Calais booze cruise

[Brooks]

Anyone been over to Calais to shop for wine before? I'm sure it's a bit old hat nowadays but nevertheless any recommendations on where to go? Doing a pre Xmas stock up / get away for the day. Merci

[ed_pete]

It used to be the case that you could order your wine from tesco Calais online then when you got there they'd already have it ready for you to load into your car.

[Tradesman32]

All you need to do is drive through Calais to the outskirts and you will see plenty of signs for Wine Warehouses. However, I would recommend driving as far south as you can because the prices and the wine available changes dramatically. If you manage to drive 4 - 5 hours south for instance you could get to Nante (loire region), I would recommend going to the hyper markets for Red wine and then to local vineyards for white ( muscadet). In my opinion you will enjoy your trip alot more if you stay over a night and enjoy some regional french hospitality.

[Brooks]

Great thank you both. We are staying over night about 2 hours south of Calais so will see if we can carry on a little further to check out the local vineyards.

[rodneybewes]

If you want something less hectic than the massive hypermarkets then Franglais is pretty good. It's less than 10 mins out of Calais from the ferry, you can park right outside the front door and walk in to pick your stuff. It's sat by itself amongst some fields. I got a few crates of decent stuff from there and about 12 crates of cava that tastes like the ?8 stuff over here but in bulk it was about ?2.50. This was 2 years ago.

http://www.wine-calais.co.uk/content/9-how-to-find-us

As you drive along the motorway you can see it on your left - Franglais in 6 foot letters on the side of the building.

[Otta]

This reminds me of about 2002, when a former CPT Legend came back from Calais with anough booze to fill his kitchen floor to ceiling.

The resulting party ended up with him receiving an ASBO.

Happy days

[PennyDreadful]

Another great, authentic, non-hypermarket place in Calais itself is Le Bar a Vins, 52 Place d'Armes, Calais 62610. Very near the main ferry terminal, but completely 'old worldy' and lovely. Don't think there's a website, but you can phone proprietor Luc (who can speak English) on: 0033 (0)321 96 96 31. I've been to two weddings where all the wine and fizz came from there at bargain prices and was delicious! Think it's closed on Wednesdays. More info here: http://www.calais-guide.co.uk/wine-and-beer-outlets/bar-a-vins.html

[Brooks]

Excellent, thanks everyone.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Auchan for big hyper-market cheap wine and beer, plus better veg than you ever get in a UK supermarket.

For lunch try the Hotel des Dunes in Bleriot Plage. Proper French restaurant, attracts few Brits but easy to find.

Nausicaa in Boulogne is fun and bizarrely, The Welsh Pub in central Boulogne is a nice caf?, bar and restaurant serving French food, rather than the crap that is produced for Brit day trippers in many places.

[womanofdulwich]

Used to take the car and four passengers for ?5 return a long time ago, I seem to remember I had to buy the Sun every day for a week though...