First hours in Paris

As I write this, we've been in Paris for about 32 hours and it's been a whirlwind. Our departure from Texas was a snap: a rather leisurely morning drive from Ryan and Jill's temporary abode in Hamilton, then a short flight from San Antonio to Dallas. Even the 10 -hour flight to Paris was uneventful, though it seems longer each time, even when, as this year, it's actually shorter because we're started 1500 miles to the east.

But all the tranquility ended literally the moment we exited the Charles de Gaulle terminal. We were to turn right to rendezvous with the van driver meeting us. But suddenly police and soldiers with machine guns (including a petite woman soldier with a submachine gun looking something like an American M-4 -- short-barreled, flash suppressor, big clip) began clearing the area where we were supposed to go. An unattended bag looked suspicious. All traffic to the terminal was halted; the area was cleared. In about 15 minutes we were allowed back, found our van and set off. I'm sure it was an impressionable introduction to Paris for Ryan and Jill.

Our second surprise was to arrive at our house exchange to find, apparently, no one at home and no one to meet us with the keys. The door to the apartment house was locked, but we quickly got in by following someone else through the door. In the lobby we found M. Paugam's name opposite the buzzer for "5". We rang it, expecting to be buzzed up from somewhere. No response.

A door led off to the right. It was locked. Her mailbox was visible in the lobby, but there was nothing in it. While we pondered step two, which would be to go buy a phone card and call the number, a woman came out, heard us talking and said something like "Madame Paugam." She then abruptly dropped something into a mailbox slot. Luckily Ryan noticed that it was M. Paugam's mail slot. We fished out the keys. One key opened the Another adventure surmounted.

I took the keys to floor 5. They didn't fit.

[to be continued]

Comments

[Susan Madrid]

Hi Roger,
Here's the url to the site posted by the American who's living in Paris and who hosts Sunday night dinner parties for whomever wants to attend. He sounds like an interesting guy.

http://www.jim-haynes.com/

[danny]

hi roger, thanks for the info. we know exactly where you guys are. so easy to find, did not even need map index. we liked reading your entry. for many years i had pen pal in fr. serge payen. his widow still lives in a small town about forty miles from chateau thierry[ville nueve sur fere]. it is near the wwI american cem. at oise-aisne. yvonne does not know any eng. which is how serge and i communicated. he was fluent in eng. we traded letters [ post] about once a month for some six or seven years. he was older than you are me [b. 1925]. he died about three years ago. in some of his letters he told me about his wwII life. abby and i also met him in paris once on one of oue visits there. he was 20 when the war ended, but from some of the things he told us i think he must have been very active in the fr. resitence forces. he would tell us the main details of a story and then pass off the rest of it as ramblings of an old man. i'd say," oh go on"and his come back would be "that was a long time ago". every sat he would visit the am. cem at oise-aisne CD2 02130 seringes et nesles, fr. he helped the staff and guided visitors around. when abby and i visited the cem. after serge died we met a young lady who worked there,nathalie lantoine. she told us [ in eng. of course] that serge had taught her how to speak and read eng. when he would come to the cem. on his weekly visits. my dad fought in wwI along the aisne river. oddly enough near the same area serge lived. after 11/11 1918 my dads unit was retired to the town of tonnere in the dept. of yon. this was where serge was born and spent the war years, wwII. serge told how his dad had great affection for the am. troops he saw in yon. serge himself told me in many of his letters how he appreciated am part in wwII and that we saved fr. i told him the u.s would not have had her indep when she did if it had not been for fr. help in our revo. because of this i was very moved when i came to la fayette's grave. he and his wife and son [george washington la fayette]were all next to each other.the care taker by way of serge told us that through out the german occupation of paris the u.s. flag flew over lafaytte's grave nite and day. this during wwII. please forgive my poor form. i never learned to type. my system is the old columbus system, find um and land um. only one finger needed. my comp. skills are even less. bye for now, danny