eurotunnel crossing and cite de Europe

jacquigem

jacquigem

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Anybody got any recent experience?
Due over Monday night
Cheers
David and Jacqui
 
jacquigem said:
Anybody got any recent experience?
Due over Monday night
Cheers
David and Jacqui
Click to expand...

this I have just took of another forum and thought it important to share with everyone, this is the ferry terminal at Calais but I would still be careful at the tunnel,
I certainly wouldn't stay at cite Europe, go a hour inland to park up,

This was this morning


I travelled back home today after a 2 week jaunt over to eastern France. Had a lovely 2 weeks and a few days in Paris.

I wasn't prepared for getting into the Ferry Port.

At 0930 I travelled down the main autoroute towards the port with a constant flow of others. My motorhome was loaded with two kids ( 11 weeks and 3.5 yrs old) and my wife. Kayak on the roof, bikes locked on the rear rack.

The traffic started to slow between the last two junctions , just after the old Eastenders Wine and Beer company building.

To my horror I saw my TV SCREEN, Playing the daily news out through my windscreen. A hord of men walking slowly down the ever slowing motorway.

Doors locked. Windows up.

The group at first started trying to get into the horse box in front of me, really viciously trying to break the locks. Some of the group walked past me and centered their attention on an Irish artic, even standing in his way to make him stop. The driver just kept moving slowly in his crawler gear, so the mob decided to pull anything and everything from behind his cab, under his trailer and get his refer doors open.
At this point, my back door gets pinged, the wife screams, and I have intruders!

I just out my seat, to the back of the van to see a man trying to steal my bottle of coolant (leaking engine! ) .
I recover my coolant and get back in the van locking the door, at which point I see people running to the rear of my van.....

We try to keep moving but I realise I'm now carrying some extra passengers ( the wife's screams as she looks at them through the heki bubble).

My drivers windows are now being bashed into to get my bottle of drink in the cup holder, and every single person past me is trying the doors, windows, locker hatches.

Slowly work out to drive really slowly but closely to the Irish truck my right hand drive to his left hand drive, until we reach the road block. An orange truck strap was being used to stop everyone on the road and backed up with cones. The group,were allowing cars past, and taking a few seconds to get it ratcheted back up taught. I decided that I was off, so floored it, aimed at the man in the road and his cones and sent them flying.

By now I was LIVID.

At the start of the new fencing stood a group of police officers and a van.

I stopped and told them I had people on the roof. Drive on Monsieur !

So I did, for a hundred metres or so, stopped and now incensed, climbed my roof to remove my stow aways. The first decided my angry rankings were sufficient to jump, the second decided he was still going to try and hide in my kayak!

A slight scuffle and a few punches later, my last visitor was removed, by which point the Police man had arrived and told me to stop hitting him!

A check of the roof box found no more visitors, but they had broken one of the box locks and stolen some securing straps.

The crows near my van where very pleasant chanting " **** you, **** you **** you" repeatedly.

I drive on up the road to where another police was parked and I get waved on, past a few more hundred immigrants walking inside the secure area!

A few people ask in the queue if we are ok, and my 3 year old, still shaken from the experience continues to ask about the bad men.

Get to the port and there is a big queue. Border checks reveal that there are numerous intruders in the port area, that the Chunnel is closed after a late night invasion, and the in coming vessels are UN able to un-load due to the immigrants on the quayside.

It took my the majority of the crossing and a large coffee to calm me down.

I'm 38 and a decent sized lad, enough to think twice about when angry. What would happen to others not as aggressive / impulsive ?

When waiting in the port we queued up behind a German registered caravan. They were sticking their rear wind shut after it had been ripped open curtain torn and 6 people got in. They were panic stricken.

I hear stories about poor this and poor that. The people I encountered were not weak, starving people. They were fit and strong young aggressive men forcing their hands, mob rule style to get into the UK. There were no women or children, just young men, dressed for action.

I work long and hard hours to pay for my family holidays and these actions are not right. There isn't too much damage to my van, but the reputation of Calais had gone to the dogs. I've written to both the ferry company and town council for Calais, and replied to comments on a BBC WEB story about the Eurotunnel, but they don't want to know.

I wanted to share my interesting experience with you guys and remind you to lock up, close up and don't have anything valuable on offer.

My dash cam recorded it, but I left it running and after 10 minutes it wipes itself.
 
This is organised violence.
I think we will be safer parked at Cite Europe than driving down the road to the port.

Having said that, David and Jacqui please report your experiences when you go, as we are through the tunnel (we hope) Wednesday night.
 
We came back in Sept and there was a lot of Police but we didn't see any immigrants near the port
 
Why post an experience copied from another forum (hearsay?) that is specifically about approaching the ferry port in the morning.
The question was about the tunnel & Cite Europe & the OP is going at night.

We have used the tunnel at night twice & parked at Cite Europe four times in the last year. We have never seen any trouble, any crowds & very few migrants. I honestly think that they go to bed fairly early. Yes, they are in the bushes at the edge of the Cite Europe motorhome parking during the day & evening. If anyone chases them away they just say "OK OK" & leg it to try their luck later.

FYI (before El Veterano comes on mis-quoting All the Aires as he usually does).

All the Aires France - North 2015 - "Due to proximity to Channel tunnel use additional locks and set alarm."
Click to expand...

If any member on here has recent expereince of Cite Europe & the tunnel I would be glad to hear them.
 
We came back through the tunnel at the end of July. Intention was to park overnight at Cite Europe but the immigrants were gathering in great crowds, very intimidating. We therefore went on to tunnel and spent overnight in their car park. We could still see through the fence great numbers of immigrants gathering. We were held up at departure next morning till the police could get hordes of immigrants off the freight trains.
 
we went from Dover to Dunkirk earlier this year and there was not an immigrant in sight. Wonder how the situation is there now?
 
Sharon the Cat said:
Why post an experience copied from another forum (hearsay?) that is specifically about approaching the ferry port in the morning.
The question was about the tunnel & Cite Europe & the OP is going at night.

surely it's up to the original OP to make there mind up about parking with as much information given by people who have just come back,
admittingly the post from the other forum spoke about the ferry but that is a five minute drive from the tunnel,
I used the tunnel last month and except for a delay of a hour for problems in the tunnel( they wouldn't elaborate on the reason) we didn't have a problem, Plenty of police and a few immigrants walking around outside the terminus,
we will be using the tunnel again at the end of this month and will keep a eye on any developments that may change our minds,
what ever anybody says becomes hearsay to a third party! so by that definition all the information on a public forum becomes hearsay except for the OP,

we stopped at Cite Europe on a Sunday before coming back and I personally wouldn't stay over night with many better places to park within a hour of the tunnel,
Click to expand...
 
Thanks everybody for all your contributions.
I think we will do what we usually do and see what citie looks like and decide then. Our crossing is quite late in the day so hopefully any troublemakers will be tucked up.We did cross from France late July without issue but given the above extra reasons to be careful.
Will report back !

David and Jacqui
 
Came back last Monday night. No problems. Stayed in Calais Saturday and Sunday at the aire right next to the port no problem. Went to the wine warehouse on the industrial estate right next to the jungle Monday afternoon got all our wine saw maybe 6 people who might have been refugees. No problems. At the entrance to the jungle was the usual police van with 2 police officers .
But I think it best that no mh's go over or caravans or coaches . More room for me and there's bound to be offers for the ones who want to risk everything for cheap wine ( me) lol
BTW we caught the 18.50 ferry. And what a bargain that was. £61.80 single for 7mtr van 3 adults and the dog. No codes or clubs discounts used.
 
Last used tunnel crossing in Aug & Sept. Left UK on 21st Aug, 3 hour delay because of people on track. Lots of people roaming about in Calais, lots of police too, saw no trouble though.

Returned on 6 Sept, just a handful of immigrants roaming about along roadsides, no delays, no trouble.

I've never stayed at Cite de Europe though, after a cup of tea and a nap on the train I'm usually good for a few hours driving, no matter what time I cross.

If I've got an early return crossing, I have used these places, and various lay-bys.

50.51380, 1.635606

50.57619, 1.645138
 
Hi, we arrived at Calais port wednesday evening, stayed overnight and caught the 7.45 ferry thursday morning.

Very quiet with a visible police presence.

The only change I noticed is that the average amount of motorhomes & caravans also staying overnight has dropped considerably, only three of us.

Dezi
 
Came over on the tunnel early Tuesday morning, arrived Calais about 5.15am. Plenty of groups of refugees wandering about but they obviously were not interested in hitching a lift going south. Pulled into garage just after terminal to set sat navs, young lads wandering around, we didn't feel threatened but we did feel sorry for them.
Pat
 
We are out next Sunday on the 18:50 tunnel, and we will not be staying anywhere near Cite Europe when we pack it in for the night. We are on a single ticket out and not sure when we are coming back, but almost certainly it will not be Calais to Dover (more likely Dieppe to Newhaven). So far as driving into the port at Calais is concerned I would strongly advise to not use the link road but to use the roads directly through town, which is the old route to the ferry terminal that we all used to use long before the link road was built.
And for Sharon the Cat's benefit, I'm afraid it is not a misquote (I truly wish it was) in my 'All the Aires' about not staying overnight at Cite Europe, and when I retrieve the book from the camper I will photocopy the page a stick it on here.
 
mark61 said:
Last used tunnel crossing in Aug & Sept. Left UK on 21st Aug, 3 hour delay because of people on track. Lots of people roaming about in Calais, lots of police too, saw no trouble though.

Returned on 6 Sept, just a handful of immigrants roaming about along roadsides, no delays, no trouble.

I've never stayed at Cite de Europe though, after a cup of tea and a nap on the train I'm usually good for a few hours driving, no matter what time I cross.

If I've got an early return crossing, I have used these places, and various lay-bys.

50.51380, 1.635606

50.57619, 1.645138
Click to expand...


Thanks for this, are they Aires? Wife usually draws the line at lay byes!
 
We came back a week last Friday with no issues at tunnel. There had been a news story of increased security and delays but we saw nothing early afternoon.
 
We used the chunnel one way (Folkstone-Calais) early September, and did not even see an immigrant, but we are using the chunnel early Wednesday morning from Folstone, and coming back the following Sunday lunch time. We will be prepared however, locked up and ready, just in case.
 
Never had any trouble at Cite Europe. There used to be a small group sleeping rough in the bushes in the carpark, but the bushes have been cut down now, so they have nowhere to congregate.
We always catch an evening ferry, and park at Cite Europe to get a good night's sleep, before cracking on in the morning. No probs.
 
We stayed over night at Cite Europe last December with no problems but I am still not to sure about the place and even if we in the right part of it,we were in the carpark at the back overlooking the terminal and opposite the Supermarket entrance.
I may have a rethink on the return crossing in January.

Snowbirds.:dance:



RoaminRog said:
Never had any trouble at Cite Europe. There used to be a small group sleeping rough in the bushes in the carpark, but the bushes have been cut down now, so they have nowhere to congregate.
We always catch an evening ferry, and park at Cite Europe to get a good night's sleep, before cracking on in the morning. No probs.
Click to expand...
 
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