Here’s yet another wonderful thing about France — this is the send-off they give engine-drivers at their retirement. A mass of friends and family gather at the end of the line to await the cheminot’s last train, which arrives in a blaze of headlamps and flares and a deafening fanfare of horns and detonators, without a care for any unsuspecting passengers! Here’s an example (and a chance to admire the classic, and v. French, ‘nez-cassé’ locomotive):
And another one (skip to 2:00 to see the grand finale):
I could go on… but I think you get the picture! It is the accomplishment of boyhood at last.
Bonne retraite à tous!
