Northern France

There are some interesting towns and scenery along the north coast of France, but what about Bruges and Brussels? You might also be able to day trip or even overnight to Amsterdam. Luxembourg is another possibility.

Bruges is about one hour car ride north. This will hit your history and art criteria. (and possibly your food criteria, if you consider chocolate one of the five food groups). Also, there's a tram that runs along the Belgian coast between DePANNE and Knokke-Heist. Here's a recent post on it with additional info https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/belgium/day-trip-from-bruges-to-coastal-tram. Opinions on De Kuustram (and now my experience) run hot/cold. ( an intersting site at the Rayverside stop on the tram line is the Atlantik Wall Museum, in an area used for defences in both WW1 and WW2).

If you are interested in military history, Ypres (market square, Flanders Museum) is close to your base and there are countless military cemeteries and memorials surrounding Ypres countryside (although they are British Commonwealth sites mostly so may not entirely be of interest if you're from the US).

Arras is a little over an hour south; Musee des Beaux Arts, St Vaast Cathedral ( big reno going on, I think it's only open later in the afternoon) plus more military related sights and cemeteries in Arras and surrounding area.

Peter

Some ideas about what to do within an easy drive from Watou.

If you visit Ypres / Ieper, halfway from Watou Poperinge is worth a stop and on the way to the Belgian coast Veurne, very lovely town square.

Northern France is not blessed with an abundance of the spectacular sites you can find elsewhere in the country. However the two former (WWII) V2 bases around Saint Omer, La Coupole and Blockhaus actually are. Along the coast you can find more remains of the Atlantik Wall like Batterie Todt and the super guns of Mimoyecques. Not to miss there too is the stunning view over The English Channel from Cap Blanc Nez, with clear weather you can see The White Cliffs of Dover. There are hiking trails.

About art you can visit Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille and Musée du Louvre in Lens. Never visited it, but La Piscine in Roubaix seems worth to check out too.

Northern France is not wealthy but has it’s own character and if expectations are not too high certainly worth to hang around. So with that approach Saint Omer itself is nice to walk around and seems to be fun making a boat tour on the swamps there. Halfway from Watou on top of a hill Cassel has a nice historic town square with restaurants overviewing the surrounding countryside. At the highest point there is an old fashioned windmill. Nice place too is the fortified place Bergues or Sint-Winoksbergen in Flemish as this part of Northern France was once part of Flemish/Dutch speaking Flanders. Think best is to visit this place during market days as it will be more lively.

Hi,

Day trips in northern France logistically feasible for you would be Lille and Arras. This area of France is totally off the American tourist radar, it's the part of France I've focused on the most outside of Paris, ie, from the Somme River to the Belgian border. If you're out to see the WW1 sites, this is it.

Thanks for the input! Those are some great ideas. I should have added that we'll have already spent three days in Brussels and three days in Brugges. While in Brugges we're doing the Flanders Field tour. That's why I was looking into visiting Northern France while in Watou. I love the idea of visiting cliffs and hiking. I'll look into some of the other things as well.

I think you could easily take a longish day and drive the coastal route, maybe to Boulogne-sur-Mer, which is a really nice small city on the coast. You could make quick stops in Dunkirk and/or Calais between Watou and BsM. Depends on how much driving you want to do and what you want to see.

For more hiking along cliffs you can go ofcourse to the Upper Normandy coast. The first cliffs start in Ault just a bit north of Tréport. Think about a 3 hour drive to get there. Have no idea where exactly the hiking trails start, so contact the TI in Tréport or Dieppe.

If you like bird watching you can walk through Parc du Marquenterre, the lowlands just north of the bay of the Somme. So have your binoculars with you. http://www.baiedesomme.fr/lieu/2-14-parc-du-marquenterre#nogo

You can have a stop in nearby Crotoy, but more nicer is touristy Saint-Valery-sur-Somme at the southside of the bay, where you can take if you like the steam train. The historic walled centre of Boulogne-sur-Mer is indeed worth a visit, but I would avoid Calais and Dunkirk and know that the roads around these two places are notorious for traffic jams during weekdays as I had to experience last September.