Ultimate French Drives Best for weekenders The route: The Baie de Somme, slowly east from Calais The reward: Empty sands, seafood and historic summerhouses

68 Sunday Times Travel AUGUST 2019 TotalGuide I France ontemplating the cormorants soaring Sand rovers: you’ll have more fun if you take the vintage steam railway overhead as the tide pours its brackish strolling along the for an hour from Le Crotoy (cfbs.eu; return ticket £13). beach in Le Crotoy; swells onto the endless mudflats of the below right, classic There’s something Poirot-ish about sitting in turn-of- Baie de Somme estuary, you’d never car on the seafront at the-century carriages, watching the steam puff past the Best for weekenders think you’d left the Channel Tunnel Les Tourelles hotel window. Saint-Valery itself is where the River Somme behind just 90 minutes ago. And that’s throws itself and its war history into the Channel. It’s also what makes this little-known stretch of where William the Conqueror left France for Hastings CPicardy coastline, between Parc du Marquenterre in the in 1066, something you’re reminded of as you stroll the north and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme in the south, such waterfront promenade, where huge, Bayeux Tapestry- a marvellous weekend destination. The second you like carvings are dotted among the grand seafront villas. turn off the A16 autoroute from Calais, the motorway Late Sunday morning, after a lazy breakfast of buttery transforms into quiet roads bordered by poppy- croissants and boiled eggs in Les Tourelles, the screech peppered wheatfields, and moody stretches of salt of gulls outside is your cue to head to the Parc du marsh where seabirds glide and harbour seals frolic. Marquenterre bird reserve (baiedesomme.fr; £9), 10km And the best bit? Most Brits don’t bother stopping TOP north of Le Crotoy. The park itself was once a tulip farm; here, heading instead to the better-known Somme war today about 300 species of bird (including coots, storks graves further inland, so you’ll mostly be sharing the STEER and whooper swans) pass by to rest during migration country lanes and windswept towns with the locals. season or to nest. Hire a pair of binoculars, then set off On Friday afternoon, as the sunlight turns the briny along one of three marked circuits that lead you through tunnel vision bay into a silver mirror, get yourself to Le Crotoy, a Heading over on the pine forest and freshwater lakes to meadows and dunes. sleepy, salt-of-the-earth village, where simple portside Eurotunnel? Join the The Baie de Somme is so close to Calais, there’s no need restaurants serve moules-frites by the bucket-load and queue as soon as you to rush back on Monday morning. Dally instead among arrive in Folkestone. you can sip local Marquenterre — a pale lager with a If you’re there within the bloom-filled parterres of the Jardins de Valloires lemony finish — with uninterrupted views of the water. two hours of your in Argoules (25km from Le Crotoy; baiedesomme.fr; The place to sleep here is Les Tourelles (lestourelles.com; reserved time, they £8.50), the glorious grounds of an 18th-century Baroque doubles from £79, B&B), a driftwood-chic hotel named might be able to Cistercian abbey. There’s a resident peacock that’ll bid squeeze you on an after its distinctive red towers, where most rooms look earlier train for free. you farewell with a fan of its tail as you grab lunch in out over the bay. The hotel’s restaurant is great, but just the restaurant (mains about £14) — a hearty ficelle pipped by the seafood platter at the restaurant Bellevue du nord (a local dish of rich, lemony Maroilles cheese, (bellevuelecrotoy.fr; mains about £20), a lovely spot at endive and ham) should do the trick — before you make sunset, when kitesurfers perform aerial ballets on the the 90-minute return to the Eurotunnel. orange horizon as you tuck in on the terrace. Anna Brooke On Saturday, you could drive past sheep-dotted salt marshes for 20 minutes to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, but Turn the page for more French weekend drives➔

AUGUST 2019 Sunday Times Travel 69 a clifftop tavern. Or downwind to Continental drift: The Paris Périphérique Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where Louis XIV below, boats in the harbour of Saint- For a city escape 2 married his Spanish queen. Jean-de-Luz; a more Stroll Saint-Jean’s shopping lanes for historic cog railway weekend candy-striped espadrilles, or ‘original’ takes passengers up aris? En voiture? Why burden macarons, steadfastly rustic and the mountain from yourself? Some have their drives Sare; typical Pays almond-flecked. Round the bay from Basque houses Preasons. For example, many the old whaler’s marina in Ciboure, the near Sare eschew Eurostar because getting to beau monde nibbles Bayonne ham and London St Pancras station can be a sips frothy Cava-style wines barrelled schlep. And if you’ve left it late, train Biarritz and beyond at Egia Tegia, a winery facing the beach. fares escalate — and driving makes For Basque beauty This close to Spain, you’ll be tempted sense if you’re travelling in a group. to drive to the border town of Hendaye. There’s more. Some of the capital’s ight minutes beyond Biarritz, Instead, snake inland past fields of loveliest, quietest sights sit not within you’re sharing the seaside B roads Espelette pepper. A funicular creaks up the 35km Périphérique ring road, but Ewith barefoot cyclists. Red-clay La Rhune mountain past grazing wild outside it. That’s not to say you should roofs poke out over the palms. Couples horses. From the breezy summit, you TOP visit Paris just to leave it, but driving in cut-offs strap surfboards to tiny cars. can see over San Sebastián. helps you get the best of both worlds. Cafes chime with clinking glasses and From here, roads ripple towards STEER If you’ve never seen Versailles, happy, deeply tanned patrons. white-stucco villages, where Rafael spend your first night at Villa de ‘What have you done with France?’ Nadal lookalikes lash out games of park life la Pièce d’Eau des Suisses (bedin you might ask the Pays Basque, the pelota in town squares. At Sare, you Parking in Paris versailles.com; doubles from £131, chilled-out region hugging the Spanish can drive alongside the Camino de can be a daunting B&B), next door to Louis XIV’s glitzy experience. App border. The easy-going Iberian Santiago pilgrimage route, dotted OPnGO (Apple and château. Or continue to lesser- character has clearly permeated life with ancient wooden chapels. Android, free) aims known Château de Malmaison here. And it’s an area smaller than Overnight at Ithurria (ithurria.com; to slash the stress (musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr; Shropshire, so easy to do in a weekend. doubles from £119, room-only), one of a by letting you book £6), the palace Joséphine bought for and pay for a space Leave Biarritz behind for the slower handful of timber cottages in the ‘plus ahead of time. It’ll Napoléon to celebrate his Egyptian southern towns. A 25-minute drive beau village’ of Ainhoa. Pastel rooms cost you about £53 down the coast, the half-timbered lead out to a pool in the garden, where for three days in central Paris. Maison Tamarin (maisontamarin.com; guests have a tipple before dinner. The doubles from £106, B&B) has its own bistro is Michelin-starred, the lamb is sprawling pool, despite overlooking Gallic in its richness, yet the vibe is as a deserted beach. From here, you can mellow as an Armagnac digestif. drive to Guéthary to watch surfers from Ellen Himelfarb 4CORNERS, ALAMY, AWL IMAGES, GETTY, ROBERT HARDING, SUPERSTOCK HARDING, ROBERT GETTY, IMAGES, AWL ALAMY, 4CORNERS, PHOTOGRAPHS:

70 Sunday Times Travel AUGUST 2019 TotalGuide I France campaign. Its gilded bedchambers and from another. A little way south, by the cascading fountain and the Sèvres The jet set: Latona statue-sentried gardens are tricky to riverfront brasserie Quai Ouest (www. museum (musee-adriendubouche.fr; Fountain in the Gardens of reach without your own wheels. quaiouestrestaurant.com; mains about £6), mixing up antique and modern Versailles Driving into Paris, join the Seine- £19), an aqueduct-cum-pedestrian ceramics made in the ateliers behind. hugging D7 road at La Défense — you’ll bridge leads to the Bois de Boulogne. Park at the nearby hotel Molitor (mltr.fr; spot the Arc de Triomphe from one Still more charming is the Parc de doubles from £204, room-only). window and the modern Grande Arche Saint-Cloud, home to a ruined château, Wondering where the Paris art scene is headed? The answer: outside town. Where the Périphérique crosses the Canal de L’Ourcq is Galerie Thaddeus Ropac (ropac.net; free), an old ironworks exhibiting abstract works by artists such as Imran Qureshi. Turn up the N2 and you’ll soon reach Larry Gagosian’s hangar-sized space showing massive installation art (gagosian.com; free). Still have some hours to spare? Sixty kilometres south of Paris, the road disappears into a forest and emerges in Fontainebleau, a pretty town of stone cottages and a fresco-coated country pile. The Château de Fontainebleau displays the eye-bulging excess of Versailles to a fraction of the visitors — smile from the 17th-century horseshoe staircase and you’ll be the only one in the frame (chateaudefontainebleau.fr; £11 ). Ellen Himelfarb

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