An unexpected and largely untranslatable hit among French cinemagoers this year has been Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, the tale of an unfortunate postoffice worker from Provence sent as punishment by his employers into exile in the north of the country.

The Ch’tis of the title are the locals (it comes from Ch’timi, their dialect) and the central conceit is part of national folklore: the area beyond Paris is a no-go area full of unemployed, hard-drinking rednecks with incomprehensible accents.

Needless to say, our hero eventually warms to his new home, providing the kind of feelgood ending that has made the film the biggest home-grown hit in French cinema history and prompted Will Smith to plan his own version, set in small-town America.

Along the way, however, there is plenty of time for the the usual clichés of driving rain, abandoned coal mines and strange food - including a local cheese so smelly, it has to be neutralised by dunking in coffee.

Such preconceptions also inform the property-buying habits of the French, says Patricia Hawkes, who has been selling chateaux and other top-end homes across the country for more than 30 years.

“I have plenty of attractive properties in the north, but nobody from outside the area would ever think of buying one,” she says. “It seems French people will live only in or south of the place they were born. It’s as if gravity is pulling them downwards.”

Yet, while the French turn up their noses at Nord-Pas de Calais and Picardie, they hold charms for British buyers (and the Dutch and Belgians, too). Rather than heading straight down the autoroute to the Dordogne or the Côte d’Azur, an enterprising few are pausing to take a look around after emerging from the tunnel or off the ferry.

The weather may be much the same as on the other side of the Channel, but the food and wine are better, and property prices much lower than in southern England or the south of France.

Barring the odd blockade by angry French trawlermen, journey times from London and the southeast can be faster than to Devon or Cornwall. Calais is less than an hour by Eurostar from St Pancras.

For Andrew Prentis, 49, a vet from Clapham, southwest London, and his wife, Nilu, it was the proximity to Britain that attracted them to Hardelot-Plage, a relaxed resort of American-style villas and manicured lawns 10 miles south of Boulogne.

Four years ago, after several holidays spent looking for property from Carcassonne to the Alps, they stopped off on the way home to stay with friends who had bought in the town. They were seduced by its charms and, within weeks, had paid £200,000 for a modern three-bed house with a decent garden.

“We looked at a number of areas, but were put off by the distance and realised we would only go there two or three times a year,” Prentis says. “But when Nilu is here with the children in summer, I can get up at a normal time, have breakfast, get the 9.30 train from Calais and be in the office by 10 o’clock - English time.”

Nor is ease of access all that Hardelot - which was largely the creation of Sir John Whitley, an enterprising Yorkshireman who took a fancy to the area at the start of the last century - has going for it. The town has great riding, with prices substantially lower than in Britain, as well as two championship golf courses, forests to run and walk in, and 12 miles of sandy beach with sailing, wind- and kitesurfing and sand-yachting. “It’s not quite how you imagine a typical French home, sitting around drinking wine with the crickets chirping,” Prentis says. “But it’s a pleasant place that’s peaceful and calm, with lots of outdoor activities. And it is a realistic weekend destination.”

Whitley’s model for Hardelot was Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, a stylish resort 15 miles further down the coast (described, not entirely improbably, by one guidebook as “a kind of French Hollywood on the Channel coast”). Carved out of wild sand dunes and forests in the 1870s, it became a fashionable resort in the first part of the 20th century for Britons as well as Parisians, who stayed in the grandiose villas hidden away in the woods or at the grand Westminster hotel. Noël Coward and PG Wodehouse were frequent visitors.

After several decades in the doldrums, Le Touquet is flourishing again. Property is not cheap: you could easily pay £1m for a villa with land and sea views. The local Agence Bergounioux has more modest houses for far less than that, as well as flats for £200,000 and 30-square-metre studios with separate kitchens for about £100,000. Prices elsewhere on the coast are substantially lower, although some resorts, such as Berck-Plage or Fort-Mahon-Plage, have been spoilt by the soulless tower blocks along the seafront.

There are some gems, however, especially the little fishing village of Le Crotoy, a yachties’ favourite on the Baie de Somme. It is known to generations of French schoolchildren as the place where the perfidious English captured Joan of Arc in 1430. Less controversially, Jules Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues under the Sea here. It has the shabby-chic feel of Whitstable, in Kent, or Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

“It’s like England was a decade or so ago,” says Pippa Darbyshire, 57, an artist who moved from Felixstowe, in Suffolk, to Noyelles-sur-Mer, a few miles from Le Crotoy, eight years ago, drawn by the beauty of the bay. For £40,000 - “the price of a beach hut in Aldeburgh” - she and her husband, Peter Cooke, 56, bought a largely derelict cafe with two floors of accommodation above in the middle of the town. Her original aim was merely to paint, “but one day the mayor came round and asked us when we were going to open the cafe”. They felt they had to oblige - but customers can view her work in a nearby gallery.

Tiny, traditional two-bed fishermen’s cottages in Le Crotoy can be bought for £130,000 - but a large, luxury new-build flat with views will cost much as £400,000. Agents Alix Immobilier and Lamy Immobilier (00 33 3 22 19 08 01, www.lamyimmobilier.com ) both have a wide selection of property in the town and beyond.

Prices drop substantially inland: for £150,000-£200,000 it is possible to pick up a restored fermette (small farmhouse) set in 1,000 square metres or more. Those with larger budgets might consider a chateau - of which this part of France boasts a considerable number. Hawkes has two on her books: the Manoir de la Besvre, a splendid turreted affair in Witternesse, 40 miles southeast of Calais, for £1.07m, and Château de Bagatelle on the outskirts of Abbeville, 45 miles south of Boulogne, which was built by a Dutch industrialist in the 18th century and has been lovingly restored over the past few years by its current owner. It is on sale for £1.98m (see panel).

“I took a couple of Americans to see Bagatelle last week,” Hawkes says. “Everyone is always saying that Abbeville is flat and ravaged by war, and that there is nothing there, but when I drove into the town, they were entranced. There are flowers everywhere, it’s all beautifully designed and laid out, and it was full of people sitting outside at pavement cafes.”

In other words, as the hero of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis discovered, the north is the kind of place that makes visitors - French and British alike - cast aside their prejudices.

The Prentis’s house can be rented via www.houseinhardelot.com

Channel hopping

A one-bedroom farmhouse with a store room, garage and 600-square-metre garden in a village near Montreuil-sur-Mer, just 10 minutes from the sea. For sale for £96,600, through Latitudes; 020 8951 5155, www.latitudes.co.uk

A renovated one-bedroom fisherman’s cottage in Le Crotoy, near the centre of town and the beach. It has a terrace, garage and small garden. For sale for £152,100 through Alix Immobilier; 00 333 22 27 87 09, www.alix-immobilier.com

A four-bed, architect-designed villa in Le Touquet, a few minutes from the sea. It has a garage for three cars and a southwest-facing garden. For sale for £1m with Agence Bergounioux; 00 33 3 21 05 81 00, www.bergounioux.com

Château de Bagatelle, a mid-18th century property on the outskirts of Abbeville, 45 miles south of Boulogne. It is for sale for £1.98m, through Philip Hawkes; 00 33 1 42 68 11 11, www.philiphawkes.com

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