As you have a long trip before you reach the channel a night rest would be advisable

When we don't take the caravan we actually use the Hotel Burstin in Folkestone especially as you can get a really good breakfast (al you can eat style) We have a 247 mile trip to get to Folkestone too

Helen,
a mate and I recently drove from Lancashire to Dover, ferry to Calais, bought 250 bottles of wine (between us) and drove back. We shared the driving and left at 02:00am on a Friday morning, returning at 10:15pm that same night.

We've done this a couple of times over the past year.

I found P&O to have the best prices for Dover-Calais when we last went in early April 2006. Just after booking (£45) they ran a promotion in the Daily Mail offering a £20 crossing. These fees are for a std. size car with several passengers.

Crossing time is 1hr 15 mins on a P&O ferry. France is currently 1 hour ahead of us.

Load/unloading of ferr is fast and efficient and exit from Calais onto the main motorway heading towards Boulogne is easy and generally lacks holdups.

We buy at either Auchan or Carrefour. The former is on the right as you travel along the A15 motorway heading West towards Boulogne. Exit at Junction 43 turning North (right). at the large roundabout with a Shell petrol station towards your front left, turn left onto Avenue Roger Salengro. About 1-2 miles down here, on the right, you'll see AUCHAN supermarket.

You should check their website for printable discount coupons before you depart UK http://www.auchancalais.com - I got some 20% discount couplons for French Sout West Wines (included Bordeaux).

Carrefour is a very large supermarket chain (2nd largest in the world - Tesco is 5th) and have very competitive prices.

Depends how you leave Auchan, but you should follow signs for Cite Europe. If you are on the A16 motorway you'll need either Junction 42 or 41 - I cannot recall - but Carrefour is the "anchor" supermarket for the main shopping mall and it's located south of the motorway.

I found better bargains at Carrefour although the 20% discount coupons for Auchan was hepful on certain wines. My friend buys mainly boxes and he was gutted to find Carrefour considerably cheaper than Auchan - he'd bought most of his boxes at Auchan first.

I can definately say that everyday style wines (red, white and rose) are much less expensive at either supermarket than here in the UK at, say, Tesco, Asda and Majestic. Some of the wines I buy at the 3-4 Euro level are excellent quality and would probably cost £7-8 here in a supermarket - if indeed you could buy them.

You are legally allowed to bring 90 litres of wine back from France. Actually, you can bring any amount but our customs & excise have applied this limit in the (often) mistaken belief that any more would likely be for other than PERSONAL consumption.

We work on 90 litres = 120 bottles (or box equivalents) and to be honest, in a normal car our combined "allowance" is just about acceptable for weight purposes. In addition to the 90 litres you can bring back 20 litres of fortfied wine (sherries etc) and 110 litres of beer and 10 litres of spirits.

I have no knowledge of sparkling wine allowances - don't drink it - but I expect champagne falls into the wine category. Don't know if you can swap the spirits for wine on a 1 to 1 basis.

If you have a plan of action before you arrive at Calais it's easily possible to visit Auchan and Carrefour and one or two other places if you wish within 5 hours.

There's no requirement to stay overnight for customs purposes.

I'd suggest paying by credit card at each supermarket - the exchange rate was better for me than using Euros purchased at the Post Office before leaving. You also have some protection (credit act section 75).

Be careful about boxing single bottles in spare, discarded empty wine boxes as these can get scanned using the outer box barcode by mistake resulting in over charging. It happened to me last time - 48 euros overcharged and only realised when back home.

Hope this wafle provides some help.

Mike

Looks like a trip to France is on the cards then .Thanks a million for all the info.

We bought all the wine for my daughters wedding in Tesco's in Calais, we ordered it in advance and it was ready for us when we arrived, as it was for a wedding we took proof of the wedding and got a 10% discount. We were also freely able to add to the order, so decided on Sparkling wine/champagne/beer on the day.

There is an area in the store too where you can taste the wine and get advice.

You might also want to stock up on coffee! Also at French weddings (and baptisms and confirmations) it is often 'done' to give dragees (sugared almonds and sugar coated chocolate in almond shape) to all the guests as a souvenir of the big day. You can often find these in supermarkets at good prices.