P&O Ferries has been the link between Britain and France for many decades. John Hillman takes the opportunity to wish the French Republic a very happy birthday.

Bon Fete Nationale! Today is Bastille Day and as celebrations take place across France, to mark the most important day in their calendar, we would like to take this opportunity to offer our neighbours our warmest salutations.

The 14th of July marks the day in 1789 when the citizens of Paris, convinced of an imminent attack from royal forces, launched a full scale assault on the Bastille, a Parisian prison and military stronghold that was widely viewed as a symbol of monarchical despotism.

The event, which led to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, was a tipping point in world history and one of the most significant events to take place in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire.

It was a political revolution that fused with Britain’s industrial revolution to give birth to the modern world of liberal democracy and capitalism that we all know today but, unfortunately, not without a great deal of bloodshed and misery first, as is the human-beings way.

Today Nikolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni will be hosting a garden party at the Palais de l’Elysée, the cream of the French military will be parading down the Champs-Élyées and outside Paris French workers will be keeping the spirit of the revolution alive by threatening to blow up a factory unless they get paid. Vive la Revolution!

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Image Credit: The Alieness Gisela Giardino

Tags: France, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by John Hillman
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Peter Moore looks at P&O’s identity as a ‘British’ shipping company

In a global market, where our pineapples come from Costa Rica, our lamb from New Zealand and our beer from Denmark, it’s comforting to see P&O Ferries sourcing their produce from Britain.

Each ferry is filled daily with a supply of local fruit and vegetables, most of which come from the farms of C.J. Bean & Sons, just 10 miles from Dover port. They carry British meats, pies, pasties, ice creams, eggs, cider and beers – one of the most popular of which is the Kentish Spitfire brew.

It’s a policy to which P&O are deeply committed. On their official website they underline the lengths to which they go to locate these supplies. They abide by the terms of the Great English Apple Campaign, the British Potato Council and the English beef and lamb executive.

This drive to keep P&O’s products ‘British’ reflects an important strand of the company’s identity. For years they have been strongly associated in the public mind with the south eastern tip of England: with the white cliffs, the Dover harbour and the green countryside which rolls behind. It’s a link that they are trying to preserve.

And by neglecting the allure of the global market in favour of the neighbouring countryside, P&O are doing much more than proping up local businesses. By not having to cart cheap food around the world in the usual bizarre manner, P&O are doing much more than many others companies to reduce their impact on the environment.

Just like any other nation, we British are people of habit – always attracted back to the familiar. And, after those two weeks under the sun in your Breton gite, chewing on baguettes, local ham and strong cheese, you can head for Calais with an extra pang of anticipation. Walkers crisps, Melton Mowbrays, Kentish Spitfire and Cornish Clotted Cream. They’re all closer than you could ever have imagined.

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imagfe credit: ian_keven

Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Peter Moore
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There was a time when P&O Ferries had a rather more ornate name and sailed past Calais all the way to to Hong Kong. Peter Moore explains all.

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If you step back and think about it for a minute, the speed with which the British have recoiled into their post-colonial shell is really quite impressive.

100 years ago the world looked very different. The British Empire stretched like a blanket from Melbourne to Montreal, covering half of Africa and the whole of India in between. Boys from Eton and Harrow were despatched to distant outposts where they waved wooden sticks at locals, drank gin and shot elephants for supper.

From a London office in 2009, it all seems quite unreal.

But for all the ills of the Empire (and there were many), this 19th century world does seem far more colourful and exciting. And while we are sat at our desks, worrying about Excel spreadsheets and SMART targets, it’s always worth remembering the Victorian explorers and adventurers that got on perfectly well without ever having heard of a self-help business book.

P&O Ferries played a part in this world. They weren’t, of course, known as P&O Ferries then but rather more grandly as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company – a glorious name that I wish they’d bring back.

While P&O Ferries concentrate their attention today on the shipping routes between Dover and Calais, Hull and Rotterdam or Zeebrugge and Portsmouth and Bilbao, their scope back in the mid-19th century was much wider.

The following extract gives you a flavour of the routes seven of their steamers took back in the mid-19th century.

“A contract was made, 1st January 1845, with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for a line of similar steamers, seven in number, from England to the East Indies and China, at £160,000 sterling or $800,000 per annum.”

“This line passes from Southampton, via Gibraltar and Malta, to Alexandria, in Egypt; thence the route continues overland to Suez, at the heart of the Red Sea, from whence the steamers again start, touching at Aden, Bombay, and at Point de Galle, in the island Ceylon, from whence they proceed to Singapore and Hong Kong.”

(From a report by the American Colonization Society to the House of Representatives in August 1850)

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image credit: Norman D Leventhal Map Centre at the BPL

Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Peter Moore
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Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Peter Moore
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From the mountains of Sierra Nevada to the coastline of Cantabria John Hillman looks at a hotel chain unlike any other.

There are few places in the world where you can enjoy the radiant luxury of a five star hotel coupled with the historical fascination of a medieval castle.

Imagine being able to book a night in a luxury sweet, complete with four-poster bed and a fine-dining restaurant, in the Tower of London or Lambeth Palace?

Welcome to the world of Los Paradores, Spain’s luxury state-owned hotels set in unique historical buildings across the country.

There are more than 85 in total, some in converted Moorish fortresses, others in medieval monasteries, 15th Century convents or fairy tale castles. Often surrounded by sweet scented gardens, and the ruggedly dramatic scenery associated with the Spanish landscape, there are very few other countries that offer visitors such a genuinely unique experience.

Paradors, meaning “stopping places”, began life when King Alfonso XIII decided to kick start the Spanish tourist industry back in 1923 by offering state sponsored luxury accommodation and since then the number has grown and grown.

The restaurants in each one offer excellent locally sourced recipes and are widely considered the height of foodie sophistication for any budding Jamie Olivers amongst you.

A true romantic driving holiday around northern Spain could feasibly consist of a short drive to a new region and a different luxury experience every night. If you take the Pride of Bilbao with P&O Ferries and drive the short distance to San Sebastian you can experience the Parador de Hondarribia, a hotel set in a 10th Century Castle built by the King of Navarre that looks out across the Atlantic from its elevated cliff-top position. Spectacular.

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image credit: wili hybrid

Tags: Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Spain by John Hillman
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Fed up of being swindled by budget airlines?  John Hillman certainly is.

You sit at home staring at the page on the website, clutching your credit card in your trembling hand, tiny beads of sweat dripping down your furrowed brow. “Don’t do it, you’ll regret it later,” says the sensible voice, you know, the one that you owe all the good stuff in your life to.

But there’s another more seductive noise working its magic. “Go on, everybody does it,” says the silky voice with the smooth Irish lilt, “go on, go on, go on.” You cave in, “what the hell?” you think, and begin punching your details into the keyboard. Sold.

That’s it, you’ve done it, and a couple of months later you’re going to have to face the consequences. Your wife will try to pretend that she understands, but deep down she’ll resent it, your kids meanwhile will just openly hate you, while you sit there ashamed and humiliated, waiting for what seems like an eternity as the officials finish with the hardened repeat offenders, the ones who knew to pay extra for priority boarding.

There is a reason why 17.4 million people took the ferry to France last year while only 12 million flew. Ok so P&O Ferries is the only service to France that lets foot passengers take dogs, but I don’t think that there are 5.4 million dog owning hiking enthusiasts out there.

No, the simple fact is that we are fed up with the endless restrictions of air travel – being charged to check in luggage, the queues, the cattle-pen security checks, those jolly little surprise charges, like the abominable ‘checking in fee’ I had to pay (20 euro twice, once each way) when I flew to Bologna two months ago.

Basically when it comes to the continent you want to walk out your front door, get in your car and drive, get out of your car for a nice spot of lunch and a dreamy gaze across the English Channel, then back into the comfort of your own wheels, Dad Rock IV turned up to 11, for a spin down to wherever it is you plan to spend your summer break.

When it comes to the family holiday you want it start immediately, not after a group of venture capitalist have taken their pound of flesh. So strike a blow for the civilized British tourist; you can take our free in-flight drinks, our seats and our toilet facilities, but you’ll never take our alternative travel options!

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image credit: nedrichards

Tags: Lifestyle by John Hillman
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Driving holidays suffer in the UK because we associate cars with commuting to work. John Hillman on why we should all remember to value the old motor-holiday and embrace the freedoms they provide.

“Some sunny Sunday very soon, just drive an Overland up to your door – tell the family to hurry the packing and get aboard – and be off with smiles down the nearest road – free, loose, happy – bound for green wonderlands.” Saturday Evening Post, 1929

The world never stands still and neither do we. Unfortunately, in today’s world, we tend to labour under the belief moving forward is a bad thing.

Ask a person what they think of cars today and you can bet good money that the words “traffic” “pollution” and “cost” come up in the first few sentences. The commuter belts across Britain have ensured that cars have become a problem, a chore, a guilt-trip.

We’ve spent so much time sitting in jams on our way to work that the old idea of the car as a symbol of freedom has been crushed. The environmental problems associated with petrol engines are so ingrained, in our guilty consciences, that younger generations associate the whole idea of propulsion with everything that’s bad in the world.

But we shouldn’t forget that there was a time when cars ushered in a new age of adventure, when they rescued thousands of people from the parochialism of their daily lives and let them spread their wings and explore the world around them for the very first time.

Suddenly those horizons were just a few minutes away, simply apply a bit of pressure to the accelerator and you are master of your own universe, sitting back in the comfort of your own armchair, taking in the landscape as you speed through, locked, in your own small world, whilst out exploring the big one. Like the cinema, which came along at almost the same time, this new technology democratised time and space; all of a sudden you didn’t have to be rich to see a mountainous sunset or a cascading waterfall, to know your own land.

P&O Ferries began life in the 1960s at the height of this golden age of motoring, in Britain, and in many ways still represents these romantic values. By giving average British families access to the miles and miles of tarmac on the other side of the English Channel, P&O effectively opened up the whole of Western Europe to two weeks of high octane improvised fun and discovery.

There still is no better way to get know your continent than in the comfort of your own car, your ‘home from home’. Small villages, national parks and the best cities are all just a wish away when you have the freedom of the road, a sentiment captured succinctly in a motorist’s guide book from the 1950s:

“Be your own gypsy; abandon all rules and directions.”

There was even a time, around the 1930s, when people actually believed that the advent of the caravan would lead many of us to return to our ancestor’s wandering nomadic ways for good.

The road today may be well travelled, the problems associated with motoring very real, but never give up on the values that the car once symbolised: the freedom to roam, to explore new lands, make new friends and, above all, to know the world you live in.

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Image Credit: zsoul

Tags: Belgium, Britain, France, Lifestyle, Netherlands, P&O Ferries, Spain by John Hillman
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