Looking for a quiet place between Paris and Brussels

August 7, 2013 7:16 PM

I am in the early planning stages of a trip to Paris and Brussels. I'd like to find a place between the two (or at least not too far out of the way) to spend two nights or so in the middle of the trip. I'd prefer a small, walkable town on the coast or with some kind of natural feature that you can just sit and stare at. Calais? Lille? Bologne-Sur-Mer?
posted by soelo to Travel & Transportation around France (7 answers total)

Bologne-sur-Mer is damned adorable and you can sit along the coast and gaze at the white cliffs directly across the channel from there. It's pretty touristy. And it is a little bit out of your way. But it is adorable, and sounds like it will have what you're looking for.

If I were stopping between those places, I'd hit Pierrefonds because there's a chateau there that I really want to see. Huge fortifications. I am agitating for a trip there next time we go. It's also a little bit more directly along your way. One of the nice parts of visiting a town with a giant chateau is that there are frequently lovely gardens that you can visit for your sitting and nature gazing needs. This summer I was at both Chantilly and Fontainebleau, and both have lovely gardens to visit. (Fontainebleau, although not realistic for you because it is south of Paris, was the winner: gardens free and open to the public!)
posted by jph at 7:40 PM on August 7, 2013

Don't discount the Belgian coast as an option: there isn't much of it (about 80km) and some of it is built up with tourist high-rises, but it's much loved by everybody who visits. (Marvin Gaye famously moved to Ostend to get away from it all and clean himself up, and wrote 'Sexual Healing' there.) Not as much in the way of natural features, but you do have the coast tram that can take you from the French border to the Dutch one. The best fit for "small walkable town" would be De Haan.

Inland, the north of France flattens out, and the towns get more industrial (with exceptions for university towns like Nancy and Douai) but perhaps somewhere in the Belgian Ardennes like La Roche, or Dinant, where you can stare at a big rock? That depends a lot on how you're travelling: driving would be fine, but train routes from Paris to Wallonia that don't go via Thalys to Brussels are a bit of a mess.
posted by holgate at 10:08 PM on August 7, 2013

Wimereux is a nice little town between Boulogne and Calais which is totally walkable and while not quite chocolate-box pretty is quite quaint with some interesting architecture. It has an attractive promenade. The feature to look at would be the sea itself, although you can see the white cliffs on the other side on a clear day.

Outside of peak tourism season, the town is busy but not bustling. There are decent hotels at different price points (including a Michelin starred restaurant) and places to eat, as well as some shops.

In terms of walks and sights, there are good hiking trails along the coast which are scenic and take in bays and cliffs and so forth, or Fort de la Crèche to the south of the town. That whole area is know as the Opal Coast.

It's also an easy trip into Boulogne, which is very much a game of three halves - the working port, the working town at the bottom of the hill and the pretty old part of the town at the top of the hill.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:04 AM on August 8, 2013

Bray-Dunes is a small seaside town with a nice beach virtually en route between Paris and Brussels. Can't say natural features are really 'all that', but that's true of most of Le Nord to be perfectly honest (*ducks slap from wife*).

My kids will be there with the in-laws for a week after the 25th August, so don't go then if you want quiet. :)
posted by bifter at 5:27 AM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Despite the opinions expressed by Colin Ferrell in the film, we loved Bruges. It doesn't so much have a single spot or natural feature to stare it, but the whole town is like strolling through a medeival postcard. The old town center is ridiculously walkable. Its not exactly en route or in the middle, but no more out of the way than Calais, which would be a terrible choice. Nor do I think too much of Lille as a tourist destination. I am entirely ignorant of the other towns mentioned here.
posted by Lame_username at 7:44 AM on August 8, 2013

Bouillon, Belgium, is unbelievably quaint and quiet. It's not natural, but the castle - built right into a stone mountain - is breath-taking. It's not far from the Orval monastery (beer, yum!), whose ruins make an excellent visit.
posted by sixpack at 12:33 PM on August 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Realize I'm chiming in a bit late here: Bruges isn't exactly in between the two, but it's not far from Brussels (about an hour by train). It's also fairly close to the coast. I spent two days there a few years back and enjoyed it immensely, though it is fairly touristy (owing mostly to its incredible charm). It's certainly very walkable but like most places in the Low Countries, I highly recommend tackling it by bicycle.
posted by dhammond at 9:27 PM on January 30, 2014