"The mayor's office wants the current welfare sites that are spread out around Calais to be brought together in one place, " the mayor's spokesman Denis Duvot has said.

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In recent weeks French fishermen have blockaded the port of Calais to show what they think of Europe's rules on net sizes, presumably unaware that their own government supported those rules.

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But there are now more than 30 supermarkets and cash-and-carry stores in Calais specifically catering for the cross-Channel booze trade, including outlets of Britain's biggest supermarkets, Tesco and Sainsbury.

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