In 1929, the train connecting Paris to Istanbul was blocked for twelve days because of the snow. This event will inspire Agatha Christie's famous detective story: "The crime of the Orient-Express". In this new episode of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, Jean des Cars takes you on board a legendary train.

This winter, train delays or their cancellation, a consequence of the strike against pension reform, hit the headlines. But French TGVs are not the only ones to have experienced setbacks. In February 1929, the most romantic train in the world, the Orient-Express, bound for Istanbul, was immobilized for several days. He had almost disappeared from the radars! In this new episode of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, Jean des Cars tells you the story of the train breakdown that inspired Agatha Christie.

Leaving Paris on January 31, 1929, the Simplon-Orient-Express, one of the branches of the legendary Orient-Express, is advancing painfully in Eastern Thrace, that is to say in Turkey, after the Bulgarian border. A snowstorm and snowdrifts slow its progress on the single track. 130 km from its terminus, in the village of Tcherkesskeuy (Çerkezköy), the luxurious train is blocked. Impossible to move forward and soon, to backtrack because the snow falls in abundance and turns into ice. The temperature drops to -25 degrees! The whole European part of Turkey is frozen by the cold. The train itself is almost dissolved in this white universe. Only the steam nets and the lanterns reveal the stationary locomotive.

Rescue ? There is none! The personnel of the two sleeping cars, the vans and the dining car struggled, heroic, to ensure the survival of the travelers. One of them, a Briton, who never travels without his pair of Holland & Holland rifles, shoots a prowling wolf around the train. The wolf was hungry, the travelers too. As in Little Red Riding Hood, it is the wolf that loses and makes its unexpected appearance as the only meat in the kitchen but, alas, almost cold!

The water is frozen, the coal is lacking, the pressure drops, the heating is just a memory. The Simplon-Orient-Express, the most luxurious train in the world, that of romantic honeymoons to the Italian lakes and Venice, seems to sink into the bowels of an icy planet. Quickly, patches of snow and frost cover the train like a pearly sarcophagus. It is mummified by walls of snow 5 m high!

The Orient-Express has disappeared

On the Bosphorus, where the train, renowned for its punctuality, was expected, an astonishing rumor stirred the Bazaar of the former Constantinople, now Istanbul, which lost its status as capital to Ankara in 1924: The Orient- Express is gone!

It is unbelievable! How can such a train be erased from the landscape, from the stations and from its well-known route? Telephone and telegraph lines are out of order. Even the Cherkesskeuy (Çerkezköy) station, near which the express train is stopped, is isolated from the world! At the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits et des Chemins de Fer Turkish, no employee, no station master, knows where the famous train is!

On the other hand, the staff of the ghost express, taking great risks, climbs on the roofs of the cars, trying to melt ice with lighters to give the passengers barely warm water to drink. The kitchen has no more reserves, no wine, no alcohol! Peasants from the village, curious come, offer soups and eggs at a hefty price because, obviously, the travelers on such a train that we have talked about so much, are necessarily rich! A chicken is bought for the value of a jewel! A maharaja offers pieces of stale bread to his companions. They almost cost him the price of a pearl necklace! And the women who accompany him are refrigerated!

Laborious negotiations make it possible to feed the wealthy but the head chef takes care to share purchases in this unforeseen market ... We must feed everyone, first and second class: the train conductor takes care! Alas, soon, anxiety paralyzes the companions of this incredible mishap. When night falls, big birds spin over the train with sinister cries! What if wolves attack the train? Or brigands? Everyone locks themselves in their cabins and gentlemen, with the staff, organize a vigil, armed with their hunting rifles. The glow of the candles fades and the backup batteries are discharged ... We can't see anything!

A mishap that makes the headlines

In Istanbul, we end up measuring the scale of this unprecedented catastrophe: there is no more news from the train! Finally, we send an American snowplow locomotive to meet the lost train. It will take five days to arrive. Fortunately, it is equipped with two snow plows, one at the front, one at the rear. Thus, it can maneuver in both directions. With its red steel spur, the rescue machine slowly tears through the icy wall, with a disturbing cracking noise.

After 120 hours of fighting against the elements, the track is finally cleared and the snowplough locomotive can finally tow, at very low speed, the convoy of the shipwrecked. They are not at the end of their sentence! At 40km / h, the wrecked Simplon Orient-Express will take another three interminable days to reach the European station in Istanbul, that of Sirkeçi.

The exhausted travelers are greeted as heroes and miracles. The director of the line, in a frock coat, no longer knows how to apologize! Doctors, nurses, railway employees, rather ashamed, are there with blankets, food, sweet cakes and champagne and hot tea among a crowd of curious and sellers of all kinds memories.

There are also, of course, journalists: the Simplon Orient-Express odyssey will make the headlines in Turkish newspapers and even around the world because such a mishap is unprecedented. And what a bad image for the prestige of the first international train in the world! It was launched from Paris on October 6, 1883 by the Belgian Georges Nagelmackers, a pioneer of comfort on rails, founder of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

Three records broken

So, a surprising scene takes place. The travelers wish to salute the courage of all the train staff, from the traction manager to the kitchen plunger. Viennese, Neapolitans, British and even the Maharajah and a French diplomat who were on board, all of them sign, with their names, qualities and addresses, a collective letter of congratulations. They forget that they almost died of cold and hunger. On this solemn and grateful declaration, dated February 12, 1929, one can read: "We, Simplon-Orient-Express travelers, testify that the employees of the train, at the risk of their health, climbed on the roofs of the wagons. full storm in order to supply us as much as possible with water. And although lacking coal to maintain an almost bearable temperature, all, without exception, did their duty until the end. "

The adventure goes around the world, with details that are sometimes surprising or unverifiable. Let us be content with what has been proven: it is true that the Simplon-Orient-Express beats, involuntarily, three records: that of the delay (five days), that of the total duration of the journey (twelve days versus three, duration of the normal journey ) and without a single complaint or complaint, which is another kind of exploit!

The specialists make the comparison with the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway, which takes only twelve days to travel, in all weathers, more than 10,000 km, from Europe to Asia. And he faces, without delay, the dreaded winters of the Urals and Siberia. The British press relayed the Turkish newspapers. Thus, in the Times of London of February 11, under the title "The carelessness of the Company of the Eastern railways", one reads this opinion of a daily newspaper of Istanbul: "As we announced it yesterday, the long detention in the snow of Orient Express passengers ended. It was not too early. And in this connection, some reflections are imperative: if we think that to come to Turkey, the convoy crossed the last foothills of the Alps, on the border between Italy and Yugoslavia, the Balkans and the Rhodope, the region of Nis, in Macedonia, where the snows reach in places an average height of ten meters, the Bulgarian plain finally and that everywhere, he was able to pass without incident to come to Eastern Thrace where the snow does not exceed five meters, not can not help thinking that the organization of the Eastern Railways is lower with us than what 'it is in the small neighboring states'.

Why such an international response?

Admittedly, this delay is historic, but the affair ended without drama: there were no deaths or injuries. So, beyond the reputation of the famous train, why does the event take on such a vast dimension? This is because of the originality of the circulation of the trains of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits and the Grands Express Européens (this is its full name).

The sleeping cars, dining cars and baggage vans are the property of this company under Belgian law, which built them. And since the early twenties, teak wood cars have been replaced by night blue steel cars, comfortable, and even luxurious in first class since they offer sumptuous, individual cabins, an innovation.

It is therefore private equipment, approved by the States it crosses, which rolls. In nearly forty countries, agencies are responsible for booking and issuing tickets. On the other hand, the locomotives, tenders and all that relates to the traction and the running of the train, the maintenance of the tracks, the signaling, supply of coal and water, depend on the companies, state or private, which operate the line. In other words, in this case, it is the company of the Turkish Railways, operating concessionaire, which is held responsible for this incredible situation. Indeed, it is on Turkish territory that the unimaginable incident took place ...

In the former Ottoman Empire which became the Secular Republic of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, it is obvious that national pride is clearly injured. These precise reports and severe editorials go around the world. They fall under the eyes of a young English novelist. Born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, she is divorced from Major Archibald Christie, an aviator. As you can see, this is Agatha Christie, who has already made herself known through an original detective novel "The murder of Roger Ackroyd"!

An original novel

For Agatha Christie, the train cut off from the world for several days will become the exceptional setting for an assassination which will also be very original. Born in 1890 in the very chic seaside resort of Torquay, the one who was born Agatha Miller intended to be a singer. But she had no gift ... Her parents received famous authors, such as Rudyard Kipling and Henry James. Passionate about reading, she delves into the adventures of two fictional heroes, Sherlock Holmes and Rouletabille. And that is how she came up with the idea of ​​creating her own character, Hercule Poirot, saying: "I decided on a detective who was a little maniac, meticulous, very orderly, a little man dressed up for good and very intelligent. The name of Hercule Poirot sounded good. "

Agatha Miller, who married aviator Archibald Christie in 1914, was obviously marked by the Great War. She will be a volunteer nurse and pharmacy assistant, who has become an expert in sleeping pills, painkillers and even poisons. Admiring the courage of the French, the British and the Belgians during the four years of the conflict, she decides that her hero will be a subject of the exemplary and courageous King Albert 1st, therefore a Belgian.

But with his French surname, sometimes considered ridiculous and his accent, we often take him for a French. He will protest each time, recalling his true nationality. He likes order because any disorder reveals clues. Do not disturb him while he is having lunch or dinner. No more should a restaurant or hotel waiter spill sauce on his suit or tuxedo because Hercule Poirot is impeccable! A task is worse than a crime! If he suddenly seems lost in his reflections, it is because he is operating what he calls "his little gray cells" which will give him the key to the enigma. And he will be able to stage, with a real sense of spectacle, his discovery by bringing together all the suspects before denouncing the culprit (s).

By reading the newspapers which relate the incredible delay of the Simplon-Orient-Express, Agatha Christie will choose the framework of the famous train cut off from the world for several days to recount a particularly original and spectacular assassination. This book, whose enigma and solution are particularly surprising and inventive, has been adapted several times to film and television. But if you haven't read the novel or seen one of its adaptations on the big or small screen, I won't spoil your fun! Have a good trip anyway and ... enjoy reading!

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"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

Author and presentation: Jean des Cars

Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli

Realization: Guillaume Vasseau

Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier

Graphics: Europe 1 Studio

Direction Europe 1 Studio: Claire Hazan