France 1980

1980 was a radical new departure for us - not just abroad, but camping. Well, purists probably wouldn't count it as proper camping as we went with Eurocamp, so the tent was already there, 3 "bedrooms", that sort of thing. But back in 1980 the lighting was just a gas lamp and the fridge was just a coolbox that you kept topped up with blocks of ice you bought from reception. Electric light and a fridge didn't come along for a couple of years. This was at Benodet in Brittany - Camping de la Pointe St Gilles, which Eurocamp still use. The takeaway there was fantastic - we quickly realised that how much you got was determined by the size of the container you took along, not what you asked for, so it was quite cheap to pick up "2 frites" in a bloody big bowl that would feed all four of us......
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Boulogne 1979

Boulogne 1979

This was out 1979 holiday - a few days in Boulogne in France. We went out on the hovercraft, but had to come back on the ferry - this was at the time of the infamous Fastnet Race so there were some fairly substantial seas and the hovercrafts were cancelled. It was the first time I'd been on a ferry and I didn't enjoy the experience one bit as it was really rough. Very unpleasant, although I did keep hold of my breakfast....
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1978 Travels

We got around quite a bit in the summer of 1978 as we had a French lad over to stay with us, arrange through Abington Vale Middle School. His name was Bertrand Lazard-Peillon - there is someone of that name who appears to be a journalist in France, but I have no idea if it's the same person. So here we have Downing Street - in the days when you could get close to it At my aunt's in Peterborough (Bertrand, me and cousin Liz) What is probably the Nene Valley Railway Me feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square Me resting after a busy day out Imperial War Museum in South London Hampton Court A Boeing 747 landing at Heathrow, from the days when they had public viewing platforms....
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