title A Day Trip to Calais, France - 11th August 2004 intro Realising that it was time to stock up on cheese, "big Al" sorts out a day-trip to Calais. DH and Phil pile in with Nosher; Claire and Paul go with Al. There's around 8 hours in France: enough time for a trip to L'Hypermarché, Le Wine et Beer Warehouse, Wimmereax (along the coast towards Bolougne) and an old German gun emplacement - part of the Batterie Todt - on Cap Gris Nez (probably the Grosser Kurfürst Battery). More about these batteries can be found here. It's a very strange experience creeping around in the almost-total dark, seeing wartime graffiti with charicatures of Churchill and Nazi slogans on the walls, picked out by the light of a small Maglite torch. dcp_7368 Queueing for the ferry at 7:50am (after a 5:20am start) dcp_7369 Claire and Al do the whole "ferry breakfast fry-up" thing dcp_7372 The boys peer over the side of the ferry dcp_7374 Ferry decks dcp_7375 DH and The Boy Phil prepare the "beer carriers" dcp_7377 DH inspects some cheese dcp_7378 More cheese action dcp_7379 Phil, Al and DH hang around with their booty dcp_7380 Phil and DH eat French stick and cheese out of the boot of Nosher's car dcp_7381 Nosher in the car park of Auchan in Coquelles, near Calais dcp_7383 Phil and DH with some absurdly-strong Leffe dcp_7384 Claire and Al dcp_7386 In a Wine'n'beer warehouse, Phil scopes out more beer dcp_7389 On the promenade at Wimmereaux (pretending not look at the girls) dcp_7393 The sea-front at Wimmereaux dcp_7396 DH, Phil and Paul dcp_7398 Claire, Paul, DH and Al cruise the Croisette (well, at least the prom) dcp_7401 Wimmereaux wanderings dcp_7403 Claire and Paul by a very bright green building dcp_7406 Later, we park up and explore an interesting-looking derelict gun emplacement near Cap Gris Nez dcp_7407 Finding a way in dcp_7411 Exploring the heavily-graffitoed interior of the gun emplacement dcp_7412 Inside the gun emplacement - it used to house four 28cm guns that would lob shells at Kent dcp_7413 The remains of a light switch - "licht", indeed dcp_7414 1940s German graffiti dcp_7415 "...gegen Engeland" means "against England" dcp_7416 The Nazi eagle and a Swastika dcp_7417 Charicature of Churchill, with a board saying "England + Russia = Victory" dcp_7418 Another cartoon of Winston Churchill, with his trademark cigar popping out of his mouth in shock dcp_7419 A load of swastikas dcp_7421 Phil and DH stare out across the channel, in the direction where the guns would have fired dcp_7422 DH (armed with a French stick) and Phil dcp_7423 The Bauhaus-esque exterior of the battery dcp_7430 The back end of the the battery dcp_7431 Phil, DH and Nosher have a ham, cheese and stick picnic dcp_7436 The ferry leaves Calais # # new images # dcp_7371 dcp_7376 dcp_7382 dcp_7385 dcp_7387 dcp_7388 dcp_7390 dcp_7392 dcp_7394 dcp_7399 dcp_7400 dcp_7405 dcp_7408 dcp_7409 dcp_7410 dcp_7420 dcp_7425 dcp_7426 dcp_7428 dcp_7429 dcp_7433 dcp_7434 dcp_7435 dcp_7439 dcp_7441 dcp_7442