Along the coast: West and South.

If, after Boulogne and Zuydcoote, you take a sudden liking to small French seaside-towns, head West to Cherbourg on the Cotentin peninsula (quite a stretch from Boulogne), then cut through Britanny to Rochefort, in Charente-Maritime (quite another stretch ; for maniacs of geographic precision, Rochefort actually sits five miles from the seashore, on the Charente estuary).

Two cities are twinned in film history, since Jacques Demy made Cherbourg famous for its " parapluies " in 1963, then Rochefort for its " demoiselles " in 1967.

Here, we are back in " auteur " territory, with a twist : both films are musicals from France, but from a different world than " Les Miz ".

" Les Parapluies de Cherbourg " : 1958 : girl -Catherine Deneuve- loves boy ; boy is sent to war in Algeria ; girl is pregnant, marries rich man ; 1962 : boy and girl meet again, with nothing left to sing to each other.

War, love and memory, but far more palatable than in Boulogne, Hiroshima or Nevers.

Overrated, at times ridiculous,fully-sung film does not get nearly as much on your nerves as it should. Catherine Deneuve is a constant joy to the eye, if not to the ear : her voice was dubbed by Danièle Liccari.

Four years later, same players -Demy, Legrand for the score, Deneuve for the lead- shoot again, in Rochefort : during the city commercial fair, twin sisters Delphine and Solange sing, dance and love ; their mother, too.

Catherine Deneuve stars with older sister Françoise Dorléac, a pepsy beauty of slightly lesser magnitude ; Gene Kelly and George Chakiris stop by, their help is most welcome..

You still will not hear Catherine Deneuve sing : she is dubbed (snubbed ?) again, by Anne Germain.

For nostalgia sake : " Les demoiselles ont eu 25 ans " (1966-1992). Twenty five years later, Rochefort pays tribute to its " demoiselles " ; Agnès Varda, Demy's wife (director died in 1990), mixes the anniversary celebrations with documentary footage shot during the making of the original film.

A sobering note : today, Cherbourg is famous for its nuclear waste management factory ; city features proeminently in newsreels of Greenpeace demonstrations.

A hopeful note : Rochefort headquarters Conservatoire du littoral, a public body which acquires stretches of French coastline (over eight hundred kilometers so far) for preservation purposes.