#TW0800

[greenbagjosh]

25 May 1997 - TW 0800 JFK-CDG is safe - Paris in May 1997

Bonjour a tout le monde!

It is almost 25 years since I flew from San Francisco to Paris CDG T1 via New York JFK airport.  This was for my first work assignment in Munich, Germany.  I had left on Sunday 25th May 1997 and landed on Monday 26th May.  I had accomodations for three nights in a small independent youth hostel in the 11th district on Rue Trousseau near the Ledru Rollin metro station along the M8.  

The first leg was from SFO Terminal 1 to JFK's historic Terminal 6 which is no longer standing.  Back in the 1990s, it was okay for family to accompany passengers to their gates after clearing the metal detectors.  My family stayed at the gate until it was time to board.  Then I flew to JFK.  JFK Terminal 6 is one that I had passed through many times in the 1980s and also the mid 1990s.  In the center of the terminal there was a very high rounded ceiling.  At one end of the terminal, was the same place I remember from June 1991 when I flew to Frankfurt, Germany.  

If you know about TWA flight 800, it was the flight from JFK to CDG T1.  This was the same one that had exploded over Long Island in 1996.  I was a bit nervous boarding the same flight later that afternoon.  The flight went fairly uneventful, and at the time they had on their MD80 a single-channel movie system where they played Jerry Maguire, dubbed in French as well as the original English.  I had to fill out a form called a landing card, to state my purpose for visiting France.  After 1998, those would be phased out.

I landed at CDG the next morning, Monday 26th May 1997.  CDG T1 was a radial type of terminal, with six or seven satellite gate areas.  To get outside the terminal, one had to get on an escalator link that went down, straight and upwards.  That would take passengers to the passport control desks.  I did not have to have a visa, because as I was a citizen of what the European Union refers to as an "Annex II" country, I did not need to apply for a work visa.  Paperwork internal to the company I was working for, was already filed, and they were expecting me in a few days' time.  For as long as I remained in the Schengen area, I would not receive a passport stamp beyond the one I received at CDG T1.

After clearing passport control, I picked up my luggage.  I was not sure where to find the bus to the RER.  I was directed to an exit near the baggage claim.  I took a shuttle from CDG T1 to the "Roissypole" rail station.  I noticed that there was some construction going on for an automatic driverless train system to link T1 to T2 and in between.  To get to Paris, I had to buy a special ticket for the RER.  Because I was not earning much at the time, I could only buy a second class one way ticket to Paris, and buy the Carte Orange day pass when I reached Paris itself.  The one way ticket was good until I reached Ledru Rollin.  The T1 RER station was in a covered open cut, and as trains travel on the left in France, I had to find the line B platform for Robinson / St. Rémy les Chevreuse.  

As for the RER itself, I had not been on the RER since early October 1983.  I remember riding the Banlieu trains from Cergy Pontoise out of the Cergy-Préfecture to Paris St. Lazare, so I thought the RERs would be about the same.  The newer RERs have a different sound than the Banlieu trains, especially with the doors closing sound.  The train to Paris came from T2 into T1.  I boarded the second class compartment of the RER train with my luggage and found a seat, not the collapsible strapontin close to the doors.  The train left the tunnel and went on to Parc des Expositions, Villepinte and it went underground at Sevran-Beaudottes.  After that, it came out of tunnel and joined the branch to Mitry-Claye.  At the time, the T4 was not yet built, so I did not take notice of Aulnay sous Bois.  The train passed by the south end of La Plaine Stade de France, before it went into tunnel again at Gare du Nord.  

Gare du Nord was where I had alighted to go to Ledru Rollin.  The underground station of Gare du Nord has four tracks, two for RER B and two for RER D.  The tracks are configured as B (platform) D B (platform) D.  I left the RER, using my single ticket to transfer to the metro.  Specifically I needed Metro line 5 to Place d'Italie.  I had a black suitcase in addition to my backpack, so it was a bit difficult outside the RER system to go up and down stairs with luggage to the platform, and also through the fare gates.  If that was not bad enough, at Bastille, the transfer to metro line 8 was long, and there were at least two flights of stairs to climb and descend.  Luckily at Ledru Rollin there was one escalator to the fare gates but not to the street.  At the exit fare gate, one does not insert their ticket, just step on the rubber mat and the door is released.  I made it through, and had just one flight of stairs to climb, and the two or three blocks left on foot.  Over the years, I learned that République would be a better station to transfer at, as the path between the 5 and 8 is shorter.

I walked to Rue Trousseau past the Tony's Restaurant, and checked into the hostel.  I would not be able to put my luggage in the room as it was around 10 AM CEST (GMT +2), but they had their cellar luggage room open.  I left my luggage in the luggage room.

I was hungry so I walked to the Monoprix grocery store to get food.  I bought a baguette, some paté and goat cheese.  Also I bought some Orangina orange drink.  I went back to the hostel to eat, the breakfast room's tables were mostly vacant.  After that I went to the nearby Ledru Rollin metro station to buy a Carte Orange.  I had to decide, where I would go that day.  Buying a Carte Orange required knowing which zones I would need, else I would need to buy point to point tickets.  I chose for that day a one zone ticket, which would preclude me going to La Défense other than using the M1.  The RER was right out that day.  The Carte Orange would be valid until the last train of the day.  I took the M8 to Bastille and changed to the M1 for Charles de Gaulle Étoile.  That is where the Arc de Triomphe is located, and is a major transfer hub in western Paris.  I walked along the Champs Elysées to the Virgin Megastore and looked for some music, but I did not find anything I was interested in.  

I took the M6 to Bir Hakeim across the Seine.  It was a fifteen minute walk to the Tour d'Eiffel but I did not go up the elevators.  I walked to Trocadéro station to see the Tour d'Eiffel with its countdown clock to the year 2000.  I cannot remember very well what else I did, where I went, on 26th May 1997.  I did go back about 3 PM to the hostel to take my luggage from the basement to my bedroom.  I was in a four-bed room and had a shared bathroom and shower in the hall.  I still had a bit of food left over from lunch so I had that later on.  At some point that evening, I became tired and went to sleep.

Tuesday 27th May 1997 I woke up about 6 AM.  I took a shower and got dressed and about 7 AM I went downstairs for breakfast.  The hostel had coffee and small bread rolls with butter and jam.  I think they had apricot jam that time.  I took two rolls, had coffee and put the cups on the sorting tray when I was done.  Then I went to Ledru Rollin to buy a five zone ticket so that I could go as far as Cergy Préfecture and see where my family and I visited in October 1983.  I boarded the M8 and went to Opéra and changed to the RER A at Auber.  The RER used four-letter codes for their branches, so it was important to pick the one for Cergy Le Haut as opposed to Poissy or Saint Germain en Laye.  I had been on the RER A between Nanterre Préfecture and La Défense ages ago, remember changing at Nanterre Université to the RER A from a Banlieu train, and remember that some of the journey was in tunnel.  Only after passing through Nanterre Préfecture, did the train emerge.  

The train went back in tunnel after Neuville Université, at Cergy Préfecture.  I remember that RER station that also had the Banlieu train that my family rode into Paris.  I exited at Cergy Préfecture and went into the nearby mall called Les 3 Fontaines.  After the mall, I went to find the second hotel we stayed in October 1983 at after the Novotel.  Its location is now the HotelF1 Cergy.  It was an okay hotel.  It was close to the Cergy Préfecture station.

At the time, the 1-5 zone fare also covered the zone where EuroDisney is located.  I would have to be sure to take the RER A that went to Marne-la-Vallée, not Boissy-Saint-Léger.  First, I wanted to visit the shopping area at La Défense, so I took an RER train, not a Banlieu train, to La Défense.  There was the large archway to complement the Arc de Triomphe, and on the northeast and southwest sides, there were two shopping centers.  One was the CNIT, the other was Le Quatre Temps.  The Quatre Temps had an Auchan grocery store, that I remember in years later that I shopped for some Pétrole Hahn shampoo.  The RER station is immediately under the Quatre Temps.  I walked to the reflecting pool towards Neuilly, called Bassin Takis.  At the time, there were interesting light fixtures that seemed to symbolize flowers, and they would glow for thirty seconds and turn off for a whole minute.  This was right over the Esplanade de la Défense.  I could board the M1 for either Paris or the La Défense stations.  I went to Paris and changed at Charles de Gaulle Étoile.  Then I boarded the RER A for Marne-la-Vallée.

The train ride in Paris on the RER A spends much time underground, up to and including Nation.  Vincennes station is underground but has sections along the way that go into and out of tunnel.  After that, I must have gone past seven or eight stations before ending at Marne-La-Vallée Chessy.  Part of the rail station has a TGV Grandes Lignes platform separated from the RER.  Leaving the RER station and being able to just see the entrance to Disneyland, was reward enough for me.  Bear in mind, the RER trains in 1997 did not have air conditioning, and that was introduced only as far back as 2011 if not sooner.

I might have returned by way of Chateau Vincennes but I cannot remember that.  So I had to decide to go back and have another day in Paris before going to Germany.  

Wednesday the 28th May 1997, I had breakfast at the hostel, bought a two-zone Carte Orange and took the M8 to Créteil.  I wanted to ride the M8 as far south as I could.  I liked the MF77 series that was operated on that line as opposed to the MP59s, they were okay.  At the time, the end station for M8 was Créteil Préfecture.  It was situated in the middle of the D1 expressway.  The Créteil Soleil shopping mall was near the metro station, so I spent a half hour walking around.  I also wanted to see Bercy 2, so I did not spent too much time in Créteil.  

I took the M8 up to Porte de Charenton and that was about the location of Bercy 2.  I remember in the Bercy 2 mall that there was a pet store called Milles Amis.  There was a big display of rabbits for sale, somewhere between $20 and $30 for a rabbit, ostensibly meant for locals to buy as a pet.  There was a Carrefour grocery store in Bercy 2 where I could buy some more food.

I took a bus to the Alexandre Dumas metro station, took the M2 to Père Lachaise station to transfer to a M3 and went one stop to Gambetta.  Gambetta has a former branch now called the 3Bis.  The westbound platform has direct access to the 3Bis platform.  The trains on the 3Bis are probably the only ones that do not have any strapontins.  The line is only four stations long, and at the time, at least, until March 2000, the upwards escalator at Porte des Lilas, had wood panels.  The M11 also had a link to the 7Bis line, and I would have to take it two stops farther to Place des Fêtes.  The 7Bis line was once part of the M7 line.  It makes a four station loop, separating directions at Botzaris, going to Place des Fêtes with transfer to M11, Pré-Saint Gervais, Danube and back to Botzaris operating in two directions.  Riding the 7Bis is on a MF88, which would have been the successor to the MF77 but RATP decided not to order quite as many.  At Louis Blanc, there is a "cross platform transfer" between M7 and 7Bis, but the train has to make a few shunting moves in order to turn back, as the 7Bis boarding and alighting platforms are separate.

I took the M7 to Gare de l'Est.  I had to buy a reservation for the next day to Munich, at least for the French portion of the journey.  It cost maybe US $ 10.00.  I would use one day of my Eurail pass.  After leaving Gare de l'Est, I walked to nearby Gare du Nord, took the RER D to Chatelet les Halles and had a look around the mall.  Leaving the mall, I walked towards the Centre Georges Pompidou.  One thing I did not know at the time, was that the Stravinsky fountain was nearby, and only May 1998 when I returned, did I see it.   I went back to the RER station, rode one stop on the RER B to Saint-Michel Notre-Dame.  When exiting the RER B platform, I was able to see the RER C platform as well.  The RER C would also go via Musée d'Orsay to Bir Hakeim / Champ de Mars for the Eiffel Tower, I would do that after seeing the Notre Dame cathedral.  It was interesting to see the Notre Dame cathedral.  I

I rode on the RER C to Champ de Mars.  RER C was mostly in tunnel, the stations mainly being double central platform, but between Pont de l'Alma and Champ de Mars, part of the outer wall facing the Seine was visible at times.  Exiting the RER station, I went to see the Eiffel Tower once again.  I did not know about Rue Cler until 2008, and I returned in 2011 for lunch prior to visiting the Musée Rodin at that time, but that is for another time.  And no, unlike in the Midnight in Paris film, Carla Bruni will not be giving tours.

I took the M6 to Charles de Gaulle Étoile and transferred to the M2 and went on to Anvers.  At Anvers, that is the southern end of Square Louise Michel, but one has to walk two blocks up Rue de Steinkerque.  Turn left at Place Saint Pierre and then board the funicular to Sacre Coeur.  From the bottom of the stairs is a nice view of Paris.  I also should have gone into the old town - I did that in April 2008, one time with my late mother, another time by myself.  The old town of Montmartre is the main place where artists of the Belle Époque would create their own artworks and have them for sale.  That part of Paris draws quite a crowd.

After visiting Montmartre, I spent one last time along Champs Elysées.  Then I went back to the hostel to rest up for the morning.  My train to Munich would be at 7:50 AM from Gare de l'Est.  

I hope you will join me in my journey to Munich.  It was a long international journey by rail.  It is too bad that this route as it was in 1997, is no longer available.  

Bonne nuit!  Good night!