Can anyone remember what it was like catching the boat train to Dover and then the Ferry from there to Dunkirk...........? I made the trip once in either 69 or 70 - was most amazed when boarding the train to Paris in Dunkirk to be given a newspaper , cup of coffee and a croissant at 5.30 am - could not read French - but it was a great souvenir .
The return trip was not so pleasant - we boarded the Ferry quite late at night and the weather was foul . Halfway across the Ferry stopped because of a problem with the engines and most of the passengers congregated in the lounge. It became bitterly cold drifting down the channel plus being dark & gloomy - having bought two bottles of Bisquit Cognac for the then GFs mother we decided to open and share them around - some other passengers donated more items of food & drink and we all became a bit more cheerful after that - and it helped with the cold......... . Then there was another delay in Dover as we were late arriving by about 4 hours or so .
After that we found out there was a special concession airfare to Paris for students ( 5 quid I seem to recall ) as long as you traveled over a weekend - Friday night to Sunday night - so you could either stay the weekend or for a week and so on. So having experienced Ferry travel decided to use that mode of travel instead for the next few trips............