Dunkirk, France

Less reliant than either Boulogne or Calais on the cross-channel ferry trade, DUNKERQUE is the liveliest of the three big Channel ports, a university town with fewer empty shops than central Calais and busy streets that out– bustle modest Boulogne. It has an appealing, boat-filled inner harbour, the Bassin du Commerce, and an attractive beachfront suburb, Malo-les-Bains, from whose vast sandy beach the evacuation of Allied troops took place in 1940. It remains France's third largest port and a massive industrial centre, its oil refineries and steelworks producing a quarter of the total French output. Devastated during World War II, Dunkerque is not exactly beautiful; although its postwar rebuild was more ambitious and stylish than those of Calais or Boulogne, these days its 1950s architecture could do with a good scrub.