If Bognor Regis isn't your thing like it appears that it wasn't for George the Fifth, then, like me, you could head to the continent without needing to put thousands of feet between you and the planet.

I should get to Bognor Regis. Never been. I see that it's on the coast so that's good. I love coastal Great British places from Broadstairs to Blackpool. I love chips and donuts and most of them do a fine service in both.

My favourite jaunts of the last few years have been to the Normandy coastline where the D-Day beaches are. They run from the west of Caen. I love the town of Arromanches-les-Bains. I am a keen history fan relating to the events that culminated in the invasion that was code named Operation Overload.

D-Day is J-Jour in French. I never knew that growing up and it still makes me half smile. Especially when I say it in my ?Allo ?Allo style of French accent. "Good Moaning".

The trip by train from Forest Hill to the southern coast and then aboard the overnight ferry are the slow way to go. And you can feel like you've started your journey as you soon as you board the train at platform 2. I don't get this feeling usually when I used to fly.

Ah, the cabins on the ferry. Please indulge me this moment of reverie for just a minute more. The cabins with your own shower and dunny (a great Australian term?). Then falling asleep on the gently rocking ship. After a dawn breakfast we slide into the French dock and then it's on my pushbike to ride along the coastline. And then a night in a little Norman B&B at Arromanches-les-Bains. Drinking local wine while gazing across the channel to some islands that William the Conquerer would come to call his own by the time 1066 had come to an end.

It still amazes me as someone that grew up on the far side of the world that all this difference (the food, the drink, the language) is only just over there (waving my hand towards the south).

This weekend relaxing away can be done cheaply. Around ?100, if you book ahead, including all transport and accommodation costs.

Could anyone else pass on their hot tips of trips sans plane?