Bray-Dunes weekend 2-night beach-chic B&B nr Dunkirk film set

There’s a lovely expression the French use to describe waterfront properties – ‘pieds dans l’eau’ (‘feet in the water!’), and Villa Samoa B&B is almost that, at only 300 metres from the beach and dunes. Whitewashed, wooden-floored, spacious and light-filled, the chicness of your bedroom (‘Le Courlis Cendré’) is in its simplicity – pure zen coastal style – with a lovely bathroom and huge walk-in shower too.

A bountiful boulangerie breakfast is a true highlight of your Bray-Dunes weekend, with owner Anne-Stéphanie at hand to enthusiastically give you the local’s lowdown on everything you could possibly need to know to make the most of this romantic and surprising part of the Northern France coast.

The quiet, expansive beaches are one thing on your Bray-Dunes weekend, but the beaches here are more than just romantic, they’ve the added dimension of being historically captivating too. Our top tip is to watch, before you come, Christopher Nolan’s epic film ‘Dunkirk’, depicting the dramatic and heroic allied evacuation of 1940, providing much context – and frisson - when you find the shipwreck of the Golden Crest at low-tide in Zuydcoote, the mysterious mirrored bunker at Leffrinckoucke or the enlightening displays at the fantastic Musée-1940-Operation-Dynamo museum in Dunkirk. Cycle there along the dunes, identify Malo-les-Bains’ iconic villas from the opening sequence of the film, then find that extra special something to eat (Moules-Frites?) on the restaurant-lined promenade or on board the Princess Elizabeth restaurant-boat – historically charged since it was one of the Little Ships that came to the rescue of Allied soldiers in 1940. Take it from us, your Bray-Dunes weekend will stir your emotions in more ways than one!