Weekend roundtrip to UK - II

Here’s the continuation of our weekend roundtrip to UK:

The plan was simple - ride as fast as allowed and possible, with couple of stops for rest by the road side (no time to stay for a night in France hotels) for stretching and arriving Saturday morning in to our destination. Get our packages, some rest and sleep and return home. Because we were in a hurry we chose to use the EuroTunnel (the underwater tunnel connecting France and UK) instead of a ferry.

We didn't expect any problems on our way since all countries belong to European Union - the state borders were simply a sign beside the highway and there were no border checks at all. We got all the way to Callais without problems. But just before boarding the train to UK we had to go through security check. When asked by one of the French soldiers for the purpose and length of our trip we replied we are visiting our friend in UK and we are going back the next day. And that was a mistake to say. He immediately became suspicious that we are trying to smuggle something in since we traveled 12 hours just to have couple of beers and then travel another 12 hours back.

He ordered us to pull over, called other 3 guys and started to search our car very thoroughly. It took them almost and hour, they didn't skip a single thing - even forced us to take out the reserve tire and they opened it, checked all compartments and holes. All the while we were standing beside the car guarded by a guy with a gun. My friend wanted to take pictures of the search but they denied his request. During the search they kept telling us to tell the truth, that we don't have to lie to them about the real reason of our trip but we just kept repeating the same thing.

Of course they didn't find anything and they had to let us go. We almost missed our train because of this and we also lost one hour. First we were pretty upset with them but later on we could just laugh about it.

Such was our experience with the French soldiers.  We didn’t even have time to stay in their country for some sightseeing and of course no chance to stay in Paris hotels.