Please recommend me somewhere in France!

[IHeartKingThistle]

Youngest is off on school trip in the first week of Easter. Oldest is coming up to GCSEs.

We'd like to take her to France for 3 days that week, an Airbnb maybe, get her to practise her French and she can do some revision while we're there.

So ideally:

• not Paris
• close enough to drive
• bakeries etc
• pretty views maybe?

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Oh and maybe somewhere nice to go when she's not revising?

Honfleur.is a lovely medieval port that has a fab market on Saturdays and lots of lovely restaurants. Honfleur was the centre of impressionism, and Monet developed his style here. There are a number of very good museums and sites and a wooden church that is worth a visit. There is also an excellent tourist office.

How far would you want to drive on the other side, and would you be looking within easy reach of Calais/Eurotunnel?

Maybe somewhere around Honfleur? I’m not sure how far it would be to drive from Calais - it’s nearer to Caen and Le Havre. Or Reims, which has an amazing cathedral (and champagne houses!).

There are actually lots of nice and very French small towns in northern France like St Quentin in Picardy that aren’t touristy at all - but they’re not necessarily “pretty”’ or near particularly stunning countryside.

If she has an interest in world war history, I’d look at the Picardy area as a jumping off point for some of the WW1 sites or Normandy for the D-Day sites.

Lots of towns in Normandy would work - Caen, Ouistreham, Arromanches...

You could also aim for somewhere near Rouen for Giverny if she’s interested in art?

Ooh will be googling all these!

I'd go to Bayeaux or Rouen or Honfleur, love Normandy 😍 The Newhaven- Dieppe ferry route is often good value if you can do that instead of Dover- Calais? I'm not a huge fan of the countryside around Calais so we always go to Normandy. Brittany is also lovely, ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo overnight may give you some more time in France? Mont St Michel is gorgeous

Fly to La Rochelle? Head over to Ill de re.

Lille is a nice city.

Where do you live? Honfleur is nice (visit the Satie museum), or Deauville/Trouville if you travel from Portsmouth, but the ferry is long. If you get the eurotunnel, then Le Touquet is under an hour’s drive from Calais and has a lovely beach, forest, horses, lovely shops etc. Bolougne, Amiens, Arras, Le Crotoy, or Montreuil-sur-Mer (especially if you’re an Les Mis fan), are also pretty and a short drive. You could even get the train from St Pancras and go to Lille.

Overnight ferry to St Malo and drive to Dinan. Beautiful little medieval town in Brittany

Le Touquet is lovely. You can stay in the surrounding areas. About an hour from Calais to drive. There's a beach there too.

We're in Surrey. Yep Eurotunnel. These all sound brilliant. She likes the idea of some history!

Bruges is also fab, not french of course but a really lovely town. And we took one of ours there as a teen when their sibling was away with friends. We had a day at Ypres which was such good history revision of WW1. I think also accessible by eurotunnel.