The Story of My Life so Far - Part 34 - Cruise on the Jeanne d'Arc: Fort de France, Casablanca, Trieste

in #story7 years ago (edited)

This is the story of my life so far: 67 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France


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The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 33

Fort de France

We left New-Orleans on March 16th, 1971, and arrive in Fort de France, the capital of the oversea department of Martinique, where we arrived on March 22nd


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Recent View of Fort de France, Martinique
source

In Fort de France, there were at this time two patrol boats from the French Navy, and those were two of the better first posts for us.

I have no precise memories of what we did in Fort de France. I am sure we tasted the good rum and we visited one of the rum distillery. As I remember, the weather was fine.

We left Martinique after 10 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean eastward.

Casablanca

And our first stop was in Casablanca, the largest city and port of Morocco, where we arrived on April 13th.


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Casablanca, Morocco
source

I have several distinct memories of our stay in Casablanca.

I went with others to swim in the ocean, but in April, the water was not very warm, only 19 degrees Celsius, so I did not stay very long.

We were transported to the Rabat, the capital of Morocco, for a reception in the gardens the French embassy, who are magnificent.

With several of my comrades, we rented a car and drove to Marrakesh, one of the most interesting and historic cities of North Africa.

And of course, we visited the souq (marketplace) of Casablanca. I don't think I bought anything worth remembering, but I went for the atmosphere.

Trieste

After six days in Casablanca, we entered the Mediterranean Sea. We stopped for one night in Corsica without going ashore to get and send mail, and we arrived on April 30th in Trieste, an Italian port, very close to Slovenia (which was then part of Yugoslavia).


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Port of Trieste
source: Wikipedia

When we arrived in Trieste, I saw an hotel with a very funny French name: "Grand Hotel et de la Ville" (Grand Hotel and of the City). I was not able to find a picture of this hotel.

From Trieste, where we stayed only five days, we took the train to Venice, which is a nice city to visit at the beginning of May, when the weather is nice and there are not too many tourists.

We left Trieste on May 3rd for the last two ports and the last two weeks of the cruise.

Continue to Part 35


If you like this story, please consider following me @vcelier

Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14
Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21
Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24 - Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28
Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32 - Part 33

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Vincent, love to read your blog on your life story. All up to now is still before I was born :) And I m not that young really :D In Trieste I had an awesome espresso a few years back while travelling with my motorbike.
Did you keep a diary of all the events?

No, I was never able to keep a diary. Everything I wrote is as I remember..

You remember exact dates from 40+ years ago? Remarkable..! I was never able to remember dates...

Well, not exactly. I found the dates for the Jeanne d'Arc cruise of 1970-1971 on the web.

No, I don't remember exact dates from 46 years ago. 😉

Aaaaah ok then. You scared me hahaha... :D

Nice one. Wish i would also get on an exotic cruise one day :)

Dear, this gentleman wasn't on an exotic cruise ship...

welcome to steemit followed you my friend

Holy shit, those are beautiful cities. Once my son is out of high school [...he just started first grade so I've got a long way to go], I really want to travel to some of these Mediterranean cities. Especially as a photographer, it seems like there's so much beauty to photograph. If you get a chance, check out the blog http://gastronomad.net. He's a technology blogger but he travels all over the world and eats at these incredible restaurants. He was just in Morocco.

mu gusto tus fotos y tu historia estaba muy buena buen post

Welcome back from your vacation!

Very nice stuff -- you are certainly getting around

LOL

Hello @vcelier

I have some questions about using Steemit and I want to ask you. I do not understand why someone upvote to someone else $ 20, and there are people commenting underneath and he said "it is breaking the law in Steem" .. I want to increase the amount of money that i upvote for other? Can you show me how?I do not understand why a person only has a reputation of about 30, but one upvote of theirs to another comes up a lot of $ @@ That's a robot or something? I'm sorry for my stupid question, but I hope he helps me answer the question. Thank you very much! 😢

The power of your vote depends on the amount of Steem Powers that you have.
To get more Steem Powers, you can buy them.

Thank you 😲

I am still trying to catch up on your familys history, maybe some day I will catch up with you :-) at least reading is faster than writing so I am still hoping.

nice life story and blog, followed u and will resteem this, right now my upvote is low, will upvote u later when I have more power :-)

Great story telling. I wrote a book on how to write your memoirs several years ago which describes how to gather the information used to write your memoirs. If you ever plan on writing your memoirs let me know and I will send you more details

Hi, i am following your travels mate. One day i will be going across the Atlantic and making around the world voayge. Cheers!