The Baie de Somme in northern France is passed over in our rush to get to more feted destinations, but you suspect the residents would have it no other way. This vast area of salt marsh, water and sky in Picardy is only an hour-and-a-half by car from Calais, but you are probably more likely to see a dodo than a British holidaymaker in the Somme estuary.

The Somme will forever be associated with the bloody battle that took place on the Western Front, some distance inland, in 1916. But this area, where the Somme empties into the Channel, is a very pleasant spot to stop off on your way south, or to spend a few days for its own sake.

This is the landscape of l'oiseau. Human visitors from other countries are comprehensively outnumbered by the feathered variety. On land originally reclaimed for tulip fields lies Le Parc Ornithologique du Marquenterre (tinyurl.com/65dn5us), a park of brackish and freshwater pools that is like a stopover airport for birds travelling from Siberia to Africa.

As I strolled along, a pair of white storks landed by a pool, followed by a slow swirl of tiny downy feathers shed on their descent. A grey crane, with a short beak, a flash of red over its eye and a cheeky demeanour, stood nearby. On the water were little egrets, great crested grebes, great cormorants, teal and 35 sleeping spoonbills.

Because this is proper, unvarnished France, the birds were joined by another species at weekends: hunters. A reassuring 3,000 of the 7,000 hectares that make up the Baie de Somme are nature reserve, but it was still a shock to hear gunshots, and to see gun-toting, dog-handling Frenchmen stalking across the fields in search of, well, pretty much anything that moved.

In Britain, nature reserve cafes serve crisps and cellophane-wrapped flapjack; in France, you're more likely to get a dish of hot roast guinea fowl. My lunch in the visitor centre was andouillette, a slightly sweet smoked pork tripe sausage that would not have been out of place in a high-end restaurant in London.

By 1910, Picardy's hunters had succeeded in wiping out its population of seals. In 1987 however, 12 intrepid common seals moved down from the Netherlands. Now there is a colony of hundreds. I strolled along a shingle bank and gazed through binoculars at these distant lozenges on the sand.

I was staying in a graceful old farmhouse B&B in the village of Arrest, where Stéphanie and Sacha Weber have designed five guestrooms, all large and comfortable with plenty of rough-hewn wood. In the evening, the large kitchen was scented with the bread Stéphanie was cooking for the next day's breakfast.

My first dinner was in pretty St-Valéry-sur-Somme, with its cobbled streets and fine medieval quarter clinging to a river cliff. Le Relais Guillaume de Normandy (+33 3 2260 8236, relaisguillaumedenormandy.akeonet.com), is a gothic pile straight out of a Hitchcock film (The Birds, naturally). I passed on the bird options and started with a rich parcel of langoustines and pig's trotters, turning to the estuary again for my main course, of salt marsh lamb.

The following night, I tried the area's fine seafood, at Les Tourelles (+33 3 2227 1633, lestourelles.com) overlooking the sea in Le Crotoy, tackling a mountainous platter of brown shrimps, winkles and mussels, then a main course of fish tagine.

Between dinners I enjoyed a sweetly trundling trip on a steam train from St Valéry to the coast (+33 3 2226 9696, cfbs.eu). And I had hoped that the Maison de la Baie de Somme et de l'Oiseau (+33 3 2226 9393, maisondeloiseau.com) towards Cayeux-sur-Mer would be an eerie old museum filled with taxidermy. It turned out to be an informative contemporary affair, which had spruced up its massive collection of stuffed birds – and a couple of seals – by placing them in naturalistic tableaus. Children will love this stuff.

There was also a spectacular collection of ducks, including one extinct bird which, the guide informed me, had been temporarily given to the museum for safekeeping by a collector whose wife was divorcing him and who was fearful she would exact some terrible revenge on his priceless collection. The reason for the divorce was not clear – but it can only have been bird-related.

• SeaFrance (0871 22 22 500, seafrance.com) operates up to 15 daily return crossings from Dover to Calais. Fares for a car and up to five passengers start from £25 one way. Doubles at Arrest en Baie (+33 3 2226 1383, arrest-en-baie.com) cost from €49 including breakfast. For more information see baidesomme.fr and promenade-en-baie.com

More holiday route stop-offs in France

Once you're past Paris, five motorways head west and south to the sun. Here's where to stop off en route

Off the A11 … to the Atlantic coast and southern Brittany
Notre-Dame-du-Pé, Pays de la Loire
Fifteen minutes from exit 11 is the peaceful village of Notre-Dame-du-Pé. And just outside it, La Rebouirsière is a beautifully restored stone farmhouse with four bedrooms and a pool with views over the Sarthe countryside.
• lareboursiere.fr.st, doubles from €82, set dinner €28

Off the A10 … towards the south-west coast and Spain
Cangey, the Loire Valley
The Loire is a destination in its own right, but for a stopover, try Château d'Amboise (chateau-amboise.com) which has Leonardo da Vinci's tomb and working models of his inventions. Le Fleuray in Cangey is a comfortable country hotel, 10 minutes from exit 18. It has 20 bedrooms, children are welcome, and there's a heated pool.
• lefleurayhotel.com, doubles from €78, set menu from €29

Off the A20 … towards the Dordogne and the Gers
Thouron, Limousin
Stretch your legs in the rich Limousin forest, easily reachable from exit 26. La Pomme de Pin is a converted watermill with its own lake and wooded gardens, and its main attraction is a rustic restaurant, where the host grills boeuf du Limousin over a wood fire.
• tourismelimousin.com, doubles from €59, set menu from €18

Off the A71 … towards the south coast and Spain
Espinasse-Vozelle, Auvergne
Spend a few hours in the elegant spa resort of Vichy, close to the extinct Auvergne volcanoes. Les Jardins des Thévenets in Espinasse-Vozelle is a converted country house 15 minutes from exit 14 with five beautifully designed bedrooms and a the heated indoor pool made of black Volvic stone.
• jardins-des-thevenets.com, doubles from €80, set menu €32

Off the A6 … towards Provence and the Côte d'Azur
Savigny-les-Beaune, Burgundy
There are plenty of vineyards to visit in southern Burgundy, the most famous being the Château du Clos-Vougeot.Le Hameau de Barboron is a fortified farm set in a 350-hectare hunting reserve full of wild boar and deer, 10 minutes from exit 24. The hotel has 12 luxurious rooms, and offers a four-course cuisine du terroir evening menu.
• hameau-barboron.com, doubles from €110, set menu €38

Mike Abbott