This weekend was more productive. We went to Calais by rail.

It was fortunate that we were not on a sightseeing trip. The weather on Saturday afternoon in Kent was damp and dreary. It was to get worse though. Thick mist fell as we drove towards Folkestone to the Channel Tunnel. Coupled with the failing light at around 3.30pm it was as miserable and nondescript a day as you can get.

In our ignorance we cheated and drove onto the train without queueing. Must remember to do that next time too.

The journey under the Channel was very smooth. At first, you don't realise you are moving, until you see the lights going past outside the portholes. It took just 35 minutes and we were in Calais.

If the weather was grim in England, the French coastline was dreadful.

Strong winds drove bands of rain horizontally, making umbrellas completely redundant.

We made directly for Cite Europe, a huge shopping complex just outside Calais. There are cafes, pubs and restaurants in the complex, catering for both French and English tastes. It was possible to get away without using much French. Many of the supermarkets and shops are English so it was not unlike shopping at home. Electrical goods, perfume etc were possibly dearer than in Britain, but the booze was definitely cheaper.

We decided to get quality wines and spirits. I chose a 16 year old Lagavulin Single Malt and a 19 year old Armagnac. We aught to have made more time to go to Carrefour's food hall, but we had had enough of the crowds and were looking forward to the next item on the agenda.

A real French restaurant.

Calais town centre has a good Christmas light display, with laser shows too. We found a number of restaurants close together and were immediately drawn to "Le Touquet's." We had to wait 5 minutes to get seated, but it was worth it.

A lot of the clientele were English, but were reasonably badly behaved. A bit loud and bawdy without being aggressive.

Four tables from us, a lady of over 60 who had had a few too many sherbets, told us of her friend's mishap. She had just done her shopping in a supermarket in Lincolnshire and returned to her car, when a man exposed himself to her.

She was a bit shaken and told her husband about it when she got home. He rang the police who came to the house and asked her a few questions. Then they asked her "Did he have an erection?" "Oh no," she replied, "He had a Renault."

The meal itself was superb. I had a dozen frog's legs as a starter and tripe sausage for the main course. Louise and Liz had snails to start and David had grilled goat's cheese. They had steamed Burbot with Sauce a l'Americain and Braised Lamb Shank as the main course. We finished off with a selection of French cheeses and butterscotch ice-cream.

For drinks, Liz and I started with Armagnac and we all had some lovely red wine from the Loire valley with the meal.

The waiters and waitresses were very friendly and we had fun pulling each others' legs.

The journey home took longer, due to the fact that we must have just missed a train. We waited an hour for the next one and it was further delayed by half an hour. By the time we got home it was 2.30 am. It was worth it all the same.

Sunday was spent doing some more Christmas shopping. I'll be glad to get that over and done with.