Posted by Peter Ceresole on June 21, 2016 at 05:21:57 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: New Swallows and Amazons film trailer posted by Mike Dennis on June 21, 2016 at 04:38:46:
Branching off from AR for a moment Peter - Lydd airport in '67, my family had moved nearby a year or so before (I was 14), I didn't realise Lydd took international flights.
Silver City used to run a cross-channel air ferry service, using Bristol Freighters. First from Lympne, then later (certainly by '67) from Lydd. I drove Minis, it wasn't terribly expensive, and so much better than the ferries, that I always used it. The French end of the service was at Le Touquet. So yes, they were frequent, international, 20 minute flights.
They turned out to be a life saver one year. I was at school in London, my parents lived in Geneva. One Christmas, the continent was cut off by fog. All flights from Heathrow were cancelled, no further bookings being taken. All the ferries were confined to port; no way home....
I checked, and Silver City were still flying. I had a friend who lived in Ashford. So I got a ticket there by train, a lift by car to Lympne, plane to Le Touquet, hitched on one of the cars to the station and bought a through ticket to Geneva. Just as well; changing stations in Paris, I found that all airports there were socked in too, and they had stopped selling train tickets to Geneva. But my ticket from Le Touquet was still valid, and I got the train (one through carriage and a sleeping car) at the Gare de Lyon. A nightmare; standing room only in the corridor, so crowded we put the luggage in the connecting accordion so there was nothing to sit on. I tried sitting in there, but it was so cold and draughty that I could only bear it for half an hour. And I thought I was tough in those days. Eight and a half hours to Geneva.
Boo.
But it was a lovely Christmas.
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