If anyone had asked me 30 years ago, how did I imagine I would spend my the night of my 60th birthday, I’m not sure I would have ever come up with, having a fish dinner overlooking the sea in Folkestone followed by a hot & sweaty night (not in a good way) in a somewhat dated hotel room. However, I booked the closest hotel to Le Shuttle so that we could be on an early morning train to Calais. Catering rightly pointed out would it not have been easier to travel to Folkestone after the rush hour traffic and hopped on board a train at a civilised time of day, but honestly, where’s the fun in that! So, after a restless night in an airless and quite tiny room on one of the hottest nights of the year, we travelled the 3 minutes (I kid you not, I timed us from pulling away from the hotel to pulling up at Le Shuttle) to start our Rugby World Cup France 2023 Tour. I still can’t quite believe it’s here, I’ve been planning it for so long, but on a lovely September morning we left Folkestone for Calais.

Robert would like to know what’s wrong with a midday crossing

Not only are we on an early train – a certain person was too excited to sleep, so we are early for the early train.

Who knew they did immigration on the English side before you get on the train, with proper French officials and everything. It’s been a while since we did this, certainly pre-Brexit.

This is the part where I cross my fingers and hope Mitsubishi have not made a dreadful mistake regarding the height of the Big Blue Truck and we get wedged boarding Le Shuttle.

I also hope that this little critter has been properly activated – it promises to revolutionise our peage experience and remove all the angst of where the bloody hell have I put the ticket, as we approach the toll booths. The only way we’ll know if when we’re there!

Hallelujah – it worked! Thank you David Casterton for that gem of information, no more queues or hysteria, it’s been a game changer.