They are gateways to the land of baguettes and cheese and the place to go for a quick hypermarket dash.
But France's ferry ports are also destinations in their own right, either for a night to break a long journey to or from the depths of the country, or for a quick weekend hop across the Channel. Forget the cheap chain hotels that litter the port hinterland and the hypermarkets where English is the only accent you'll hear - in less than a 20-minute drive from all the major ports, you can be in the heart of real France, staying with the locals in a charming bed and breakfast, or living like kings in a chateau. Stock up on local produce everywhere, from market stalls in town to speciality cheese shops where you can pick up Camembert with Calvados.
Below, we show you where to sleep, eat and shop around six of France's ferry ports. Getting to France is becoming easier and more comfortable too, with services starting from Dover to Boulogne in June with Speedferries, restoring a direct link that ended in 2000.
Welcome to a house party
Jane Knight on Calais
Where to stay: Le Manoir, 40 route de Licques, Bonningues (00 33 321 826905) £38 a room for two, with breakfasts.
A stay here eases you gently into French life, making you feel like you still have a foot in England - though Le Manoir is quintessentially French with traditional furnishings, its mainly British guests give it an English house-party feel, with pre-dinner cocktails and nibbles in the sitting room followed by a shared meal around the large dining table.
Many guests to this convenient stopping-off place just 20 minutes' drive from Calais are repeat visitors, staying on their way to the south of France and on their way back home. Hosts Sylvie and Pierre greet them like family members, and Sylvie keeps a careful track of the food she serves up to make sure she doesn't duplicate a meal for those on a return visit.
Talking of the food, it is some of the best home cooking in France you are likely to taste - coquilles St Jacques, filet mignon, and local specialities oozing off the impressive cheese board followed by a divine chicory and juniper parfait. The hosts make sure that the conversation flows as much as the alcohol, making dinner stretch well into the night.
Ever helpful, Sylvie and Pierre are happy to rent their home to groups of people celebrating something special or to arrange everything from golf trips to learning how to cook the dishes you eat in the evening.
After dinner, it's off to bed in one of the five rooms in the house, which dates back to 1839 and is brimful of trompe l'oeil, marble fireplaces and wooden floors. Though the house is still being restored, with its impressive shuttered exterior looking slightly shabby, the bedrooms are all up to scratch, with lots of comfort and character.
The yellow room on the first floor is the best; bright and light with great views of the garden, and the bathroom tucked into the service staircase with the loo down a few steps.
There's also a suite of two interconnecting rooms on the first floor for four. Go up a second steep staircase and you come to the three rooms on the top floor, complete with sloping roofs and beams - the jungle room also has tasteful jungle-print curtains and hangings.
It seems almost churlish to mention them, but there are a couple of small niggles - the hot water doesn't always merit that adjective and if you are staying out of the summer season, the rooms can be a bit on the cold side.
Where to eat: You'd be a fool not to sample Sylvie's fabulous cooking, at £16 with plentiful wine.
Best buy: Jacob's Creek wine for £2 a bottle from Wine & Beer World (Majestic) in rue de Judee, Zone Marcel Doret, junction 3 off A26, which is next door to the French-owned Peradel in Canard Duchene, with good vintages from around the world and a range of upmarket Godard foie gras from the Lot region of France. Or get 1994 Medoc at £4 a bottle from Le Terroir on rue des Fontinettes, Calais.
Nearby sights: After you've shopped till you drop at Calais's Cité Europe, head out to the 40km of cliffs, sand dunes and beaches on the Côte D'Opale between Calais and Boulogne. On a clear day, you can gaze at the white cliffs of Dover.
Way to go: Eurotunnel (08705 353535) has regular 35-minute crossings from Folkestone, with overnight week-day trips from £35 or two-night spring breaks from £59.
An Englishman's home in a French castle
Lucy Siegle on Dieppe
Where to stay: Chateau du Mesnil Geoffroy, 76740 Ermenouville, Seine-Maritime (00 33 2 3557 1277) Rooms for two with breakfast are £56-£95.
The chateau, famous for its rose gardens, instantly transports you back to a more noble era. Rather aptly it's owned and run by a real prince and princess, the Kayalis. Their respective families have owned various chateaux through French history, but these days their fortunes, not to mention rather lovely family furniture, are condensed into the Mesnil Geoffroy enterprise where they rent out five of their rooms for bed and breakfast.
The guest accommodation is like an expansive and exquisitely dressed set, full of beautiful fabrics and gilt chairs. When you spy a door leading off the dining room you wonder whether if you push it open the game will be up and you'll suddenly find Argos furniture and a plasma screen TV. You don't. Just more elegant Louis XIV clocks and chinoiserie sofas. Equally, the bedrooms capture the imagination, full of toile-du-jouy drapes and panelled shutters. The last modernisations took place in the eighteenth century with the exception of the installation of luxury bathrooms. Ingeniously situated through a wardrobe, bathtime becomes an experience of Narnia.
There is a lovely atmosphere at the Chateau Mesnil Geoffroy, not least because the Kayalis are so laid-back. There is also just the right balance between luxury and a wholesome French simplicity. In fact, the only time you'll experience anything approaching lavish excess is at breakfast; a cheery parade of fresh eggs, lemon cake and bowls of strawberries. It's also an opportunity to experience the chateau's famous preserves; rose petal, violet and mango marmalade (Louis XVI's favourite) which might play havoc with your fillings but are the perfect precursor to a stroll round the rose gardens.
Where to eat: Restaurant Les Galets, 3 rue Victor Hugo, Veules-les-roses (02 35 97 61 33). Famed for its haute cuisine and chocolate deserts, though it's not cheap with a menu at £30 a head.
Best buy: Mesnil Geoffroy rose petal preserve made from roses in the garden, £4.
Nearby sights: Head to the Benedictine distillery at Fécamp on the coast, stopping off at seaside towns and villages en route.
Way to go: The Hoverspeed Superseacat (0870 240 8282) has three return sailings daily in summer from Newhaven, with a crossing time of two hours. Prices start from £55 to an eight-day return for £159.
On the farm
Tom Templeton on Cherbourg
Where to stay: La Fevrerie, 50760 Sainte Genevieve, Manche (00 33 2 3354 3353). Rooms for two with breakfast are £39-£48 per night.
A few miles inland from Cherbourg sit the beautiful stone farm buildings of La Fevrerie. Run by retired farmer turned horse breeder Maurice Caillet and his wife Marie-France, this B&B feels as far away from the hustle and bustle of modern life as is possible. The tranquillity is clearly even felt by the cat, which allows their young Jack Russell terrier to playfully put its jaws round her throat without complaint.
It is well worth wandering around the surrounding old-fashioned rural landscape of small, abstractly shaped hedgerow and copse-lined fields, and feeding Maurice's sleek horses, which compete in Olympic trials. Breakfast is served in front of the huge log fire which keeps the flag-stoned main room cosy. Surrounded by fresh flowers and rosettes - won by the horses - you get a vast array of homemade pastries, cakes, jams and breads (baked on the fire), along with huge pots of coffee and tea. The rooms are large, light, airy, furnished with plump beds, antique furniture and aromatic freesias. The overwhelming feeling you get is that of being welcomed into a delightfully relaxed family home, with no obligation to do anything but enjoy yourself.
Where to eat: Chez Buck, 1, rue St Thomas Becket - five kilometres away in the quiet, beautiful seaside town of Barfleur. You can get two courses of crepe and seafood for £10.
Best buy: The umbrellas of Cherbourg are famously well crafted. At Le Veritable Cherbourg (00 33 2 3393 6660) they are made to measure for any occasion from £10.50.
Nearby sights: St Mere Eglise, where an American soldier landed on the spire during the D-Day landings, as well as the war beaches and cemeteries along the coast.
Way to go: P&O Ferries (0870 520 2020) has two return five-and-a-half hour crossings each day from Portsmouth. A five-day return with car plus two people costs from £196.
A treat for Michelin man
Jane Knight in Montreuil-sur-Mer
Where to stay: Chateau de Montreuil, 4, Chaussee des Capucins, Montreuil-sur-Mer (00 33 0321 815304). Rooms for two £122 (standard), £136 (superior) and £180 (cottage). Breakfast £11 per person.
This member of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux group couldn't be in a better situation - just inland from Le Touquet, it is also only a 20-minute buzz down the autoroute from Boulogne. But it isn't the convenience that is the biggest attraction here - it's the food. Convivial owner Christian Germain is also the chef of the one-Michelin-star restaurant, and fully justifies the honour. Here, you don't get just one amuse bouche - you get five. And every course that follows is a treat, from local asparagus served with a lemon sauce with herbs, followed by monkfish on a bed of spring vegetables to strawberries with basil ice cream.
The 18 rooms on two floors of the main building and in two annexes are impressive but not too frilly or fiddled with. They are all different - ours was oak-panelled with tiled floor, large four-poster bed, and heavy fabrics but with lots of modern goodies, including video, hi-fi and books on the shelves. You could get lost in the bathroom or at least lose yourself in thought wondering why it has a copper-plate ceiling. The view through multi-paned windows is on to the old citadel of Montreuil, a pretty village.
Where to eat: At the chateau, where a three-course menu costs £42 or a seven-course surprise menu cooked for each table individually costs £54. Wine £13-£570.
Best buy: Camembert with Calvados cheese at the Philippe Olivier cheese shop on rue Thiers in Boulogne. Cider eau de vie from Chateau de Montreuil for £23.
Nearby sights: Boulogne's market (Wednesday and Saturday mornings), Nausicaa aquarium and ramparts plus the seaside chic at Le Touquet.
Way to go: Speedferries (08700 603900) is starting 50-minute trips from Dover in June, with five daily sailings. Prices not yet available.
Old town, new fashion
Dorota Nosowicz on St Malo
Where to stay: Three-star La Korrigane, 39 rue le Pomellec, Saint Malo (00 33 2 9981 6585). Rooms for two £49-£104. Breakfast £7pp.
La Korrigane was the perfect place to rest our weary heads after a windy ferry crossing and before exploring the pretty medieval town of St Malo, surrounded by grey stone walls. Formerly a private home, the nineteenth- century building is now a delightfully refined 12-roomed hotel of eccentric grandeur and luxury. Heavy, deep-red Eastern rugs are scattered everywhere and a grand piano and comfy armchairs dominate the salon.
The hotel is efficiently run by the charmingly chic proprietor, Madame Dolbeau, who has named all the rooms after French couture houses - among them Hermès and Dior. Our first-floor room (Lanvin) was papered with luxurious fabric wallpaper the colour of sunflowers, its focal point a grand sumptuous bed facing a stately marbled fireplace with giant gilt-edged mirror above.
In the morning, we ate croissants in the sunny, chandeliered breakfast room, although in finer weather you can breakfast beneath the trees in the pretty walled garden. Lunch and evening meals aren't served at the hotel but that's no hardship since St Malo has many delicious seafood restaurants, teashops and delicatessens.
The city's focal point is its old town, a 15-minute walk from the hotel. Bombed heavily during World War II, it has been painstakingly restored. We wandered the cobbled streets, sat at street cafes and watched, from the ramparts, as local teenagers flirted on the beaches. All perfect ways to conserve our energy for cracking open the fine clarets that came home with us.
Where to eat: Get good, typical French fare and lots of fish at La Duchesse Anne on place Guy Lachambre, set within the walls of the old town, where a meal with wine costs about £30 a head.
Best buy: Stock up on gateaux Breton after sampling a crepe or two at Ty Nevez in rue Broussais in the middle of the old town. Don't miss the cheese shop Jean-Yves Bordier on rue de l'Orme. Get booze delivered to the ferry and marina from Wine & Beer Cash, 200m from the ferry terminal, 24 quai Trichet.
Nearby sights: Once you've done the old town, head over to Dinard for seaside charm and to Dinan for more quaint cobbled streets. And then there's the UN world heritage site Mont St Michel.
Way to go: Condor Ferries (0845 345 2000) has daily crossings from Weymouth via Jersey and Guernsey from £175 for car and two adults. It's an early start, so for an overnight stay in Weymouth, try the Rex Hotel (01305 760400). Condor has a daily service from Poole to St Malo from 19 May to 28 September.
Luxurious liaison
Tom Templeton on Caen
Where to stay: The four-star Chateau D'Audrieu, 14250 Audrieu, Tilly sur Seulles. Brittany Ferries' French Collection (0870 536 0360) has double rooms from £76pp per night, including breakfast and a three-course dinner.
Twenty minutes' drive southwest from Caen, this stunning, tranquil eighteenth-century chateau set among 50 acres of landscaped gardens and sweeping parkland makes you feel you're starring in Dangerous Liaisons . The Louis XV and Louis XVI wainscoting, period fireplaces and furniture contribute to the grandeur of the magnificent ancestral home. Understated service leaves you truly relaxed and free to roam the house and grounds. The best tree house I've ever seen is firmly lodged 40 feet up in a huge copper beech, and even has a bed for children to sleep in. If you're overcome by vertigo, take a nap in your beautiful antique furnished room, with vases of fresh sunflowers, lilies and tulips and only the sound of birdsong floating in the window.
Now you are ready to sample the centrepiece of Audrieu. The popular restaurant serving high-class, innovative cuisine with a £30 four-course set menu and vast wine list, is just a 30-second amble down the wing corridor to the central part of the chateau. I had truffle-oiled foie gras, tender hare fillets, Normandy cheese and a delectably tart rhubarb croquante, accompanied by a silk smooth rust-coloured Burgundy. Fiery local Calvados is the appropriate Norman digestif to be taken in the wood panelled antique laden lounge upstairs. This will hardly leave you room for breakfast, served in silver pots in a second dining room upstairs - but you can swim off your lethargy in the heated outdoor pool, and leave as fresh as the well-pampered daisies strewing the lawn.
Where to eat: The superb chateau restaurant with a vast wine list ranging from £20-£300 per bottle. For a snack in town, head to Creperie Le Suc-Sel on 24, rue du Vaugueux, Caen.
Best buy: Get 33 different kinds of bread and pastries from chocolate shop and baker's Heiz Legrix on 8, Bld des Alliés, Caen. And pick up Piper Heidsieck champagne for £15.29 at the Normandie Wine Warehouse at 12, Quai Charcot, Ouistreham, 14 kilometres north-east of Caen.
Nearby sights: Just a 30-minute drive to Bayeux of tapestry fame. Falaise, where William the Conqueror was born, is to the south.
Way to go: Brittany Ferries (0870 536 0360; ) makes the six hour crossing from Portsmouth three times a day. A five-day return with two adults and a car costs from £156.
Factfile
Car hire: Hertz (0870 848 4848) has a four-day car rental, allowing ferry travel into France from a central London location from £177, including RAC pack (essential insurance for driving in France), unlimited mileage, CDW, theft protection, service charge, road tax and VAT. National Car Rental (0870 600 6666) has six-day car rentals from £214.20 including insurance.
