Ferries/kids/Calais

[janinlondon]

We are doing a day trip to Calais in a couple of weeks (some amazing deals on the ferries - we are going for £10!) and I had a couple of questions that I know Mumsnetters will be able to answer. 1. P&O ferries - do they have a kids playroom or any other facilities like this? Same question re Cite d'Europe - is there a play area? 2. Calais - is there any point trying to go into the town itself with a car or is parking too horrendous? and 3. Anyone with any current hints on child friendly but nice restaurants? I know from other threads that the ones at Cite d'Europe are awful!

I think it depends on which ferry you go on - some ships have reasonable sized play areas some have tiny one and some have none. I think they are trying to put them into most ships.
I don't recall there being one in Cite Europe. It has been years since we have been into Calais itself - we usually tend to get a stupidly early ferry and drive to somewhere beachy like Wimereux (sp?) and have eaten there (although Calais beach is quite nice - then ran round the supermarket on the way back to the ferry - we usually go to Auchan as I feel they are cheaper than the one in Cite Europe. I think most places tend to be fairly family friendly on the continent and my kids have usually been happy to eat or at least try new foods - I often find though that nice little french restaurants tend to be a bit smoky.

P & O ferries certainly have good play areas on their longer crossing vessels but we normally sweat it out in the Tunnel - half an hour of singing the Wheels on the Bus and exploring the lovely toilets is just about bearable.
No play area at Cite d'Europe - but you can hire trolleys that are also little cars (seating one or two children) and ds loves these.
Parking in Calais is normally not too bad. We had no problem with parking in Calais Nord not far from the Place d'Armes and Rue Royale the last time we were there. You can walk through the centre within 10 minutes from there, but getting right to the south end of town, where some of the bigger non-food shops are, will take longer.
In Calais proper we have eaten at Le Channel and Ancienne Histoire (both Calais Nord)...without children. With ds we have eaten at the Hotel-Restaurant des Dunes, at Bleriot-Plage (five minutes from town centre) and La Pleiade, in Calais Nord. Both are quite smart and were also accommodating to small children in that they recommended menu items and spoke to ds, offering him menus etc. La Pleiade was a particular success in terms of food (delicious) and welcome. Les Dunes is a wee bit old-fashioned and the food, although very "correct French", was not so inspired and modern as at La Pleiade. We ate there in November and still dream of their maroilles risotto...
Ancienne Histoire's food is delicious and the staff very jolly but I remember it being quite a boozy, smoky, working lunch sort of place. Our favourite haunt pre-ds. Le Channel we found really stuffy and pretentious on our one visit some years ago, but I know a lot of Brits like it...
If you decide to give up the struggle and just go to the Cite, yes the food is definitely canteen-like, but Flunch will keep the children entertained and it is groaning with high-chairs, balloons, free toys, non-smoking areas, etc.

On our recent trip to France the playrooms were shut both times. I did notice at Cite d'Europe that they had kid's play activity areas. Don't know how much but all the way down the mall they had kids' stations where they were making things (even baking at one of them), painting etc. Didn't really pay much attention I'm afraid as ds is only 3 and they seemed to be for older children (about 5 upwards). I ended up leaving ds and dp in the toy area of the Carrefoure while I fought it out shopping (and believe me it was hell like Sainsburys at Christmas). There is a Toys R Us as well in the mall. I don't recommend any of the restaurants in the mall especially the Italian one. Service was horrendous and the food only just passable. Didn't go into Calais I'm afraid. I'll warn you now if you're going on a Saturday Cite d'Europe is a nightmare, the Metro Centre at Christmas. Free for all with the parking as well. Mind you with the amount of Brits there its just like being back home.

Oh dear. The ferries are the two newly refurbished ones, so I'm hoping they might have play areas in working order. If Cite is that crowded, I'm starting to think we might pre-order our wine? And then shoot down to Le Touquet or somewhere for the day! Thanks for the replies. Mumsnetters come up trumps again.

I know you can pre-order from the Sainsburys Calais store but you need a week in advance. Not sure about the Tesco though. How old are your child(ren)? My ds is 3.6 and he just loved looking out the windows and going up top on the ferry. Surprised me actually because he's so active and needs occupying most of the time but he just thought it was great being at sea.