We are on our way back from the UK and have rented a gîte near Honfleur for a few days.
The journey was typically gruelling on the UK side. We were up at 4.30am to pack up and set off at 6.00 and by then the motorways were already busy, at least fifty percent of the traffic being lorries or vans in a hurry to get to work on a Monday morning. After five hours of relentlessly hard driving we arrived at the tunnel to find the car park packed. This has led us to another observation about the non benefits of Brexit.
At both terminals, i.e. Calais and Folkestone, there have been massive changes to the infrastructure. Not the rolling stock, which is the same as when the tunnel first opened thirty years ago, but to the car parking and buildings. This is to provide for all the checking and stamping of passports, the biometrics (fingerprints and photos) necessary since Brexit. No wonder our tickets cost three times as much as before; the money for all this has to come from somewhere. Pre Brexit (PB) we could buy a frequent travellers ticket, paid for in advance it provided ten crossings at around £50 each, so a round trip for £100. It now costs a minimum of £300 per round trip, depending on the time of travel.
And yet, although the terminal was rammed with people both ways, the trains were leaving less than full, because even with all this new infrastructure and effort that’s gone into shuffling carfuls of passengers around, the customs officers were not fast enough to get people through and onto the trains on time. Timings were all over the place and basically any car that was ready was being waved through into the endless queue for passport control.
All so pointless, too, thanks to Brexit and the electorate’s paranoia about foreigners.
Anyway, first impressions of the gîte are that it’s one of the best we have ever had. Nicely furnished, comfortable and with a perfect private enclosed garden for Hugo. We’re looking forward to exploring Honfleur itself later today.
