The Day Trip to Calais:

Clifford Mould shows you where to buy wine and eat out
Updated 30 May 2000

Pictures of dishes were taken at La Sole Meunière, see below

Duty free shopping is no longer available between countries of the EU, but that hasn't stopped the hordes of people, mainly from the South East counties of England from making daily dashes across the channel to stock up on wine, beer and other French goodies. Even the so-called "beef war" between the two countries has not discouraged the drinkers amongst us from wanting to get a bargain. I asked one lady shopper with a trolly groaning under the weight of cases of wine how she felt about buying French produce when they were boycotting our beef. "No problem", she replied "this is a British store" (we were in Eastenders) "and most of this is new world wine"!

I've been doing the Channel dash four or five times a year ever since 1992 when it became legal to import goods bought tax paid into Britain from another EU country. The goods must be for your own consumption, or for that of your guests, but there were some suspiciously large vans parked outside the Eastenders warehouse in Calais. Eastenders is run by Dave West, a remarkable Cockney market trader whom the London wine trade loves to hate. By now the trade has a somewhat grudging admiration for his success.

Eastenders warehouse has gone a bit upmarket during the past year, with Rhone wines from Guigal and Burgundies from Faiveley at competitive rather than bargain prices. The amazing German estate wines like the 1988 Bernkastler Graben, of which there were boxes and boxes of six bottles for £9 cash - and the excellent Alsace wines from Sigolsheim have all gone, and their replacements are but pale shadows. But there is always something worthwhile to snap up, and the range of beers is vast.

A few serious bits of advice

• Allow time
  Everything takes longer than you think! Plus you lose that vital hour when crossing the Channel. You'll want to enjoy a relaxing lunch. See our suggested itinerary below.

• Take £Stg cash
  If you intend to buy wine from East Enders or the Calais Wine & Beer Co, you'll need to take English cash. If you flash your credit card, Eastenders English prices are converted to Francs and then back into English again, so you lose out both ways!

• Bring your tasting kit - some glasses and a corkscrew!
  Unless you know exactly what you're buying, it's better to buy a single bottle of each wine that takes your fancy. Then it's out to the car park for a quick slurp (and if you're driving, a spit!)

Dine Online's favourite Calais booze shops

• Don't miss the Burgundies from Morot and Clerget with vintages going back to 1986. The range of Champagnes is terrific. Perardel is a family owned and managed domaine in Champagne and their own brew is excellent. I bought the 1988 for only 105F, but the 1990 is now shipping at 149F a bottle. For cheap summer drinking we found their own label Cremant de Loire to be a very pleasant sparkler aat 290F for a case of six.

• Tesco Drinks Superstore
  We've had some excellent bargains from here in the past. Many brands are familiar from home, and of course there's a much better selection of wines from other European countries and from the New World than you'd ever find in a French supermarket. Torres Sangre de Toro at 29F has to be a bargain, and for delicious drinking on its own the just off dry Gaston Vouvray at 31.90 is a another must have.

• Beware!!
  Boozers No! not the people, we like them - but a store of that name. I tasted 10 truly dreadful clarets that an enthusiastic friend bought mainly on the strength of the labels

• French supermarkets - I really do wonder if they are out to catch the British punter, with brands like Chateau Palmier (was it Palmer? not at that low price!!) and Pol Remy (not quite Pol Roger, nor Remy Martin!). You'll find wall to wall shelves of terrible dried out clarets, but often the Alsace wines are a great buy. But watch out for fancy bottles that say mise en boutaille par 448886 a 498986. Negociant wines can be bad enough as it is, but avoid wine from those who won't even put their names to it!

  Well away from Calais the best choice is often to be found in branches of Leclerc. But in general the food, particularly the seafood and the cheeses and the patés are magnificent. A visit to the Carrefour in the Cité Europe next to the Chunnel train stop is a revelation - British supermarkets still have quite a way to go!

The all important lunch!

Next door on the other side of Le Channel is Le Detroit, which looks rather nice except the name puts you off a bit. At La Sole Muenière, the people seated somewhat cheek-by-jowl at the next table were regular channel-hoppers from Kent who said that they had been to Detroit and had enjoyed the food there.

Another place we have visited in the area is the very beautiful- and correspondingly upmarket in price - Chateau de Cocove. It's about 20 minutes drive out of Calais on the old Paris road, just beyond Ardres, it's sign posted to your left. They sell wine from the cellar, but buy before lunch while you are still lean and hungry!

Ardres is a very pretty little market town with lovely old buildings. Right up in the town square is a nice restaurant called Le François 1er. There are honey coloured beams, a plain polished wood floor and good menus. We've been several times and liked it, but we've worked our way through the menu which doesn't ever seem to change!

At la Sole Meunière, the fruits de mer are very good, starting off at a modest 89F for the small plate, yes that's the whopper pictured right at the top of this article. I also enjoyed the crab gateau, right made from a millefeuille of pancakes layered with crab in a tasty crustacean sauce. A marmite (not the black spread but a little casserole) of sole under a domed pastry crust emitted a sensual aroma when the crust was taken off. My gigot d'agneau was a slow cooked lamb shank, very moist and tender with intensely flavoured ceps and girolles. The vegetables were good, but the same ones were served with everything.

We were eating off the 160F menu, and this included cheese as well as dessert. We hadn't much room left after the excellent cheeses for the creme brulée which was crisp on top, but a bit too solid inside. The pastries looked very good, if a little over worked and rich. I really think pastry cooking in England is threatening French pre-eminence. But then, you could have found such a selection in a dozen similar restaurants in Calais. How many would you find like that in Folkestone or Dover, apart from one famous Michelin starred place whose name I've forgotten for the moment? (Help please somebody!) Clifford Mould October 1999 - May 2000