France via Eurotunnel Post Reply

[Mum2two2012]

We are leaving for France and am really worried about all the negative press that is around about the traffic etc.

Has anyone travelled to France via Eurotunnel in the last week? Is it as bad as they are saying?

[topmama]

We are going in a couple of week too, so keen to hear any replies.

[denshort]

We went over early Friday, 17th July and back last Saturday, 25th. Operation Stack was in place (M20 closed to cars so they can use it to control the lorries) so you need to allow extra time to get there.

When we were on our way back we were checking twitter and there were major delays with checking in and to the UK-Calais direction, but no issues Calais-UK.

Twitter was actually really useful for tracking what was happening.

Good luck!

[london_maman]

My sister in law went 2 days ago with husband and 3 kids and it took 12 hours to go from Bucks to Paris... Mainly because of being stuck for hours before boarding the Eurotunnel... Such a pain...

[sophieb]

We're heading that way in a few weeks too, and I've actually decided to book a back up ferry crossing as don't want to risk being sat waiting in a hot car with a ratty toddler for hours (reckon my husband might start throwing a few tantrums too!).

[Vanillalatte]

We are travelling on Friday so I'm also keeping my fingers crossed. Eurotunnel has an excellent twitter account @LeShuttle which updates minute by minute to notify of any timing delays, suggests alternative traffic routes to the terminal and also responds to personal queries. I'd recommend keeping an eye on that.

[lemonzest]

My parents are doing UK->France via Le Shuttle today. I've told them that the people of SW London require full updates on their progress.

They use this route regularly, and have decided henceworth to avoid travelling via (this was the last journey they'd pre-booked via the frequent traveller scheme).

[Mum2two2012]

Thanks for all your responses.

We have arrived in France. We had booked the 6.36am train to Calais and decided to take the A roads. However, we started on the M25 then saw that all our exits were closed. Fortunately we left at 2.45am and arrived and 5.35am after numerous "debates" with each other and Ms SatNav.

On arrival we were also directed aside, (one of three cars) where they went round our car checking our handles, and boot handle. They asked us a few questions such as whether this was our car, whether we packed our car and whether we had anything to declare? We have been travelling via this method to France for 8 years and have not experienced this before. To be honest we not really sure what they were checking for as they ran a covered pole over all our handles and then repeated this with a gloved finger. They did not actually look inside our boot or car.

We are hoping our journey home will be just as smooth. Please, if anyone is travelling back over the next week from Calais or so and have any advice please do post.

[Hyde Ranger]

I'm afraid this post is going to make me look like a mean old scare-mongerer but I have to say we've just had a horrendous time both crossing to and returning from France (the bit in between, while actually in France, was wonderful though!). I think we got our timings terribly wrong. We went down Friday before last in the evening, and operation stack was in place. The detour added over an hour to our journey - my heart goes out to people living along that detour -how do they live their lives normally when the roads around them are that gridlocked at certain times? We were supposed to check in at 7.20 but missed this by about half an hour.
When we arrived we found there had been 'an incident in the tunnel'. What this actually meant was desperate people had got into the tunnel and some had lost their lives. We were put on a car-train but ended up sitting there (right next to the loos, lovely!) until after 1am our time with practically no information from Eurotunnel except what we could glean from their twitter account. Some people were saying disgusting things on Twitter - yes it is horrible sitting there, not knowing when you are going to get moving, but human beings have died, which really should put your delayed holiday in perspective.
We ended up getting to our stopover hotel in Rouen at 5.20 am - time for a few hours sleep and a shower!
The return (last night) was less horrendous, but again there had been 'an incident' in the tunnel - I don't know if anyone died, I pray not - our crossing this time was delayed by just over 90 minutes. It felt worse as we had arrived over an hour earlier than necessary hoping to be put on an earlier crossing (always possible in previous years). We had naively assumed that being a Tuesday night we'd have an easier time of it!
All this said, I think we just managed to go for crossings that coincided with major incidents in the tunnel. We spoke to a lady in France whose son had crossed without incident this Friday night, so it probably really is all in the timing. I really did regret not going for the ferry at Portsmouth - ironically I'd thought we'd save time with the Tunnel! I do think Eurotunnel could give more information, or turn people away before check-in, but then I presume they are trying to save business. We did find it stressful, especially as it was part of a long drive on the French side and therefore a lot of arrangements were thrown out the window, but as I said to my grumbling teenagers, we are fortunate to have lovely holidays in the French countryside, and for this delay to be a big deal for us, while these poor people are risking their lives, through a combination of desperation and naivety about the dangers.

[Hyde Ranger]

Oh dear - sorry that turned out to be quite an essay!

[juliantenniscoach]

Operation Stack has been relocated to a nearby airfield. We came back Monday and the roads were fine. Passport and Customs control in Calais however are now fully enforced and we missed our scheduled crossing. However timings are a mess and we were only delayed 45mins. Good luck everyone.