Paris-London, draft 1

Prolog

(VN Bldg 24) On the banks of the River Seine Saigon is the city of Saigon, “Paris of the Orient” as it was called by westerners in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. (VN Bldg 19)(VN Bldg 20)(VN Bldg 22) With its tree lined boulevards, large parks, French buildings, French carriages and cars, and French people; (VN Bldg 17) (VN Bldg 1)(VN Bldg ND2)(VN Bldg Car)(VN Bldg 18) it must have looked like Paris’ tropical little sister. Although Vietnam was under French control, or at least French influence, until 1954, the Saigon where mom was born and raised was in decline. She and her mother worked for the French on occasion and sometimes lived in their homes. To mom, the French were strange and exotic people, tall, with white skin, long noses, “round” eyes, and (some) with light brown or blond hair. When mom was 10 years old the French started leaving Saigon. As they and their culture faded way, in a sense they became more of a curiosity. When they were there, she was too young to fully understand why. When she was old enough to understand, they were, for the most part, gone. This is a long way of saying that mom has always wanted to see France, particularly Paris. In a vicarious way, it is part of her childhood. Like our trip to Vietnam in 2005, our trip to Paris and London in 2008 is something that we “needed” to do.

Our Trip

Special thanks to Cindy for “pushing” us into going on this trip. Who in their right mind would go to Europe in mid-winter? Rain, fog, dreary, bone chilling cold weather - I was really not very excited about going. In fact, I was looking for excuses for not going. However, we had none of that bad weather! The weather on the entire trip was sunny and relatively warm with highs in the upper 50’s and low 60’s and lows in the low 40’s. Not once did we use our umbrellas, rain gear, or long underwear.

We left home on Wednesday afternoon, with too much luggage and late again as usual, and drove mom’s van to LAX. We planned to leave the van at LAX where Cindy and Bryan would later pick it up. Since Bryan had a late class on Wednesday evenings, we parked in the long-term “B” lot. While waiting for the shuttle bus, we called Cindy to tell her where in Lot B the van was parked. They would pick it up on Thursday. The shuttle bus soon arrived but was crowded. Mom was unable to lift her big suitcase into the bus and I was determined to let her struggle since she refused, again, to take only what she could carry. Fortunately, someone else helped her. We had a long ride to the terminal since there was an accident on Century Blvd. and we had to go north and come back on Sepulveda - and we were already late! Fortunately, we departed from Terminal 2 instead of the Bradley international terminal, which is always crowded. Terminal 2 was not crowded so we were able to check-in quite quickly. In the parking lot, mom reminded me to put my little knife away so we even got through the metal detectors quickly and easily. Good thing, too, because the flight was already boarding. Following a quick restroom stop, we boarded.

I thought the Air France plane was an Airbus but it turned out to be a Boeing 777, which was OK. There were two aisles with 3-3-3 seating. (747’s have 3-4-3 seating.) The plane was about 65-75% full so we had three seats for the two of us. The legroom was OK, certainly better than the China Air flights we took to and from Vietnam a few years ago. Also, we each had a personal “entertainment center” in the seat back in front of us. There was a screen (about 6”), a controller in the armrest, and about 20 different choices of news, movies, cartoons, music, etc. The earphones were free! We also got too full meals, one an hour or so after takeoff and another an hour or so before landing. The flight had another nice passenger amenity that we, unfortunately, did not discover until the flight home – self-serve food courts. They had small sandwiches, soft drinks, water, snacks, and Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars. Too bad we did not notice this on the way over. The reason, I guess, is because we left LAX at about 10:00 PM and were tired. We both slept much of the way over. Coming home, we departed Paris just before 5:00 PM (4:00 PM London time) and neither of us slept much. Anyway, it was pretty good for a long (10 hour) flight. Listening to the crew, some of whom had pretty strong French accents, was also good entertainment.

The flight went from Los Angeles to central Utah and turned east northeast toward Boston. We flew near Boston and on up the coast to Nova Scotia and St. John’s, Newfoundland. From there it was across the Atlantic, south of Ireland and England to Paris. I had thought we might take a more northern route but that, I found out, happens only on the westbound flights – probably having to do with the jet stream.

Paris

We stayed in the Hotel Kyriad Paris-Bercy Village. It is a small hotel and our room was about the size of the computer room with a bathroom and closet added on. Nevertheless, it was clean, smelled good, and had a friendly staff. Bercy Village is an area in southeast Paris, just northeast of the Seine, which used to have lots of wine storage warehouses and a large park. Oddly enough, it is on the road that leads southeast to Disneyland Europe! The cross road, running northeast by southwest, leads to China Town (which is largely Vietnamese now) about a mile and one half away. The old warehouses are gone and a village of trendy shops, bars/restaurants, and movie theaters has replaced them. According to the guidebook, it has recently become quite a “happening” place for young Parisians. (Check it out on the internet.) From our hotel it was a two or three block walk, past Parc de Bercy, to the Seine River and two blocks to the Metro (subway station.) In the other direction, there were typical (I think) urban residential areas with shops on the street level and flats above. Most of the buildings in the older parts of Paris were five to seven stories high and quite long (they would often extend an entire block, or more.) The top floors usually had rooms with dormer windows that stuck out of the skirt of the roof. While Bercy Village is not in a tourist location, it was only 10-15 minutes away from Tuileries Garden and the Louvre.

We arrived at about 8:00 PM because neither we nor our cab driver knew where we were going. (Everyone we asked directions from gave us a map but I never did find anyone in Paris who could read a map.) After we settled in our hotel room and looked at the tourist information we decided to take a walk. We walked the several blocks through Bercy Village to the river. Had I read up on Bercy Village before visiting it instead of after, I would have paid more attention to it and visited the park. Apparently, it is quite a success story in urban renewal. When we reached the River Seine, we crossed the bridge to the “left bank” and then went down the stairs to the riverbank, which is paved with cobblestone on both sides of the river. We walked down stream about ½ mile and saw several interesting looking boats that were converted to restaurants and small nightclubs. We took some pictures but most of them did not turn out well because it was too dark. We then came to a footbridge and walked back across the river. It was a multilevel affair, very artistic, you know. On the right bank we saw an old square-rigger that looked like a pirate ship. It was also a small restaurant, I think, and a woman kept peeking out the door or window at us. I think people live on most of the boats there. A number of cars were parked along the river here (I don’t know why) and one of them was a restored old Citroen, the type they had in Saigon in the 60’s. There was also an original Mini Cooper. We walked back up river to the bridge we had originally crossed and back up the stairs to the street level. I knew it was the right place because the tour boats all turned around there. There is quite a lively trade in dinner cruises on the Seine. A glassed-in restaurant/tour boat came by every four or five minutes. At “our” bridge they did a U-turn and went back down stream. I guess there was nothing else to see farther up the river. We walked north on Rue de Kessel, which is called Rue de Tolbiac south of the river and turns into Rue de Dijon just a block before of our hotel. On the way, we stopped in several little shops. By little, I mean little. No wheelchair friendly codes here. You have to walk sideways to get down some of the aisles. Mom bought some chocolate candy in one of them and took some flower pictures in others. There were a lot of flower shops around. The last place was a little “hole in the wall” restaurant run by Moroccans, probably. Like flower shops, there also seemed to be a lot of Moroccans around. We had not eaten since we had dinner on the airplane so we decided to stop. Mom noticed that they had crepes, which Cindy told her we must try in Paris. So, we both ordered a Nutella crepe, € 3.00 each or about $5.00. But, they were large, about 12”-14” in diameter, and hot off the grill. Pretty good! Returning to our hotel, we saw another “different” car, our first Smart car. Like most Smart cars we saw, it was not “parked” but was crowded into small space between the marked parking spaces on the street and a bicycle parking area. Bicycle riding was quite popular in Paris.

Our tour for the next day departed from central Paris, not locally. The desk clerks gave each of us a tourist map in English but could neither show us were we were on the map nor where we needed to go in the morning. However, they flipped the map over to a diagram of the subway system and showed us where to get on and which station to get off. The Cour St. Emilion Metro station was about two blocks away in Bercy Village. The Bercy Metro station was closer to town but farther from our hotel. We found it in the morning and took the Metro to the Pyramides station, another € 3.00. Upon leaving the subway, there was a large tourist map on the street corner. Unfortunately, there was no “you are here” arrow and we couldn’t find any street signs. After walking around for a while, we saw that the street signs were on the sides of buildings, not on signposts. With that information, we went back to the big tourist map and discovered that it was only several hundred feet (in the other direction) from Rue des Pyramides, where we wanted to go. It is another short street that runs from Ave. de l’Opera, where we were, south to the river where it ends. It is the street that separates the Louvre from Tuileries Gardens, which runs along the right bank of the Seine. At the other (west) end of the gardens is Place de La Concorde, a large square where the guillotine stood during the French Revolution. A 2,500-year-old Egyptian “Obelisque” now stands there. (On the other side of the square is the east end of Ave. des Champs Elysées. Its west end is at the Arc de Triomphe.) The name, Pyramides street, probably has something to do with the obelisk. In keeping with the Egyptian theme, a 2-3 story high glass pyramid was recently built in the courtyard just outside the Louvre. It now serves as the entrance and exit to the museum. Any way, we were to meet our bus at the Cityrama tourist office on Rue des Pyramides, just across the street from the Louvre and in front of the gold Joan of Arch statue in the middle of the intersection. Fortunately, we left the hotel early so we were still on time in spite of our walking around trying to find the tourist office and the bus.

Our tour bus was a relatively new two-level Setra (brand name) bus (coach.) All of us, except for the tour guide, sat on the upper level for a better view. We drove around the block and went by the local McDonalds, which was fairly busy. We then went west to Place de La Concorde and drove around the large square while the guide talked about the French Revolution, the guillotine, the obelisk, etc. From there, we continued west along the Champs Elysées. When first built, the avenue was on the outskirts of Paris and not a particularly safe place to go after dark. Now it is a fashionable and cosmopolitan shopping, business, and residential street. A number of well-known buildings were pointed out, none of which I can now remember except for the Grand Palais. It is located between two cross streets: Avenue Winston Churchill and Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt. A little further west Avenue George V (king of the UK from 1910-1936) crosses the Champs Elysées and turns into Rue Washington on the north side of the street. At the west end of Avenue des Champs Elysées is another large square, Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly and more commonly known as Place de l'Étoile (Star Square.) 12 avenues radiate out from the square. In the middle of the square is the Arc de Triomphe. The arch was built in the early 1800’s as a memorial to the soldiers of Napoléon. It is now a war memorial for all French wars and is the location of France’s tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A large structure (h-165 ft, w-148 ft, and d-72 ft,) Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport fighter plane through the arch in 1919, shortly after the end of World War I. The Arc is the west end of L'Axe historique (historic axis), a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre Palace to what used to be the outskirts of Paris. Leaving the square, we continued west along Avenue Foch, a very wide residential boulevard and perhaps the most prestigious and expensive address in Paris. Foch was the Field Marshal of France and Allied Supreme Commander near the end of World War I. Number 84 Avenue Foch was a building in Paris used by the Gestapo for imprisonment and interrogation of foreign agents captured in France during the German occupation of Paris in World War II. Avenue Foch terminates at Bois de Boulogne, a large park located along the western edge of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. It has an area of 3.26 sq. miles (2.5 times larger than Central Park in New York.) At nighttime the area is a different scene, becoming one of Paris' most prominent red-light districts. The northern part of the Bois is occupied by the Jardin d'Acclimatation, a kind of amusement park with a menagerie and other attractions.

From the Bois our bus turned back east and headed to the Eiffel Tower, a mile or two away. Rather than going to the tower, however, we stopped at Quai Branly, the docks along the “left bank” of the Seine at the foot of the tower. We boarded a river tour boat and started our River Seine tour. The tour lasted about an hour and was both good and bad. The good part was that you could see much of historic Paris from the river. Notre Dame cathedral, for example, is on Île de la Cité, an island in the river which is the cite of the oldest permanent settlement (Roman, about 52 B.C.) in the Paris area. Many splendid buildings border the river on both sides, the names of which I can’t remember. This is where the bad part of the river tour comes in. There were several hundred people of many nationalities on the boat. Rather than having multiple tour guides to explain the sights, they had hand held speakers at each seat that played recorded messages in a dozen of so different languages. As the boat reached certain points in the river, the crewman in charge pushed a button that started the recorded narration for that part of the river. Unfortunately, the crewman did not always push the button at the right time and, I suspect, did not always push the correct button. Sometimes the recorded narration was fine. At other times the narration talked about things that I could not see anywhere. Then there were times when I couldn’t tell which of several buildings the narration was talking about. Nevertheless, the view was great and well worthwhile. We cruised up river to a point about ½ mile short of Quai Bercy where we saw all the dinner cruises turn around the previous evening. On the way down stream we saw mostly the same scenery but had different recorded narrations. This time we sailed on the north side of Île de la Cité and got to see the other side of Notre Dame and the other buildings on the island. We did not go into the cathedral, or the Louvre for that matter. Had the weather been cold and rainy as we expected, we certainly would have done that. I would like to have compared Notre Dame with St. Paul’s and Westminster Abby in London. We should have taken the time to visit both but we did not. That will have to wait until “next time.”

At the conclusion of the cruise we docked again at Quai Branly and disembarked. From there it was a five-minute walk to the base of the Eiffel Tower, named after its architect and engineer, Gustave Eiffel (who also designed and built the central post office in Saigon.) The tower was built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris. From its completion in 1889 to 1930, the Eiffel Tower was the world’s tallest structure. It replaced the Washington Monument, which previously was the world's tallest tower. In turn, New York City's Chrysler Building surpassed the Eiffel Tower’s height when it was finished in 1930. Not only is the tower high, it is also wide at the base. Like the Arc de Triomphe, it has attracted daredevil pilots to fly through it, the most recent of which was a Texan flying a Beechcraft Bonanza. Since that happened (20 some years ago) increased security has prevented further attempts and we did not see any light planes flying around it at all. The tower has three observation levels that can easily be seen. Our tour included elevator tickets to the second level, which is 686 steps and almost 500 ft. above the ground. Public access to the top level of the tower is by elevator only and is over 1,000 ft. high. After taking a number of pictures from the second level, mom and I decided to walk down the stairs instead of waiting for the lift (there was quite a line.) That turned out to be a little much for mom whose knees started to hurt. (My legs did not ache until the next day.) Nonetheless, we saw quite a few people walking up as we were walking down. However, I don’t believe any of them were much over 40 years old - perhaps less. After finishing the decent, we hobbled back to the bus. On the way, we encountered some peddlers (surprise, surprise.) They were French speaking African teenagers, perhaps Moroccan. We encountered many Moroccans in Paris. Because they were willing to bargain with mom, she bought several crystal Eiffel Towers and some key chains from them - at about 1/3 the original asking price. She wishes she had bought some more. We found the crystal Eiffel Towers on Ebay after we got home and, with shipping, they cost 8-10 time what mom paid for them.

With pictures and souvenirs in hand, we boarded our bus for the trip back to Cityrama. Some of the tour members stayed at the tower and, from there, went to dinner and their evening activities. We returned to Rue des Pyramides and walked back to the Metro station via the opera house, which was only a short detour. We boarded the Metro for the 10-15 minute ride to Cour St. Emilion Metro station in Bercy Village and, from there, walked home to the hotel. En-route we ended up stopping at the same little restaurant where we had the crepes the evening before. This time, we had something like a pita pocket sandwich. Perhaps we should have gone to a nice French restaurant for some “fine dining.” Cassi recommended Restaurant Georges and there were many little “in” restaurants in Bercy Village. However, the weak dollar made them all so expensive that we dined with the locals at this little hole-in-the-wall. While not fancy, it was good, reasonably priced, and something we don’t usually see in the US. Like Notre Dame and the Louvre, fine French dining will have to wait for “next time.”

to be continued