Thirty minutes from Calais and just north of Boulogne, I am in the village of Wierre-Effroy noting the patisserie, the brasserie and the Fromagerie les Fr\u00e8res Bernard<\/a>. While agonising over the choice of cheese, shoppers can watch the cheese makers at work. One of the Bernard brothers, Joachim, shows me around.<\/p>\n I leave clutching a creamy cheese with a fenugreek-scented, floral rind and a wedge of well-aged mimolette. Nearby, the brothers\u2019 former home has been transformed into the Ferme du Vent <\/a>hotel with a restaurant that celebrates local produce. Secluded among the fields and hedgerow, I am quickly relaxed by the stillness of rural France<\/a>.<\/p>\n Back on the coast, I stop at the seafood restaurant La Marie Galante<\/a> in Audresselles to eat razor clams smothered in buttery garlic breadcrumbs and the local speciality, crispy grey shrimp croquettes. I cannot resist ordering a caf\u00e9 gourmand, that sneaky way of trying four miniature desserts in the name of coffee.<\/p>\n To walk it off, I take a path through the dunes to access the vast, white, sandy beach on the aptly named Opal Coast.<\/p>\n Less than an hour\u2019s drive south in Montreuil-sur-Mer I sleep amid antiques in a four-poster bed in the eponymous ch\u00e2teau<\/a>.<\/p>\n Replete with a cracking croissant, I join Jean-Maris from the tourist office to wander around the town\u2019s cobbled streets and ramparts, from where we can see the sea, 20 miles away (a now-silted-up estuary once made the town navigable from the coast). <\/p>\n He points out a caf\u00e9 here, a bistro there and tells me about starring in an annual production of Victor Hugo\u2019s Les Mis\u00e9rables \u2013 set within the grounds of the castle.<\/p>\n Montreuil is also a gourmet destination. At Le Patio<\/a> I encounter those flavoursome grey shrimp again, this time encased in a savoury mille-feuilles. <\/p>\n At L\u2019Anecdote<\/a>, white asparagus comes wrapped in a white linen napkin, accompanied by wild garlic mousseline. It is the small details, be it the crunch and pillow of the bread, the stylish cutlery, or the provision of sun hats, that elevate the French dining experience.<\/p>\n That a two-course lunch of this calibre costs \u00a325 and three courses the evening before at Le Patio was \u00a337, is astonishing.<\/p>\n Half an hour away is Hesdin, where the river flows under a flower-clad bridge and there seems to be a boulangerie at every turn. I meet up with Julie Barbosa at La Cave de Lilie<\/a>, a female-run wine shop with offerings from \u00a34 to \u201cmany hundreds\u201d. It also offers wedding tastings and open days for the Beaujolais Nouveau in November.<\/p>\n On to Saint-Omer, \u201cthe town of yellow bricks\u201d, where the Flemish and French history (the Belgian border is 19 miles away) is documented through its fine buildings. Today it is a centre for culture and heritage with interactive museums, a glorious cathedral and yet more culinary delights.<\/p>\n Saint-Omer is surrounded by marshes \u2013 drained and farmed as market gardens for centuries, this watery landscape was central to the town\u2019s prosperity. However, only a few of these gardens remain with most of the Audomarois marshland designated as a Unesco biosphere, sheltering more than 200 species of birds.<\/p>\n A canal tour in a traditional, wooden boat reveals the well-tended gardens that have replaced the smallholdings. Between willows and walnut trees, I am entranced by rows of the marsh\u2019s unique little cauliflowers, blue leeks and emerging legumes. <\/p>\n \u201cI am passionate about my land,\u201d Lo\u00e9c, an organic gardener, tells me, among his seedlings and vivid flowers. I buy some of his intensely flavoured little strawberries in the market. I have never tasted better.<\/p>\n La Maison du Marais<\/a> dissects the landscape through museum exhibits, but better still is the caf\u00e9, where I lunch on a crisp bowl of locally grown salad. Afterwards, I enjoy a gentle stroll along accessible paths back through the waterways passing a windmill en route.<\/p>\n The final town on this arc around Calais is hilltop Cassel. Road names reflect Flemish connections, as do restaurant menus \u2013 curling sausages, lashings of stewed apple and, naturally, chips with mayonnaise are the special at the Estaminet Kasteelhof<\/a>, washed down by hoppy beer.<\/p>\n Touring the 3 Monts Brewery<\/a> underlines the link between topography, history and produce as does the exhibition of Brueghel\u2019s paintings at the Flanders Museum. The galleries reveal a flamboyance of food and flowers in a landscape I now recognise.<\/p>\n It is a short drive along empty roads back to Calais<\/a>. Over just four days, I have indulged in the very best of French food and culture right here, on our doorstep.\u202fI leave feeling just as smug \u2013 though more content \u2013 as when I started.<\/p>\n Getting there Where to stay More information![\"Montreuil-sur-Mer](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SEI_254165745.jpg\")
Montreuil-sur-Mer is 20 miles from the sea (Photo: Benoit Bremer)<\/p>\n![\"Cabbages](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SEI_254166957.jpg\")
Cabbages harvested in the Audomarois marshes (Photo: Frederic Legris\/Hauts-de-France)<\/p>\n![\"Taking](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SEI_254165866_1fac76.jpg\")
Taking a boat through the waterways of St Omer\u2019s marshes (Photo: Hauts-de-France)<\/p>\n\n
<\/strong>The writer travelled with Irish Ferries<\/a>, which has 10 crossings from Dover to Calais daily. The lowest return fare is \u00a3108 for a short break.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Ch\u00e2teau de Montreuil<\/a> has doubles from \u20ac115 (\u00a3137).
Mercure St Omer<\/a> has doubles from \u20ac117 (\u00a3139).<\/p>\n
<\/strong>hautsdefrancetourism.com
<\/a>visitpasdecalais.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a short drive from Calais lies an overlooked region of quiet towns, passionate artisans and impressive restaurants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[63225,2000,299,5510,24357,36,58732,10785],"class_list":{"0":"post-156723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-calais","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-europe-travel","12":"tag-food-travel","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-france-travel","15":"tag-summer-holidays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114623553580828920","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}