:: Road Trip:: "Berzerk...the Last... but the First!" (Volcano Road Trip inside)

[DarthNuno]

Back in ...June 2010  

Usual stuff for a new road trip to come :



So this roadtrip will be the LAST one with my faithful car (4 years of ArcadeLifeStyle adventures... )  



OK, let's check the distance...636 km one way... not too bad...



Well, this time we won't to this road trip in one day. Because the destination is a nice place to visit, I decide with Darth Nunette to stay there for the night. So let's take more things...



The road trip officially starts here & now :





Fog... at the exit of my little village... I love the smell of the road trip in the morning  



Few minutes later, I'm already in France   It's cool to live near all the borders  



Quick stop for a ...continental breakfast...no regret because there's NO Burger King France anyway!  



Hey, check the "SR2" font on this truck...it reminds me a game    



France is a beautiful country... So we really enjoy the trip...





...we don't use to come in that part of the France...



"La Bourgogne" : A very famous region, if you're fan of great wine  

Burgundy wine (French: Bourgogne or Vin de Bourgogne) is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France[1], in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône River, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here - those commonly referred to as "Burgundies" - are red wines made from Pinot Noir grapes or white wines made from Chardonnay grapes. Red and white wines are also made from other grape varieties, such as Gamay and Aligoté respectively. Small amounts of rosé and sparkling wine are also produced in the region. Chardonnay-dominated Chablis and Gamay-dominated Beaujolais  are formally part of Burgundy wine region, but wines from those subregions are usually referred to by their own names rather than as "Burgundy wines".
(c) Wiki



Because there's no rush on this road trip, we do not hesitate to stop here & there, for example for buying local products :



My wife wanted to buy cherries :



Welcome to the Puy-de-Dôme :



Puy-de-Dôme is a department in the center of France named after the famous dormant volcano, the Puy-de-Dôme. The department is in the Massif Central and boasts more than 80 volcanic craters.
Wow... sounds cool huh  

Indeed, the landscape changes gradually…



Wow    

[DarthNuno]

The rendezvous with the seller is set for tomorrow morning, so let's visit.
I don't want to miss the opportunity to visit VULCANIA



What is vulcania?

A converted ex-army camp, the European Park of Volcanoes is set in the heart of the Auvergne region, 15 km west of Clermont-Ferrand, capital of the département of Puy de Dome [dpt.63] . Vulcania is 10 km from the A75 motorway that runs from Lyon to Montpellier. It is the only educational theme park on vulcanology in the world.

An artificial volcano cone shelters four levels of displays, films and other shows, interactivity, a volcanic garden, shops, an information centre and library, a sort-of play area. Like an iceberg, there is much more below than appears on the surface. Like Dr. Who’s Tardis, the inside of the building is considerably larger than can be seen from outside. Vulcania has been built into the plug of a (probably!) extinct volcano.

The exhibition centre of Vulcania is built down into the local basalt rock of a lava flow, of volcanic origin as is so much in this area of long-dormant and extinct volcanoes. In fact, three-quarters of the construction is underground, going down 20 metres, thus enabling the complex at the heart of Vulcania to blend into the surrounnding countryside. This was helped by recycling extracted basalt as building blocks and special Vulcania concrete. Eighty percent of the structure is built from local volcanic lava, with the pink basalt coming from Jura in the east of France.

Usual tourist pictures   





What? No burgers here? ... ok let's go for local stuff ...



Yes! I look very tired... not easy to visit a park after a 650km road trip 

Let's start the visit easily... a ride 'on surface'   









A view from the inside of the artificial cone :



As you see the previous pictures, except the beautiful volcano and natural landscape, it looks very 'empty' for a theme park?
And this is the awesome thing about it : three-quarters of the construction is ...underground!

Ok, I don't want to publish all the pictures from this visit, here's just few of them 

Maybe it's written : "please do not touch"? That would explains why they are all looking at us, so furiously   



Various pictures...













Nice theme park. But now he have to go for the today's destination town : Clermont-Ferrand...





... in order to find hotel. Let's pick up this one, located in the central place of the town :



View from this gigantic place 





Very nice city :







The famous VERCINGETORIX  :



End of the day...

Sunday morning, a last walk in the city... very quiet :



On the road again... destination, the seller's house where a new cabinet is waiting for me 



Here we are...



Two games here : Pole Position and ... Berzerk   



I'm not here for the Pole Position (already have one). Let's quickly check the berzerk : No board at all, monitor is present but untested (the seller knows nothing about arcade games. He got these cabinets long time ago, very cheap, and had the idea to do something with... but never happened).

[DarthNuno]

Let's 'extract' the beast from the garage...



Mind the gap!



See the general condition of the cabinets... not too bad I would say 



The famous 'bat joystick' is still there :







What a monster cabinet! 



Loading process... Let me tell you what I'm loving this car so much ... I was able to enter in all games I wanted!!! Believe me, everything fits in this car... So I'm confident with this LAST cabinet to load (remember, in few days I'll to give back that car to my company)...



ops!? 



Let's force a little bit   



It's ok...but ... I cannot close the trunk of the car 



Perfect!



A last picture before to leave... Me and the seller 



Let's go... a long way to drive...



On the way back, let's stop for local food...



This one should be perfect! 



France is THE country for the chess  MMMhhhhhhhhhh   



It looks tasty isn't it? It is!!!   



No a problem, let's go for the B plan ... entering the cabinet on its side :

On the road, some strange signs that represent humans?



Mhhh 



I think it represents persons who died on the road  It's glaucous but it make you think about how stupid it can be do die on the road 

Ok, the story continues... after a while... my own body 'knows' that I'm in a road trip mode... and requests me to stop for eating ...Burgers   



McDo powwâââ 

Almost at home... but we got heavy rain... a real pain!



In few seconds, Belgium will have one more Berzerk cabinet in the "Kingdom"   



And this is it! Usual stats :





Two countries : Belgium > France > Belgium, 35 hours of "road trip" time and 1321 km on the road. 

So it was the LAST road trip for my car... but the FIRST one ...for our baby, still in warm inside the Nunette's belly 

[Brry71]

Hi Bruno,


Always fun to read your roadtrip reports, congratulations on the new cab. But more importantly, CONGrATULATIONS on the coming baby!!!!Never to early to start with the arcade lifestyle 

Regards, and best of luck for the coming period!
Barry

[kroustibat]

Congratulations for the baby !!! he'll have a nice playground in the lair

berzerk is a great addition to your collection

[gyruss]

Congratuljavascript:void(0);ations on the baby & the cabinet. 

[Reinhold]

Sweet, congrats with the coming baby


And what a great road trip
And the pictures are just superb...

[flip971]

Congratulations for the baby!!!   ( when is stimated the born?? )
And, as ususlly, great road trip & pics 

[Muerto]

Great roadtrip as always! - now, welcome to the Berzerk family!!!
Also, congratulations on the biggest event in your life!!!! 

[ckong]

Congratulations with the Baby.  

And of course also with the Berzerk game. Not so important as the other event though.  And as usual you produced a very nice road trip report. Thanks for that.

[Superully]

first of all: welcome to the berzerk family and - a little premature - a welcome for your latest addition, this time an addition to the nuno family itself

thx for sharing that roadtrip with us, it was nice to see pics of the puy de dome and clermont-ferrand with its black cathedral, both of which WERE hot candidates for the burial of the golden owl when i was hardcore treasure hunting for the "chouette d'or" a few years ago. i miss that hobby so much, unfortunately not a lot to do at the moment. in case you have no idea what i'm talking about, don't worry ...

[level42]

I never congratulate people with their baby until it's there......experience makes one wiser....

BUT HAPPY CONGRATULATIONS WITH YOUR PREGNANCY NUNO & NUNETTE !!!!!!  

Your most amazing, exiting, fun, tiring, crazy road-trip is yet to start with the little one my friend !!

O....and the Berzerk is great too

[Belike]

Congrats with the Baby, Berzerk rules!

[Etienne MacGyver]

First of all , CONGRATIOLATIONS with the baby !!!



and congrats on the berzerk too ofcourse !

Thanx for the story Nuno !

[TimePilot]

Wow, nice roadtrip for a nice cab. fantastic impressions, vive la france!

And congratulations with the baby, the biggest adventure in life.  my son was born in 2007 and he is the nicest addition in my life! ...and he loves daddies machines...