Alsace Wine Tour – Calais to Tournai
Previous day || Back to trip summary page. ¦¦ Next day
Calais to Tournai with a stop at Auchan in Dunkirk
A good sleep on the Aire de Camping Cars at Calais along with a large number of other motorhomes. This place is so convenient, just a short drive from the tunnel or the port, it’s no surprise that there are so many motorhomes using it.
We notice that the temperature is much higher here in France than it was in Lancaster. We are still tired from our journey from the north-west of England, but very pleased to be back in France. One problem is that we have been careful about bringing milk or other food with us from England after reading all the requirements for travel to Europe. That means we have very little milk for our coffee, this is a serious problem, coffee is what keeps us going. The nearest supermarket is Aldi, but it doesn’t open until 0830, another hour and a half. We drink the last of the milk in our coffee then sort ourselves out, have breakfast and decide that a walk around Calais is in order. Considering the number of times we have been through Calais we have not explored the beach, so off we go, on the way we pass the small shop at the office of the campsite next door, it’s not open yet, but it does have a good range of essentials.
We find the beach area a pleasant surprise, there are hundreds of beach huts arranged in two neat rows all along the beach, cafes, seats and various places to eat. Not what we expected at all. We wander back to the Hymer buying milk in the camp shop, then consult google maps to located the nearby supermarkets. We are definitely NOT going to Auchan Calais, last time we visited there were many young men of African heritage trying the locks of parked motorhomes, crawling under parked buses and acting in anti-social ways. Our motorhome locks were damaged by attempts to open them.
We consider E.Leclerc locations, then remember that they often have height barriers, we look on Google Street View, yes, there is the height barrier, so we discount them. We settle for Auchan at Dunkirk, not far away and only a few minutes off our route to Tournai where we will be spending the night. We are soon packed up and ready to go, Gill is already feeling the heat. We called off at Aldi in Calais to look for crackers having forgotten to pack them. Unfortunately for us the items on sale in France are totally different to those in the UK, it’s like a completely different store.
We find Auchan easily, I can’t imagine life without google maps and guidance now. The weather really is hot, not what we are used to. Auchan at Dunkirk is massive, so big that we only visited the food and wine areas. We normally shop at Aldi in England, the choice is sufficient for our needs and the fresh produce is good. At Auchan the choice is overwhelming, do we really need 25 different types of butter? We stock up with French food and wine, €168 worth, lovely soft cheeses, sliced ham, dry sausage, wines, crèmants plus fresh apricots, crevettes and other produce. When we emerge we are surprised to find that we have spent almost 3 hours inside Auchan and are hungry.
We head off, stopping at the roadside Aire de Saint Eloi for lunch, then press on to Tournai in Belgium, arriving later than expected, around 6pm. This is a new aire, fully digital, so you have to pay online and then receive a QR code which you present to a reader at the entrance to lift the barrier. Another exhausting day, but now we have supplies, so we sit out in the warm sunshine and eat crevettes with glasses of crèmant, one of our favourite pastimes. Gill makes a stir fry with some of the crevettes and we’re happy.
Photos in and around the Aire de Camping Cars, Calais
Click at image to enlarge
