Can't comment on Bethune per se but my parents have a house in a tiny village called Bois Jean, is in the Pas De Calais region. So I know the region very well, having been going there at least once a year for, ooh, about 15 years.


If the weather's good – and it should be in late June/July – I can recommend going to the coast. Le Touquet is quite touristy, but a great place to spend an afternoon sitting in a bar eating a plate of moules frites and drinking a cold beer.

They often have free music in the summer, quite often blues and jazz.

Not much use to you if you don't have a hire car of course...

I'd suggest having a look at the listings magazine for the area, which is called OuQuandQuoi a bit nearer the time...

http://www.oukankoi.fr/

There's also opalenews, which is probably more useful as a website, as you can search specifically for events relevant to Bethune:

http://www.opalenews.com/recherche?req=bethune&page=1

I did once go to a folk-dance night in Etaples, which was interesting from a music point of view, but me and my girlfriend did feel a bit left out. Everyone there clearly knew each other very well and the dance-calling instructions were a bit too rapid, even for my pretty good French.