On invitation from the French players in Grundfos Olympics last year, the Grundfos Petanque Club went
on tour to France to compete against the players from the French Grundfos company
 The tour to France |
 Programme |
| On June 5th on route to France |
We started June 5th at 7.30 in the morning by Vesti busses. We made a short stop at the German border before the tour went on through the beautiful Germany. |
 Time for open air lunch in Germany. |
 A break on the route... |
 Smoking break on the route... |
 The hotel in Alsfeld Germany.
The name of the hotel was very suitable. It is at the countryside, and the smell is manure.
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| On June 6th a visit at PGF, the French Grundfos factory |
After a night at Alsfeld north of Frankfurt we went on to Saint Avold, which is one of the
"flower towns" of France in a nice landscape with small mountains.
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 Reception and dining place at the hotel Saint Avold, France. |
 Single rooms only, in three floors, and it is the same on the
other side of the building.
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After moving into the hotel we had lunch at the French company PGF and were given a guided tour through the
factory. We were very warmly welcomed by PGF and were impressed of their distribution center.
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 Dannebrog, the Danish ensign, at top by the factory. |
 PGF. France |
 Some of the participants on the stairs to the reception.
Front: Ib, Inger Marie, Bjarne, Jens og Ebba. In the middle: Karien, Brian og Gerda. Back: Peter,
Henry, Inger S. and Tove. Missing Jørn, Per |
At the Reception in PGF
With Patrick on tour through the factory. |
 Time of water and Time of life, a clock in the reception.
Inaugurated June 20, 1997 by Poul Vesterbæk at the 25 years' anniversary of PGF. |
 The production at PGF |
 Time for lunch in the canteen at PGF. |
 A small present for Christine Kirsch, PGF |
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| June 6th a visit at the American Cemetary |
| After the tour we visited the American Cemetary in Saint Avold, an area of 46 acres and it is the
largest in Europe. The Saint-Avold area, where the French Grundfos factory is, was liberated November
27th 1944 by the 80th infantery division from USA. The cemetary includes more than 10,000 crosses in
straight rows for the fallen soldiers, fighting under The Stars and Stripes, during the first and the
second world wars. There are also Danish names among them. There is also a wall with names of the many
soldiers never found. It is a very spectacular place. After the visit there, we got the rest of the day
off.
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 A visit at the American Cemetary at Saint-Avold.
All the crosses are in rows never mind the direction you are looking. An impressing view,
worth visiting.
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 Same cemetary. |
 a Map of the army movements after the landing in Normandy
at the beginning of the liberation June 6, 1944
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 The history of the cemetary in Saint-Avold. |
 Story continued. |
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| June 7th a guided tour at Metz. |
| After breakfast we were on a guided tour at Metz, sisuated by the Mosel river where
the river Seille run into Mosel. Metz can be dated 3.000 years back. Metz was a very important city
in the roman days and have an amphitheatre with room for 25.000 people. The city was main city in the
old country Austrasien. It was very interesting to walk around in the opld part of the city with many
building from the middleage. A great number of the houses in Metz are build by a special honney yellow
stone which is a local stone. We saw also the cathedral in Metz, which is 42 meters high and the second
highest in France. The cathedral a build on the spot, where the original building was the only one
spared by the hun king Attila. The cathedral has 6.500m2 glass mosaics, some of them very famous painted
by Marc Chagall.
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The cathedral in Metz is 42 meters high, the second highest in France. The are 6.500 m2 glasmosaic.
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 The place where the rivers Mosel og Seille become one river in Metz. |
 Relaxation on a square in Metz |
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| June 7th after lunch Petanque game with the french people |
| In the afternoon the great game took place. The was 7 teams from Bjerringbro and 8 from
france. The teams was parted into 4 parts with mixed danish/french teams. The frenchmen was very good,
they won 3 parts and the danes only one. The one went to Brian Jensen and Inger Marie Hørlyk. They was
beaten in the semi final by the winning team. We learned a lot of the game. There was many good an equal
games, but the frenchmen was better. It was a very good day.
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 Preparing for the big game. |
All players, Danes and French united on the playground in France. |
 Openingspeech. |
Every one say hello the each other and present a small gift.
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 The last preparing. |
 The game is on. |
At the picture among others Ebba, Jørn, Peter og Per from his back. |
Per very concentrated and Ebbe looking to see the result. |
 Some of the french friends. |
Measuring, nothing is left over to chances. |
 Even Fanny came into use. |
 Jørns very good friend at PGF. |
Relaxation at the hotel in France after a long day. |
Time for supper. Vesti the busdriver, Tove, Karin, Inger |
 Brian, Per, Peter, Karin. |
 Karin, Ib, Vesti, Inger. |
 Bjarne, Ebba, Jens, Inger Marie, Jørn, Henry, Gerda. |
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| June 8th traveling homebound thru Germany
Free time after breakfast, which was used to shopping and buying Petanque equipment before
the bus started on the rout back to Bjerringbro. We left Saint Avold at lunchtime and drove to
Göttingen in Germany, where we stayed over night. |
| Just before start traveling back home towards Bjerringbro, Denmark. |
| Then the rest of the tour towards home. We arrive at Bjerringbro around 17.00, tired
and a have had a great tour, about 2500 km was to distance we have driven.
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| From Internyt (Internal Grundfos magazine) and Bjerringbro newspaper
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A translation |
A translation |
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