This is the story of my life so far: 68 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 57
Fall 1978: trials at sea of equipment and armaments of the Georges Leygues
After the trials at sea of the propulsion system in the first semester of 1978, the equipment and armaments of the Georges Leygues were tested at sea during the fall of 1978.
I have no real memories of these trials at sea and no anecdote to tell you.
During this period, as my direct boss, the "Chef du Service Détection" (radar and electronic warfare lead officer) was posted on another ship, I became his replacement.
In January 1979, I had finally decided to marry Geneviève in April 1979.
But before that, the Georges Leygues had its "Traversée de Longue Durée" (Long Crossing) in February and March 1979.
February-March 1979: TLD (Long Crossing)
We left Brest on February 3rd 1979. Our first port of call was Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). At that time, Abidjan was still the capital of the country.
Recent view of Abidjan harbor
source
From Brest to Abidjan, we had on board Admiral Philippe de Gaulle. The admiral wanted to have a reason to go to Abidjan so that he could see president Félix Houphouët-Boigny and exchange stories about his father Charles de Gaulle.
There were no video distribution yet on French ships. But there were movie projectors and in the junior officer wardroom, we had a screen. So, from time to time, we would invite the commanding officer and the senior officers to come watch a movie in our wardroom. They usually accepted the invitation.
So, of course, as the admiral was on board, we extended the invitation to him too. And he came several times to watch a movie with us.
As each movie had several rolls, during the time when a new roll was installed on the projector, there was a distribution of ice creams to anybody who wanted.
I still can see in my mind the admiral eating an ice cream while watching a movie in our wardroom.
We stayed a week in Abidjan from February 13th to February 20th.
The commanding officer of the Ivorian Navy was then Commander Lassana Timité, who had been with me for two years at the École Navale. We were very well received by the Ivorian Navy.
I see now on the Internet that Lassana Timité became an admiral, that he became the Chief of Staff of the Ivorian Armed Forces, the only Navy officer to do so, and that he died in 2000 when he was around 50 years old.
Our next port of call was Rio de Janeiro .
The French Navy had a bad experience with a ship that was in Rio during the Carnival: when it was time to depart, 25% of the crew was missing. Many sailors had become somewhat crazy during the Carnival. The story I heard told of sailors that came back six months later to the French consulate to be repatriated. Of course, there were severely punished by the Navy.
So, the French Navy had decided to never have a ship on call in Rio during the Carnival.
The Georges Leygues was in Rio de Janeiro from March 1st to March 7th, just after the Carnival that had finished on Ash Wednesday on February 28th, the day before we arrived.
However,
the Special Group champion [of the samba schools] marches for one more time on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday.
Wikipedia
Samba parade on the Saturday after the Rio Carnival
source
So, this exhibition of the champion of the samba schools happened on Saturday, March 3rd. I saw this and it was spectacular.
Those that were on duty this day and wanted to go see this exhibition tried to find somebody to replace them, but not all of them succeeded.
I remember one sailor who was doing his military service and was on duty; he left the ship illegally to watch the samba parade. He was caught and was punished, but he said that he did not regret what he did and he would do it again, because he thought that there was no chance for him to watch such a spectacle during the rest of his life. I could understand him very well.
After Rio, we went to Saint Barthélemy, then to Fort de France.
We came back to Brest at the end of March 1979.
A month later Geneviève and myself got married.
Continue to Part 59
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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 - Part 35
Part 36 - Part 37 - Part 38 - Part 39 - Part 40 - Part 41 - Part 42
Part 43 - Part 44 - Part 45 - Part 46 - Part 47 - Part 48 - Part 49
Part 50 - Part 51 - Part 52 - Part 53 - Part 54 - Part 55 - Part 56
Part 57