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Saturday 22 March 2014

Stranded in Calais

Monday, March 22nd., Hotel Terminus, Calais.

Arrived here yesterday having left Paris by the noon train. Very full. 
At Calais it was blowing very hard, and the sea was covered with white. Of course we decided not to go on. Took rooms in the Hotel Metropole.

We walked after breakfast to the Gare Maritime and gradually came to the conclusion that it would be impossible safely to cross today. So, for a change, we engaged rooms at the Hotel Terminus, which is very Victorian. Good rooms; no w.p. baskets. Then we walked all the way back to the Metropole, quite a mile over rough surfaces - 2 miles in all, and lunched and paid the bill and finished packing and got to the Terminus Hotel at 2.10 p.m. in time to see the steamer come in. No one seemed very ill or distressed. Sleep; much needed. Tea. I wrote a little sketch of "La Prisonniere" at the Theatre Femina. We had tea in the station buffet and ordered our dinner there. Before dinner we strolled on the long platforms to see the evening boat come in. It was twelve minutes late. Terribly cold, windy, and the wind full of coal dust from train engines. Saw the boat, and the people go through the customs, and into the trains for Paris, Rhineland and Warsaw. Goodish dinner in the buffet. Went to bed early in the Victorian hotel, which demanded that an article should be written on it. I might write the article.

Additionally for March 22nd., see 'On the move'

We left Brighton on Friday morning. 
We stayed 3 nights at the Hotel Terminus, Paris. I went for a voyage up the Seine to Charenton and back. I then went to the Exposition des Independants and there met O'Connor and Root. One or two charming indecencies in the show.

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