Europe 85 Part III

Monday, September 16, 1985, 8:15pm, Hotel de Nevers, Paris

I’m here!!! I’m finally in Paris!  I can’t believe how excited I am! This is the feeling I expected when I first landed in London, but the opposite is what happened. Everything here is different.

To digress a bit. I got to  Charing Cross in time to make the 8:55am train but they were full for the Hovercraft, which I really wanted to experience. I debated about buying a ticket to Marseilles  but the price of £69 put me off. Perhaps I should have done it but instead I purchased a single to Paris via train/hovercraft for £35.45 which left at 10:15am. I got talking to another American while we were queued up. He and his wife are from Iowa (Bob and Jean Walters). We had a very pleasant conversation in line and on the train to Dover.  The English countryside (from the train) was not very attractive, but reasonably pleasant. I got to see the while cliffs of Dover (through the rain) and that was nice.

I thought the ride in the hovercraft would be an experience, and it was.  The sea was very rough with gale force winds. Almost everyone on board was seasick with about ¼ of us throwing up. The “stewardesses” were picking up barf bags like they were lunch trays.  I managed not to throw up but was quite sick nonetheless.  I broke out in a profuse cold sweat and my stomach did cartwheels. I just wanted to die. We also had to stop half way across the channel to rescue a man floating in some type of inner tube. Another passenger remarked to me that he had been in the British navy and had been on the high seas in bad weather but never experienced anything as sickening as this.

Arriving at Calais, I was so happy to be on French soil and a French train. The ride was smooth as glass. The countryside was every bit as picturesque and I had expected.  I watched people on the train platforms and they looked like normal people. The British all seemed to look British, even those of Indian, Asian, or African descent.  I was surprised to see blacks here and there in some of the small French towns.

I began to feel the excitement when I could see the very top of the Eiffel tower. No one in my car seems to have seen it but me. Then a short while later I saw what I thought was Sacre Coeur.  The next thing I knew we were in the Gare du Nord. I had to take a few minutes to orient myself to the Metro.  I found my way to the Boulevard St. Michel and headed up to Rue Gay Lussac where my guide book said there was a cheap hotel. When I realized that the hotel was farther than I wanted to walk, I took a look in my guide and found another place closer to where I was. There was no sign but people were entering it and talking with a woman I took to be the concierge or perhaps “la proprietaire.” There was a sign inside that said “Complet” which means full. I remembered Arthur Frommer saying to ask anyway, so I did. Just before I walked in another guy came by, saw the sign and left.  When I told the woman in my disastrous French that I had just arrived in Paris and asked if she had a room, she said “maybe’ and looked it up. During this exchange I told her about my terrible experience with the English and the trip across the channel. She asked me about the weather there etc. The next thing I knew I was walking up six flights to a room that only cost 78F sans douche ($9.75) including breakfast.

This room is perfect!! It’s small, only has a view of the building across the way (apt, I think), a lumpy double bed, a broken down wooden armoire, an unused marble fireplace, a tiny little writing table, 2 chairs, a sink, and the obligatory bidet. The WC is down the hall and as far as I can tell no bath.  I need to go out and buy a washcloth and soap. So what? I am as happy as a pig in shit! I am hungry and tired sitting here writing by the window. I just had to record this. (I forgot to mention that the streets are full of people. This city is alive!!! Not at all like London.)  I must go out and eat or I shall perish right here. At least I’d die happy.  [Hotel 78F san douche, Dinner 8F, cigarettes 6.95F (exchange rate 8F=$1)]