Day Trip to France

Yesterday Mr C and I plus our best man and bridesmaid took off for France for the day. For the princely sum of £45/$71 we were able to take the Eurotunnel to Calais and spend several hours at Cite Europe shopping mall.

They arrived on Friday evening and we cooked them a roast dinner (Mr C prepared the potatoes and vegetables) plus enjoying lots of alcohol before heading to bed for a few hours. Yesterday our best man returned the favour with a lovely cooked breakfast before we left for the coast. At the terminal in Folkestone we were held for 10 minutes at check in before the ticket was issued, due to the number of people in the terminal.

Then we sat and waited for another hour or more in the car park while the delays abated. What had started out as a 90 minute delay this side and a 60 minute delay in France eventually ended up being a 30 minute delay in the UK and none at all in France. No idea why the services were delayed but it may have been down to an incident such as migrants on the track or similar issues.

On arrival in France we headed straight for the brasserie where we usually eat. Le Capuccino is an informal waiter service restaurant which offers an array of freshly made hot food for reasonable prices. The bruschettas start from under €9/$10.25, while a Welsh (toast, cheese, egg, bacon, fries) is around €13/$15 and a home made beef burger on house baked bread with fries and salad is €17/19.

After that we split up for an hour. My bridesmaid and I went into the nearby C&A clothes store, where she received a text from her friend back here asking her to look for 'a French national football team trackie top, cheap'. We headed up the mall to a sports store, but of course, could only find rugby tops. Until we happened on a small row of football kit hiding in a corner, that is. However, she decided that €60/$70 for a trackie top was not cheap, so he will have to do without.

We met up again to go round the hypermarche (think something like Tesco Extra in the UK or Wal-mart stateside) . Between the wine, biscuits, cheese, sweets, meat, teabags and one stray bottle of whisky (how did THAT get in there, Chazer?!) we spent €190/$216 which just shows that wine in France is reasonably priced. We estimate that we're paying in Euros what we would pay in GBP, but the Euro is presently 72p/$1.14 so everything is a quarter cheaper. And the boxes (casks) of wine are bigger - 5 litres instead of 2.25 litres that we get here. So we have two dozen bottles of wine, at least half a dozen 5 litre casks and some biscuits to keep our respective colleagues happy. Plus 2kg of shredded Emmental for pizzas for the next few months, some lardons for our pasta mixes and the inevitable boxes of teabags for my eBay listings.

We were waved straight through customs and passport checks and onto the train home in around 15 minutes. No waiting. The train then left early, almost as if to make up for the delays on the outward leg. On arrival in the UK even the roads played ball and we were home just after 11pm. Our friends took off for their place, although our bridesmaid didn't get to see her friend who wanted the trackie top as she was too tired when she finally arrived back.

If we hadn't had the delays this end going out, she might have managed to see him last night as well as fitting in the French trip. As it was, we only had to hear about him and his troubles all day. Still, at least we succeeded in dragging her away from her exam revision and job hunting for a day, which is a minor miracle.

wordchazers-words travel daytrip

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