
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
In this page of my 2012 summer journal, we have left Belgium behind and have now crossed into northern France. We are headed for Calais … but not this time for the ferry terminal.
Instead today we are intending to take our first ever trip through the channel tunnel.
The entrance road is a lot longer than I thought it would be, but after a while we pass through the French customs checkpoint, there are plenty of signs in both French and English to direct you and following the request to have your passports ready for viewing would speed up any queues.
Even on this hot August afternoon there is surprisingly little traffic and Himself and I have time to wish a cheery hello to the French customs officials.
A short distance down the road we stop again for the British Boarder control and after a quick switch from French to English we request a stamp in the children’s passports (not usually allowed since they are travelling here on their Dutch passports and usually there are no stamps issued for EU passport holders).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)
After explaining that they just wanted it for decorative reasons so that they may have a souvenir of the journey they gave the children’s passports a stamp, but added “by request” next to them to absolve themselves of blame should the powers-that-be who might audit two small Dutch children’s passports take them to task for doing so.
I like the statue / Monument that is made up of pieces of the giant boring machine at made the actual tunnel… nice touch.
After successfully clearing customs and managing to not cause any international incidents by our request we then take a road that winds all over the place but ends up in a massive car park with some very large duty free shopping establishments along side.
It was hot so we had all the doors open in the parked up van and Little Mr., who since we were parked had removed his seatbelt provided some drama in the car park after wiggling on his booster seat whilst trying to retrieve some coloured pencils off the floor.
I was in the front passenger set of the van reaching back also searching the floor when to my horror Little Mr. disappeared suddenly from view… he’d managed to completely tumble out of the other side of the van, booster seat and all.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)
I got to him as fast as I could to assess the damage: luckily he was shaken rather than broken and a cuddle was all that was needed to stem the tears but it was a good warning that his booster seat slides on, rather than grips the car sear so we’ve had a lesson that he needs to be very careful if the van door is open from now on.
I’m not feeling like tacking the crowds inside the shopping area but Himself and Velvetine escort Little Mr. and Kiwi Daughter inside for toilet stops and try and track down a nice “Euro tunnel” fridge magnet for my collection.
No luck… either they missed them or the Tunnel is missing a souvenir idea opportunity. Never mind.
There are huge billboard signs detailing the status of the next train departures, they flash on and off alternately in English and French (logical) but what made us laugh were the rows and rows of “Grande-Bretagne” signs that I’m sure would look less comical when the car park was completely filled.
I laugh that surely the French don’t need signposts to England… after all haven’t they managed to find it perfectly well in centuries past whenever the mood for invasion prevailed? Once we are all refreshed and recovered we little band of Dutch and one Singaporean invader climb back into the van and use a “few” signs to point us in the direction of Grande-Bretagne.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)