This is the story of my life so far: 67 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 34
Split
We left Trieste on May 3rd and arrived the next day in Split, in Croatia, that was then part of Yugoslavia. [Hello, @velimir!]
Split, Croatia
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I believe we were the first French ship to stay in Yugoslavia after World War II. The head of state was still Marshal Tito.
Of course, as we were in Split, we went to visit Diocletian's Palace, that was built 17 centuries before.
Peristyle square in Split
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Tunis
We left Split on May 7th and arrived in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia on May 10th.
Tunis
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There, I remembered that my mother and her family spent almost 2 years during World War II.
I have no particular memories about our stay in Tunis.
Return to Brest
It was time to return to Brest. That took us six days from Tunis.
During these six days, we learned about our first posts in September 1971.
This is how they were selected:
- We were ranked together, from 1 to 75, according to how we had worked during the two years at the École Navale and on the Jeanne d'Arc.
- We were given the list of all the posts that were available to us. We had to rank them in order of preference.
- The post we were given was the one we ranked higher after removing the posts of those that were ranked before.
When the posts were transmitted by a message from the Navy headquarter in Paris, we were gathered and were given our posts.
I listened carefully, but I did not hear my name. So at the end of the list, I did not know where I was posted in September.
- Anybody has a question about the posts?
- Yes, sir, I was not on the list, so I don't know my post.
For some reason, my post was not in the message from Paris. However, an hour later, I was told that I was posted in Tahiti, like my grandfather for his first post.
We arrived in Brest on May 19th, 1971.
The Jeanne d'Arc returns to Brest
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After some vacations, I was to leave for Tahiti with several of my comrades that were also posted there.
Continue to Part 36
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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