Well that was unexpectedly painless. We took the Friday off and headed for France after work on Thursday. And although the advance warning signs said that the M25 was horribly clogged up clockwise, we were of course going anticlockwise. And when we got there, the constipation had gone away.
Which left just the tunnel. No delays. In fact we actually caught the S train instead of the T we were booked on. So an hour ahead of time. Result!
The newspapers and even ITN News have been blaming delays on the would-be immigrants in Calais. When of course the immigrants have been taking advantage of delays caused by striking ferry workers to stow away on lorries. But there were neither immigrants nor ferryworkers visible when we arrived. What we did see was a lot of extra security.
We were directed to turn left off the train and went the wrong way along what looked like a new road which we hadn't seen before. I think it must be part of the big new investment for freight traffic - I wrote about this a few weeks ago. Do pay attention at the back!
We drove through extra security gates manned by Eurotunnel bods, and past cop vans and gendarmes, obviously on the qui vive for people trying to break into the premises. But there were no delays... Straight through and onto the A16 autoroute south, albeit from a different direction than usual.
The return journey was a bit more wearing. We had a delay of about an hour and a half. No obvious reason for it. But I had a nice chat with a man from Tunbridge Wells who was just back from a week in Burgundy, and then a fellow from a radio station in the Netherlands came over to do a vox pop about migrants. So the time passed quickly!
I told the Dutchman the story of Dick Whittington, and how 600 years ago he came to London because he had heard that the streets were paved with gold. Interesting how people who haven't been to London still seem to believe it!
