Fear, Friendship and the Channel Tunnel | Hacker News Reader

Fear, Friendship and the Channel Tunnel

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21 pointsThevet21 comments

Channel Tunnel ancedotes... I "beta tested" the tunnel a few times before it opened.

One bug we discovered was that it was common for us in the South-East of England to travel regularly over to France, fill our cars up to breaking point with duty-free booze and cigarettes and come home. The problem with the Chunnel trains is that the cars enter at one end and drive through the train. On the way back from France none of our cars could get over the "hump" between the coaches. They look flat now, so they must have reengineered them:

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Ins...

Second bug was getting out halfway through and walking through the fire escape tunnels. They have a PA system for the fire crews to issue instructions. But it has a 26 mile long echo. So you can't hear anything.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaguarcarsmena/43994120214/in/...

https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/sites/default/files/styl... (the crossover cavern halfway through)

> none of our cars could get over the "hump" between the coaches.

Sounds like feature for the border control to ”randomly” select such cars for a search, to be honest. I don’t think the alcohol-across-borders amounts have changed that much since then.

Back in the days of peak "booze cruise"[1] the ferry companies used to issue every passenger with a leaflet describing exactly what the duty free limits were. You'd go over, max it out and come back.

If border control were to select on this basis they'd spend all day pulling over bearded men in anoraks driving volvo estates, searching their cars and discovering that they have exactly the "right" amount.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booze_cruise

£10-20 return ferries. Those were the days (or the newspapers' £1 promotions)

£1 promotions practically every week for the locals. I damned near ate French cuisine in Calais on a weekly basis as a kid.

Did anybody travel in reverse to buy English drinks, or it didn't make sense at all?

Good question! I guess none of the French wanted a nice box of English wine?

Whiskey then?

That's hilarious! I'm imaging droves of French people day-tripping to Folkestone for fish-and-chips, sausage rolls, expensive cigarettes and expensive crap beer. LOL (Apologies if a genuine question - just as a Brit, the thought is actually hilarious)

I think it's fair to say the French had way, way more to offer Brits than vice versa.

Of course they visited/visit the UK, but to see the country more than to buy any particular goods in bulk

The GBP was stronger compared to the Franc/EUR back in the heyday of Eurotunnel too, IIRC

Well I’m not a local. I could guess there are some English whiskeys and beers and anything else? Which should be really good. France doesn’t offer everything..

French people, especially back in the day, have a particular distaste of British food though for mostly irrational reasons.

It's also more expensive. It's a little bit like how you don't see people in Savoie or Ain going to buy food in Switzerland, but the french supermarkets are packed with Swiss-plate expensive cars looking for a bargain.

Yeah. The big draw was always that excise taxes on alcohol were much lower in France, but the EU guaranteed a right of individual duty-free import for personal use - so the UK couldn't make the money back on entry tariffs.

I'm very fond of British food, and there are certainly some things that are better got in our supermarkets than in France. Less than the other way round, though, and without the cheap booze to offset the cost of the trip I can't see many French people coming to the UK for good Madeira, pies, or Marmite...

>I'm very fond of British food

Can you tell a bit about your favorite British food?

What classifies as British? I love fish n' chips. Love shepherd's/cottage pie. Love bangers and mash. Love a good Cornish pasty. Love crumpets. Love bacon sarnies. Chip butties. Big Sunday roasts. Never tried haggis.

A well-made steak and kidney pie is a thing of delight. Intensely savoury, great texture contrast between the pastry and the filling, lovely with thick-cut chips, ketchup and peas. And satisfyingly bad for you.

Even though kidneys are cheap offal and smell like piss before they're prepared, they do make the pie filling richer and tastier: plain steak pies aren't anywhere near as good. Don't know why.

> have a particular distaste of British food though for mostly irrational reasons.

Many people in my age class went to Britain with school and have been hosted by locals during their stay (a few days) and I keep a vivid memory of how bad the food was. It's not irrational at all, British do eat terrible food.

Yes we make better whisky than France. They import a lot of our whisky. I think you've identified one of the few things of ours they like lol (and to be fair to Scotland, it's Scottish whisky)

Did they end up putting sound baffles to eliminate the echo?

From the looks of it, no. I wonder if there was another solution?

Some of my happiest memories were day/short trips to France. The Channel Tunnel blew my mind as a kid. Being able to 'drive' to the continent in 30 minutes. Woah!

The undeniable 'farm' smell when getting off the train is one that's solidified in my mind. I won't ever forget it, and every time I get off at Coquelle or visit northern France, it takes me right back to the very first time. Same as whenever I visit a Carrefour - it takes me right back to Cité Europe

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Here's a cool animation of the machine that dug the tunnel https://preview.redd.it/mf4yb5unbgz61.gif?width=600&format=m... and more generically about the process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuYdnzcQXhk

Sneaky paywall hidden below the fold.

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