MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom
MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom
MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom
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A commemorative plaque on the wall outside<br />
recalls these glorious events. Inside, a singular<br />
surprise awaits the traveller: a small scarlet<br />
orthodox church standing in the immense<br />
hall. Its gilded pinnacles soar proudly towards<br />
the ceiling’s high vaults. The curious<br />
and the faithful gather to admire a building,<br />
no doubt unique in the world.<br />
No time to down a coffee from one<br />
of the fragrant stalls sprinkled in the halls<br />
of the station. The Moscow-Nice is already<br />
alongside its platform. Hostesses and<br />
stewards, stoic beneath the downpour pelting<br />
the city, form a perfect line along the platform.<br />
The welcome is charming, all smiles and<br />
attentiveness. The train’s livery is in red<br />
and grey, the colours of RZD. Twelve cars,<br />
only one of which is second class, six fi rst<br />
class and three luxury class and, of course,<br />
the two-restaurant cars with their attractively<br />
decorated tables. Carpets with steel blue<br />
refl ections, reproductions of the paintings<br />
by Henri Matisse hanging in the corridors,<br />
gilded mahogany doors… It is like a distant<br />
fragrance of the Orient-Express, without<br />
the Belle Époque atmosphere. A bar, a few<br />
stools and a cluster of small tables guard<br />
the end of the luxury cars. Each individual<br />
cabin has two beds, a shower, a private<br />
lavatory and a television with a DVD player:<br />
a suite on rails. I have been given bed<br />
number 15, in cabin number 1, in car number 1.<br />
A slight air of<br />
the Trans-Siberian<br />
Punctual, of course, the convoy sets off<br />
on this Thursday at exactly 16 .17 pm.<br />
The interminable suburbs crawl past, and<br />
then gradually thin out. The woods become<br />
thicker in the early darkness of the autumn<br />
dusk. Moscow is built in an immense clearing.<br />
We cross the town of Borodino, located<br />
about fi fty kilometres from the capital.<br />
Napoleon’s Grand Army fought a memorable<br />
battle here that marked the beginning<br />
of the retreat from Russia. We will follow<br />
its invisible trace as far as the equally famous<br />
Berezina, the emblematic river<br />
of the Republic of Belarus.<br />
Boiling samovars posted like sentries<br />
at the entrance to the compartment,<br />
a tempting smell of borscht simmering<br />
�<br />
An orthodox church right in the middle<br />
of the Belorussky station.<br />
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