France Archives - Mechtraveller https://mechtraveller.com/tag/france/ Mechanically-minded travel Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:34:44 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Hispano-Suiza 18.Sb Aero Engine https://mechtraveller.com/2026/02/hispano-suiza-18-sb-aero-engine/ https://mechtraveller.com/2026/02/hispano-suiza-18-sb-aero-engine/#respond Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:12:52 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=12765 The Hispano-Suiza 18.Sb is a rather quirky but powerful 18-cylinder aero-engine that kinda got lost in history! It was designed originally as the Hispano-Suiza 18R to compete in the 1929 Schneider Trophy for seaplanes. It was ordered by the French Air Ministry who needed a 1200 horsepower engine to put in two competing aircraft; the […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2026/02/hispano-suiza-18-sb-aero-engine/feed/ 0 Dynamo Museum Dunkirk, revisited https://mechtraveller.com/2026/02/dynamo-museum-dunkirk-revisited/ https://mechtraveller.com/2026/02/dynamo-museum-dunkirk-revisited/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:11:57 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=12683 Operation Dynamo was the name given to the hurried extraction of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), plus allies (mostly French), from the beach at Dunkirk (Dunkerque) in May/June 1940. The Musée Dunkerque 1940 is located in Bastion 32, the headquarters for the French and Allied forces during the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo. This […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2026/02/dynamo-museum-dunkirk-revisited/feed/ 0 200th Anniversary of the World’s First Photograph to be Celebrated in France https://mechtraveller.com/2026/01/200th-anniversary-of-the-worlds-first-photograph-to-be-celebrated-in-france/ https://mechtraveller.com/2026/01/200th-anniversary-of-the-worlds-first-photograph-to-be-celebrated-in-france/#respond Mon, 12 Jan 2026 15:22:13 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=12604 The French Ministry of Culture has announced a nationwide festival of photography in 2026 to mark the 200th anniversary of the world’s first permanent photograph recorded by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce. Niépce’s photograph, ‘View from the window at Le Gras’ dated between 1826-1827 was taken from his study window on his estate in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes in Burgundy. […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2026/01/200th-anniversary-of-the-worlds-first-photograph-to-be-celebrated-in-france/feed/ 0 Sail-powered cargo ship will also carry passengers https://mechtraveller.com/2025/10/sail-powered-cargo-ship-will-also-carry-passengers/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/10/sail-powered-cargo-ship-will-also-carry-passengers/#respond Wed, 15 Oct 2025 18:23:23 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=12319 Yesterday, the French shipping company Neoline held a naming ceremony in its registration port of Nantes for its first sail-powered Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) cargo ship. As I write, Neoliner Origin, is heading down the Loire estuary* passing the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard at St. Nazaire where she got her two giant, self-furling, self-adjusting SolidSails that […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2025/10/sail-powered-cargo-ship-will-also-carry-passengers/feed/ 0 Laffly V15 https://mechtraveller.com/2025/09/laffly-v15/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/09/laffly-v15/#respond Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:28:17 +0000 http://mechtraveller.com/?p=1655 I love this quirky little French 6-wheeler from 1939. It’s a Laffly V15T with 4-wheel drive, plus an extra two wheels to get it over lumps & bumps! It had a top speed of 58 kph and was used primary by the French cavalry as an artillery tractor to tow their 25mm anti tank gun. […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2025/09/laffly-v15/feed/ 0 The Wellington Quarry tunnels under Arras https://mechtraveller.com/2025/09/the-wellington-quarry-tunnels-under-arras/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/09/the-wellington-quarry-tunnels-under-arras/#respond Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:37:12 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=12018 The Wellington Quarry, or Carrière Wellington, is a World War I memorial, museum and battlefield site, in, or rather under, the streets of Arras in Pas-de-Calais, France. It played a significant role in hiding thousands of British & Commonwealth troops for weeks before unleashing them in a major assault on German lines in April 1917. […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2025/09/the-wellington-quarry-tunnels-under-arras/feed/ 0 Voisin 10 – Armed to the Teeth! https://mechtraveller.com/2025/08/voisin-10-armed-to-the-teeth/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/08/voisin-10-armed-to-the-teeth/#respond Sun, 31 Aug 2025 11:13:02 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=11967 This is the fuselage, or ‘gondola’, of the rather extraordinary French WW1 Voisin X bomber and gunship. The Voisin X was a two-seat pusher biplane produced either as a night bomber or a gunship armed with a 37 mm (1½”) Hotchkiss cannon and a defensive 7.7mm machine gun. As it turned out, the canon was […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2025/08/voisin-10-armed-to-the-teeth/feed/ 0 Fort des Dunes, Dunkirk https://mechtraveller.com/2025/05/fort-des-dunes-dunkirk/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/05/fort-des-dunes-dunkirk/#respond Thu, 08 May 2025 13:13:07 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=11679 Fort des Dunes is a 19th century fort built among the sand dunes at Leffrinckoucke in Northern France just behind the famous beach of Dunkirk. In fact it lies about eight kilometres from the border with Belgium and six kilometres from the centre of Dunkirk, so roughly halfway along that huge expanse of sand. Now […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2025/05/fort-des-dunes-dunkirk/feed/ 0 Cambrai Tank 1917 Museum https://mechtraveller.com/2025/01/cambrai-tank-1917-museum/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/01/cambrai-tank-1917-museum/#respond Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:02:55 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=11388 The Cambrai Tank 1917 Museum is built around the remains of Deborah, a British WW1 tank that took part in a major armoured attack on German lines in November 1917. Battle of Cambrai The town of Cambrai in the Nord department of France, north of Paris and 36 kilometres east of Arras, fell under German […]

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]]> https://mechtraveller.com/2025/01/cambrai-tank-1917-museum/feed/ 0 Caudron G.III Aircraft https://mechtraveller.com/2025/01/caudron-g-iii-aircraft/ https://mechtraveller.com/2025/01/caudron-g-iii-aircraft/#respond Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:54:51 +0000 https://mechtraveller.com/?p=11355 There’s more to this weird box-frame aeroplane than you would imagine. Over 1500 were produced by the Caudron brothers, René and Gaston, in their factory at Le Crotoy on the eastern side of the Somme estuary, from 1913 onward. And it proved to be, despite appearances, tough, reliable and popular with the pilots who flew […]

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