jgmusic wrote:
The restaurant at Calais LFAC is re-opening on 19 April with a new owner
I may give a taster report of the restaurant this Friday 
(going to France instead of Scotland)
Tough more tempted by a restaurant in city squares than airports: to avoid mutiny from pax foodies (will still mention LeChannel/AuCoqd’Or 
)
Capitaine wrote:
I can heartily recommend the Au coq d’or.
Useful to know
A few years ago I ate at Le Channel which was excellent.
For most people Calais is a ferry port / Eurotunnel station with town added. The main square is quite nice, and having eaten there a few times I can heartily recommend the Au coq d’or.
I’ve never been tempted by the aerodrome restaurant, but might give it a try now.
Marck is in easy walking distance from the aerodrome, but there isn’t much to do. The Bistrot de la place has always been closed, but we once got a picnic lunch from Carrefour (closes at 12 on Sundays) which we ate in the sun… happy memory. There’s also a kebab shop.
The square has bicycle rental at €1 per hour payable through an app, but I never worked out how to use it. If anyone else has used it please give me the idiot’s guide…
I had English friends who ran a hotel and restaurant in deepest Burgundy, and their biggest complaint was the rent.
Peter wrote:
Calais is not Le Touquet
Very true. But it’s a convenient customs stop, if you’re heading in that direction, and might encourage more PPL bravery if it were more welcoming? I find there’s nothing more depressing than arriving at an airfield with a perfectly serviceable restaurant that’s closed
jgmusic wrote:
That does seem rather silly.
Sorry, misunderstanding. It is the restaurant in Marck that is closed at weekends (which seems equally silly). The airport one has no such history.
I think the problem isn’t the (or any) restaurant; it is the town. Calais is not Le Touquet. I believe the most prized attraction is a wine supermarket called something like East Enders which tells you about the customers they are aiming at
And despite the best efforts of the UK PPL training (“flying 2 a forin country is really hard and needs a special checkout”) sausage machine, only a small % of people fly to an airport to eat and never come out of the airport.
I remember eating there a few years back, while the owners were already packing their stuff and preparing to close the restaurant at the end of the month. They said that the rent was too high for any restaurant to be run profitably there, but the airport would not negotiate that and preferred to have them leave instead of lowering the rent. Though if my memory doesn’t fail me, the amount they quoted didn’t seem exorbitant.
Timothy wrote:
it is closed at weekends
That does seem rather silly. Unless this guy plans to change that (his other restaurant is open at weekends anyway )
So is this a different place than the one who opens about 5 month ago?
Well, strictly speaking, same place, different proprietor.
I have lost count, but my guess would be fourth proprietor in five years.
The problem for us is that, though there is a nice restaurant within a short walk of the airport, it is closed at weekends, so then there is nothing, not even a coffee, unless you go into Calais, which is quite a way.
The restaurant, while it is operational, makes Calais a great destination for training, Schengen, tech stop etc.
Indeed. But we will patronise it.
