# Best Christmas market France/Belgium



## PILOTEFAN (Jul 19, 2010)

Hi Everyone

I booked the P&O offer incl a free Disney ticket and we are going
the 6am ferry the week before Christmas.  
Checking out this site it seems the best option is to stay in the Disney car park for a night especially as a lot of sites in the area don't seem to be open in Dec.
So its a one night stay on the way to Disney as Hubs doesn't think he can manage to go straight there and hit the park in the same day. I could but then am a Disneyholic :lol: 
Anyhow I would love to go to a Christmas Market whilst we are there and have trawled the net without too much luck other than the "offical" type sites. 
We have only 2 nights left on the way back to Calais due to me using up all my holiday from work  and although I would love to go to a German market I think it is too far.
We stayed in Amiens a couple of weeks ago and I understand that they have a market but I cant find any info on it.

Does anyone have any ideas of where we could go


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## BwB (Dec 5, 2009)

Lille has quite a nice Christmas market with the little wooden huts selling the seasonal stuff, a little fairground with a big wheel, some great restaurants (lovely mussels too - in fact I think they have a mussel festival at some point in the year).

On top of this is reasonable parking, normal shops and boutiques and it's not too far to Calais.

I've not been for a few years but I'm sure if you google it, everything will be the same.

Bryan


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## PILOTEFAN (Jul 19, 2010)

Hi

I did look at Lille but was a bit worried about driving there as I read somewhere the streets are pretty narrow and as we are new to this we were a bit worried about manoeuvring and parking.


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## BwB (Dec 5, 2009)

I don't remember there being any problems with street widths. It's a large(ish) town but the main routes in are wide and take you straight into the centre where the markets and pedestrian areas are.

We always managed to park at the roadside on the main drag into town and didn't venture down any side-roads in the van. 

I wouldn't think you'd have any problems, you just might need to walk a few minutes longer if it's busy and you have to park further out. I normally do a drive-by to get myself re-familiarised and then head out of town the way I came in and grab the first parking slot I can fit in and walk back to the action.

To be honest, most of the Christmas markets anywhere not going to be the easiest places to travel around/park.


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## PILOTEFAN (Jul 19, 2010)

Thanks for the info.


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Lille*

Lille is good pre Christmas - when I was there, there was a big wheel and alsorts of other stuff going on.

Brussels also good, further afield is Strasbourg.

Russell


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## scouter (Dec 14, 2007)

Hi,

We visted Bruges a couple of winters ago, our first experience of a Xmas market and that was pretty good, we stayed at camping memling, about 30 mins walk from the centre or 10mins on bus. (costs about the same as the Aire)

We also took a train to Brussels for the day, the Xmas market s were much bigger and spread out than in Bruges.

We're thinking of going a bit further this year but planning that will have to wait til we return from our trip to Italy next week.

cheers alan


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## PILOTEFAN (Jul 19, 2010)

scouter said:


> Hi,
> 
> We visted Bruges a couple of winters ago, our first experience of a Xmas market and that was pretty good, we stayed at camping memling, about 30 mins walk from the centre or 10mins on bus. (costs about the same as the Aire)
> 
> ...


Hi 
Thanks, this actually sounds just what we are looking for.
A nice walk or bus to the market and back so we dont have to worry about driving into town and can have a lovely mulled wine without worring about driving back.


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## scouter (Dec 14, 2007)

Hi pilotefan,

Yes Bruges was great for that, plenty of places to eat, its a problem tho if you find it difficult to choose which of the many restaurant. Lots of different food styles as well.

Yes plenty of mulled wine about, you can feel a little light headed by just wandering by the stalls.

The campsite is in a nice quiet location hidden away amongst the houses on a side street with a supermarket just on the main road. It snowed one day when we were there but the toilet block was lovely and warm with nice hot showeres.

cheers alan


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