Tom

If people don't show up for flights, does the airline get to keep the airport taxes etc? I was wondering if that is how they are able to make some money out of the flights for £1 deals. When the flights are so cheap probably lots of people make a speculative booking, but in the end decide not to go. If you had paid more for your fare you wouldn't want to waste it.

Didn’t realise some of them would have been escaping the war.   Maybe also the way of life in London, including the fog, was part of the attraction. They could live how they wanted without the feeling that everyone knew what they were up to.   Possibly why French people are attracted to London today, not that there’s much fog any more.

Between 1862 and 1904 loads of French poets lived in London. Apollinaire used to nip down the Northern line to visit his girlfriend in Clapham. Mallarmé said he hated London when there was no fog and that grey sky is good because "God cannot see you".    Rimbaud and Verlaine lived in sin. http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1354408,00.html  

Don't know about La Grande Motte but I recently read Atomised by Michel Houellebecq, and there is quite a lot in there about what happens on the nudist beaches in Cap D'Agde. Apart from that, it's an excellent book. It changes the way you think about things.

When Hoverspeed say they are selling the route, does this mean the time slots at the ports? Seems a bit odd that the route would be theirs to sell.

Do you know if  Transmanche is  run by local government in France?  

Newhaven/Dieppe is a very good route if you are travelling to Western France from South West or West London, especially with the fast ferry only taking 2 hours. I guess though that the ferry they are trying to sell to Transmanche isn't the fast one.

is quitting the Newhaven - Dieppe route next year and cutting Dover - Calais capacity by 15%. They are in talks with Transmanche with a view to them possibly taking over Newhaven- Dieppe. They blame increased fierce price competition with other operators and the budget airlines. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid84494 

Maybe it wasn't - there is a good conspiracy theory about that the e-voting was fixed   http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=9711&fcategory_desc=Under

perhaps it was simply a comment about the cycling.