One of the best ways to see New England's autumnal colour is to drive along the coast, says KATHY ARNOLD

IT HAS to be one of the best free shows on Earth. From mid-September to mid-October every year, a patchwork of fiery colour spreads across millions of New England's trees, creating a vibrant display of red, gold, orange and purple.

One of the best ways to see what Americans call the Fall Foliage is on a driving tour of Maine. The largest of the region's states, it is bigger than Scotland with 3,500 miles of Atlantic coastline.

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After a drive north from Boston, we follow a superb lobster dinner with a stay at The Inn On Peaks Island. A 15-minute ferry ride from Maine's largest city, Portland, it is an atmospheric B&B, where rooms feature large four-posters and bold splashes of colour.

My husband Paul and I spend the next day exploring Portland, regularly named one of America's most livable cities. In the revitalised harbour area, we stroll along the cobbled streets where 19th-century brick warehouses are now home to stylish boutiques, galleries and pubs.

Up a small hill is the Portland Museum of Art where we bypass familiar names such as Picasso and Renoir to admire paintings by major American artists Winslow Homer and George Bellows. Inspired by Maine's fishermen, boats and islands, their works are both romantic and down-to-earth, just like the state itself.

We leave Portland on I-295, before turning on to Route 1, the old coastal road, stopping in small places such as the pretty village of Wiscasset, crammed with antique shops and galleries, along the way.

In contrast to its namesake back home, Newcastle is a modest waterside hamlet. Lining the road as we drive, scarlet maples stand out against dark green pines. Country lanes lead down to promontories that extend like bony fingers into the Atlantic.

Many visitors head for Boothbay Harbor, which hosts a Fall Foliage Festival every October.

Instead we take Route 130 to the less visited Pemaquid Point, where the white-painted, 170-year-old lighthouse stands high on a granite ledge.

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We continue further north to Rockland, where an oversized statue of a lobster is a clue to the town's annual festival. Every August, visitors scoff 20,000lbs of crustacean in five days.

For the rest of the year, the attractions suit culture vultures and transport enthusiasts alike.

There is the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Owls Head Transportation Museum, where most of the vintage cars and planes, including a 1923 Fokker complete with wicker passenger seats, are still in working order, Finally, we reach Camden, rated one of New England's top towns for Fall foliage. Here the flame-coloured hills slope dramatically to the sailboat-filled harbour on Penobscot Bay.

It was love at first sight for me 15 years ago and I am still smitten by the scenery, not to mention the boutiques and clapboard inns.

On our last visit, while I hiked to the top of 800ft Mount Battie, my husband took a relaxing cruise round the bay on a wooden-hulled schooner. Both provide splendid views of the shimmering autumn colour. This time we want to see the vista from a new observatory at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, an hour up the road. As the lift door opens, we gasp.

Through floor-to-ceiling glass, 437ft above the river, the panorama stretches 40 miles in all directions. Under a deep blue sky, the tapestry of Fall colour seems endless.

Below us is Fort Knox. "Not the gold bullion one but the one built in 1844 to protect us from the British Navy!" we are told.
No Maine visit is complete without a stop in Freeport, one of New England's best shopping destinations. On our way back to Boston, we take a break in this village, where many houses are, in fact, designer outlet stores.

The grand-daddy is L L Bean, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, catering to huntin', shootin' and fishin' types since 1912. My bargain comes from The North Face outlet, a £95 jacket reduced to £21.

To celebrate, we drive to South Freeport harbour and the Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster Company, where we sit at a wooden picnic table and munch on their renowned lobster rolls.

Freshly boiled lobster and the smell of the sea. This is what Maine is all about and what makes us return, time after time.

THE KNOWLEDGE:
America As You Like It (0208 742 8299/www.americaasyoulikeit.com) offers seven nights fly-drive from £599pp for Sept and Oct departures.

Price includes return flights from Heathrow to Boston and car hire.

American Airlines (0844 499 7300/www.aa.com) offers return flights from Heathrow to Boston from £361 (Sept 7-Oct 31).

The Chadwick in Portland (dialling from UK: 001 207 774 5141/www.thechadwick.com) offers doubles from £63 per night (two sharing), B&B.

The Inn On Peaks Island (766 5100/www.innonpeaks.com) offers doubles from £88 per night (two sharing), room only.

The Inns at Blackberry Common in Camden (236 6060/www.blackberryinn.com) offers doubles from £82 per night (two sharing), B&B.

Discover New England: 0208 237 7977/ www.discovernewengland.co.uk