Just across the Channel, Le Verger is a lovingly restored old house, wonderfully Gallic in atmosphere yet incredibly easy to get to. It is located in the Seven Valleys region of the Nord Pas de Calais, an hour from the ferry port and 40 minutes inland from the chic shops of Le Touquet.

WWI Battlefields

Within an hour’s drive of the house are the battlefields and cemeteries of the two World Wars, and near Arras there is a 20 mile long labyrinth of underground tunnels. There is another 5 mile warren of tunnels under La Coupole, the immense dome-shaped silo where V2 rockets were stored, which is now a museum.And in the churchyard in our village are three well-tended graves of an RAF crew whose plane came down nearby.