Nantes III

When I left Nantes for a tour around Europe, I planned to come back. Christian was going to Hamburg about 20 days later, to buy a used Mercedes car. I would also be in Germany by then, to visit an old friend. We adjusted that I would call and maybe meet him and he would give me a ride back to France, from where I should fly back to Brazil.

I left Nantes to northern Italy, Genoa and Venice. Then Zurich, Basel and Anzère, hosted by swiss friends. Then Strassbourg, Heidelberg, Lubeck and Hamburg.

(Downtown Hamburg at night. I took this picture the day I arrived from Lübeck and was going from the train station to the Youth Hostel)

One morning Christian and a friend of his came to pick me up at a subway station in Hamburg. We stayed two days there together (I arrived 4 or 5 days before him). One night we went out and visited a bar where, some people say, the Beatles started. We saw Ringo´s drums and didn´t stay very long. Hamburg is a very nice city with great bars, nice beers, great landscapes (The Elber River, the city channels, beautiful parks), a big port and a marvelous architecture.

The second day we started riding back to Nantes. We left Hamburg in the afternoon, and our first stop was in Aachen (Netherlands), where I bought a little bottle of korn (a typical german brandy). Then we stopped in Liège for dinner. It was rainning and after visiting some bars in downtown, we finally found a restaurant, that was fancy. Christian chose my plates, so I could have a good idea of the local cuisine. I had frog in butter for the first plate and meat for the main course. It was great. We went back to the highway.

I was completely asleep as we passed through Paris, but I do remember that I opened the eyes to see some of the tunnels. I should help Christian on driving, but I was pretty much tired, while he was very awake and strong. Then I asked Christian to awake me when we passed through Chartres. I told him that my first view of the Cathedral from the road two months earlier (it was from a local road though, and not from the main highway), early in the morning was one of the most amazing view I had ever had in my life. The Cathedral was under a fog, standing up and high and all alone over a flat horizon. Seen from the countryside was astonishing. I wanted to repeat the experience.

But when Christian woke me up we were right close beside the Cathedral. He stopped the car and started looking at it, with admiration. I then looked out and was not sure if I was awake or dreaming. Christian asked me if I wanted to get out of the car and see it better. I said it was up to him. He said he didn´t care and then told me something I didn´t understand. I said: "What?" And he goes: "never mind". When I woke up we were already in front of his house in Nantes.

This picture of the Cathedral was taken in 1998 when I came back to France, and not the day I passed by with Christian very early in the morning.

Quand j´ai sorti de Nantes, après mon cours à l´Université, Christian m´a dit qu´il serais à Hamburg en vingt jours. Moi aussi serai là en voyage au tour de l´Europe. Je suis allé au nord d´Italie, a la Suisse et l´Alemagne. Allors j´ai rencontré Christian en Hamburg et nous sommes retournés à Nantes en voiture. Dans le chemin de retour on a passé en Liège pour le dinner, où Christian m´a sugeré de savoire la grenouille. C´était super. Avant l´aube on passait a Chartres pour voir la Cathédrale. C´est un site que m´a beaucoup impressioné. C´était mars, 1995.