The Hole
|
Harry Morskate | 12
juli 2011 |
| Daniel Farray, a resident of our
community died on Sunday, June 26 in a Montpellier hospital. I had 'known' Daniel Farray for a long time. Not personally, but from my  time in
Paris. In the seventies I frequently stayed in the apartment of
our company in the Rue de Turbigo in Paris. A few blocks away was the, then famous,
'Hole of Paris'. Here the world largest underground station was being
built. On my daily route to the office, I saw the entire
creation of the hole and later the completion of this 'one-time'
project. The project received much international attention, and was
also
regularly on Dutch television.Some years ago I met a kind and simple man at the Summer Feast of the 3 Villages. It was Daniel. We had a nice conversation and discovered that we shared interests. He said he was an architect, but did not speak at all about his projects nor his past achievements. At one of our later meetings he said that he had once offered the community his help with a 'plan d'urbanisme'. That offer was, to his surprise, not accepted. Even more unlikely was the reason: "you have too much knowledge, you are too experienced." Again, we discovered a shared experience and laughed heartily. Partly as a result of this conversation I started to find out who Daniel Farray really was and what the 'problem with his knowledge and experience' could be. |
Then I discovered that Daniel had been the man 'in charge', on the
spot, throughout the whole project of "Les Halles". He had led over 100
engineers and architects in the construction of the largest underground
station in the world. And later, same again for other projects
such as the superior station in Taipei in Taiwan. Daniel could have done much for our community. He was sorry that our community refused to get the benefits of his knowledge and experience.  He was annoyed that
our community did not even have a sewage treatment plant,
and that other amenities were lacking. But he also agreed that our
annoyance was a luxury that only comes out of knowledge and that the
fact that 'knowledge
is power' had not yet penetrated everywhere.Last year, Daniel married Marie on May 22. All the residents of our community were invited to the reception at the Salle Polyvalente and many people responded to the invitation. A gifted architect, but above all a great and amiable man has departed from us. I 'knew' Daniel from the 'hole of Paris'. A hole he had managed to fill in an impressive way. The hole he leaves behind is big and impossible to fill. |
