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An easy journey but with a twist


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Came through the Tunnel last night back to France. Almost no cars on the train. Was early so went on earlier with no extra charge. Minimal check of papers by French passport control; I just handed him a plastic folder and he looked at those he wanted to. BUT, a new twist, my car was X rayed ( scanned actually) which is normally only done to vans. Their usual finds, apparently, are drugs, money and people ( presumably well scanned). Just keeping their hands in though I reckon it is because I have been over and back in a shortish time.

By the way, the link road from the Tunnel to the motorway to Paris was closed but the deviation is signposted though the signs are quite small. Up towards Calais the off at first exit, then round to motorway entrance which is a very small slip road!
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Our elder son & family returned to the UK yesterday after 2 weeks down here with us.

Their return was by ferry Calais - Dover. Virtually no serious checks of their documentation by check-in staff, nor UK Border Force nor French Douanes.

Basically, they could have been waving anything in their direction and it would have been OK.

All a bit daft really.

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We had a very easy journey.

Caen - Portsmouth then tunnel back.

No one gived a shît about customs or covid. We had all the paperwork...but nobody cared less.

Passed boths ways as if life was normal.

Brought back some Red Leicester cheese and some paint. By mistake of course. Yum Yum....ooooh Red Leicester cheese on toast with pepper. Mr Macron should try it. Better than the French awful stuff.

Our PCR day 2 tests arrived day 3. Phoned up (when back in France) and got a refund. And I have the tests for another trip....which I won't do of course and save them for trip three.

No one is in charge anymore.

BTW...life in the UK is brill. People are so so nice. You forget that don't you. I would move back to the UK tomorrow if I had the choice.
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We should be careful about suggesting that all the ‘Border people’ are sleepy & dopey. I was guilty of that in my previous post and that was wrong.

They’re trained in ‘passenger profiling’, so whilst this sort of thing is never foolproof, they’ll take more interest in potential ‘wrong uns’

However ......... ALBF got through with his cheese and paint. No amount of training can deal with a situation like that.

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I am hoping that now that I have swapped my van for an estate car they will take less interest in me in future. Not that I have anything to hide but it's a damned nuisance when the Douane soldiers take everything apart at services below Paris. I hope other travellers enjoyed seeing my smalls spread out in the car park. I was made to stand like a criminal while the boss man shoved his hands in my pockets to grab my wallet and ordered me not to move or speak.

In their fruitless search beneath the van, they even managed to damage the fuel pipe (using MY tools! - the cheeky sods) so I was leaking diesel from then on and lucky to complete my journey. They disappeared from the site before I discovered the damage but a French lorry driver who had been watching the commotion told me that was probably just as well as you can never win if you get angry with armed Douane bods. I couldn't interest the gendarmes either so had to pay for the repair myself. Not impressed.
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