Calais, loads of wh...
 

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Calais, loads of white vans with caravans

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So on Sunday we are approaching the tunnel Calais side.

I see 3 white transit style vans all pulling white caravans, all unmarked. Odd I thought.

A few minutes later there is a convoy of the exact same. I gave up counting at 50. All heading West from Calais.

Any idea what they were all up to?


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 12:29 pm
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If they were heading west from Calais I'd say they were probably getting very wet


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 12:39 pm
kelvin and thegeneralist reacted
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Loaded question.

* awaits the "I'm not racist but" shite*

Google "gens de voyage" for the most probable explanation


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 12:39 pm
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All heading West from Calais.

That won't end well.


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 12:39 pm
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Sounds like the Spiral Tribe off to start up a crusty rave if you ask me. You didn't hear any repetitive beats did you?


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 1:06 pm
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UK plates? Do they look like old vans (i.e. probably not work vans from a sizeable company on finance) I think the crusty rave sounds possible.


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 1:10 pm
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Not crusty rave, more evangelical community as per Edukator's post


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 2:09 pm
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gens de voyage


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 3:08 pm
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lol!


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 6:46 pm
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Saw a couple of fields in France full of vans, caravans, washing lines, kids toys strewn about. Plates were French.

Presumed they were gypsies/travellers.

Oddly we had an English plated van turn up at a workshop on the outskirts of Munich asking if we had any scrap metal.... On the way home we drove past a field with six or seven vans plus caravans.

Was really surprised to see gypsies this far from the UK, as up until then I had never seen them in Germany.


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 8:59 pm
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@alpin - Roma come from many places across Europe. It's nothing new.

Have you seen "From Russia With Love"?


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 9:14 pm
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Roma come from many places across Europe. It’s nothing new.

Have you seen “From Russia With Love”?

Or ‘John Wick 4’?

They’re mostly from Romania, hence ‘Roma’, and also have strong Italian roots; Rome = Roma, and Romania is more connected to Italy than any other country around it, which are largely Slavic. Or so I was told by someone from Romania. Lots in Russia, too.


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 9:45 pm
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Yeah, I know.... Just never seen any German gypsies in Germany, so was even more surprised to see a group of English/Irish gypsies parked up in deepest Bavaria.

And yeah, got a few Romanian acquaintances and the language sounds almost Italian. Dacia was the Roman province of modern day Romania. Also the name of the car company.


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 10:04 pm
 LAT
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They’re mostly from Romania, hence ‘Roma’, and also have strong Italian roots; Rome = Roma

not to mention india and indian roots.

Have you seen “From Russia With Love”?

great film but the train in octopussy is better


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 10:17 pm
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Just wait until I go to the Bavarian Alps in September in my Transit (Westfalia) with my Irish surname.

🙃


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 10:19 pm
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They’re mostly from Romania, hence ‘Roma’, and also have strong Italian roots; Rome = Roma, and Romania is more connected to Italy than any other country around it, which are largely Slavic. Or so I was told by someone from Romania

They told you a lot of nonsense. Romani people originated in the Indian sub-continent, primarily Rajasthan


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 11:46 pm
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Sounds like the Spiral Tribe off to start up a crusty rave if you ask me. You didn’t hear any repetitive beats did you?

Police moved in around eight o clock last night.


 
Posted : 04/07/2023 11:57 pm
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Instructions to the officers were to arrest the people.


 
Posted : 05/07/2023 2:09 am
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Police moved in around eight o clock last night.

...and immediately I am taken right back to the early 90's 🙂


 
Posted : 05/07/2023 7:04 am
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OP here.

I didn't see the plates. But I'd guess as not being travellers.

All the vans were pretty well identical and caravans looked like they had just stepped off the production line and as I said there were loads and loads of them. Well over 50.


 
Posted : 05/07/2023 7:59 am
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@madbillmcmad We saw them too, and overtook (slowly in our T2) quite a few. To me they looked like travellers, and I'd assumed the Northern France equivalent of the Derby, or Appleby Horse Fair or something was happening.


 
Posted : 05/07/2023 9:58 am
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Maybe one of the travellers won the lottery and bought his extended family a new Transit and caravan ?


 
Posted : 05/07/2023 4:22 pm
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Ah Spiral Tribe not heard of them for a while. Weirdly biking few weeks ago with an ex copper for a week and we had lots of shared experiences and events in our past. Definitely on different sides of the shield wall.


 
Posted : 05/07/2023 4:33 pm

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