We haven't been to France since Our Month in France in 2024 and I have certainly missed going. As part of my birthday week we stayed in Kent (I'll write about that soon) and took an overnight trip to Calais with our son and his girlfriend joining us for the trip.
It's a while since we used Le Shuttle, it was son's girlfriend's first time, and as she said it is a strange concept driving a car onto a train. The cost of the journey even with a short stay offer, petrol, overnight hotel and eating out does not actually make any purchases cheaper especially now there are limits on what you can bring back to the UK .... for me it was all about being in France.
We shopped at Auchan and Citè de Europe buying a few bits for home, most importantly my vanilla sucre for my baking. We also popped to Lidl and Aldi as some of our UK purchaseable wines are much cheaper. Our dining experience was Flunch, it's such a great concept and brings back many memories of Flunch meals with my dad when our kids were young.
All in all it was a good trip, Calais is not as it was and I think our next trip to France will be a long travelling holiday but it was nice to be back. The car did chink home with some of our favourites and a few new finds, our son commented that that was the sound of a holiday in France!
Sparkling wine is one of my favourite French buys, there is sn abundance of choice from low priced easy drinking bubbles to high end champagne. Pol Remy and Paul Henri are good basic priced bubbles which we often enjoy as a Kir cocktail using Chambord. We found a couple of demi-sec mid priced wines along with a Blanc de Blanc on offer, it's always fun to try new wines.
I didn't pick up many whites as our cellar at home is white heavy, I must drink more! However I did include a couple of my cheap go to, I'm not sure if I bought them for taste or memory but we always bought Muscadet with the blue boat label and Pierre Chanau (Auchan's wine label) White Bordeau.
Two bottles of Sauvignon, one of which was from Touraine, a bottle of Chardonnay were easy drinkers for our cellar. Aldi's Cotes de Gascogne is one of my favourite wines, it was less than half the UK price so a good find. We have holidayed many times in the South of France near the Etang de Thau, Picpoul is grown there, and this quirky labelled bottle caught my eye.
A lovely selection of white wine safely home and ready to be enjoyed. I was a little disappointed to not find Cellier des Dauphins white in full size bottles or a wine box, there was red or rose but no white. I did find small bottles which will be perfect for just me to enjoy.
Our red wine choices were a mix of favourites and bargains. Hubby picked three Bordeaux wines including his favourite Baron de Lestac, he also selected Costellore an Italian favourite from Aldi. My choices of red were all based on our previous fab times in France, they were a Corbieres, a Ventoux and a wine from Cahors.
We did buy double bottles of our favourite wines;
Blaye, Cotes de Bordeaux
Primivito, Puglia
Croix de Ceyssac, Bordeaux
Cellier des Dauphins Cotes du Rhone
I'm very much looking forward to the darker nights now we have some super wines to enjoy, not necessarily expensive choices but I'm sure they will evoke great memories from flavour and aroma.
With Christmas approaching we stocked up too on a few favourite beers. There are more and more places selling French and Belgium beers, craft beer shops are opening all over the UK but as we were in France a few packs were added to our trolley.
Affligem is a family favourite that we're looking forward to sharing over the festivities. Grimbergen makes me think of autumn time and La Goudale always goes down well.
Nothing like enjoying a beer and a big bottle makes the enjoyment last longer. I have had Kasteel beer before, a very strong dark beer, and I like fruit beer so when I spotted Kasteel Rubus it was a no-brainer purchase.
And so to my favourite beer treats. I do believe beer should be served in the matching brand glass and I do have a Kasteel glass ready for my Rubus beer.
I do have glasses for Triple Karmeliet, Rince Couchon and Kwak which is like a yard of ale glass on a vertical stand but I don't think we have a La Goudale glass .... might need a return trip to solve that one!
Neither of us are great cider drinkers but we do enjoy a glass of French cidre which is mainly produced in Normandy. We selected a bottle of brut which is dry, a doux which is sweet and a bottle of rosé cidre which is described as fruity. I don't think we've had rosé cider before although I guess it will be similar to the fruit ciders now available in UK stores.
Our final buys were at Le Shuttle duty free, Gordon's is my favourite standard gin and was such a great price two jumped into my trolley. Asbach brandy from Germany is delicious, when Hubby was working he was often given a box of chocolates filled with Asbach at Christmas. It's made in Rudesheim and most definitely on our tour visit list but for now we'll happily enjoy Asbach at hone.
We had a lovely time shopping in Calais, we didn't visit any of the big wine stores but as you can see we found plenty to bring home. It was so nice being back in France, I hope it won't be so long before we're there again.
