A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a friend’s holiday home in the Pas de Calais in a village called Dompierre near to Hesdin. We left London at 2pm and drove to Folkestone to take the tunnel. By 6pm we were in the supermarket stocking up on delicious French cheeses, foie gras, bread, desserts and of course plenty of wine.

The house was delightful and immediately we arrived we called on our old girl guide skills and got a roaring fire going in the living room. The next day we explored the area and had a fabulous lunch in the village of Auxi le chateau in a restaurant called Canard Gourmand, which is, a small typically French family restaurant specialising in regional dishes. We ate well and washed down our lunch with a really delicious bottle of wine. After lunch we carried on to the town of Hesdin where we mooched about looking in shop windows and the delicious pastries. That evening we were back to the house with some veal chops and wild mushrooms we had bought – another delicious feast.

It was such a lovely break and really took no time to get there but got us away from the stress of London into the beautiful peaceful country life in France.

We managed to take hardly any luggage with us and filled the boot of the car with our supermarket purchases. The wines were excellent value and not one bottle was over €5.

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and would highly recommend a visit to the area. . . . I shall most definitely be going again!

We went to a restaurant in Nice which we booked through Top Table, the offer was for a 3 course meal from a set menu which had three choices for each of the three courses, plus a half a bottle of wine per person, which was really good wine,  plus a kir royale and coffee or tea – so that there was absolutely nothing more to pay, service is included in France.   The restaurant was really cosy inside and there was an outside covered pavement terrace too.    The price for all this was only 25 Euros per person – so 50 euros in total for two for lunch or dinner.   All four of us thought the food was excellent and the service very friendly.  The restaurant is well situated in Nice near to the flower market.   I cant recommend it highly enough and we will go back, even without the special offer.