France and Belgium are easily reachable for a day out from Kent.

Ferries go from Dover to Dunkirk and Calais - and the Tunnel shuttles cars across from Folkestone to Calais.

Once on the other side, a string of motorways and lightly travelled main roads mean even Champagne is close by - but why drive for hours when there is so much, so very foreign, so very much closer?

Old towns such as Bruges (less than two hours' drive from Calais) and Mons in Belgium are full of beautiful brick buildings, canals, filling food, hearty beers and the, to put it frankly, utterly bizarre.

One of the highlights of the year in Mons is a celebration of the legend of St George, an enactment of St George slaying a green dragon but with a twist: He first attempts to kill it with his lance, then his sword, but they both fail. Then, like Indiana Jones, he hauls out a revolver and shoots it. At that point, every male youth in town plunges over the barriers to grab a hair from the dead dragon's tail.

It's a medieval fantasy still played out with enormous energy.

The same energy goes into the giant cults of almost every town in French Flanders, the area that borders Belgium.

At Douai, celebrations are kicked off by the mayor and other bigwigs hurling boiled sweets to the assembled crowds.

Meanwhile, the residents of Dunkirk keep alive the days when their fishermen left to catch the cod off Iceland. Just down the coast, Gravelines has a splendid collection of fortifications and people love to dress up in Louis XIV finery and celebrate their architect, Vauban.

The sandy beaches that stretch from Belgium right down to the Somme Bay can be almost deserted outside the summer high season.

However, the resorts are full of attractions: A kite festival at Berck, sand yachting races at Le Touquet and an amusement park at Bagatelle a little further down the coast.

In Boulogne, gawp at Polynesian masks in the old town's castle museum, on the hill that rears up above the harbour, or visit the fish market, and lose all sense of time in amazing Nausicaa. The sea life centre serves great seafood dishes too.