Near where used to live in Kent you could see France. Not very well – basically you could see the faintest trace of something on the horizon. Mind you that would only be on the clearest of days. Not very often at all to tell you the truth. The coastline there does a good line in sea mist most days. One thing you could always see were the ferries though. Huge behemoths slowly making their way across the sea.
There was a time when you could get really cheap ferry crossings, with a car or van as well. I would go over every couple of weeks and load up with cheap wine, beer and spirits.I didn’t even realize that what I was doing was against the law, it wasn’t all strictly for personal consumption you see. Sadly those days are long past now. The price of taking a vehicle on a ferry crossing has quite literally gone through the roof. Its not just that though, the prices in the French supermarkets aren’t so cheap anymore and customs are much, much more fussy. The can crush your car if they decide you are bringing in to much, and the scary thing is that basically any amount of alcohol or cigarettes is enough to do this.
Quite aside from the risk of arbitrary vehicle destruction I have a big problem going on ferries. I am not a natural sea-fairer at all. Even on the calmest day I get very seasick. I had an invitation to go and meet a client on his yacht.It was so embarrassing, this was an occasion when I should have been making the most of an opportunity to go and enjoy a bit of millionaire lifestyle, to say nothing of maintaining a relationship with a very important client,instead I was being violently ill the entire time I was on. Needless to say it made a very bad impression. I don’t work for the chap anymore.
These days if I am going to France it has to be by air. I most confess that I have a secret love of flying, I can’t understand people who complain about it at all. I take quite a few flights to Paris every year. Sadly not as many to the south as I would like. Ah, well I do live in Devon so I really have nothing to complain about.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.