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Hi all

Traveling  to Calais 14th August 7.40 ferry P.O , Is it worth it calling at one of the supermarkets to stock up on drink and cigs for the holiday or is it not worth it?

If it is, wihich one is the best to go to

Only been to France once so bit of a novice at navigating

all the best Chris

Chris

Its not something I have done on the way out, way back a different matter!!! Would you not be better waiting until you get to your destination? The shop on the ferry will have things at better prices than you will get in the UK. I often buy a box of wine on the ferry which usually lasts us until we can get to a supermarket near our main destination.

David

Quote: Originally posted by chris8 on 06/8/2006

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Hi all

Traveling  to Calais 14th August 7.40 ferry P.O , Is it worth it calling at one of the supermarkets to stock up on drink and cigs for the holiday or is it not worth it?

If it is, wihich one is the best to go to

Only been to France once so bit of a novice at navigating

all the best Chris

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You may well find that drink is cheaper the further away you get from Calais or any port that Brits visit on day trips.  Plus, if you are happy to drink wine from the region you are visiting (if any) then it may be cheaper there.  Certainly a number of wines at the Auchan in Calais are dearer than they are when bought locally and the Auchan tends to be cheaper than the Cite Europe supermarkets - though not by a great deal.

If you have your own containers for wine, why not try try visiting the local 'caves'?   They will let you taste the wine (and often you'll be the only people there so they spend some time with you).  Then you can buy their bottled wine at lower prices than the supermarket, but if you have a container they will often fill it for you for peanuts - and if it's white wine, transfer some to a bottle, cool it and you have a very cheap local drink!  :-)

I've stopped off at a small chateau in the Loire to buy some wine and had a fascinating time as the owner was incredibly friendly and took us into a huge barn and showed us the whole wine-making/bottling process - let us try the wines and was quite happy to fill some empty 2 litre lemonade bottles, straight from the huge stainless steel containers.  I think it was Cheverny ....... anyway, whatever it was it was fantastic and cost very little.

Oozat

Chris - this year we arrived in Calais at 0530 local and then drove to Adinkerke to buy ciggies.  They are much cheaper than UK and France - in fact French customers seem to be as numerous as Brits. 

During the holiday one of the main attractions for me is to try local wines and food in the region.  So I don't go for topping up with booze in calais on way down.  However on the way back it is different.  We left the van at Calais docks, popped over to Adinkerke to buy some more ciggies, then to Sainsburys in Auchan - you get wines, spirits, beers there like you would get in UK but cheaper.  My OH also has a discount card that knocked 15% of the bill - so Sainsbury's Claret (£2.70 - £2.90 a bottle in UK) worked out at about £1.35.  We then went to Carrefour in Cite Europe to top up with some other french wines that you won't get easily in UK, food and diesel before going back to docks, having a bite to eat, hitching up and catching the boat home.

Details of locations and other ideas are on http://www.day-tripper.net/

Hope this helps.