| |  | |  |  | |  | Welcome on board Midnight Trains, a company where every moment counts Here at Midnight Trains, we’re aiming to better connect the great European cities – with ‘hotels on rails’ that freshen up the good old-fashioned sleeper train. But while we wait to really welcome you on board, every Friday at midnight the Midnight Weekly newsletter will explain just how the night train could change your life. This week, we’ll be heading off to the thoroughly charming (and famously romantic) Belgian city of Bruges. | |  |  | To kick off this week, we’re going to tell you the story of the biggest bank heist of all time – the time Resistance fighters in France robbed billions from a Banque de France train, just as the Second World War was coming to a close. July 1944. In a little less than a year, history would be rewritten and the narrative would have it that all of France (or nearly all of it) had played a large part in resisting against the invader. In reality, even while the Resistance grew day by day, especially after the Allied landings in Normandy, the movement was struggling at this point. Finding sufficient arms and other supplies was tough. The maquisards requisitioned a lot from storekeepers and farmers, and in return they had to offer them ‘requisition vouchers’. But this was tricky terrain. Without being able to pay them outright, there was a risk a backlash would soon break out against the Resistance. The Maquis de Dordogne resistance group was no exception. And it was within this faction that the idea for the Banque de France train heist was hatched. This would be a benediction for the Resistance: it would help both rally the troops and pay off debts. One of the henchmen of the Vichy regime, Jean Callard, the Prefect of Dordogne, was actually the one who made it happen: sensing the winds change (and knowing that he’d get little for his efforts in the case of an Allied victory), he fancied redeeming himself. In a secluded farm, he secretly met up with the lieutenant-colonel Martial, one of the heads of the local Resistance, to whom he confessed that the Banque de France in Périgueux, fearing an attack from the maquisards, was to transfer all its money to Bordeaux. That was more than enough. Things accelerated on July 25, when Jean Callard informed the Resistance group that the Banque de France that the money would be transported on a dedicated carriage attached to a conventional train leaving Périgueux station. Time was of the essence, as the convoy was leaving the following day: the maquisards got together to come up with a plan. Looking at the route, they realised that the isolated station of Neuvic was the ideal place to pounce. It was a sunny day on July 26. The train was due to leave Périgueux at 6.25pm, and the Resistance group had already started to secure the surroundings that afternoon. They had got the stationmaster on side, and a group of 150 men were primed to raid the Périgueux-Bordeaux as soon as it entered the station at 7.11pm. Everything had gone as planned… except the fact that the train was delayed. With every passing minute, the operation became increasingly dangerous, as the huge mass of Resistance fighters was more likely to be spotted. But at 7.38pm the train finally rolled in. As soon as it pulled up to the platform, the maquisards climbed aboard the train and tracked down the money carriage, right at the front of the train (being protected by only four police officers and an inspector from the Banque de France). They stuffed into canvas bags and placed them all in two lorries. At 8.15pm the operation was complete and they drove off. Mission complete. Despite the fact one of the two lorries broke down, the Resistance managed to steal 2,280,000,000 francs (around 430 million euros in today’s money). It was dispersed widely so the occupying German forces wouldn’t be able to seize it all at once, and the money was to allow the Resistance to pay off debts and also finance its actions in Dordogne, in the Limousin and around Bordeaux and Lyon. No bank heist has topped it since. | |  |  | For the past four weeks, we’ve been running a new series of articles that goes behind the scenes of Midnight Trains. After a first season dedicated to how you go about buying trains, Midnight Weekly, this time we are exploring how to design trains, in five main instalments (though no doubt we will return to the subject, since design will play such a huge part in our mission to reinvent the sleeper train). Last week we looked at how you go about integrating all necessary functional and technical elements within your carriages, while still using the example of a business traveller, as in previous weeks. Thanks to that stage, we’re starting to get a better idea of what our might look like. However, no one would really want to spend 12 hours on-board a train that feels cold and boring. So that’s the subject of our final instalment: materials and colours. This last stage is more than essential (though, true, we’ve been saying that about every stage so far). Last week, we made a lot of references to the fact that senses are all-important when it comes to the impression we want to give passengers: the way things look and feel (or even smell) is key. In the particular case of night trains, there are all sorts of designs you could go for, depending on the market position of your company, from the old-fashioned cruise-style decor of the Venice-Simplon-Express to the SNCF sleepers, with their much sleeker look. The aesthetic side of things is therefore the first thing that comes to mind when we tackle this stage of the design. But as always, things are never that simple. Although the operator will obviously be after a design that chimes with its brand image, its market position and its values, there are several other things to take into account when it comes to defining the final product. Here are few things to consider: As we mentioned before, a train, and particularly a new train, will last for several dozens of years. It’s clearly possible to modify their design over the lifetime of a train. That’s what Thalys has just done, but it goes with saying that a renovation is costly and means the trains can’t be in service while it is carried out. To avoid having to carry out frequent renovations, it’s therefore necessary to think long term when it comes to identifying a design which matches up with the brand image of the company and travellers’ expectations (and what those are likely to be in, say, ten years time). Train designers must therefore always imagine what the world will look like ten years later, to make sure their carriages will still look and feel contemporary. They must always look for features that will feel timeless: at all costs, you must avoid a design that will go out of style fast. Travellers must also be able to recognise – consciously or otherwise – a universe, an atmosphere, a familiar style that feels like other places they often go to. You’ve got to consider maintenance of materials and how practical they’ll be for those working on board the train. A train is a place where travellers will temporarily live, and also a place where its staff will work. Those two factors must both be taken into account. Transparent materials will make the trains lighter and also make them feel more spacious; however, they would also be the worst enemy of those tasked with cleaning surfaces. Fabric materials can add warmth, but also tend to retain dust and break easily. But not everything is possible on a train. Like we’ve explained previously, the industry is subject to various regulations and norms to ensure the safety of passengers. Materials like natural wood or even marble are forbidden. That also limits the number of material providers you could use. Now we’ve established the various criteria you have to bear in mind, we can start thinking about integrating the materials and colours within the train. You’ll have to start by reproducing the entirety of the train in 3D, without materials and colours. This reproduction work (an example of which illustrates this final instalment) relies clearly on the various stages we’ve been through previously: The layouts – the maps of each compartment on board The composition of the trains – the number of each type of carriage The functional elements (plugs, coat racks, baggage space, etc.) The technical elements (opening doors, electrical cabling, water storage tanks, etc.)
The next step consists of making a moodboard, that is a document with assorted imagery that might inspire your design: they could be trains or basically anything else that suggests an atmosphere, a style, a universe. Starting with the moodboard, the designers and operator can identify what the images have in common and extrapolate, from that base, the materials and colours that should be incorporated into the train’s design. Once the colours and materials have been chosen, that’s when the magic and talent of the designer enter into play. The success of the design won’t come down to simply pasting these colours and materials on the 3D reproduction of the train: you’ll have to test, iterate and change until you strike a subtle balance that’ll wow anyone who climbs aboard. So there we have it: we’ve reached the end of this series and we’ve now designed an entire train. Or nearly! Because now you’ve got to find it and renovate it (in the case of secondhand material) or build it (in the case of new material), not to mention find funds to pay for it. We hope this second series has helped you understand more about what goes on behind the scenes at Midnight Trains. And we’d like to wrap up by saying thanks to our partners who are accompanying us on our journey: Yellow Window for the industrial design, Railtarget for engineering and other technical matters, and Apex Rail for funding. See you back here in 2022 for a third series! | |  |  | With Christmas now just around the corner, we’re taking the opportunity to recommend some city breaks that feel really right in that weird bit of time in late December and early January when time seems almost to have been suspended. One of those is Bruges. For four centuries the ‘Venice of the North’ has somehow managed to evade the rampant industrialisation that has transformed similar cities in this part of the world. So in this brief guide to the Belgian city, we’ll be properly travelling back in time. Let’s go. So, why ‘Venice of the North’? The canals of Bruges snake around the city and really do seem to be its lifeblood. There are two great ways to explore them: on foot or by boat (both are pretty magical), and as you wander, you’ll be able to take in magnificent old bridges, hidden churches and squares, and beautiful little gardens. It’s hard to know where to look: at the frankly extravagant buildings that line the canals, or their marvellous reflections in the water. Once you’ve traipsed along the water, you’ll want to track down some of the city’s most historic architecture. Head to the Markt – or Grand-Place – which has been on the same site since 958AD. The gothic façades of the surrounding buildings are truly beguiling, and you’ll get the best view from the belfry that overlooks the square (it’s only 366 steps to the top). Up there, you’ll find a whopping 47 bells, chiming their distinctive symphony. For a change of scene, head to the Parc de Béguinage. This place has been here for a long time, too: built in 1245, it was once home to the Beguines – laywomen who took a vow of celibacy and lived here communally. Today it has been turned into a nunnery, and anyone can pop along for a visit. Next over to Notre-Dame: a monument worth visiting both for its striking architecture and a;l the incredible artistic masterpieces it holds. The most impressive of them all is no doubt the white marble sculpture Virgin and Child by Michaelangelo. For a little more culture, try the Musée Groeninge: an art haven filled with the very best of Flemish art: van Eyck, Gerard David, Hieronymus Bosch. It most certainly gives the impression that Bruges was one of Europe’s foremost cultural capitals throughout the fifteenth century and beyond. Before we suggest a few amazing places to eat, we recommend a trip to the Frietmuseum (the ‘fries’ museum. We all know frites are an institution in Belgium, and this place will tell you everything you need to know about them. The exhibits start with the origins of the potato in Peru to the development of deep frying in Belgium. No doubt it’ll also help you work up an appetite, which is pretty handy, as it’s remarkably easy to eat well in this city… Start (yes, start) with some chocolate. There are a good 50 or so chocolatiers in Bruges, but we’d go for The Chocolate Line, where Dominique Persoone will impress you with his original, often quite unusual creations (olive oil chocolates, anyone?) Before tucking into something more substantial, grab a glass of something natural at Cuvee or Jus. Come dinner time, our absolute favourite is Sans Cravate: a Michelin-starred restaurant whose wines are just as impressive as the (very hearty) meals. Another, no less delicious option is Bruut, whose brugeois bistro cuisine will keep you more than satisfied as you catch the train home. | |  |  | The end-of-year festivities are approaching, and because they’ll hopefully include a generous helping of meals with family and friends, Midnight Weekly will be sharing a number of recipes, from entrée to dessert, that should hopefully impress your loved ones over the coming weeks. To follow up the starter and main we shared in recent editions, we’re now moving on to the traditional cheese platter. But just any old platter. Cheese making has become so industrialised that in many cases you can hardly taste authentic stuff these days. To remedy that, we asked the visionary team from Terroirs d’Avenir to help you curate the ultimate cheese platter (and one that isn’t too bad for the environment, either). Terroirs d’Avoir is the brainchild of Samuel Nahon and Alexandre Drouard: two entrepreneurs as attracted to good produce as they are repulsed by the industrialisation of agriculture. Since 2008, their company has become best distributor of high-quality farm produce (as well as sustainably sourced fish), in Paris and the wider region. Their shops sell veg, fish, seafood, kindly-raised meat and some of the very best cheese you’ll find in France. Here are eight they’d recommend for your platter. The cheeses to track down 1. The Camembert de Normandie from the Ferme du Champ Secret: An iconic cheese that’s all too often turned bland through mass production. This is one of only two organic raw-milk camemberts. The farm raises 105 cows on a diet of herb and grass, and that filters down into a deeply flavourful cheese. The raw milk also gives the cheese a distinctive taste (especially compared with standard pasteurised milk). 2. Le Bleu de Termignon: This savoyard cheese is the work of Joseph Paccard, and is made between June and September at 2,000 metres high, thanks to a troop of 30 cows, raised on the grasses and flowers of the Parc National de la Vanoise. These crops contain yeasts that pass into their milk, then the cheese, and give it a very subtle smell. This cheese ‘blues’ in a cellar thanks to natural, spontaneous moulds. 3. The 24-month Gouda from Boeren-Goudse Oplegkaas: This Dutch gem comes with the Sentinelle Slow Food label, which honours cheeses that are rarely produced these days. Far removed from the industrial products and pale imitations that are created with pasteurised milk, this gouda is truly delicious, and has been delighting the Dutch since the seventeenth century. 4. The 18-month Laguiole: The livestock behind this sure-fire highlight of your platter? Thirty-four cows go out to pasture from May to November on the natural prairies of the Aubrac plateau, 1,000 metres up. Lionel Sabrié is the wizard who then turns the milk into cheese: he is the only small organic producer of this cheese. 5. The Basque sheep-milk Tommes: These traditional numbers are the result of six producers determined to hold onto another way of going about making cheese. Some make theirs completely by hand, others are shepherds who don’t even have any land, and their sheep are all native to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region. The rich flora and the diversity of the prairies in this region have a big impact on the flavours and aromas of the tommes. 6. The Persillé de Tignes: Did you know cheeses are seasonal? Goats, for example, don’t naturally produce milk from November through to February. With the festive season approaching, go for Tommes and aged crottins. This one is made with a mix of raw milk from cows and goats, which graze in mountain pastures from June to October. 7. The creamy Tomme from the Ferme du Bois Joubert: Yet another cheese supported by Slow Food, with its 25 Bretonne Pie Noir cows, which graze over 80 hectares of marshy prairies in Brière, near the mouth of the Loire. This species was among the most popular French cows at the start of the twentieth century, but declined slowly during the 1960s (largely because it produces half as much milk as many other breeds). But its milk remains one of the creamiest there is, so just imagine how good the taste is. 8. The Gruyère d’Alpage (12 to 16 months): We’re winding up in Switzerland, in the canton of Fribourg. This is where Patrick Mauron makes gruyères that have very little to do with the bland industrial versions you’ll find everywhere nowadays. His 50 cows gambol around in the mountains, 1,245 metres up. The result? One of the best gruyères you’ll ever taste. Where to go elsewhere in France and Europe If you’re not in Paris want to get hold of some high-quality cheese like those from Terroirs d’Avenir, here are a few unmissable addresses: La Laiterie Marseillaise, La Laiterie de Lyon, La Laiterie Toulousaine, La Fromagerie Métin (Nice), Neal’s Yard Dairy (London), Beppe e i suoi formaggi (Rome) and Brie Alto (Madrid). And for even more cheese-choosing knowhow, here ten criteria to bear in mind according to Pierre Le Fromager. | |  |  | This week the Midnight Train playlist wants to help you start the weekend funky – so here’s a song that might help. Idris Muhammad is one of New Orleans’s all-time greatest musicians, and this work is among his finest: brass, percussion and hypnotic vocals combine in a mix that’s just as heavenly as the subject matter. It’s a whopping eight minutes long, and that’s very much a good thing: you’ll want to jump out of bed and start dancing as soon as you press play. | |  |  | We’ll wrap up this week’s Midnight Weekly with a comedy set during the Second World War which was rather overshadowed by Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful at the time of its release. Radi Mihaileanu was one imaginative soul. Very liberally inspired by the activities of the organisation Aliya, which chartered trains and boats to evacuate Romanian Jews to Istanbul (and help them escape the Nazis), the story starts in the summer of 1941, in a shtetl, a Eastern European Jewish village. More specifically Schlomo, who is perceived as the madman of the village, turned up alarmed: he’s witnessed the Germans attack a neighbouring shtetl before deporting all its inhabitants to an unknown place. Panic takes over the village and to avoid the same fate, the local council of sages decides to trick the Germans by creating its own deportation train, which will instead lead towards the promised land. We’ll let you discover the rest of the story for yourselves. Prettig weekend! | |  | | |
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