The Opal Coast in 3 days

A 134-metre chalk cliff, twin to the White Cliffs of Dover across the water, topped by the Dover Patrol memorial obelisk.

A low-rise fishing village turned family resort between the capes, with kilometres of firm sand for sand yachts and kitesurfers.

France's closest point to England, where a lighthouse and a coastguard station watch over one of the world's busiest straits.

The coast's Belle Époque resort, 5 km north of Boulogne, with a promenade of turreted villas, beach huts, and mussels served facing the sunset.

Europe's largest aquarium, on Boulogne's seafront, with a 10,000 m³ tank of manta rays and sharks behind a 20-metre window, plus penguins and sea lions.

Above France's leading fishing port, 13th-century ramparts you can walk right round enclose the belfry, the castle museum and the domed Basilica of Notre-Dame.

Created in the 1880s on pine-planted dunes for English and Parisian holidaymakers, with forest villas, an Art Deco market and a 12 km beach.

Now 15 km from the sea, it keeps 3 km of ramparts and a Vauban citadel; Victor Hugo set part of Les Misérables here.