Loire Valley

When I was a child growing up in Kent in the Seventies the highlight of any holiday or half term would be those bright sunny mornings when my father sniffed the air and suggested an impromptu trip to France.

We would pile into my parents’ Mini, speed across Romney Marsh to Lydd Airport (Lydd Ferryfield as it then was), head directly onto the asphalt apron and then – taking a bit of a run at it – straight up a ramp through the open nose doors of a British United Air Ferries Bristol Superfreighter and deep into the aeroplane’s belly.

These cumbersome craft could carry three cars and twenty passengers and little over 20 minutes later we would be sur Le Continong in Le Touquet, swanning along the Côte Opale. Don’t laugh, Lydd was once one of the busiest airports in the UK, handling over 250,000 passengers a year.

I live in Brighton these days and now that the Art Deco treasure that is Shoreham Airport (ridiculously renamed Brighton City Airport) has ceased scheduled flights to France, the best way for locals to cross the Channel is from Newhaven.