nice walk by the river. Here we also stopped for a long lunch at a lovely crêperie, called Le Dos D’Âne. In the afternoon, we booked a boat trip to explore the unique Hortillonnages. A maze of floating gardens and waterways that are considered a marvel of France. The kids were pretty tired so we decided to call the day and head towards the last base camp, this time in Arras.
We arrived just in time for our reservation at Le Ch’ti Charivari Arras, which I warmly recommend if you are in the area and love alpine food.
Day 9 – Arras
We opted for Arras exclusively for logistic purposes. In fact, the city is close to Calais and being on our last day we didn’t want to risk missing our shuttle back to the UK because too far. From what I researched online it looked also like a nice city but not too big to make us wanting to spend an entire day. Once we arrived, my feeling were exactly right. Arras is a nice city, but I’m glad we just used as a stop.
If you see the pictures, the architecture of Arras looks terribly similar to that seen in Belgium. Indeed, if I close my eyes I could have been in Bruges! That’s because for a long time, this part of France, and particularly Arras, has been part of the Flanders. This influenced how the city looked like. If you happen to be in Arras don’t miss its lovely Grand’ Place and the twin Heroes Square that apparently is used as main location for the lovely Arras Christmas Market every year. We’ve been told there was also a famous underground quarry called Carrière Wellington, which we unfortunately didn’t visit but it might be nice to add to your itinerary.
Day 10 – Olhain, Béthune and Calais
Our return shuttle to the UK was booked for 6.30 pm. This gave us plenty of time to add a few stops along the way while heading from Arras to Calais.
Château d’Olhain
At just 28 mins from Arras, our first stop of the day was the Château d’Olhain. The XV-century castle is located on a little island in the centre of a lake, which makes it very nice and unique in its genre. Unfortunately for us, the castle was completely shut (despite the sign on the gate stated opening times started in April to September). It looked completely abandoned and closed to the public. Therefore, I can’t grant 100% this would be open if you visit.
The photo above was taken with my zoom lens from out the fence surrounding the castle.
Béthune
Since the castle was closed, we proceeded to our next stop. A lovely city called Béthune. I have to say I loved this little town more than expected! We stopped just for a few hours but we are already planning to return for an overnight stop. Similarly to Arras, the city look quite Belgian but is much more quaint and welcoming and we felt like it was lovely to walk there and explore it.
Béthune’s main landmark is a 47-metres belfry that stands on the Grand Place since 1347. You can climb up to the top. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time for this but apparently on a clear day you can see the border with Belgium.
If you love potatoes, I warmly recommend you to stop in Béthune for lunch as we dined at a place called La Pataterie Béthune that has an entire potato-based menu and it was delicious. I would recommend also a stop at Maison Baudry – Boulangerie Pâtisserie right on the main square. We got some baguettes and pastries to take away and these made our return journey much better. A last stop we made in Béthune was the Église Saint-Vaast. A huge church right behind the Grand Place that had a lovely Neo-Gothic and art nouveau architecture.
Calais
As our departure time was approaching, we headed to Calais. This is located at just one hour from Béthune. It’s a nice stop if you have a few hours to stroll. I’m pretty sure there is plenty to see but since we didn’t have much time we checked-out only the famous UNESCO site Beffroi de l’Hôtel de Ville de Calais and the nearby Citadel of Calais. The latter has some earthy walls that can be climbed and walked offering a nice view of the Belfry. I would recommend also a stop to the Tour du Guet and Calais coastal areas for a nice walk.
Nevertheless, being a major point of departure for both ferries and channel trains going to the UK, expect this city being quite crowded and many streets loaded with cars. Indeed, there was actually a lot of traffic to move around the city and for this reason we decided to head directly towards the Eurotunnel departures. Our return was pretty smooth. The train was delayed about one hour in the end, but we made it to the UK safe and sound.
It was an amazing adventure and the kids are still talking about it! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!
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