Why on earth would the French be trying to claim Calais as English? Peter Moore investigates

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On the first day of her last year in her miserable reign as Queen of England, Mary Tudor – or Bloody Mary, as she was to be remembered – woke up to discover that Calais had been lost to the French.

It was a desperate blow. Calais was to the Tudors what Gibraltar became to Georgians during the empire-building days later on. It was a toe-hold on the Continent: a place for plotting, for trading, for spying and for peacocking. And in 1558 – for the first time in a good few hundred years – it was gone.

‘When I am dead and opened,’ the terminal Queen complained to her doctor shortly before she died, ‘you shall find Philip (the Spanish King and her husband) and Calais lying in my heart.’

Any sensible person would have concluded that Calais had been lost forever. But four hundred and fifty two years later, in one of this year’s more peculiar twists, a number of French politicians are attempting to realign Calais’ identity as ‘British.’ And what’s more, they are doing it without being asked.

Their motivation for such an odd move is to cash in on the expected millions that will be accompanying the Olympic Games into London in 2012. Calais, a number of town councillors have asserted, is a perfect destination for hundreds of travelling athletes, fans and journalists.

‘We are the south of England and because we’re the south of England it’s normal that we would associate ourselves with this extraordinary event,’ claimed Dominique Dupilet, the chairman of the Pas de Calais regional council.

Mr. Dupilet is at the centre of a drive to rebrand the town in anticipation of the Games. New hotels are being constructed alongside expensive training facilities, bars and restaurants.

Moreover, Mr. Dupilet contends that as Calais is perfectly served by a continuous flow of ferries and trains that it excellently positioned to carry visitors into London in record speed.

‘It will take no more time to get to events than if you’re in North London,’ he told the Times.

What might appear to be a rather far-fetched plan has already achieved a touch of validity after officials signed a contract with Chad’s boxing, wrestling, judo and athletics teams. More recently the canoe and kayak teams from Uzbekistan and Senegal also added their names to the list.

It is a peculiar story and one which reminds us that national identities are no longer fixed – but fluid. We now live in a world where a city or town might be willing to swap it allegiance or identity for a short space of time in return for a few pennies and a bit of attention.

Goodness knows what Mary Tudor would make of that.

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image credit: LordFerguson

Tags: Britain, France, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Uncategorized by Peter Moore
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It’s fast, unpredictable and very violent, but we just can’t seem to get enough of the old smash and grab fest that is The RBS Six Nations. John Hillman looks forward to the upcoming slug off.

Saturday week sees the start of Six Nations Rugby, the biggest event in International Rugby after the World Cup. Rugby fans are about to be treated to six weeks of bone crunching tackles and breathtaking displays of warrior spirit.

And with the rugby world descending on New Zealand for the World Cup, in 2011, all eyes will be on the approaching Six Nations in the hope of seeing some genuine world cup winning form from one of the home nations.

It all kicks off at Croke Park, in Dublin, on Saturday 6th February and ends with a classic cross-channel bruise fest, France v England, on 20th March. There’ll be a few victory songs sung on the P&O Channel crossing that weekend we hope.

So what can we expect? Will the champions, Ireland, manage to defend their title? Can Scotland improve on one win out of five? How will England’s Martin Johnson deal with having to rebuild his team, whilst remaining marginally competitive? Or will Johnny Wilkinson come back to rescue us from the doldrums? Do we all hope that France gets continually humiliated throughout the tournament? Of course we do.

With Ireland and England both travelling to France, rugby fans may be interested in taking advantage of P&O Ferries’ special deals. You can take a car and up to nine passengers over to Calais from just £20 each way – that’s under £2.25 each. And while on board you stock up on loads of duty-paid beers, wines and spirits.

Of course you could take the plane, but that would hardly be in the spirit of Henry V and Agincourt and all that, now would it?

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Image Credit: Picasaweb

Tags: Britain, France, P&O Ferries by Gabriel Grant
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Crossing the English Channel to France has been P&O Ferries’ area of expertise for many years now. Throughout that time it has risen to many challenges and faced down a lot of stiff competition, but, says John Hillman, the latest cross-channel innovation could just prove to be the final straw.

What is the point of P&O Ferries? Getting your car from one side of the English Channel to the other would appear to be the main reason. So it is with heavy heart that we report on the fact that a Swiss inventor has developed a car that simply, er, doesn’t need the ferry.

Passengers on board a P&O Ferries crossing to Calais may soon be witnessing the incredible sight of men such as Mr Frank M. Rinderknecht , boss of the Swiss design company Rinspeed, driving their super fast hydrofoils, simply zipping along on their way to the duty free shops of Calais without a care in the world.

Mr Rinderknecht set the Guinness Book World Record for his English Channel crossing from the British port of Dover to the French town of Sangatte in a time of 193 minutes, 47 seconds. The sight of his sports coupé whizzing along the top of the sea must have come as quite a shock to travelling ferry passengers.

He described the crossing as being like a rather perilous slalom on an Alpine piste, as he had to navigate his way between ferries and super tankers on what is one of the busiest stretches of water anywhere in the world.

So it looks like P&O Ferries can breathe a sigh of relief for now. With all the will in the world there are very few motorists out there who feel confident enough to navigate their way across such a obstacle course, especially with a couple of arguing children on the back seat. Best off sticking to the benefits of P&O Ferries’ Club Lounge for now, we say.

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Image Credit: Rinspeed

Tags: Britain, France, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries, Science by Gabriel Grant
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Romantic dreams are driving thousands of Brits accross the Channel in search of a better life. According to a recent survey they seek a bygone era, but, asks John Hillman, were the 1950s really so good?

More than 150,000 British people live in France while more than 500,000 of us have holiday homes over there. According to research from the Montesquieu University in Bordeaux a principal reason given by ex-pats, for leaving the UK, is that France reminds them of how Britain once used to be.

The vast majority head to France for the rural lifestyle, full of romantic dreams of a simple life spent rearing chickens and growing vegetables. According to the survey a whopping 57.8% of respondents said that they associate the expression ‘French Village’ with:

“Small, traditional rural, working the land, references to the UK 50 years ago.”

The Aquitaine region is by far the most popular destination, which probably has something to do with Bordeaux’s sizeable wine industry. Let’s face it the middle classes and wine go together like ants and sugar.

Living abroad, however, certainly has its drawbacks, especially for children. It’s important to remember that no matter how much effort you make to integrate yourselves into the local community you will always be a bit of an outsider and growing up knowing this makes for a certain amount of added insecurity.

It’s also worth remembering that the “UK 50 years ago” was hardly the most socially enlightened place so expect to encounter some pretty outdated attitudes in the rural hinterlands of France. The UK for all its faults is still a pretty cosmopolitan part of the world and leaving it can sometimes be a bit of a shock.

But with property in rural France still selling well and millions of us still convinced that the grass on the other side of the Channel is considerably greener, expect the gradual migration of the middle classes continue. Me personally? I’ve always preferred real ale to Sancerre.

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Image credit: didier.bier

Tags: Britain, France, Lifestyle by John Hillman
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The Mary Rose 500 appeal challenges 500 volunteers to raise £500 each to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the commissioning of Henry VIII’s flagship vessel. Part of an effort to raise £35 million to complete a new museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. John Hillman takes a look back at the story of a ship which, along with HMS Victory, remains one of the most famous warships in our seafaring nation’s long history.

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When King Henry took the throne, in 1509, England was languishing in the lower leagues of the great divisions of European power. Although it had once been a force to be reckoned with, by the time his father, Henry VII, passed away, England had lost much of its former glory

Nothing demonstrated this fact more succinctly than the feeble acquiescence that greeted the news, in 1492, that France had annexed the Duchy of Brittany, the great seat of English power on the European mainland. Of more concern to the English than their pride however, was the realisation that the entire English coast was now wide open to attack from their fearsome, powerful and hated enemy.

The commissioning of the Mary Rose, coming in the same year as the ascent to the throne of Henry VIII, symbolises the beginning of a new chapter in English history. A young ambitious King, determined to reassert English prestige, commissioned the Mary Rose, and her sister ship Peter Pomegranate, almost immediately. From this point on England’s fearsome reputation at sea would begin to develop.

In August 1512 the Mary Rose led an attack against the French Fleet, at Brest in Brittany, home to some of the world’s finest shipbuilders and of crucial strategic significance to the balance of power in the English Channel. It was the first in a long line of engagements between French and the English navies in which ships fired their canon through ports, it as a seminal step forward in naval warfare. The English returned to Portsmouth victorious.

The Mary Rose then took part in the war with Scotland that was to end with the death of the Scottish King at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. Here it was used to transport troops to Newcastle.
During Henry’s second war with the French the Mary Rose continued to remain the Navy’s flagship vessel, and was still renowned for being able to out-sail all the other ships in the fleet.

The ship remained in the King’s service, thanks to numerous refits, until in 1545. At the height of yet another war against the Auld Alliance French ships sailed into the Solent to attack the English fleet and, during the ensuing battle, the Mary Rose, pride of the English Navy and symbol of England’s new found confidence under Henry VIII, keeled over amidst panic and confusion and went down with the loss of approximately 500 lives.

She remained a forgotten wreck for centuries until, in 1982, 437 years after she sank, a team of dedicated specialists finally managed to raise her and take her back to Portsmouth, where she remains, to this day, preserved for the all the nation.

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To find out more about the Mary Rose 500 appeal and how you can help visit their website and get involved

Tags: Britain, France, History, Lifestyle by John Hillman
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The P&O Ferries official website has been voted first in eConsultancy’s travel sector usability study. Peter Moore gives them a well-deserved pat on the back.

Online shopping can be a frustrating business. Too many links, unclear offers and sequences of pages that Captain Cook would have struggled to navigate. Well, that’s unless you are visiting the official P&O Ferries website.

P&O Ferries has been voted the United Kingdom’s most usable website. The report, by eConsultancy, singled out P&O Ferries for offering a good first impression, easily navigable search, a straight-forward booking process and excellent customer service.

P&O Ferries’ booking system was given praise by customers. The report concluded that:

Different steps in the process are clearly labelled so that customers know how many steps they have to go through, going back to previous stages and making alterations is easy to do, while security policies and other key information is provided throughout.

In total, the P&O Ferries official website scored a total of 86.1%, narrowly beating its competitors Stena Line, Princess Cruises and Thomson Flights. The report ranked the Eurotunnel website as the poorest for usability, awarding it a score of just 68.2%.

The news will be warmly received by P&O Ferries who have long enjoyed a good online reputation. The homepage of their site is simple, giving customers a clear choice between different categories: routes, onboard, offers, minicruise, insurance, hotels, destinations and booking.

A single image on the site’s homepage displays the latest cross-channel offers while there is an easy-to-use form which gives fast and accurate ferry quotes for single passengers, groups and families.

P&O Ferries have been lords of the Dover Straight for 40 years, and now they can bask cheerfully in the knowledge that they hold an equally strong digital grip.

So, to get those holiday plans shipshape and to enjoy some beautiful world-wide-webbery along the way, then get yourself over to the P&O Ferries official site. There isn’t a better one in the land!

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Image credit: evelynishere

Tags: Britain, P&O Ferries by Peter Moore
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October kicks off the winter holiday season with our favourite US import, Halloween. John Hillman tries to sum up attitudes to spookyness on the other side of the English Channel.

The UK is often accused of being too quick to ape the US. Whatever misadventure they embark on, be it food or foreign policy, we dive in with all the enthusiasm of a naive lovestruck schoolboy, as the rest of Europe looks on bemused.

But while surging obesity rates and dubious wars are just cause for our neighbours to tut disapprovingly and raise their eyebrows, at least we can say we have embraced some of the better things too.

Halloween is fast becoming one of the most popular holidays of the year. School kids love it because they get to dress up and extract sweets from their neighbours; Grown-ups just enjoy any excuse to get drunk in fancy dress – it really is a holiday for all ages.

In many parts of Europe people remain quite resistant to what they see as nothing more than a crass consumerist US-style marketing exercise. In France it is reasonably controversial amongst the more traditionalist elements, although the lure of rum punch, fake blood and fishnet stockings is proving hard to resist. Its popularity is growing year on year.

From what I can gather (correct me if I’m wrong) Belgium and Holland simply don’t have a clue when it comes to Halloween. Apparently there is something similar in Holland around the 12th November but it involves children singing politely at people’s doors in return for sweets, which sounds just horrible. I mean trick or song? I think most of us would happily take the dog poo through the letter box option over the 10 minute rendition of Dutch folk songs by the cute and cuddly brigade, eurgh!

My friend in Madrid informs me that in Spain they are embracing Halloween with all the gusto you would expect from Europe’s most ‘up-for-it’ party nation. The fact that November 01st is a public holiday certainly helps, so this is my top recommendation for anyone thinking of heading away for Halloween this year.

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For information about minicruises to Spain, including P&O’s Halloween themed minicruise to Bilbao, including fancy dress ball with one of Britain’s best live party bands, click here

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Image Credit: John Althouse Cohen

Tags: Belgium, Britain, France, Lifestyle, Netherlands, Spain by Gabriel Grant
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Calais, a part of the world most of us pass through on our way elsewhere. But John Hillman has discovered a time when for a few unfortunates it represented the end of the road.

Calais is peopled with English slight sinners and heavy debtors, the needy and the greedy, a sort of purgatory for half-condemned souls.

– Harriet ‘Harryo’ Cavendish, later Lady Granville Gower, daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

During the heady days of the Regency the port city of Calais was, although ancient and historical, a pretty unappealing place to live. Not, of course, for the people who had family connections there stretching back generations, but for the numerous English immigrants to be found scratching a living on the hoary old streets of this semi-fortified town this was, quite simply, the only place left available to them.

During the 18th and 19th centuries Calais was a rather curious anomaly. A person fleeing England for legal reasons, most commonly to avoid the horror of debtor’s prison, could live in Calais beyond the reach of English law. However, to leave the town and head into the wide open spaces of Europe they would have required a passport, thus they remained stuck in a sort of strange limbo.

Many Englishmen chose to live the rest of their days in the port of Calais rather than face the consequences of their actions back home, the fashion for high-stakes gambling at the time ensured that there was never a shortage of desperate men looking to escape writs for debt-arrest issued by the tradesmen and bankers once their luck at the gaming tables had run out.

The prospect of spending their lives in jail with no realistic way of ever repaying their debts and gaining freedom was weighed against spending the remainder of their days trapped in a dreary foreign town and, unsurprisingly, the lesser of the two evils usually won.

One of the nation’s most celebrated debtors to have taken this option was George ‘Beau’ Brummell, whose fall from the highest echelons of Regency society to the depths of exile; madness and a slow syphilitic death in penury are the subject of a fascinating account in Beau Brummell, the Ultimate Dandy, by Ian Kelly. The biggest celebrity of his day found himself, like many others, trapped in Calais, forced to walk his dogs along the battlements each day and stare longingly across the English Channel to the land where he once counted the Prince Regent as a close personal friend.

Describing his arrival in Calais Kelly writes:

The place to stay in Calais for debtors on the run and English travellers was Dessin’s Hotel just off the Place des Armes. It was run by a Gascon family who had long profited from English gentry on the first or last leg of Grand Tours, and from distressed gentlefolk like George Brummell who beached themselves first, and often permanently, in Calais.

Dessin’s – Dessein’s – Hotel offered guests a large courtyard and garden, ‘commodious baths’, a small theatre, and even the novel concept of a ‘restaurant’; unheard-of in London in 1816. It was sufficiently regal – and suitably well placed next to the Hotel de Ville – for it to have been used by the returning Bourbon monarch three years earlier for his first address as King Louis XVIII on French soil.

So next time you pass through this city on your way to warmer climes spare a thought for your unfortunate ancestral countrymen, condemned to a semi-existence in a small French town so few, yet so very many, miles from a place called home.

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Image Credit: Edouard-Henri-Theophile Pingret

Tags: Britain, France, History by John Hillman
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