Oxford Street is mayhem. Your own town is full of estate agencies and
mobile-phone shops. So why not head abroad to sort out your Christmas
stockings? No, no, no, not New York. Sure, the iPods are cheap, but what
about the airport, the flight, the jet lag, the millions of other shoppers
and the sneaking back through the green channel with more than your £145 of
legal spending? Those customs boys have their eyes peeled from November for
bulging suitcases.
Why not skip high-street horror and the grind of flying in one fell swoop, and
take the train to a Eurocity instead?
All four of our cities are within easy reach by train (or plane, if Waterloo
is too much of a schlep from your front door). And you’ll achieve what’s
important about the Christmas season: making sure your gifts are better than
everyone else’s.
BRUSSELS
by Matt Rudd
COME ON then, let’s have it. Brussels is boring. Brussels is full of
Eurocrats. The only thing Brussels has ever done for the world is invent
Tintin. Well, may I offer a sweeping generalisation in return? Brussels is
Paris without the bad bits, a true cafe society of cobbled streets,
fur-coated women, yappy chihuahuas and penguined waiters. It does have dog
merde, but not piles of it.
It does have graffiti, but in the city that invented cartoons, it’s usually
rather artistic. It does have a street lined with restaurant touts trying to
force dodgy moules-frites down your throat, but it’s just one easily
avoidable street, not an entire (Latin) quarter like Paris. And everyone is
much friendlier than in the French capital . . . no snooty looking down
nostrils at les rosbifs all the time. The food is amazing, the squares and
boulevards
are ravishing and it’s only 2½ hours from Waterloo.
Fill your stocking: Antwerp is the place for designer
clothes, Bruges for lace teapot covers. Brussels is the world epicentre of
chocolates, cartoons and not throwing things away. Here’s how to take
advantage of all three. First of all, don’t buy any chocolate on the
Grand’Place. Head instead for Place du Grand Sablon (stopping en route at
Rosalie Pompon, 1 Rue de l’Hôpital, for quirky clocks, bike locks, radios,
hairbrushes and other stocking-fillers). The place is home to chocolate
shops Wittamer (established 1910, the classic option) and Pierre Marcolini
(established 1996, looks like a Bond Street jeweller).
In the same square, there’s Flamant Junior, a European version of FAO
Schwartz, with old-school but pricey toys, and, if it’s Sunday morning, a
covered antiques market. (“Wow, thanks for the fin-de-siècle card table,
Dad.”) From there, wander down from the posh Sablon into the increasingly
unposh Marolles. Along Rue Haute and Rue Blaes, the fine-art and antiques
shops give way to design stores, bric-a-brac and a great flea market on
Place du Jeu de Balle. Buy a punnet of garlicky snails and go
treasure-hunting. You might find an early Monet. You might not.
For Tintin prints, shop between 100 and 124 Boulevard Anspach — my favourite
’toon store is Brüsel, at number 100. And if you’re female, and you’re
really here to Christmas shop for yourself rather than everyone else, the
boutiques on Rue Antoine Dansaert will spruce up your wardrobe nicely. The
only place to avoid at all cost is Rue Neuve, which crops up as the place to
shop in lots of guides, but is even worse than Oxford Street.
Getting there: the Eurostar service is not quite as regular
as to Paris, because so many of us still haven’t realised how good this city
is, but it’s still only 2.5 hours from Waterloo to Brussels Midi, from where
you can hop onto a train into the centre (included in the price of your
ticket) or take a cab for £7. Returns start at £59 (0870 518 6186,
www.eurostar.com). Airlines flying to Brussels include British Airways (0870
850 9850, www.ba.com), Brussels Airlines (0870 735 2345,
www.brusselsairlines. com), Ryanair (www.ryanair. com) and Aer Lingus (0818
365000, www.aerlingus.com).
Where to stay: Hotel Amigo (00 32-2 547 4747,
www.hotelamigo.com) is Rocco Forte’s plush five-star, just one street down
from the Grand’Place. During the week, it’s the pricey choice of
ambassadors, presidents and Coldplay. But you can get a weekend double for
as little as £145, room-only, and some of the packages are even better
value. Ask for a sixth-floor double — they come with balconies and are just
as nice as the suites. Failing that, there’s Le Dixseptième (02 517 1717,
www.ledixseptieme.be), a 17th-century ambassador’s residence turned stylish
boutique retreat. Doubles normally start at £135, but you can expect to get
30% off this price at weekends.
PARIS
by Sean Newsom
FACE IT — you want to go back there anyway. So what better excuse than an
“essential” shopping trip that takes you into the city’s most characterful
quartiers and past the front doors of its most stimulating museums and
galleries? And let’s not forget: pounding the pavement is hungry work.
You’ll need to refuel. At least one long lunch is essential.
Just promise me you’ll stay out of the department stores. The joy of Paris
shopping — and it is a joy — comes from the face-to-face encounters in
quirky new boutiques and long-established, historic shops. It’s a world
where “la politesse française” still holds sway and,
provided you smile, look everyone in the eye and pepper your encounters with
as much French as you can manage, you’ll have a ball. They’ll make you feel
like royalty.
Fill your stocking: the city’s new shopping frontier is in the northern
Marais, and the kooky angles and narrow streets are the perfect place to get
yourself in the Paris mood. Target Rues Chabrol, de Saintonge and Vieille du
Temple: the fabric designer Dominique Picquier (00 33 1-42 72 23 32,
www.dominiquepicquier.com) has a truly beautiful shop, and you can pick up
one of her purses — in bold and simple floral patterns — for £29. Round the
corner, at 44 Rue de Poitou, L’Habilleur (01 48 87 77 12)
offers discounts of up to 70% on cutting-edge fashion labels.
Paris is like this: target the right streets and you’ll be surrounded by 100
options. Rue St Honoré — home to the iconic lifestyle boutique Colette — is
the most obvious, but you’ll have similar success between the church of St
Sulpice and St Germain des Prés, and along Rue Etienne Marcel, north of Les
Halles. Make the odd detour, though — for example to Rue de la Ferronnière,
near Châtelet Métro. At number 12, you’ll find Papeterie Moderne (01 42 36
21 72), which sells the little enamel signs you see all around France — from
street names to “Attention! Chien méchant!”
Finally, don’t forget the food. Head for Place de la Madeleine — home to the
two most famous delis in the city, Hédiard at number 21, and Fauchon, at
24-26. Stay away from the chocolat, though — otherwise you’ll deny yourself
the pleasure of a visit to Debauve & Gallais, at 30 Rue des Sts-Pères
(01 45 48 54 67, www.debauve-et-gallais.com). They’ve been here since 1819,
and they sell the ultimate French stocking-filler: ultra-thin Pistoles de
Marie Antoinette, pastilles of the smoothest, finest chocolate you’ll ever
eat.
Getting there: stepping out of Eurostar at Gare du Nord with
a Paris weekend ahead of you is one of the great treats in modern travel.
Eurostar (0870 518 6186, www.eurostar.com) operates up to 17 services daily
from Waterloo and Ashford, with return fares starting at £59. Airlines
flying to Paris include British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com),
Aer Lingus (0818 365000, www.aerlingus.com), Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) and
EasyJet (www.easyjet.com).
Where to stay: in the heart of the Marais’ new boutique
district, at the Hôtel du Petit Moulin (www.paris-hotel-petitmoulin.com;
doubles from £124). Or, if you’ve got money to burn, the InterContinental
Paris Le Grand (www.paris.intercontinental.com; doubles from £212,
room-only) offers guests shopping tours with two Parisian fashion
journalists — the tours are themed and cover everything from “Paris couture”
to “Paris %-off”, the latter taking in the city’s best designer-discount
stores.
LILLE
by Anthony Peregrine
LILLE, EH? Mussels, beer and, um, jolly accessible by rail. But decent
Christmas shopping? Absolutely. “And elephants,” I remarked shortly after
alighting from the train. A dozen of them, each 25ft high, line the main
drag like an honour guard from Bollywood. Lille has, you see, gone Indian,
in a festival running to January. It’s decked out in saris, spangles and
subcontinental culture.
No question, this is adding spice to the city’s winter mix, already as warm
and lively as a glass of grog. The city’s grand facades — Flemish,
neoclassical — radiate past confidence, recently re-found. There’s a
metropolitan sheen to the smart shops slotted into medieval Vieux Lille. But
there are also malls, markets and realistic retailing. Lille’s industrial
prosperity was built on realism. It glows through the city.
When shopping is done, repair to an estaminet for sustenance such as waterzooi
fish stew or the four-meat potjevleesch. Or, if you truly want to fit in
right now, chicken biryani. Lille has embraced this, as it will embrace you.
For a big city, it’s neighbourly indeed.
Fill your stocking: a lot to do and little time, so it’s
straight from the central Grand’Place into Vieux Lille, the city’s old
heart. They’ve been shopping here for a thousand years. It’s still sinuous,
yet as substantial as a Flemish burgher — and now full of fashion, interior
design and disarming oddities such as Delhi Circus, on Place des Patiniers,
which offers ethnic clobber, and unicycles from £85.
High fashion, such as Hermès and Sonia Rykiel, gathers on Rue de la Grande
Chaussée, where Louis Vuitton has a dog-carrier for £721. (Cheaper to buy a
new dog wherever you’re going.) Then meander past lots more clothes, decor
and fish (at L’Huîtrière, on Rue des Chats Bossus), cheese (at Les Bons
Pâturages, on Rue Basse) and beer (at L’Abbaye des Saveurs, on Rue des Vieux
Murs).
Return on Rue Esquermoise via Méert, a Lille legend for cakes, sweets,
chocolates and especially vanilla-filled waffles. Vows of asceticism are,
I’m afraid, no match.
And so out of Vieux Lille to Rue Royale — for the Printemps department store —
and on to our second shopping zone. The pedestrianised streets around Rue de
Béthune have the usual high-street names, and in the mall off Rue des
Tanneurs, there are lovely traditional toys in Le Bonhomme de Bois.
If you like the trinketry of Christmas markets, make for Place Rihour.
Otherwise, you may care to tackle the 62 brand-name factory outlets of
McArthurGlen, out of town at Roubaix. Take the tram (direction Roubaix) or
Métro (line 2, direction CH Dron) to Eurotéléport.
Then it’s Sunday morning, and the vast broth of a market at Wazemmes. The
entire world meets here for bric-a-brac, bargain clothes, food, the Koran in
boxed sets of 27 DVDs, handbags, budgies for a fiver, bongo drums, spices,
cosmetics and more or less anything else on God’s earth.
This is commerce at its most raucous, dimensions away from the Euralille
shopping centre, a glass-encased modern giant by the station. I’ve not
mentioned the centre, simply because, on entering, I lost the will to live.
Lille has much better to offer.
Getting there: the obvious option is Eurostar (0870 518 6186,
www.eurostar.com). Hop on in London, hop off in Lille 1hr 40min later. The
fare structure is more complex than a sudoku, with returns starting at £55
and rising according to day, time and how far in advance you book. You can
also book rail-plus-hotel deals, with an equally changeable range of prices.
Where to stay: Lille’s tourism people (00 33-3 59 57 94 00,
www.lilletourism.com) have accommodation packages linked to the Indian
festival, Bombaysers de Lille, and to the Christmas market. If you wish to
book independently, try the Novotel Centre (Rue Hôpital Militaire; 03 28 38
53 53, www.accorhotels.com; doubles from £92, or £64 at weekends; prices dip
for a two-night stay). It’s a chain, but a good chain — contemporary and
welcoming.
Otherwise, the more stately Grand Hôtel Bellevue (Rue Jean Roisin; 03 20 57 45
64, www.grandhotelbellevue.com; doubles from £93) has the swish of
town-house class and views over the Grand’Place.
ANTWERP
by Katie Bowman
WHEN AN Antwerpenaar sucks his teeth and says, “Oh no, mate, you can’t walk
that; you’ll need to take a taxi,” ignore him (probably best not to trust a
Belgian who says “mate”, anyway). You can walk everywhere in Antwerp in less
than 15 minutes, though all the locals seem to think otherwise. Even easier,
much of the historic heart of the city — where you’ll find the best stores,
markets, galleries and sights — is pedestrianised, cobbled and crisscrossed
only by trams.
You’ll arrive at Central Station, which is nearly as grand and filmic as New
York’s version. Residents dress up to the nines, especially in winter; clock
Barbours, fur collars, oversized sunglasses and an obscene amount of
cashmere. From December 1 until the end of January, there’s an open-air ice
rink on Grote Markt, the main square, bordered by fairy-tale stone houses
iced with gilt decoration. Then hobble over to any kiosk for some richly
deserved hot Belgian waffles and ice cream.
Fill your stocking: if you’ve got a weekend to play with,
tackle the shops on Saturday and the markets on Sunday, as Antwerp’s
high-street stores close on Sunday.
Belgian fashion is a serious business — you might have heard of the Antwerp
Six, a super troupe of designers who include Dries Van Noten
and Ann Demeulemeester.
Trendsetting friends will love you for ever if you come back with a purchase
from Louis (Lombardenvest 2), where most of these labels are stocked; a
Demeulemeester winter coat is £557 — not cheap, but a good saving on the
£725 at Liberty in London. And while you’ll be tempted to splurge, it
doesn’t cost a cent to visit the glorious gallery-like Dries Van Noten store
(Nationalestraat 16).
If that’s a little too rich, treat somebody to some luggage — the chic and
hardy Kipling brand (Lombardenvest 13) is Belgian-born, and cheaper here.
One notch further down the reality scale are Leonidas chocolates — a fancy
kilogram box is £30 at home, but £11 in Antwerp, and there are branches all
over town.
Then slow right down on Sunday for a potter along Kloosterstraat, or rent an
old-fashioned bicycle (from Lijnwaadmarkt 6; three hours for £4) — there’s
nobody to run you over other than fellow cyclists. Kloosterstraat is Notting
Hill in micro, with antiques (brocante) shops and bookshops open for a few
random hours each day. At its northern end is St Jansvliet market; it has
some captivating stalls selling anything from taxidermy, comics and Bakelite
radios to oil paintings.
I preferred it to the famous Vogelmarkt (Theaterplein; 9am-1pm), which is now
overrun with tourists. It was originally known for its hypnotic soundtrack
of natural birdsong, but has lost much of its character since the
birdsellers were outlawed.
Getting there: if you leave early enough (about 8.30am), you
can be in Antwerp for mosselen met frieten — moules- frites — with the train
journey from Waterloo taking just over four hours, including a quick connection
in Brussels (included in your Eurostar ticket). Rail Europe (0870 584 8848,
www.raileurope.com) has returns from £59. Your luggage allowance is two
large cases and a carry-on bag per person (no weight restrictions). Or fly
with VLM (0871 666 5050, www.flyvlm.com), from London City and Manchester.
Where to stay: Hotel ’t Sandt (Zand 13-19; 00 32-3 232 9390,
www.hotel-sandt.be) has lived many lives: it was built as a soap factory in
the 16th century, then became a banana depot and a port house. Now a hotel,
it’s gorgeous, and right beside St Jansvliet. After a designer makeover 18
months ago, it has hit just the right mix of trendy and cosy, with
chandeliers, four-posters and wingback chairs, but all done
in the best possible Antwerpian taste. Numbers 108 and 201 are the best
standard rooms; doubles start at £98. Hotel Julien (Korte Nieuwstraat 24;
03 229 0600, www.hotel-julien.com) is a much more modish affair. The
17th-century town house has been spruced up by an intimidatingly stylish
Franco-Belgian couple who’ve picked out Dutch antiques, stone tiles and
linens to create a hotel that looks like a magazine shoot. Doubles start at
£111.
