Les poissons en France

Thursday, September 03, 2009

To Infinity and Beyond....

Guy and Carla's holiday too soon came to an end and so on Tuesday I took them (and Yoda) up to Boulogne to the channel ferries. This in itself was a bit of a mission; we left at 5 in the morning and, stopping for breakfast and then dinner, we arrived at the ferry terminal just before 4pm. That's when the problems started. The ferry company are really only geared up for cars and so, 2 foot passengers arriving with a bike and a dog was a little outside the normal routine. Guy and Carla were told that, as they were 'cyclists' they had to line up and go through the controls with all of the cars! I got them to 'push' in to the line, not thinking that this would cause any problems. But.....the official booking everyone in could see all sorts of problems. All in all it took about 15 minutes of queries, phone calls, checks with supervisors before it was accepted that Guy, Carla and Yoda could proceed on to the boat. During this time we had irrate drivers demanding to know when they were going to be checked in... the queue was blocking the road and roundabout outside the terminal.... children were fractious in their car.......

Having cleared the hurdle of the booking in, they had to walk (carrying back packs, chest packs, holdalls, bike and dog in carrying box) past the passport control and then line up in 'Lane 5' with all of the cars before they could get on the ferry!!!!!!!

Guy subsequently told us that there was a very nice man on the boat who helped them with their bags, but they were very pleased to get to England and Carla's Dad who was waiting for them in Dover with a van to go on to Manchester.

On my way home, (the next day) I picked up our next guests, Aunty Pauline, Pat and Mel, at Limoges airport.

I slept well last night.

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