Travel Articles - Travelling Around France

Travelling to and around France -

Leaving the city of Paris and travelling north towards the ports of northern France we pass by Charles de Gaulle International Airport, which is just 23 kilometres north-east of Paris. It is the city's largest airport and was one of the first in Europe to boast an integrated train system serving it. The rapid TGV train reaches central Paris in approximately 45 minutes, Disney World in ten and Brussels in an hour. The airport has three terminals which are connected by free shuttle buses and handle over 200,000 passengers and more than 6000 tons of baggage and freight daily.

Travelling on the A1 motorway we are heading towards the low lands of France and the first place we drive near is Amiens, in Picardy, located on the River Somme and the scene of many battles in both world wars, including the particularly bloody Battle of the Somme in 1916.

The Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame was erected in the 13th century and is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is France's largest cathedral and its 42 m-high nave is also a national record.

The problem is that once you have travelled this far in order to take the channel crossing usually visiting touristy places isn’t the first thing on one’s mind, but there are equally just as nice places to interest you here as during the previous part of the journey. Arras for instance has a vast cobbled market square in the centre of the town and it’s charming historic town hall and 17th century Flemish houses are a must see. Underneath the square runs a labyrinth of tunnels carved into the chalk rock and here was where the inhabitants of Arras used to store food and wine as well as seek refuge in times of war. After seeing Provence and Paris, arriving in Arras is almost like another country, as it resembles the buildings and houses more fitting to Belgium or Germany rather than France.

Leaving Arras behind, we make our way to the northern coast of France. The choice of transport for the traveller at this point is usually a personal taste, whether it is from the ports of Calais or Boulogne, via ferries or hover craft or the Channel tunnel route.

Port de Calais situated on the most frequented shipping lanes in the world is the port, par excellence, for cross Channel links between Britain and the European mainland. Every day car ferries, hovercraft and catamarans provide more than 60 services a day on the Dover-Calais route.

Calais, the town has many interesting features. There used to be walls surrounding the town and although these have long since gone, the canals forming a moat round the walls can still be seen to-day. My impressions of Calais, sadly, are ones of tiredness and damp weather, because very often it would rain here with an extremely cold wind and all you can think of it getting onto that ferry.

The other ferry crossing, not so widely used now, is Boulogne at the mouth of the river Liane, and France's biggest fishing port. It has been important since Roman times when it was the main link for trade and military movements between Roman Gaul and Britain. English king Henry VIII besieged and briefly captured Boulogne from his base in Calais. The stone cannon balls used at the time, can still be seen in the crypt of the Cathedral. The town, which was Napoleon’s base as he prepared for invasion of England in 1802-5, now is host to a monument outside the town in his honour, with Napoleon's statue on top, originally looking out across the Channel to the land he planned, but never captured. After Napoleon was defeated in 1815, the French monarchy came back to the throne and English people could again visit Boulogne. Amongst these was the English painter Turner who left many sketches and water colours of seascapes, sunsets and scenes of fisher-folk around the coast. At the present time, most of the ferries run the slightly shorter route between Dover and Calais, and so Boulogne, has been abandoned by the major ferry operators in their battle with the tunnel.

The Channel Tunnel is one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure projects ever. It is 31 miles long, and on average 150 feet deep under the seabed. Eurotunnel is the operator of the high speed transport system which links the UK and France through the Channel Tunnel, running between Folkestone and Calais. Folkestone, in Kent is the home of Le Shuttle euro tunnel passenger terminal which takes freight, car and foot passengers via the Channel Tunnel to Calais / Coquelles. There are over 53 channel crossing daily, usually 35 minutes in duration.

Due to leave England finally at the end of November 1996, by car, having already moved our personal and larger belongings to Spain and France a few weeks earlier, we had booked on Le Shuttle. The reason for our decision was that we had our cat and small dog to think about. We didn’t want them left on the car deck of a ferry; we didn’t want to wait in a queue with the pre Christmas one day shoppers with their free special offer newspaper vouchers, so we booked Club Class. When taking Club Class, you always leave on the next train, after arriving at Euro tunnel, you never have to wait.

The best laid plans of mice and men as the saying goes. Just a few days before our departure, the famous ‘Fire’ took place in the tunnel. This meant the closure of the tunnel for some time and we were forced to go by ferry or not at all. We chose the ferry. Which route you chose I will leave to you. Next week we will begin our journey back into Spain following the more westerly route through France.

Article provided by kind permission of The Leader Newspaper (Written by Jill Attfield)

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