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The properties offered by this 22-year-old UK company range from modern apartments to stone or timbered cottages, mostly French-owned.

In this friendly tourist hotel, you can choose between a room with shower and WC, shower only, or just a washbasin. Though basic, bedrooms are prettily decorated, with pine furniture. Rue des Carmes is a busy central shopping street between the Palais des Congrès and Palais de Justice, close to the cathedral.

A tall factory chimney proclaims the utilitarian past of this converted mill. Locals dine here on special occasions; travellers will find five neat bedrooms, with floral bedcovers, modern wall lights and the odd beam.

Like most houses in Servon, the front of this former presbytery looks onto the village, the back over open countryside. Three bedrooms share the main building with the excellent restaurant; the rest are in the former schoolhouse next door. Mont-St-Michel is a scant half-hour away.

The 15th-century auberge is one of a handful of hotels at the foot of Mont St-Michel and close to the causeway (useful, since all cars have to be left outside its walls). There is a large, busy restaurant at street level, while on the first floor, a pleasantly rustic calm takes over.

As a sideline to their main business, Brittany Ferries arranges self-catering accommodation in a selection of gîtes . Although they can’t match the choice offered by some of the specialist companies, deals combining ferry travel and accommodation are certainly worth investigating.

Hard to believe, but this peaceful campsite tucked away on an island is only a short drive from Dieppe. There are plenty of indoor amusements, but with the Arques Forest, Varenne R iver and a lake on the doorstep, this is really a place for outdoor types.