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Have just got back from France having bought Eileen a couple of nights away plus some spending money so stayed on the outskirts of Calais and toddled about and did loads of shopping and whilst doing so observed the following (in no particular order)....
- in any shopping mall there were lots of people shopping, no groups of teenagers, no pushing and shoving, no arguing.
- everyone who served us, anywhere, were French..bars, cafes, till girls etc. Anyone who served us going to and from home on this side of the water were of foreign origin (no prejudice merely an observation).
- cost of a night in a hotel, double room, breakfast, 2 evening meals, bottle of wine, drinks at the bar....100 euros
- brought back 6 cases of wine Chenet Merlot - bog standard middle if the road stuff - total cost 56 euros - just over a pound a bottle.
Drove to Dunkirk for a nose around, roads deserted but more importantly there were a crew putting out cones to block a lane off - same sort of vehicle as ours - one with the big flashing lights on - speed restrictions ? NIL. Asked the waiter pourqoui and he said "How old are you"? I lied lol. He said if a 50 year old man doesn't realise that big flashing lights means slow down then something is wrong......grown up thinking eh?
Finally everywhere we went we were served in a manner that oozed care and attention, not get in get out that is so often the case here.
On the other side.....
It was jolly chilly in Calais and even colder in Dunkirk but the whole of France seems to think that cold weather is a complete surprise and it was difficult to identify the sex of some people they had so many clothes on. Suspect they wouldn't do very well down Whitley Bay on a Saturday night.
None of the flyers Eileen and I picked up had English in them - German, Spanish, Italian yes but nowt for us, even though 4 couples in our hotel were English.
God that western European plain is boring, flat, featureless, all the same. No wonder so many souls were lost defending / attacking it in the World Wars.
Oh and there were no coins beachcombing on the beach at Calais. Suspect the Sangatte lot have got them all lol
- in any shopping mall there were lots of people shopping, no groups of teenagers, no pushing and shoving, no arguing.
- everyone who served us, anywhere, were French..bars, cafes, till girls etc. Anyone who served us going to and from home on this side of the water were of foreign origin (no prejudice merely an observation).
- cost of a night in a hotel, double room, breakfast, 2 evening meals, bottle of wine, drinks at the bar....100 euros
- brought back 6 cases of wine Chenet Merlot - bog standard middle if the road stuff - total cost 56 euros - just over a pound a bottle.
Drove to Dunkirk for a nose around, roads deserted but more importantly there were a crew putting out cones to block a lane off - same sort of vehicle as ours - one with the big flashing lights on - speed restrictions ? NIL. Asked the waiter pourqoui and he said "How old are you"? I lied lol. He said if a 50 year old man doesn't realise that big flashing lights means slow down then something is wrong......grown up thinking eh?
Finally everywhere we went we were served in a manner that oozed care and attention, not get in get out that is so often the case here.
On the other side.....
It was jolly chilly in Calais and even colder in Dunkirk but the whole of France seems to think that cold weather is a complete surprise and it was difficult to identify the sex of some people they had so many clothes on. Suspect they wouldn't do very well down Whitley Bay on a Saturday night.
None of the flyers Eileen and I picked up had English in them - German, Spanish, Italian yes but nowt for us, even though 4 couples in our hotel were English.
God that western European plain is boring, flat, featureless, all the same. No wonder so many souls were lost defending / attacking it in the World Wars.
Oh and there were no coins beachcombing on the beach at Calais. Suspect the Sangatte lot have got them all lol
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