Gravelines and Bruges Xmas market (1 Viewer)

suavecarve

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Just got back from 2 nights in Bruges and one in Gravelines and Gravelines wins hands down in our opinion.
A lot of the stalls were much of a muchness in Bruges. The ice skating stopped at 2000 hrs and then it was just the food stalls open. Lovely town though
Gravelines had a huge big wheel instead of an ice rink, twice as many xmas chalets, a little menagerie, good effort with the snowed out hillside and a much nicer atmosphere. Oh 3 euros 50 for the aire at Gravelines against 19 at Bruges (Yes 19)
 
Feb 16, 2013
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Just got back from 2 nights in Bruges and one in Gravelines and Gravelines wins hands down in our opinion.
A lot of the stalls were much of a muchness in Bruges. The ice skating stopped at 2000 hrs and then it was just the food stalls open. Lovely town though
Gravelines had a huge big wheel instead of an ice rink, twice as many xmas chalets, a little menagerie, good effort with the snowed out hillside and a much nicer atmosphere. Oh 3 euros 50 for the aire at Gravelines against 19 at Bruges (Yes 19)
Couldn't agree more, we should have been going this weekend but with my recent hospitalisation thought better not to, but for the last two years we have been to all the popular Belgian and French markets within reasonable distance to Calais, and gravelines wins hands down, more of an old time local market than the hyped up fancy ones.:xThumb:
 
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Robert Clark

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We went to Bruges for the Christmas market for the first time, a week ago.
Agree that the market wasn't up to much, but the architecture, atmosphere and most of all the BEER made the trip a memorable one.

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Feb 16, 2013
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We went to Bruges for the Christmas market for the first time, a week ago.
Agree that the market wasn't up to much, but the architecture, atmosphere and most of all the BEER made the trip a memorable one.
Did you try gravelines?
 

FJmike

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We have just returned after a similar excursion and came to a polar opposite opinion xroll:. Bugge had lots of stalls on both markets selling very christmassy stuff, OK some tat but a lot of nice pieces. Had to visit the Xmas shop whilst we were there (spent far too much) and also a compulsory visit to The Old Chocolate Shop for really fabulous drinking chocolate and cakes.
Gravelines we thought was a very poor shadow of previous years especially the lighting. The impression we had of the stalls was not much christmassy stuff and very poorly displayed, you had to barge your way to the front and then look inside the small cabins.
What may have influenced our view of Gravelines is that the French treat the Xmas market as a social occasion to meet up with old friends and not buy a huge amount. This results in trying to see anything very difficult as there are large groups of people just milling about and having a natter.
 
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We have just returned after a similar excursion and came to a polar opposite opinion xroll:. Bugge had lots of stalls on both markets selling very christmassy stuff, OK some tat but a lot of nice pieces. Had to visit the Xmas shop whilst we were there (spent far too much) and also a compulsory visit to The Old Chocolate Shop for really fabulous drinking chocolate and cakes.
Gravelines we thought was a very poor shadow of previous years especially the lighting. The impression we had of the stalls was not much christmassy stuff and very poorly displayed, you had to barge your way to the front and then look inside the small cabins.
What may have influenced our view of Gravelines is that the French treat the Xmas market as a social occasion to meet up with old friends and not buy a huge amount. This results in trying to see anything very difficult as there are large groups of people just milling about and having a natter.
We have found they are very happy to natter to anyone though, even the English

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Robert Clark

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Did you try gravelines?
We stayed there overnight on the way there, but it was dark when we arrived so didn't venture into town.
On the way back we stopped at Ypres, which was great.
Will pop into Gravelines town next time we travel if you think its worth a trip?
 
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We stayed there overnight on the way there, but it was dark when we arrived so didn't venture into town.
On the way back we stopped at Ypres, which was great.
Will pop into Gravelines town next time we travel if you think its worth a trip?
Yeah we always go into town, but I was meaning the market.
If you want to add it to your culinary posts , try the restaurant over the water towards Lidl called au cap compass, used to be owned by a large black bloke called Rudy who did all the cooking actually in the room and came round talking to everyone but when we went in September found he had had a heart attack and died but his widow and staff were keeping it going as it was when he was alive. Superb and very reasonable price.
 
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Will pop into Gravelines town next time we travel if you think its worth a trip?

It's probably worth a couple of visits - there are two half decent restaurants. There isn't much to explore though, an afternoon is more than enough.

We've stayed there on our last night before the tunnel on our last 4 or 5 trips and I have to say I'm thoroughly bored of it now. We'll be looking for somewhere else next time.

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I was in York last week. Having been to Brug(g)es market, I have to say York was a far more interesting city and nicer market. That's where we shall,go next year.
 

Clive

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I went Brugge last week can honestly say I was disappointed with the Christmas market, once you took out the food and drink stalls not much left. Brugge itself is lovely though and worth the trip.
 
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I went Brugge last week can honestly say I was disappointed with the Christmas market, once you took out the food and drink stalls not much left. Brugge itself is lovely though and worth the trip.
Nothing wrong with Brugge as a town , but much better in summer when you can sit outside the bars and see the sights in sunshine rather than winter cold and mist, if the only reason to go is to see the town I wouldn't go for the market, far better around.

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