MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

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