Flanked by limestone headlands at the eastern end of the Côte d’Albâtre, Dieppe is France’s oldest seaside resort and a busy ferry and fishing port. The pebble beach is less of an attraction these days, but the town makes a base for local excursions and is well-endowed with hotels and excellent fish restaurants.

There is always plenty of action in the morning fish market, glittering with a profusion of bream, sole, turbot and scallops. The main shopping street is Grande Rue, south of which the 13th-16thC Eglise Saint-Jacques (a popular subject of Pissarro) shows its age, amidst a posse of slathering gargoyles and chapels built by various Dieppois shipping magnates.

Head west through the dark, narrow 18thC streets or along the promenade to the stalwart 15thC château, perched on the hillside. It houses the Musée de Dieppe with local history and crafts exhibits, fine arts and a selection of prints, which are displayed in rotation, but the pièce de résistance is a superb collection of 16th-19thC carved ivories for which the town’s craftsmen were justly famed.

There is plenty to see and do around Dieppe, which has public transport connections to Rouen, and Varengeville. Guy de Maupassant, creator of the perfectly-turned short story, was born in the elegant 17th-l8thC Château de Miromesnil (8 km S via N27, v2.chateaumiromesnil.com) with a lovely walled garden.

Shopping: Olivier, 18 rue Saint-Jacques, is a tempting town centre delicatessen; and there is a Auchan hypermarket on the N27, or a Leclerc at Neuville-les-Dieppe.