Experience the best of Arras

Arras sits in the chalk country of Artois, in northern France, and has been a centre of trade and cloth since the Middle Ages, when its woven hangings were so celebrated that the word arras came to mean a wall hanging in English. The Grand'Place and the Place des Héros, two linked squares, are lined with arcades and tall gabled houses in the Flemish Baroque style, rebuilt faithfully after the First World War.

The belfry, beside the town hall, is listed by UNESCO and rises above the roofs; the climb up gives views over the squares. Beneath the town, the boves, a network of old chalk quarries and tunnels, were used before the Battle of Arras in 1917, when New Zealand tunnellers prepared an underground route to the front in the Wellington Quarry, now a museum. Vauban's star-shaped citadel stands at the edge of town, while the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge and the vast French military cemetery at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette lie to the north.

Local tables offer andouillette, a tripe sausage, with strong washed-rind Maroilles cheese, hearty stews and the beers of the north. The mood is quiet and a little formal, the weather mild and often grey, and the squares are at their best on a bright day in summer.