Chamonix
On Friday, October 3rd I left Villa
Thébaïde as of early dawn, 6:30, to
join Chamonix by taking secondary
roads, and highways. The way of 422 km
lasted 9 hours, stops wees and pause
lunch. The car park of the cable car
being paying and out of price for +24
hours I returned back having noted a
parking area close to a Total service
station. Tomorrow I will try to go up
to Aiguille du Midi.
L'Aiguille du Midi, 3842
meters
On Saturday morning I took the bucket
of 9:30 by connecting the second
bucket for the platform of arrival at
3777 meters of altitude knowing that
the top is closed under work. I
visited the site with its various
terraces going up and down by the
staircases. I spent the morning to
explore the horizon of the mountains
under a resplendent sun, What
happiness! More especially as my heart
did not cause me fright, its pulse was
64 at rest, 74 while going but by
climbing the staircases at 96
requiring stops at stages and rest at
terraces. Of course it is the result
of a physical-activity of maculation
of my heart while pedaling during one
hour each morning to mitigate necrosis
and of a cocktail of eight effective
drugs. Alas the assuaging speech of
the cardiologists was not encouraging
and it remains cautious, not useless
risks, thus remain on the level of the
dry land in France; the guys do not
want to take responsibilities. After
lunching I took again the road, the
highway bound to Germany. I stopped on
the service area “Chicken of Bresse”,
that does not invent myself!
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Stuttgart, Ostfildern
The GPS tracklog
From Chamonix to Stuttgart, Ostfildern
The 05 October 2014
On Sunday, October 5 was one day on
the highways of France and Germany for
a way of 504 km in 9 hours, stops wee,
coffee breaks and lunch. I arrived
without difficulties at the car park
of ORC using GPS for the bivouac. The
streets neighborhood bear the names of
German engineers of great fame: Karl
Benz, Robert Bosch, Gottlieb Daimler,
Rudolf Diesel, Wilhelm Maybach, Felix
Wankel and well of others all having
contributed to the prestige of the
German car. Traffic on the French and
German highways attract me some
reflections on the way in which the
governments of the two countries
consider the car. In this Sunday is
the density of traffic significantly
more important on the German highways,
why? Since the roadway is with three
ways speed is not limited. The way of
far left is left free for high speeds.
I saw a Ferrari emerged suddenly in a
thunder deafening of the exhausts,
unthinkable in France! Moreover after
my coffee break at Dole I live to
arrive a powerful Audi registered in
Germany escorted by a car of the
gendarmerie; the driver had had to
forget that it was still in France,his
account was good. Both policemen did
not adopt a pleasing attitude. Below I
will make some futile considerations
on the European Union and France.
ORC, Exclusiv Zubehör
On Monday as of 8:00 I presented
myself to the office of ORC (Off
Road Center).
Akim, the French speaking person, was
on the telephone but a blue-collar
worker asked me for the keys of the
car, at once work started. Then with
Akim we made the checklist of the work
exposed before by email. The car will
be available by midday Tuesday. With
my request a room had been reserved in
a close hotel. A commission agent led
me to it and explained me how to go to
the station of the U7 line to go to
Stuttgart which I wished to visit.
Stuttgart
My hand luggage deposited at the hotel
I walked towards the station where an
obscure automat was restive to deliver
me a ticket. I phew warned the
conducting woman of the train which
explained me in perfect English what
it was necessary to make! Do a French
driver of the RER speak English? I
unloaded in Hauptbahnhof without
encumbers, the train was direct with
several stops. No controller in the
train, no swivel to enter and leave
with the ticket. Nothing to see with
the French stations and even less with
the Parisian RER. Here it is an
underground hub very clearly with
shops and a bunch of travellers in all
the directions but without French
excessive haste. From place to place
employees inform travellers. During
the way I observed the countryside as
well as the town planning of the
suburbs. Initially the ballast of the
railway line is turfed, ouch! No
building of great height, houses have
two stages and are very often of clear
color, the white color is dominating.
My last passage in Germany goes back
to 2006 to UNICAT at Dettenheim close
to Karlsruhe. The day was announced
gloomy, in the small hour the
temperature was of 10°C and the fog
still covered the countryside at 8:30
when I took the train.
While leaving the station I was
attacked by sounds and odors different
from in France. I already mentioned in
my accounts of journeys that I
regretted not being able to record
three of sensitive perceptions, taste,
odorous and touch to restore them with
images and sounds. They are an
integral part of the civilizations. On
the esplanade of the station a panel
indicated Tourist Information where a
city map was given to me with the
points of interests in this Monday
when all museums are closed like
everywhere else. I strolled in the
very small downtown area running up
against me against the closed doors of
the monuments. Only the churches were
open where men and women entered a few
moments to pray. As in all the German
cities contrast between the old
monuments saved by the war or restored
and modern buildings is seizing but
not shocking. In Stiftskirche a double
surprise expected me, initially I were
accommodated by a concert of organ
which I listened to, religiously,
then at the bottom of the altar fruit
and vegetables were nicely exposed
whose meaning remained me,
impenetrable. Here each one saw
his faith according to his own design.
Germany is not a laic state and that
is seen. Back to the hotel around
16:00 the cold seizes me intensely.
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| St Eberhard Kirche |
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| Neues Schloss |
Altes Schloss |
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| Altes Schloss |
Herzog Eberhard im Bart (1445/1496) |
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| Neue Stadt |
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| Stiftskirche |
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| Stiftskirche |
Mercedes-Benz Museum
On Tuesday morning I took again the
train of the U7 line up to
Hauptbahnhof then the train of the S1
line to the NeckarPark station to
visit the sumptuousMercedes-Benz
Museum built in form of a double
helix. The visit starts at the top of
the building while going down to
traverse 125 years of the history of
the car and to admire some 160
vehicles. Karl Benz is the inventor of
the first engine with oil then first
motor vehicle with his accomplices W.
Maybach and G. Daimler. I show the
cars having made the history of the
mark put in prospect for the history
of Europe presented without
subterfuge. This historical duality is
the essential and remarkable aspect of
the museum, it is worth to spend the
day there. The end of the visit is
more prosaic it finishes as in all
museums by the required passage in the
souvenir shop to spend there some
money but most bewildering is to pass
by the showroom of the current
vehicles of the mark for those which
have the book vouchers out of pocket.
I due to turn back to recover my
luggage in order to crunch my apple in
the train back to Ostfildern at ORC,
to take my vehicle, Mercedes-Benz, and
to leave Germany around 2 p.m. Oh! I
omitted to mention that the
Mercedes-Benz marked collar of the
audio-guide is given to the visitor,
the mark with star is a nobleman. I
bivouacked on an immense car park
right after the border materialized by
the Rhine River on the B500 road.
Alas, I was dislodged around 22:30 by
the guard who closed the car park, I
fit between two trucks on the road.
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| Mercedes-Benz Museum |
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| The horse,means of locomotion |
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| The first
self-moving machine, 1885 |
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| The world's first
automobile, 1890 |
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| Deutschland über
alles |
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| The turn of the
20th century |
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| The 20's |
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| The 40's |
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| The 300 SL & 60's |
Futile considerations on the European
Union and France
In the train back to Ostfildern after
this short incursion in Germany, I
took to daydream in relation to the
economic problems of Europe and more
particularly with the vision
diametrically opposite of Germany and
France. It returned to me in memory
that the fathers of Europe, De Gasperi,
Schumann and Spaak had carried the
Common Market in 1957 with for
objective entreating the wars which
devastated Europe since the French
revolution in 1789. To date their goal
is achieved. But alas these men of
talent had a vision with short-term.
Their less talented successors were
confined of Maastricht helped in that
by the technocrats of Brussels,
spawners of sclerosing procedures.
Following the example of the United
States of America, the United States
of Europe could not exist. I cannot
not quote again Alexis de Tocqueville
who was forward of the final report of
my trip to the USA:
"The entire man is, so to speak, to be seen in the cradle of the child.…
… The growth of nations presents something analogous to this: they all bear some
marks of their origin;
and the circumstances which accompanied their birth and
contributed to their rise affect the whole term of their being."
The few considerations partial made
above with the liking of my short
peregrination since the Thébaïde Villa
obviously show that the people of
Europe are not and cannot be reducible
to only one people, only one language
in a word in only one civilization.
The European nations neither were born
in the same swaddling clothes nor have
the same ones lived. I am and I will
remain an European convinced in
inescapable globalization, in the
emergence of China and soon of India
and other BRIC, the European nations
taken separately have any weight
neither policy nor economic. The world
rocks of a Mediterranean centrality to
a centrality of the Pacific Ocean. It
is necessary to give meaning to
Europe, it is necessary that young and
qualified women and men emergent
with a vision to give again hope to
the people of Europe. The European
Union should be reinvented.
I quibble, I ramble, I took a blow of
old man. On this subject the French
political community is populated of
gerontes in particular to the Senate
where they come to finish their days.
There is nothing to wait of such
hierarchs co-opted by the apparatuses
of the political parties. French does
not realize that the governance of
France is sclerosed by the parties
policy, the trade unions and the high
administration paid by them and which
it became irreformable, confer the
strike of the pilots of Air France. It
is known as that French adores the
providential men, of course it is to
discharge from hot potato. But that
they are not mistaken. “As come back
guy” will not change anything, it
already gave all its measurement
before. A man does not change his
nature at 65 years. Moreover the
representatives of the people should
be dislocated their electoral mandates
at the lawful age of the retirement.
The law is applicable to all.
En route to Dieppe
The GPS tracklog
From Stuttgart, Ostfildern, Germany to Dieppe, France
From 07 to 12 October 2014
N4, Perthes
On Wednesday, October 8 was a driving
day on N4 in the rain without
interest. I bivouacked apart on a vast
car park. The calculator of Mercedes
"G" indicated that there remained 600
km before the revision of the 10,000
km, already!
Cap d'Antifer
On Thursday, October 9 was a driving
day in the rain again up to
Seine-maritime. In view of bad weather
and with the stoppers on the highways
leading to Paris I did not stop there
preferring the coast of the
Pays de Caux
by hoping for a more mild
climate. Of course the Cape d' Antifer
was very windy! But the bivouac with
the sea and the swinging of the cell
of the motor home by the wind of
through and not of the waves was of a
very maritime environment.
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| Tancarville's
bridge |
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| The lighthouse of Cape Antifer |
Cape Fagnet
On Friday, October 10 was a small
driving day with highlight of the
visit of Cliffs of Etretat which I
climbed, of course. The sight from the
top is superb. Moreover the literary
men, composers and painters were not
mistaken there while being established
in the city thus making its fame.
Maurice Leblanc and his immortal
Arsène Lupin and his castle, the Field
Lupin made the city celebrates with
his novel the Hollow Needle. Then
after Yport I establish my bivouac on
the heights of Fécamp at the bottom of
N.- D. de Salut.
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| Etretat |
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| Yport |
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| Cape Fagnet |
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| The port of Fécamp |
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| Chapel Notre-Dame de Salut |
Dieppe
On the way towards Dieppe I coasted
from cliffs to cliffs in the Pays de
Caux. Alas the road in is rather
distant. Sometimes I tried my chance
by taking very narrow roads without
leading to the coast. Saint Valéry-in-Caux
offered me in spectacle of its channel
of the outer harbor. Further on I land
at the View-point of the question mark
overhanging cliffs giving by chance
two strange photographs. Without Green
Guide book I went to the discovery and
I found the chapel of Varengeville
where was buried Georges Braque and
his wife. He gave to the chapel the
single stained glass which he made.
Finally I arrived on the heights of
the town of Dieppe where I bivouacked.
Saint-Valéry-en-Caux
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| The channel of the outer harbor |
Belvédère du "point d'interrogation"
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| South cliffs |
North cliffs |
Chapel of Varengeville
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| I have the desire to put in unison with nature much more than copy |
Dieppe
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| Bird's eye view from the cliffs |
On Sunday morning I went down from
cliff to station at the Park of the
Empress Eugenie. A malicious Norman
drizzle fell. In this day few walkers,
few tourists at most some cranks ran.
Moreover the tourist office was
closed. I surveyed the streets in
search of some unfortunately rare
curiosities. On the harbor I looked
for a restaurant worthy of interest;
Bof! Mussel was with the honor. In
cause of despair I threw my reserved
randomly; alas I do not think of
having had the happy hand. At the
beginning of afternoon I went on the
car park of Nouvel' Air where I had an
appointment on Monday for the
installation of occlusions of bays.
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| View from the
Empress Eugenie Park |
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| Gate of the two towers |
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| Church St-Jean |
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| The Harbor |
Nouvel'Air
On Monday, October 13 Mr. Lemière,
Nouvel' Air, tackled the realization
of the shutters external of my truck;
I point out that it had made some for
my MAN truck in 2005. The day of the
13 was occupied taking the gauges of
bays of the cabin because those of the
cell are standard. It made the six
shutters, pasted the insulation and
let dry all during the night. The
shortly after the eight hours it
carried out their installation on
bays. At nine hours work was finished.
I left his workshop to Troyes around
9:30. I arrived at Rosières-près-Troyes
at 16:30 after the usual stops.
En route to the Villa Thébaïde
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The GPS road tracklog
From Dieppe to Villa Thébaïde
From 14 to 16 October 2014
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On Wednesday, October 15 at 10 a.m. I had
appointment at Mercedes-Benz at
Buchères,
the martyrdom city of the World War II for
standard maintenance A of my truck which
posts 10,277 km, already! Then I carried
on my way to stop at Loges--Margueron
where my parents are buried. Finally I
bivouacked at Orange close to
Touratech
where I had appointment the following day
for purchasing a second-hand Garmin 276C.
I arrived in the afternoon of October 16th
at the Thébaïde Villa. This short trip
from October 03rd to October 16th led me
to the Aiguille du Midi, to Stuttgart,
Germany, to Dieppe in the Pays de Caux, to
Troyes, Orange. The target was double, to
test my capacity at high altitude and to
make improvements to my truck before the
next journey to
Morocco.
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| Trip of 3,230 km |
