𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 🚃 🛳 🚃

𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲. 🚃 🛳 🚃

This was a service from London Victoria Station to Paris Gare du Nord, travelling on slow trains and waiting around on the quayside in the middle of the night for the ferry itself. The advantage being that it only cost £10 if you were a student, or under 23. From the other end I think it was about 110 French Francs 🇮🇹. The ferry crossing was usually Dover to Calais, but sometimes Folkestone to Boulogne.

At the Dover Western docks there was an interchange where one of the carriages, the sleeping car or couchette, was rolled onboard the train ferry and then rolled off the other side onto french gauge tracks, so the first class occupants could stay in bed 🛌 all the way from London to Paris , decades before the channel tunnel was built.

For some reason, although the Night Ferry trip was always an important and evocative journey, I never wrote a song about it, well not yet, but Wizz Jones did: “Night Ferry” see comment.
(picture illustration generated with vqgan clip)

Author: Andy Roberts

Andy Roberts musician living and working on the Isle of Wight. View all posts by Andy Roberts