Advice required please for trip to Calais!

dervish

Hi there I am hoping that some of you experienced travellers can give me some advice.
I live in Scotland and have never been abroad before. But thanks to the £10 Travelodge deals I have got a few nights booked in Kent. I am hoping to go across to France for a day on the ferry taking my car etc.

Here are my questions:

1) My car has the EU style number plate on it with the EU flag at the left end. Is that all I need? Do I still need GB plates or anything?

2) Do I have to have any special insurance arrangements to drive my car in France? I am fully comp on Mondeo but I dont think there is anything in my cover which mentions driving abroad.

3) I am hoping to spend a little money over there. I will probably buy a reasonable amount of wines etc and I am led to believe the supermarkets in Calais take credit cards and even Sterling. My question is where can I exchange a little money (say £60 ish into Euros)? Is there anywhere that does it cheap on that small amount?

4) I am going over for about 6 hours in total - can anyone recommend anything really nice to see or do or any good places to eat etc?


Please I would be very grateful if you could answer any of those above - dont feel you have to answer all of them - I just need some advice as I am starting to worry now and I am getting a bit scared of going abroad.

Thanks.

Alikay

Your number plate will be fine, but you will need to contact your insurance company, and they may charge a little extra just for a day's cover (there again, it might be included in your policy - you just need to ask them)
One thing that you will need is a warning triangle, headlight adjustment stickers, and hi-vis vests for everyone in the car. This is a newish law in France, and you can get fined a heck of a lot of money if you don't have them in the car and get stopped by French police. They sell them reasonably cheaply at the UK ferry terminals (in fact they go in for the hard-sell on these items with some ferry operators!) but you might be able to get them cheaper from your local car accesories shop/Adsa or wherever.

dervish

Thanks for the reply.

What do you mean by headlight adjustment stickers?

Alikay

Coz we drive on the left, our headlights are angled towards the left kerb so we don't dazzle oncoming cars. In France you would be driving on the opposite side of the road, so your headlight beam would be angled towards the oncoming traffic, and would dazzle them. The stickers are to put over your headlights to alter the way the beam shines out. Sorry, don't know exactly how...not very technically minded,but you get my drift?
The stickers are basically a cheap and temporary measure to make British headlights safer for use on French roads- we paid less than a fiver for them.

crazyhazel

It is well worth contacting your insurance company as when you drive over there your insurance will probably be reduced to third party. We did this with our car for a day trip and they issued a 'green card' which bumped us up to fully comp at no extra cost for up to three days!! For good wines and shopping I would go to Tesco near the channel tunnel entrance. Good quality wines and you can still use your clubcard and get your points. Other good hypermarkets are Carrefour which are situated in all the big towns over there. I wouldnt bother going to Eastenders wine superstore because when I have bought wine from them it always tastes as though they have had it in stock for far too long!! At the moment my local Thomas Cook Travel Agent is the best in my area for changing sterling to euros and if you are only changing £60 - £100 you should have no trouble with that amount - even the post office exchange money however you should check the rate. For somewhere nice for lunch its well to remember outside of the tourist areas that most places close at around 2.30 so I would take a local road from Calais find a small restaurant out of the immediate tourist area and have a go !!! Credit cards are widely accepted over there and in the port area of town sterling is as well.

Have a great day :beer:

Ria

I suggest you should visit the Citie d' Europe shopping center which is a just a little way from the tunnel exit. (You just follow signs when you get off the train) It has free parking, a huge Carrefour supermarket, a Tesco wine store and numerous other smaller shops selling everything you can think of. There are a number of restaurants that cater for French & British customers (everything from mussels & chips to pizza). We always use Flunch which is upstairs at the very end of the complex. It's self serve and fantastic value and is always full of French families. For wine I recommend Carrefour's own selection wines as they are generally very good.