Calais, France

CALAIS is less than 40km from Dover – the Channel's shortest crossing – and is by far the busiest French passenger port. The port, petrochemical industries and out-of-town shopping dominate the place; in fact, there's not much else here. In World War II the British destroyed it to prevent it being used as a base for a German invasion, but the French still refer to it as "the most English town in France", an influence that began after the battle of Crécy in 1346, when Edward III seized it for use as a beachhead in the Hundred Years War. It remained in English hands for over two hundred years until 1558, when its loss caused Mary Tudor famously to say: "When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying in my heart." The association has been maintained by various Brits across the centuries: Lady Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson's mistress; Nottingham lacemakers who set up business in the early nineteenth century; and, nowadays, nine million British travellers per year, plus another million-odd day-trippers. One dispiriting side-effect of globalisation and conflict is the sight of miserable-looking would-be migrants roaming the town aimlessly, or huddled under blankets in the neatly manicured parks.