After years of conniving about how to make a quick trip to Belgium and bring back a suitcase full…read moreof beer, De Hopduvel has become mecca. The prices are warehouse. There are other great warehouse beer outlets in Belgium, but this one you can get to by streetcar. The others you all need a car, car. Much cheaper than the beer shops in central Brussels, you also get to hang in Ghent, which is the best city in Belgium (more casual and more enchanting than Brussels, but not overrun by tourists like Bruges). I looked up their selection before going to pick out what to get. This visit, I stayed at an Airbnb right across the canal from de Hopduvel, had a couple days of tourism, and then loaded up the bags with loot from de Hopduvel (at top in picture). The streetcar then takes you right to the train station.

If this beer shop did mail order, I would be an alcoholic…read more It's a short walk away from a Hopduvel pub but it's not clear if they're related- possibly not, since when we visited the pub most things were out of stock, but when we visited this beer shop everything was quite definitely IN stock. It's a stockist of many many hundreds of beers, most of them Belgian, and beer-related goods such as glasses from dozens of different manufacturers, beer-making equipment and a few bits of memorabilia. The prices are excellent- just round the corner in the tourist heart of Ghent you could be paying up to 10 Euros for some of the more special lambics and gueuzes, yet in here most of the bottles are under 3 Euros each, many under 2 Euros. An absolute bargain. We took home as much as we could possibly carry. It's open to the public, they don't seem fussy about wholesale though there is a separate wholesale section. Beware the opening times though- they do close down for lunch every day, which I think is between 12.30 and 1.30. It feels a bit like a cheap supermarket, with cardboard boxes piled up from the floor, and some hand-written label notes. There is a small section of soft drinks, which is mainly bottled water. There's no guidance about 'best' beers or any real promotion of one beer above another- if you don't know much about Belgian beers you might want to read up on it first to make sure you don't buy the wrong ones... It's a minefield out there, with some absolutely amazing drinks, but a few not so good ones. I wish this shop was within walking distance of my house. If it were, I would be so drunk and happy I wouldn't be able to type.

Wonderful selection of beers, lots of local brews, Nogne, Brewdog, Westvleteren 12, glassware,…read morebeer-lover's paradise. if you are in Nord Pas Calais you have no excuse not to visit here

From the owner: La passion et son partage Entre la place des Héros et la Grand'Place, ce petit commerce caché sous…read moreles arcades arrageoises est l'expression d'une passion individuelle qui veut être partagée par son propriétaire. Ce dernier rassemble, en tant que connaisseur, le plus grand nombre de bières de toute nationalité, de la plus reconnue à la plus méconnue fabrication artisanale. On imagine avec difficultés une si grande variété de goûts que l'on ne finit pas de découvrir.

I passed this wine shop on my way to the Le Creuset outlet sale in Fresnoy le Grand. It was closed…read morefor lunch when I was on my way to the sale, but I made a mental note to stop on my way home. The reserves in the wine cellar at home were running low. In all honestly, this was the only shop that I really noticed on my hour long drive through the villages of northern France. There's a whole lot of nothin' up this way. The store was open on my way home and I was looking forward to bringing home some cases French wine to restock. The warehouse sale at Le Creuset is an annual treat, but my stop at Caves Nancy Greg was definitely the nicest part of my shopping trip! I made a loop through the store on my own to check out what they had in stock. I am no wine expect, but I have enjoyed one or two (ahem) bottles in my time. After my preliminary browse, the guy working there walked around with me and made recommendations. He was very friendly, and was happy to practice his english. Between his english and my french, we got along just fine. I picked up several different cases of wine across many price points - from a very delicious 4.80€ bordeaux to a st. emilion grand cru for 14€ (we haven't tried it yet.) After loading up a push cart with many boxes of wine, he asked me if I'd like to taste some wine. Would I? Would I? Bien sur!! We tasted at least 10 different wines, and I ended up buying some pommerol as well. Caves Nancy Greg is a nice wine shop in the middle-of-nowhere France, if you find yourself out that way, definitely stop by and pick up a bottle or 60. And the wine cellar is full at the Reed house. If you find yourself in the middle-of-nowhere Belgium, stop by, we'll pop a cork.