Quick - onto a ferry before your conscience catches up. You know what it will say. It’s been holding you back since the house price halved.

So, kick it in the head, leave it for dead and break free. Not far, of course. Just a flip across the Channel for a few days of loping around the French landscape, lingering over lunch and listening to a loved one, not Robert Peston. It will be just like the good old days of 2007.

And when, on your return, the conscience resurfaces, you may tell it that indeed you’re feeling bad, but feeling good about it. Here, then, are our suggestions for three refreshing spring drives in France, starting in the far north .

DUNKIRK-CALAIS

The smart guide to Normandy

Francophile Anthony Peregrine's six favourite regions - here he plots a perfect break in Normandy

Undiscovered France: Poitiers

Poitiers is a treasure trove that's uninvaded by the hordes. Anthony Peregrine has the lowdown

• France's secret Loir (the one without the e)

Beziers: gateway to the real France

Not prettified, not twee: for a dramatic drive into the authentic Midi, make for Beziers

• Hamming it up in Bayonne

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Received wisdom has it that the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region is a blighted industrial wasteland fuelled by beer and barbarism. Received wisdom is wrong, except about the beer. Out of Dunkirk to Bergues, an unassuming spot of ramparts, gardens and waterways, until consumed by national celebrity last year.

Its starring role in the most successful French film ever, Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis, thrust it backwards into the limelight. Get the story from the tourist office beneath the grand civic belfry, then cross the square for a Ch’ti beer (Ch’ti means “northerner”) and a fricadelle sausage from the chip shop. Don’t ask what’s in it. You don’t want to know.

South to Cassel, the warm heart of French Flanders, with stepped gables, greensward and a certain underlying truculence. Study the flags and emblems. A Flemish lion with black (rather than red) claws and tongue indicates the presence of Flemish extremists, with whom it’s unwise to tangle.

On to St -Omer, a bright and settled spot with prosperous perspectives down venerable streets. Ignore the famous Sandelin Museum - great building, but boring as hell unless you like pottery and coins - for the gothic cathedral and, just out of town, La Coupole, a former V2 base, now a first-rate war museum .

Overnight and dine in Gosnay, at the stately Chartreuse du Val St-Esprit (00 33-3 21 62 80 00, lachartreuse.com; doubles from £127). Stirrings of conscience may be silenced next morning, by payment of respects to the great war, first at Notre Dame de Lorette , France’s biggest first world war cemetery , and later at Vimy Ridge.

Here, the Canadian role in the unpleasantness is commemorated on an engrossing and sombre scale. You will be moved, all being well, to silence.

East to Douai , for France’s finest belfry sticking out of a grandiose town hall, and then to Lewarde for the superb mining museum . Miss this and you’ll never know where the north comes from or how far it has travelled. Later to the Ferme de la Sensée at Gouysous-Bellone (5 Rue de l’Eglise; 03 21 50 21 68, fermedelasensee.com; B&B doubles from £64) to rest the spirit amid horses, birdsong and home cooking.

West to Arras, where Flemish textile traders could still be issuing forth from the fabulous, crow-stepped frontages to mingle with caf e society in the main squares. Opened last year just off-centre, the Wellington quarry site - adapted by Kiwi tunnellers in 1917 for underground attack purposes - is an enthralling visit.

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