TTT: June 5th, 1996
This is my journal entry from the 5th day of our trip. We had already landed in London, taken the Chunnel Train from London to Paris, visited Sacre-Coeur and stayed a couple of days in Palis, a small village an hour and half southeast of Paris where my travel mate’s aunt, uncle & cousin lived.
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Palis to Paris
Took train from Troyes to Gare du Est, Paris. Come in the middle of a protest march. The electrical workers are demonstrating against the raising of rates tomorrow as well as the idea of privatization [see pic below].
Took Metro to Chatelet and walked to Notre Dame. Walked alongside the river towards Le Louvre. Walked through L’Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and relaxed in the shade in les Jardin des Tuileries.
Walked to the Obelisk and La Place de la Concorde and then made it to a Metro and found our way back to Le Gare du Est. Couldn’t get a hold of Olivier and began to panic – we had no place to go!
We took our luggage (because of terrorist problems, station lockers closed up!) out of consignment and lugged it back to the train station. Our plan was to call Olivier and/or Dave’s friend Marianne every 15 minutes till we found someone.
Upon a 2nd try, we did find Olivier & our moods instantly lifted. We jumped back on our subway and made our way to 28 rue de Chazelles via le Courcelles subway.
Olivier graciously took us in (after mistakenly going to the ‘2nd’ – he lives on the 3rd – our 4th) and we had dinner,where I finally met his fiancee, Lawrence.
Got cleaned up and prepared to meet David’s friend Marianne and her friends at the steps of the Bastille Opera House at 11 PM. Upon arriving, I noticed Stephan G. at the steps! [French grad student I had know in college] He was also meeting a friend but he was late so we decided to have him meet up up at a local bar, His friend, Michael, turned out to be another INTS major [my college major] from Texas A&M. We hung out at a couple of bars and just to show how people know people, here is a quick diagram…
Libby (Dallas) <-> Alison (Dallas) <-> Katell (France) <-> Marianne (Boston U) <-> Dave (I knew him from high school) <-> ME -> Stephane (A&M) AND Michael (A&M)
find me here too
