A beautiful day, our intrepid trio thus left its haven of peace. They left the turkish smallholding to their companions good care, the ex-beautiful Cunegonde, the pope Urbain X ex-daughter, the ex-whore Paquette, the ex-priest Giroflee and the careful Cacambo who, without any doubt, would have in heart to make it thrive and to continue to cultivate their garden.

They moved towards Constantinople to embark on a large vessel with vast rigging. Alas, no sail was visible along the quays! Disappointed, they saw only tiny esquifs or the enormous ones and odd chimneys, gray and dirty, floating miraculously on water. How would they reach the shores of France where they hoped to go initially ?

The honest Candide, the optimist Pangloss and Martin, their skeptic critic, seem so disappointed that a walker who observed the scene approached them.

The walker: " You seem to me lost ! Can I help you ? "

The honest Candide : " We wish to embark on a ship to return to us to the kingdom of France but we are disappointed to note that there is no sailing ship in the port. Would one have all destroyed them in the last conflict between Christians and Moslems ? "

The walker: " Not at all. And why do you want to go to France in boat and to navigate during two days whereas by plane you would have arrived in less than four hours? "

Martin: " What is this unimaginable vessel able to cross more than two thousands miles in four hours? It is completely extravagant! "

The walker: " It is a plane, in other words a vehicle heavier than the air, which flies and transports you at a speed of more than 800 kilometers (more than 500 miles) per hour ".

Martin: " You make fun! How a machine heavier than the air can fly? It is completely impossible! It is in contradiction with all the Aristote physics axioms.You want to make us take bladders for lanterns? ".

The walker: " In no way. I thus propose to you to prove my statements and to take you along to Paris in four hours ".

Pangloss, enthusiastic: " In four hours! What a admirable world! Four hours to go from turkish kingdom to french kingdom ! Admirable! "

The walker: " Which Turkey and France kingdoms? There is a long time ago that the kingdoms of France and Turkey disappeared ! We live in republic, in democracy. I thus invite you to be accompanied and check by yourselves my assertions ".

Thus was made. The walker, Fortunate Bigboss was a powerful anglo-french-saxon businessman, who had taken his retirement and traversed the world for his pleasure. They left the Bosphorus in an odd metal machine, incredibly heavier than the air and awfully noisy.

They flew over tiny landscapes, similar to models, where reliefs relatively low succeeded to large forests where the human presence appeared weak; other areas, very urbanized, were agglomerations without end. Our three explorers were surprised to see brilliant insects myriades following itself in the interminable ones and slow processions, along rectilinear axes, then to be inserted in a muddle of grey boxes accumulated in disorder, in gigantic concentrations.

Candide questioned Fortunate Bigboss: " Did these ants which move in mass towards their anthill take the place of the human beings here? We do not see any trace of those here ".

Fortunate Bigboss: " Not at all. What you take for ants is human beings which go daily to their work, downtown, in personal vehicles ".

Martin: " But they must spend hours to be moved also slowly! "

Fortunate Bigboss: " Completely exact. More especially as at the end of their working day, they set out again, in opposite direction, in the same disorders ".

Martin: " Curious organization. Or disorganization ? Could n't they avoid these wastings of time and energy while working not far from their dwellings ? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " Do not think you of it ! What would the poor town planners and civil servants of the equipment be made if they did not have these inextricable problems to regulate? What would one make policemen in charge of circulation, i.e. obstructions ? What would one make innumerable coach-builders who live only automobile sinisters ? What would one make armies of insurers who live only disasters? What would one make tens of thousands of employees which subsist only thanks to one overflowing consumption of a malodorous liquid? What would one make the poor emirs deprived of their mountains of petrodollars if the black gold ceased running? What would one make taxi drivers, portable telephones, missed appointments, howling ambulances, false alibis, truths delays, inexcusable delays, one hour furtive loves... if this circulation had suddenly decreased ? What would one make if the enormous oil tax manna and finances pump had been suddenly dried up and deprived the Treasury of his more faithful supports? This only evocation has what to make quiver. What would one make ...... ? I stop here because this list is interminable. As much to say that to want to change the course of the things would generate a true economic disaster. No judicious man could consider it! "

Pangloss : " See as the things are admirably arranged! At the price of some minor nuisances for a reduced number of individuals, it is a whole society which opens out and prosper! Definitely, your democracies seem to me filled of promises. It must be very pleasant to live there in Year 2000 ".

Candide : " I am in a hurry to arrive in the soft France ".

They reached the Charles-de-Gaulle airport. On the tarmac, extremely angry peasants had poured tons of pumpkins, blocking the output wickets. Our four newcomers cut through a path painfully.

Curious, Candide questioned Fortunate Bigboss: " Why these farmers offer do their pumpkins to us ? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " They to us do not offer them. They disperse them here to sow the disorder ".

Pangloss: " Why ? And why here ? And why sow the disorder ? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " They are dissatisfied because the production of pumpkins being superabundant this year, the courses dropped. They throw them here because more there will be disorder, plus the media will speak about them ".

Martin: " They is thus so advantageous if one speaks about them in the media? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " It is an indispensable condition to exist. If you want to obtain subsidies, create disorder. The media will speak about you. One will deal with you. You will be cherished ... You will exist ! Be respectful laws. The media will not speak about you. You will be treated roughly. You will be ignored. You will not obtain anything ... You will not exist! "

Candide " Strange ! "

Pangloss: " It is splendid! Thus, it is enough to be in media to obtain what one wishes. Splendid ! "

Fortunate Bigboss: " You have all understood ".

After having taken their first lesson of things, they took a taxi to join the capital. With the first toll, the employees of the motorway had disposed the banners announcing a strike. They barred the passage and diverted the traffic towards a small secondary road.

Martin: " They want to probably obtain an unspecified advantage ".

Pangloss: " They want to be in média ".

Candide : " They want to exist ".

Their taxi driver thus undertook to join the capital by small roads. The business did not go without risk. The first road that they borrowed divided into two. No signpost not being able to inform our travellers, they decided for a direction, with the instinct, randomly. After many turnings, sixty minutes later, they had returned to their starting point. They start again ........

Serene, Fortunate Bigboss explained to them: " When I have to take small roads in France, I acknowledge that I do not have an apprehension badly. I made Sciences Po, the Law Faculty, the E.N.A. My IQ is completely correct. Nevertheless, I fear the traps tended by the D.D.E. (Departmental Direction of the Equipment). I have a polytechnician friend who, confronted with these same problems, worked out a theory which seems to me very relevant. He supports that the engineers of the D.D.E. regard that the Frenchmen are very intelligent and that it is thus completely superfluous, as one does it in the other countries of planet, to repeat the same indications three or four times of continuation. One indicates the direction only once, discreetly, if possible with a panel with concealed half, in order not to disfigure the landscape. On the motorways also, one does not indicate too mileages, in order not to encourage the kilometers swallowers, which damage without shame the road network. One changes with delights the denomination of the roads and motorways during 50 kilometers then one takes again the old one, for obscure reasons. The D.D.E. has reasons which the reason does not know ....".

He was stopped by tens of demonstrators who barred the road with their tractors. They had set fire to old tires which released from terrible odors.

Pangloss: " They want to be in média ".

Candide: " They want to exist ".

Martin: " For which reason do they want to be in média ? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " According to their banners, their gherkin harvest to half was destroyed by the bad weather. They thus claim more significant subsidies ".

Martin " They thus touch some already? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " That goes from oneself ! "

Whereas their taxi driver tried to cross the stopping, one of the peasants, which seemed the leader, made them come out of the vehicle and ordered to them to follow him.

Of a short tone, he informed them: " I keep you as hostages ".

" At which title? " asked Fortunate Bigboss. 

The leader: " At hostages title ".

Pangloss: " Here is a very good reason! And an excellent occasion to be in media ! "

Martin: " To take the unknown ones as hostages, is it that your democracy ? "

Fortunate Bigboss: " Let us bear our troubles patiently. While waiting for that the things are clarified and that we are released, quickly I hope for it, I will tell you the democracy ".

Fortunate Bigboss undertook to make discover to the ex-subjects of the Sultan the mysteries and the charms of the democracy in Year 2000.