Berck-sur-Mer Sunday 13 April
A joint outing with our friends

Five cars

Four radios

Three clubs

Two countries

One good day out
7 am on a Sunday morning !!!! Having a laugh, I thought. But twelve of us from Team ELF were ready in Tesco's car park in Folkestone to meet up with our friends from SEKS and Brighton Kite Fliers for a day abroad. After an uneventful crossing (which yours truly slept through), here's some of the group at the services in France.

Crossing the channel in convoy was easy - on "Le Shuttle" you can't go wrong. Having arrived in France with five cars and four radios we expected to lose some of the party on the hour's drive, but we remained together and made good time. When we arrived in Berck-sur-mer as you can see the sky was alive with all sorts of kites. We soon divided into small groups and then did our own things. There was plenty to do, with a beach awash with kites and the promenade alive with stalls.

We arrived on the last day - the festival had been going for a week. As you can see, the town had gone all out to prepare.

I liked the kite buntings, and I want a dragon like this one, but I soon learned that you shouldn't look at them and walk.

The place was literally awash with dog shit. I had never seen so much in all my life !!

The food was wonderful. For ten euros I got the best burger I've ever eaten, chips, and a decent lager (can you beleive it?)

I even liked the salad (heresy!!)
 

But on the flip side, the toilets....

We queued for ages. And ages. As we could only find one public toilet on the sea front. Now call me old fashioned, but when I piss, I like a bit of privacy. There was none of that. You peed in full view of the queueing ladies. Which was a problem because if they saw a cubicle was free, they'd walk into the gents and use it.
Two minutes after I'd done, the toilet was closed. One of our number who spoke better French than me heard the attandant complaining about how many people were coming in, and so she shut the place.
And the "language"......

I'm amazed she understood what the attendant was saying. I tried speaking to the locals and shopkeepers, and, well....... those who were flying kites smiled at my poor French and spoke to me in slow French so I could understand. Those who weren't flying kites grunted. No words in any language, just grunts. I watched a couple of people in a shop grunting at the chap behind the counter who grunted back.
And the driving......

There's no other way to put it - pure arrogant rudeness. The journey from car park to motorway which on the way in took twenty minutes took nearly three hours on the way out. Traffic was bumper to bumper. Literally. The car behind gave us less than an inch space. There was not a single driver prepared to let anyone out of any junctions.... you really had to see it to believe it.

We left at 5pm to do a journey that took us an hour on the way down, and eventually got the 9.30pm shuttle
Oh that all sounds so negative, doesn't it.

It WAS a good day out. I suppose being a stay-at-home type, I'm just not used to ways different to my own. I shall be going back next year, maybe all week, so it can't be THAT bad, can it? I suppose if I'd known what to expect, it wouldn't have come as such a shock.

This page is the webmaster's personal experience. Which in no way represents Team E.L.F.'s policy.

Honest.

If he don't like the French, that's his problem !!