AA Travel: Motoring Abroad 1983

[egg]

Plucked from the family archives (I have no idea what purpose my parents expected this to be put to) we have the AA's guide to motoring abroad in 1983, and well we did go to France in the family Escort fairly often. So on with the show

An aspirational cover, you'll agree with a Cavalier L. The car lived until 1995.

The brochure includes lots of info on the ferry companies, tragically this ferry would be a terrible choice just a few years later. It's one of the news stories from my childhood that really sticks with me. I just about remember even going on the side loading ferries before this...

On the back cover of the mag, Stirling invites you to experience the delights* of Boulogne. Of course back then you could get ferries to either Calais or Boulogne, of which Boulogne was the superior choice in some ways, because while 'beautiful' is pushing it, it does beat Calais all day long!

The early MK3 escort with the pressed plates and yellow headlights lived until March 1996, so just beat the Cavalier for longevity

Essential gear for travelling overseas, I remember my dad always packing a box of bits, I can't imagine many new car owners doing that today! 

And good to know if your BL product broke down in the port, or became instantly terminally rusty from the sea air, the AA port team had your back.

Hope it was worth my dad keeping this document for best part of 40 years, lol!

[egg]

Just spotted another escort - FTR 727X lived until 1994. 

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Plucked from the family archives (I have no idea what purpose my parents expected this to be put to) we have the AA's guide to motoring abroad in 1983, and well we did go to France in the family Escort fairly often. So on with the show

An aspirational cover, you'll agree with a Cavalier L. The car lived until 1995.

The brochure includes lots of info on the ferry companies, tragically this ferry would be a terrible choice just a few years later. It's one of the news stories from my childhood that really sticks with me. I just about remember even going on the side loading ferries before this...

On the back cover of the mag, Stirling invites you to experience the delights* of Boulogne. Of course back then you could get ferries to either Calais or Boulogne, of which Boulogne was the superior choice in some ways, because while 'beautiful' is pushing it, it does beat Calais all day long!

The early MK3 escort with the pressed plates and yellow headlights lived until March 1996, so just beat the Cavalier for longevity

Essential gear for travelling overseas, I remember my dad always packing a box of bits, I can't imagine many new car owners doing that today! 

And good to know if your BL product broke down in the port, or became instantly terminally rusty from the sea air, the AA port team had your back.

Hope it was worth my dad keeping this document for best part of 40 years, lol!

It was indeed...there is nothing so distant as the recent past. In those days the AA was still, well, the old AA. The association demutualised in July 1999.

You could still get a Hovercraft over in those days too and a catamaran service ran to Boulogne up to 2008. All displaced by the tunnel except the big ro-ro ferries these days.

I still take a few spares with me but there again I'm usually driving something 25+...😂

[timolloyd]

Interesting how the one thing the owner of the Cav and the second Escort would most need in France, is missing - a nearside door mirror.

Thanks for sharing this though. This is definitely how I remember parents and grandparents treating holidays to France.

[egg]

4 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

You could still get a Hovercraft over in those days too and a catamaran service ran to Boulogne up to 2008.

I went over on the Hovercraft once, probably late 80's, and a bumpy old ride it was too, but amazingly quick. I never went on the Catamaran, but I did go on one from Poole to Guernsey and that seemed a long way on one of those.

A Sunday afternoon out was driving up to Langdon Cliffs above Dover with a flask of tea and the binoculars to watch the port going about its business.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, egg said:

...., tragically this ferry would be a terrible choice just a few years later. It's one of the news stories from my childhood that really sticks with me. I just about remember even going on the side loading ferries before this...

.....

Ah, the Herald of Free Enterprise. I never went to Zeebrugge in the end. 

Boulogne was a much better choice for the day-tripper than Calais, because the ferry docked practically inside the town.

Calais, by contrast, was a long trek from Calais-Maritime along the dockside before you got into the town itself. 

[egg]

8 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Calais, by contrast, was a long trek from Calais-Maritime along the dockside before you got into the town itself. 

Yes, I've done the long trek from the port to get on a (local) train, and it's ridiculous connection for such a large port. The Dover end isn't much better, but is at least walkable.

[Ian_Fearn]

Love a bit of 80s continental motoring. When I was younger we took a foreign holiday to La Rochelle in the family shitbox. The car was of course woefully underprepared for the journey. It seemed like such an adventure, especially considering the amount of car trouble we had! The car spent most of the holiday in a French garage having its charging system sorted. It left me with a burning enthusiasm for life for driving abroad in wanked out old cars. The further afield the better.

I still have GB stickers that I knocked up during lockdown for those wanting to relive the 80s.

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, egg said:

I went over on the Hovercraft once, probably late 80's, and a bumpy old ride it was too, but amazingly quick. I never went on the Catamaran, but I did go on one from Poole to Guernsey and that seemed a long way on one of those.

A Sunday afternoon out was driving up to Langdon Cliffs above Dover with a flask of tea and the binoculars to watch the port going about its business.

The sea-cat was 40mins Dover to Boulogne...quite small and cars only. As has been said it dropped you right in the town really...and less miles manoeuvring Calais if going on south.  It really felt part of the holiday.

[egg]

From memory, I think Calais became more of the default when they built the autoroute so that you could more or less hit the motorway and head south straight out of the port. 

[Ian_Fearn]

Last time I went into Boulogne was with Speedferries in ~2006. Their prices were amazing. It was £50/crossing and you got an additional free crossing for that price. I think they got pushed out of the market and certainly implied a load of underhand tactics from the other operators.

I’ve used the tunnel purely for convenience when needing to hit the road hard on the other side but nothing beats the feeling of a proper water crossing.