CrystalCreek

The T.S.S. NORMANDIE was one of the finest ocean liners ever produced -arguably the grandest ever. Second in size only to the Queen Elizabeth, running mate of the Queen Mary, the Normandie was created to represent the French nation and all it had to offer to the world. Revolutionary in design and appearance, it's shape has influenced industrial design ever since. Created with a considerable subsidy from the French government.

The Normandie's revolutionary hull was surprisingly designed not by a Frenchman, but by a Russian immigrant by the name of Vladimir Yourkevitch who was then toiling on a Renault assembly line. No stranger to ship design, Yourkevitch had produced hull designs for the Imperial Russian Navy prior to fleeing to France.

So revolutionary were his ideas that at first the directors of CGT (the French Line) were reluctant to try his hull shape in their test tanks. But Yourkevitch's credentials were good enough to get him in the door and to the directors' astonishment his hull design consistently outperformed all others. That function came first in Normandie's design is something most of his (French ships are masculine in gender) passengers would never appreciate,Normandie was science creating art.

The Normadie was also famous for his food as well. With flair his staff of waiters and chefs made dining aboard him a once in a lifetime experience. For the truly jaded, the Normandie also offered his own a la carte Ritz-Carlton grill at the end of the main deck. This was reached by ascending five landings of stairs and was the culmination of the Normandie's spellbinding boulevard of rooms. Meals were available around the clock for an extra fee per meal.

The NORMANDIE was a floating temple of cafe society, his passenger lists always reading like a who's who list of the rich and famous. But alas, this was not to last forever for the approaching war was to cut her down in the prime of life. Sadly, the Normandie burned and capsized in New York harbor during the war as she was being converted into the troopship Lafayette.