Hi all,

Well what a great day out that was. I was REALLY impressed with the Eurotunnel. Having only ever done the Eurostar it was a great experience and just so easy to do. It was not a day for being on a ferry!

We decided to head down the coast and stopped in to Wimereux, Boulogne, Cecile and then Le Touqet. Our intention was to take a nice long beach walk. However that was soon ruled out as the wind was ferocious and we would have been sand blasted by the sand being whipped up off the beach. Shame as apart from that it was a gorgeous blue sky day.

Le Touqet was pretty and definitely somewhere I want to go back to. All of the towns we visited were very quiet due to being out of season and many of the shops were closed. Not sure if this was due to a long lunch break, Wednesday early closing or just gone home for the winter? However it was nice to just park easily, stroll around and take in the sights.

We then headed back up to Calais and got dinner, Moules Mariniere, Mmm. We went on a recommendation. The restaurant is in the central square in Calais and has large red letter signage above it. Easy to spot but can't remember the name. It was packed with locals which was a good sign.

We then headed to Cite Europe. Bit underwhelming but ok for an hour. We then grabbed a few boxes of wine in Carrefour. I wasn't sure what would be a good buy but another Brit was there buying trolleys of wine and said anything with the Hatchett Wine Guide recommendation as a card sleeve over the bottle neck would be good. So I picked up some Cote du rhone at 4.50 Euro each to try.

Back to the Eurotunnel with an hour to spare and found them selling my favourite Boston Sam Adams beer for 1 Euro a bottle so that was a great way to get rid of the last 14 Euro I had. Strangely enough I ended up having enough to buy 17 bottles so not quite sure how the till worked that one out by I wasn't complaining.

Left South London at 0715 and got home at 2245. A great day out and will look to do some more trips next spring. I will put Bruge and Lille on the to do list but I think the next trip will be to visit my Great Grandfathers war grave with my Dad which is located just North West of Arras so we will probably go in to Arras for the afternoon after we have been to the grave.

Thanks all for the tips.

Aerotec