This is the end of our canadian adventure, and the begining of our american dream. First step : the border crossing !!

So here we are in the Windsor / Detroit border. We reach the border at 11.30 this tuesday morning. During an early stop we took all the "illegal stuff" out  of the car : fruits, veggies, eggs...

After one and a half hour, three customs agents, lots of questions (some of them are just curiousity) and several advises, we get our 6 months visa : we can stay until march 2015.
We cross the boarder, and reach our very first US city : Detroit.

Detroit is Michigan biggest city, industrial Place (home of Ford and GMC), one of the most important US cities in the middle of the 20th century is today the first and only bankrupted city. Motown (nick name from Motor Town) ow has 15 billions USD in debts, the population decreased from 1,8 millions to 700.000 inhabitants since 1950, some complete neighbourhoods are deserts, including some downtown buildings. 

Nowadays, the population still decreases, but things seem to get better : Detroit is a business place again, and even if there is a lack in public services, lots of people gather to help each others (it's the capital of "do it ourselves").  

Detroit is also known as the most dangerous city in USA : about this, we just want to say that the customs agents told us that Detroit is probably safer than Chicago. We didn't feel especially unsafe here, but it's true that all the empty buildings and an incredible number of parking lots give a really strange feeling when you walk around downtown...

Detroit is a city of opposites : one of the poorest towns in USA, but probably one of the very richest subburbs to. We drove through Grosse pointe, and saw huge houses, like castles owned by big industrial families.

Another good thind in Detroit : all the big sport teams are still there, bringing lots of people in stadiums (Tigers in MLB, Lions in NFL, Red Wings in NHL, and Pistons in NBA).

All these things can mean that the city is not dead, but probably just sleeping, and can rise again...

As a conclusion, and to be honnest, we can have a judgement on Detroit, we barely see it (just in downtown). It's definitly a place you have to go to make your own opinion, but we really believe that  that meeting some real detroiters, the ones who are proud of their city and who want to help it can make you enjoy this really particular place.

Don't forget that you can enlarge pictures by clicking.