On my return trip to England, we will be visiting friends at Fareham by train, and whilst we are freelancing around southern England, we thought we might catch the vehicular ferry across to France ( I take it the ferry takes walkon passengers)
Our trip will probably be in late May. Does anyone have any suggestion of a nice French coastal village or town to spend a few days in, before returning to London. We are beach persons, and also like history & dining/wining. If you have any ideas on accommodation with your recommendation, it would be most appreciated.

Well, at Calais you can do plenty of wining (day trips for Brits on booze runs are a major industry), and a fair amount of dining is available.

At Boulougne, there is some recent history (well, recent in the grand scheme of things) in the form of <i>Festung Europa</i> fortifications in various stages of disrepair.

Further down, there is Dieppe, scene of the first Allied invasion.

Many ferry operators accept foot passengers, some do not.

None of the Channel beaches are much like Santa Monica. For one thing, the water temperature is near-lethal most of the year.

There's actually rather more whining than wining in Calais, where the eating options range from the vile to the mediocre. We rather dramatically reorganised its buildings in 1943-44, and what the local council replaced them with wouldn't look out of place in Stalin's Russia.

Best avoided, unless you want to fill your car up with untaxed wine: one of the few nice things about Calais is that its supermarkets rival Britain's in the staggering range of wine they offer (unlike stores elsewhere in France whose wine choices are extraordinarily insular)

But how are you going to get to this nice coastal village without a car? Trains to Paris are terrific: but public transport between places in the Pas de Calais area is dreadful. You're going to have to settle with staying in the port you arrive at.

Your nearest ferry port from Fareham is Portsmouth, from where you can get ferries to Le Havre, Cherbourg, Caen and St Malo. Hardly charming, but all interesting working ports.

If you can get yourselves to Newhaven, there's a direct ferry to Dieppe (also worthwhile). Boulogne, which has about the best eating of the ports, is accessible only from Dover, which you may well find a fair shlep from Fareham.

I've no idea what a &quot;beach person&quot; is. But the beaches of the Pas de Calais are wonderful. There are wimps who shy away from swimming off them, but you're doubtless made of sterner stuff. They're not for doing boring things like lounging around on, or getting skin cancer. They're for serious cliff walking, playing football and dog exercising. But offhand, I cannot think of any way of getting to them without a car.

Yes, there's a lot of Late National Socialist architecture along the Channel coast.

It is possible to get from Calais to Boulogne by train. Dieppe is accessible by bus.

Channel water temperatures is a subject that I researched thoroughly as a member of the Scottish branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club: the warmest temperatures are encountered in August, around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember the U.S. Coast Guard &quot;fifty rule&quot;: in 50&deg; water, 50% of people will die of hypothermia in 50 minutes.

If you won't have a car, your choices are limited, and I agree you'llprobably find the best food in Boulogne.

I'd steer clear of Calais - agree with Flanneruck that you won't find culinary inspiration, or much of anything else, there.

I'd probably choose Boulogne - enough to fill a weekend.

Easy to get to, good food, walled old town, fishing port, aquarium center.