Being a bit of a shopping enthusiast I’m always interested to see what’s hot and what’s not on the European high street – particularly when it comes to which British brands are doing well. It seems that the current UK exports that pop-up frequently are confined to the Body Shop and Lush. There are plenty of names that were once familiar in Britain that have now retreated, in Maastricht we even spotted a Tupperwear store – alas it was closed. C&A is the most familiar. I have fond memories of the C&A store in Coventry’s’ lower precinct, as when I was growing up the C&A ‘clock house’ range was right up my street. In the late 80s and 90s C&A was also pretty cool for affordable ski wear, which if you were going on a school skiing holiday (as I was) then a trip to C&A ski shop for the latest ski jacket and sallpettes was de-rigour. Being the 80s most of it was bright neon colours – goodness knows what we must have looked like!