Brexit finally ends channel Crossing

MerylStreep

Mamie
I can’t comment on other counties but I don’t think the French forgave us over Calais 😱

It was Agincourt that really upset them.

Katie59

MerylStreep

Mamie
I can’t comment on other counties but I don’t think the French forgave us over Calais 😱

It was Agincourt that really upset them.

Well, the Brits did cheat at Agincourt. All those archers. And they arranged for it to rain so that the horses got bogged down and fallen knights couldn't get up again.

Don't mention Waterloo. The Brits arranged for some strategic rain there, too. And cheated by hiding half the army on a reverse slope...

And the rugby! 🏉

Joseanne

And the rugby! 🏉

Especially the Rugby

We we never have any trouble like that in this bit of France. We are all Normans.
Reminds me of the EU parliament translation that made the Brits laugh.
"Il faut profiter de la sagesse normande" (We must all learn from Norman Wisdom).

LOL/MDR- this is hilarious - never heard this one before.

Worst official mis-translation I ever heard, and not funny at all, was at Masstricht. Jacques Delors said 'bien sûr, l'union fait la force'. (united we are stronger). And the interpreter said 'of course unions will have more power'. You should have seen Mrs Thatcher's face!

Fleurpepper

LOL/MDR- this is hilarious - never heard this one before.

Worst official mis-translation I ever heard, and not funny at all, was at Masstricht. Jacques Delors said 'bien sûr, l'union fait la force'. (united we are stronger). And the interpreter said 'of course unions will have more power'. You should have seen Mrs Thatcher's face!

There was also the agricultural policy about frozen semen which ended up as matelots surgelés. 😂

We are in France at the moment and have done the return trip twice this year already and we have only ever gone through immigration once each side of the channel. We have never been through French immigration in Portsmouth and never been through British migration in France.

M0nica

We are in France at the moment and have done the return trip twice this year already and we have only ever gone through immigration once each side of the channel. We have never been through French immigration in Portsmouth and never been through British migration in France.

Well, Mr M and I and 2 friends, and a load of other people in cars, went through French immigration at Portsmouth last Tuesday, 4th April, MOnica. Perhaps they put it on specially for us...

There was no UK immigration in France for the return journey. Just French passport control and an exit stamp. At Portsmouth we had to queue for ages to get through UK security, but that has happened since before Brexit,,,

I wonder if it could have been a special exercise MaizieD as there don't seem to be any comments about changes in border control on the Brittany Ferries forum. Out of interest, where in the port was the French control?

Maizie I can only talk of what we experienced on April 2nd, 14.45 ferry from Portsmouth, and on every other trip we have made over 35 years.

I think we can only assume that they put this extra check in specially for you - or did not do it for anyone on our boat because we were travelling and they know us so well they knew it was not necessary

Another traveller here who didn't encounter French immigration on outward journey last week (BF Portsmouth ~ St. Malo).
I am getting a bit nervous though about how it works for the dog now when I do the next trip with him in June. In the old days there was a hilarious cacophony of pets in the reception at St. Malo while BF chased round them with a chip scanner, and on the odd occasion made an urgent call to Defra to check.

As werll as the ticket check in, there is a separate security check at Portsmouth, where some vehicles are called in and the interiors and boots of cars examined and papers looked at in more detail. Whether you are pulled in or not is entirely random.

The other thing that happened recently was that, as we queued to go on the ferry a person who introduced themselves as from a specific government ministry (I cannot remember which) was carrying out market reearch and asked us a lot of questions about where we were going, for how long, where would we be staying etc etc.

Could either of these have been mistaken for extra checks by the French?

So just to confirm MOnica / Joseanne that they haven't built any new border control booths since we last came back in the car? Is it still just the initial BF check-in and the shed where they search the car (and passengers sometimes)?
Last time I came home as a foot passenger the terminal was heaving with people going on a cruise ship. I was stopped about 20 times by people saying "Fred Olsen?" and trying to take my suitcase. "Over my dead body", said I. (A cruise is my idea of hell). 😂

OK. I'm living in a parallel universe.

Tuesday 4th April

Portsmouth

First stop, check in, where tickets and passports were checked. Second Stop, Passport Control where passports checked and stamped. Third stop, Security where, it seemed, all cars were being put through and searched. Fourth stop - ferry.

I have just been and looked at Portsmouth ferryport onGoogle maps. The pictures were taken this year. It shows George Byng Way coming down into the port and the new ticket booths, finished in the last month or two, looking like two white outlined rectangular buildings intersecting a large linear carpark.

The carpark to the left of the ticket booth blocks contains a another white outlined rectangular in the top lefthand corner. This is where cars access the car park to reach the quayside and the building is the security area. Cars are chosen at random for security checks and while the security bays are occupied other traffic just goes round it, when checks are over they corall the next set of cars. Once past that you go straight to the linear par parks ready for loading.

This is exactly as it was on 2nd April when we went over and I simply cannot see where they could have placed any other checks.

What you describe Maizie is what happens at Ouistreham. There, you do go through the ticket booths and then separately through passport control, where your passport is stamped. We came home yesterday and that is exactly what we experienced

And The DM stirs trouble again and blames the French!!! Unbelievable.

Everyone in France has to have an identity card- and it used to suffice to come to UK. Now you need an expensive Passport and for many, and expensive Visa too for some in every class.

''The Daily Mail has decried French schools after it emerged many are now shunning trips to the UK in favour of Ireland.

Due to the increased bureaucracy of post-Brexit travel to the UK – which includes EU visitors needing to show a passport as opposed to a national identity cards, which many French students don’t have – some headteachers have shifted their focus to Ireland for simplicity.

Some French pupils from third countries also need a visa to enter the UK – which can cost €118 and require families to travel to major cities to collect.''

So yes, Ireland, Malta, and beyond for school trips. NOT the fault of the French

This is getting serious.

England’s pharmacies are on the brink of collapse – struggling with a shortage of staff and medical supplies – combined with increased patient demand and soaring costs, according to an industry survey shared exclusively with this programme.

Staff say that some patients are so frustrated by the supply problems, they’re getting aggressive.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the industry body which carried out the survey, says the Government and NHS need to step in now, before it’s too late.

Some French pupils from third countries also need a visa to enter the UK – which can cost €118 and require families to travel to major cities to collect.''

So yes, Ireland, Malta, and beyond for school trips. NOT the fault of the French sad

Although UK passports have a passport waiver to visit France a child with a non Schengen passport may also need a visa to travel to France. Probably not many in state schools, overseas children in private schools would be more numerous

Orient Express is latest casualty of brexit.

www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/15/brexit-orient-express-murder-london-folkestone-leg-route-border-delays

No need for Hercule then 😄

Do you really want British actors losing their job?

Fleurpepper

And The DM stirs trouble again and blames the French!!! Unbelievable.

Everyone in France has to have an identity card- and it used to suffice to come to UK. Now you need an expensive Passport and for many, and expensive Visa too for some in every class.

''The Daily Mail has decried French schools after it emerged many are now shunning trips to the UK in favour of Ireland.

Due to the increased bureaucracy of post-Brexit travel to the UK – which includes EU visitors needing to show a passport as opposed to a national identity cards, which many French students don’t have – some headteachers have shifted their focus to Ireland for simplicity.

Some French pupils from third countries also need a visa to enter the UK – which can cost €118 and require families to travel to major cities to collect.''

So yes, Ireland, Malta, and beyond for school trips. NOT the fault of the French

So we should go with just id cards should we., is it because the French can't afford passports. What do they do if they visit the US, or any other part of the world for that matter, cant use just ID cards then. Oh poor things. Most of the world needs passports to go anywhere. Ah well,thank to eu the UK school children visiting EU will need fingerprinting and facial recognition, to enter. That will probably stop our school children from visiting there. What say you on that eh. That will be the fault of eu. Won't it. By the way, if you visit UK from EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, for holidays, or short trips , they do not need a visa. See Gov.uk. please check before repeating falsehoods from the Guardian.

Explanation, Freya5, from the House of Commons Library on why your information is incomplete and thus your rather ranty answer is incorrect on several significant points.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/how-does-brexit-affect-eu-school-trips/

Freya- no, people who live in EU and other Schengen countries do not need a passport. Nor visas. And NO, it is not the EU that require finger printing and facial recognition- it is the UK!

Your post shows so little understanding - schools from the UK and France, Germany- have visited each other because they are so so close, reachable by train or coach in a few hours and because it was so simple and cheap. How do you think classes f school children, often from poor areas, would even consider visiting the USA and other parts of the world. Honestly???