Re: Great Aunt


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Posted by Peter Ceresole on January 12, 2012 at 08:01:59 user PeterC.

In Reply to: Re: Great Aunt posted by andy clayton on January 11, 2012 at 06:50:50:

I can just remember the old steam engines in service.

I mentioned that Victoria still has features that remind me of those I saw on our first, 1946 journey across France. When you take a train heading south to the channel ports, that crosses the river, you pass along the parallel tracks which store the trains to be used later... Driving down the Embankment, past Chelsea bridge, the tracks are highly visible because they terminate just by the road. You can also see them clearly on Google Maps. In '46, when everything was steam powered, there would be parallel rows of engines with steam up, waiting to be called on; the steam would rise vertically from the forest of chimneys, and it would smell sweetly of coal smoke and steam... That '46 journey was via Newhaven and Dieppe (Calais had been totally flattened and was out of service) and the danger of remaining mines meant that crossing times were governed by the tides. We crossed on a packet called the 'Canterbury', sailing at around five in the morning, and although the Channel had been thoroughly swept, there was still the odd mine floating free on the surface. My sister and I were the first civilian children to cross (she was 4 and I was 6), and they quartered us in the ship's hospital. I remember that this was all strange and new. First sea journey, and the most comfortable I ever experienced, then or since. It was flat as a mill pond, brilliant sunshine; it spoilt me for ever for real sea crossings. We went up to the bridge and were able to talk to the lookout. Everybody else was crossing as part of the Army. I remember when we got to Dieppe, the commotion on shore; "Oh, regardez les petits Anglais!" I didn't realise that we were a kind of first sign of spring, proof that the war was really over.


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