Interesting places to go within a day's drive of the Channel Tunnel.

[whiteroseredrose]

We finally have a nice comfortable car plus 10 days off in August.

We would like to go on a driving holiday but have already been to Belgium (Bruges, Brussels and Waterloo) and parts of Northern France.

We like history, interesting or pretty buildings and a gentle walk.

I'm looking at Alsace but does anyone have any other ideas?

The Hague in the Netherlands is about 4 hours from Calais. It’s an attractive small city/large town with a handful of decent museums, good shopping and a beach nearby for nice walks.

We drove from central London to St Tropez in less than a day so... St Tropez!

A driving tour around Champagne. Stunning. Reims and Epernay are gorgeous cities and you can visit Veuve, Moet etc cellars.
Drive around the vineyards in the vicinity if summer, it's truly gorgeous.

Aachen and then Cologne and Bonn would be fairly short drives from Calais/ Dunkirk. Also the Mosel valley and Eifel region.

Doesn’t really fit the brief though 😂 »history and pretty walks »

how about the Luberon?

Dijon, if you've not been there already. It's beautiful.

Definitely this^^

Loire Valley.

Normandy - Caen, Bayeux, Honfleur and D Day beaches. Loire Valley. Jura. Dijon/Beaune.

Have you done Versailles and Chantilly ? Have you done all of the UK rather than going abroad ?

Netherlands. We got the ferry to Hoek but I think only 2-3 hours drive (via Bruges perhaps) from the tunnel

Amsterdam

Northern Brittany? Mont St. Michel (technically Normandy I think but very close to the border), St. Malo, Dinard, Dinan, Cancale, down to Rennes for city, Vannes is lovely too, lots of pretty small towns and villages.

Tours, Saumur, Montsoreau, Loire valley. Vineyards!

With that time frame, I’d look at combining Luxembourg with Alsace and Lorraine (Nancy is worth seeing, beautiful architecture), or the Champagne region as suggested above, or perhaps the Netherlands - we’re going there this year and I’ve been surprised at how compact it seems to be, with lots worth seeing.

Sorry, I haven't disappeared! There are some great ideas there. Will check them out for the next few years.

We've been to the Loire Valley which was beautiful, and have driven through France a lot. Brittany is definitely on my list, but probably not in August. I will keep places like the Luberon and Champagne areas for future reference.

I will have a look at the Netherlands or Aachen and Cologne for this trip. We went to Germany a few years ago and it was gorgeous.

Thank you everyone!

Alsace is lovely in October, when the leaves on the vineyards turn yellow.

If you’re looking at that area, have a look at Trier (bit further south). I didn’t make it there when I was in that area but it’s really beautiful.