The Story of My Life so Far - Part 35 - Cruise on the Jeanne d'Arc: Split, Tunis and return to Brest

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 34

Split

We left Trieste on May 3rd and arrived the next day in Split, in Croatia, that was then part of Yugoslavia. [Hello, @velimir!]


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Split, Croatia
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I believe we were the first French ship to stay in Yugoslavia after World War II. The head of state was still Marshal Tito.

Of course, as we were in Split, we went to visit Diocletian's Palace, that was built 17 centuries before.


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Peristyle square in Split
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Tunis

We left Split on May 7th and arrived in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia on May 10th.


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Tunis
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There, I remembered that my mother and her family spent almost 2 years during World War II.

I have no particular memories about our stay in Tunis.

Return to Brest

It was time to return to Brest. That took us six days from Tunis.

During these six days, we learned about our first posts in September 1971.
This is how they were selected:

  • We were ranked together, from 1 to 75, according to how we had worked during the two years at the École Navale and on the Jeanne d'Arc.
  • We were given the list of all the posts that were available to us. We had to rank them in order of preference.
  • The post we were given was the one we ranked higher after removing the posts of those that were ranked before.

When the posts were transmitted by a message from the Navy headquarter in Paris, we were gathered and were given our posts.
I listened carefully, but I did not hear my name. So at the end of the list, I did not know where I was posted in September.

  • Anybody has a question about the posts?
  • Yes, sir, I was not on the list, so I don't know my post.

For some reason, my post was not in the message from Paris. However, an hour later, I was told that I was posted in Tahiti, like my grandfather for his first post.

We arrived in Brest on May 19th, 1971.


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The Jeanne d'Arc returns to Brest
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After some vacations, I was to leave for Tahiti with several of my comrades that were also posted there.

Continue to Part 36


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 - Part 34

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A good tour in work. It is very beautiful comrades. But if the refuge was very disappointing. War is very unfair. Must go from french to tunisia. Thanks for your content

Ooooooh, thank you for the mention, my friend. :) I've never heard a foreign navy ship was allowed to enter YU waters in those times. How long did you guys stay at Split and do you remember how was it?

Brest always reminds me of Barbara from Jacques Prevert ;)

We stayed 4 days in Split. I am sorry but it was a long time ago and I have no real memories about our stay, either bad or good.

It is not always raining in Brest..

I sure hope it's not :)

Hey @vcelier interesting read indeed. The idea to be able to chronicle the trips of your life and post them is beautiful .Keep up the good work

good story

Awsome story . Your life history is really influencive and gives us a lesson . Thanks for sharing.
I m newbie here . Please upvote me.

Happy to find another wanderer on Steemit. Croatia is on my list. Following to see where this story takes us. Off to read the previous episodes!

Very good post, well done!

This post has received a 33.33 % upvote from @minnowhelper thanks to: @eutectico. For more information, click here!

Wow! Split is an awesome place. There's mountain on one side and a sea on the other.

very beautiful. I have read the story again with great interest. Thank you for sharing it with us my friend.

Hi buddy, you are a man who has visited many interesting places, I would like to know Tunisia...

Aweme. I'm glad to see you sharing this and to see that it's doing well. My father has been writing for a few years and he wants to share his stories but he's afraid there won't be an audience. You prove him wrong with your life story

I love these these posts. I would like to illustrate something like this. Be good to do one that spans a continent :)