[ January 23, 2010 to March 3, 2010. ] Dunkerque (62 Pas de Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais) manages to brighten up the miserable nothern French winter with its annual Carnival from 23 January to 6 March 2010
The most famous, the nosiest, the most mental, but also the oldest, is the Dunkerque Carnival. For weeks on end, groups called fisherbands take the measure of each other, confront
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When the Channel Ferry operator Speedferries collapsed last year many people were caught with pre-paid tickets and vouchers which could not be honoured.
;Now the Administrators Ernst & Young are reporting that the proceeds of the sale of assets (including SpeedOne) will not even raise enough money to pay off the Bank who are secured creditors;
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LD Lines Ferries are changing over to a traditional ferry on their Dover-Boulogne cross-channel route which will increase capacity and competition on the short-sea crossings from Dover. Also there is now a new Ferry port at Boulogne which will hopefully be less down-at-heel than the previous landing point. The new terminal is called the Boulogne
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[ November 18, 2009 to December 30, 2009. ] Lille’s Christmas Market officially takes place from 18 November to 30 December 2009 (although the Big Wheel (la Grand’Roue) was still being erected over the weekend of 21/22 Novemberm but the hutted Christmas village.
In the heart of winter, Lille sparkles and glows with “joie de vivre”! With the wave of a magic wand, the city
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[ November 20, 2009 to November 23, 2009. ] With such easy access from the UK by road or Eurostar Lille is a must to visit all year, and remains one of my favourite winter weekends. The combination of modern shopping malls and the nearby Vieux Lille (old town) offer something for everyone,
Where to stay?
Lille has many hotels at all levels of price and
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Most of us hit the autoroute as soon as landing (or de-training) in Calais and heading South (or East), the most frequent diversion being for shopping in one of the Hypermarkets or the Cité Europe complex at Coquelles.
However, there are other reasons to stop in the local areanewly-opened Calais Lace Museum (Cité Internationale de la
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