CALAIS – Trucks inched slowly past checkpoints in Dover and headed across the Channel to Calais on Thursday after France partially reopened its borders following a scare over a rapidly spreading new virus variant — but most drivers remained trapped in mass gridlock on Christmas Eve.One by one, trucks passed toward ferries and trains that link Britain with France, as authorities checked that drivers had the negative virus tests now required to cross.
On the French side, powerful winds buffeted the coast before dawn broke, and the vast Calais port — which normally takes in up to 4,000 trucks a day — remained quieter than usual amid testing challenges on the U.K.