Savour French Flanders through a rail or ferry break. Lively Lille brims with regional fare, fashion boutiques and fine arts. Sample Dunkirk’s sporting beaches or stroll round the harbour, home to bobbing boats and big-time eateries. Head to sparky Douai famed for its festival giants, or Cambrai’s cobbled streets for the golden age of art. Or try Valenciennes, where native-born artists Watteau and Carpeaux add to an already ambitious arts scene. 

Visit Ors where Wilfred Owen, the 25 year old British officer turned Great War poet as tanks were used for the first time in the battle of Cambrai. Learn about the slaughter at Fromelles where in 2010 a new cemetery for 250 allied soldiers was opened in the presence of Prince Charles. Relive, too, the 1940 evacuation of around 340,000 British and French troops from the Dunkirk beaches at the port’s Operation Dynamo War Museum.

If it’s sand, sea and sport you seek then Dunkirk’s vast beaches offer them by the bucketload. Go surfing, shrimping or kite–flying, or try Bray Dunes for sand–yachting. Sample beachfront mussels at Malo-les-Bains with its colourful beach huts. Visit leafy Gravelines for its fortified walls and family–friendly museum. Cross to Petit-Fort-Philippe, famed for sand–yachting or take in a whiff of The Smokery at Grand-Fort-Philippe a boat trip away.

French and Flemish flirt furiously at Godewaersvelde whose Border Life Museum chuckles at the smuggling antics surrounding the Belgian border  – seen at its best from Mont des Cats. Call in at Cassel, a captivating setting for the Flanders Museum’s unique look at Flemish cultural life; then head for Bergues whose canals and bridges star in a blockbuster comedy set in Le Nord – with the richly rural Avesnois is home to the famous Maroilles cheese.