Expats have said that much of France is like the UK used to be some 30 years or so ago.
I remember filling up with petrol close to Dover in past times (maybe even 30 years ago) because the price in France was so ferocious. It's like old times - diesel fuel is more or less the same price now after the Pound has dropped against the Euro, but petrol is going to cost you around £1.20 a litre.
I hear that some of the booze in the "cheap" shops at Calais is now more expensive than your local Sainsburys and the car parks are empty.
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I hear that some of the booze in the "cheap" shops at Calais is now more expensive than your local Sainsburys and the car parks are empty.
The Greens will be happy to see those booze-cruise car journeys disappear.
However, it may not be for long - because once the UK stocks of foreign vino have gone, they are going to have to import at higher prices. English wine producers should be happy then, though.
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"I hear that some of the booze in the "cheap" shops at Calais is now more expensive than your local Sainsburys and the car parks are empty. "
Only if you insist on buying Oz Chardonnay. I bought a 10 litre box of a very decent red for ?18.00, which even today would work out at £1.20 per 70cl bottle. It came from Eastenders, which is very close to the ferry port.
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The Greens will be happy to see those booze-cruise car journeys disappear.
The Greens won't be happy untill we are all living in mud huts!
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Are you sure? The mud would have to be recycled and from organic, renewable sources which have no impact on the ecosystem.
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>Even today would work out at £1.20 per 70cl bottle ...
On a point of order, I think 70cl bottles disappeared long ago - they are all 75 now. It used to be a nuisance when both sizes were around.
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Also, if you can get a bit away from the channel ports, you can still find good deals. I use the Britanny Ferries routes (posted elsewhere a little time ago) and at a new Champion hypermarket in Corseuilles I got some very presentable Merlot vin de pays for just over 2 euro a bottle, with a by-the-case offer of buy one get one free! Even at parity between the euro and pound sterling that's worth the trip!
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A few years ago people in the border areas of Northern Ireland could buy their petrol in the Republic for about 2/3 of the UK price. Not any more!
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I went over to France about a month ago and, as I've seen the last couple of years I've been over, I think you do have to be careful about what you buy.
Wines and beers that you can buy over I found were roughly the same price, especially when the large supermarkets over here do promotions on cases of Stella or Carling.
If you go for the French beers and wines a very good price can normally be had.
My sister took a chance on a bottle of French red at 90cents a bottle that wasn't bad at all (tasted like house wine you get in any pub these days....)
Chris
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As long as they don't start sending us their 30 year old cars.
Citroen CX anyone? Non, merci.
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Ah, oui s'il vous plait, monsieur! Les quirky Citroens, sont tres magnifique! :-)
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Ah yes Eastenders, where I once saw a red advertised with a sign saying something like "look at the price - it's rough as a badger's pink fluffy dice but it gets you there.."
Edited by Webmaster on 22/12/2008 at 00:26
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It isn't just a matter of money. France has about the same population as the UK (c. 60m) but three times the land area. It's the lack of overcrowding that makes much of the apparent difference.
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