Preface To
Chuck Paige's 1989 European Vacation
With Eric Villafranca

I traveled to Europe in the spring of 1989 with friend Eric Villafranca. During the two-week, four countries vacation I jotted details into tiny notebooks that easily fit in my pocket. I also collected an assortment of brochures and maps for use then and later, when it came time to write of the excursion. By far, the most data was stored in my mind, along with opinions and philosophies that, for me, were integral parts of the experience. All were stowed away in bags or mental file cabinets, to be aired again when the winds of memory blew.

Eric and I were in a Europe soon to radically change. Within that same year the Berlin Wall fell, placing a fatal rift in the Iron Curtain, and the two Germanies began a slow process of reuniting since their separation as a result of World War II. Communism was on the wane elsewhere, too, as the Communist Party was losing its grip on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which would collapse into the original, disparate states. Communist China was also shaken and nearly capitulated to the 1989 democratic movement only to prevail with an iron will and violent fist. The Bamboo Curtain did not fall.

While the world as we knew it altered in a revolutionary sweep, inspired and even led by Pope John Paul II, I wrote the first draft of this journal. Each read through shook more memories loose, calling for their inclusion in the final version. I also conducted research into aspects of our European experience giving them more depth, greater dimension. References, too, were made to family history, wherever that history intersected with the odyssey.

The final product of this memoir is a collection of details regarding places seen, people met and things done, bolstered by historic reference and occasional, personal philosophy and opinion. It creates a link connecting what was then to what is now, with inferences as to what may become.

(Each subject is followed by the page number location in the full PDF file)

You may go directly to the file. However, you must have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader installed on your system in order to view the full PDF file. Click here if you need to install that free program. If it's already installed, then click here to open the file (size: 351 KB). (Each appendix is a separate PDF file, accessed below under MAJOR TOPICS.) Otherwise, following is the table of contents.

MAJOR TOPICS:

England
France
Italy
Nederland (Netherlands)
Appendix A - Tour Of Windsor CastleClick here to access this PDF file.
Appendix B - Catherine De' MediciClick here to access this PDF file.
Appendix C - The House Of GuiseClick here to access this PDF file.
Appendix D - The House Of CæsarClick here to access this PDF file.

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS 1

ENGLAND 3

Ariel Hotel 3
London Transport 4
Savoy Court Hotel 5

WALKABOUT LONDON #1 5

Buckingham Palace 6
Queen Victoria Memorial 6
Tour with the London Sightseeing Tours LTD 7
Marble Arch 7
Tyburn Tree 7
Mayfair District 7
American Embassy 7
Eisenhower's wartime headquarters 7
Barclay Square 7
Queen Mother's Palace near Piccadilly Circus 7
Theatres 7
China Town 7
Trafalgar Square 7
National Gallery 7
#10 Downing Street 7
Westminster Abbey 7
Palace of Whitehall 7
Houses of Parliament 7
Big Ben 7
St. Paul's Cathedral 7
Home of Jane Seymour 7
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) 7
Dragon (symbol of London) 7
U.S. war memorial 7
Bank of London 7
New London Bridge 8
London Dungeon 8
The Monument 8
Tower Bridge 8
Tower of London 8
Cleopatra's Needle 8
The Albert Tavern 8
Westminster Chapel 8
Victoria Station 8
King's Road 8
Dorchester Hotel 8
Church whose steeple inspired a baker 8
Westminster Cathedral 8
St. Martin-in-the-field Church 8

The Widow Applebaum's Deli & Bagel Academy 9
Changing of the Guards 9
Strike by Underground workers 10

GOLDEN TOURS 10

Duchess of Kent 11
Things our tour guide told us 11
Eton Boy's School 12
Windsor Castle 12
Queen Mary's Doll House 12
The mews 13
Runnymede 13
Memorial to JFK and his attempted version of Camelot 13
Hampton Court Palace 13
The initials "ER" (Elizabeth Regina) 13
Grape vine, its trunk the size of a large tree 13
Famous, bush-lined labyrinth 13
Chimney pots 13
Residence for destitute royalty 14

Return to London 14

WALKABOUT LONDON #2 14

British Museum 14
British Library portion 14
Magna Carta sequence 15
"Handel's Messiah" 15
Gutenberg Bible 15
Rosetta Stone 16
Soho and St. James districts 16
Leicester Square 16
Trafalgar Square 16
Piccadilly Circus 16
Green Park 16
Hard Rock Cafe 16

FRANCE 18

Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) 19
Arc de Triomphe 19
Office du Tourisme 19
Avenue des Champs Elysees 19
Hotel Magenta 20
Gare de l'Est 20
Martin Pickford and Richard Carlion 45 francs 20
The room 21

EARLY HISTORY OF FRANCE 22

Gaeltachd 22
Roman rule 22
Teutonic tribes, Visigoths, Burgundians, Franks, Angles, Saxons and Jutes 22
Attila the Hun 22
The Franks ascended 22
Merovingian dynasty 22
House of Carlovingian 22
Marauding Vikings 22
Thibaut I was founder of the House of Blois 22
The rightful holder, Rollo the Dane 22
Capetian dynasty 22

MORE ABOUT PARIS 23

Lutetia 23
Parisii, a Gallic tribe 23
Lutetia changed to Parisii or Paris 23
La Cité 23
The Ville 23
The Latin Quarter 23

WALKABOUT PARIS 23

Place de la Republique 23
Place de la Bastille 24
Seine 24
Cathedral de Notre Dame 24
Ferocious-looking gargoyles 24
View of Paris 24
Public spectacle of myself 25
A look at its interior 25
Temple of Jupiter Ceraunus 25
A little shopping 25
Palais du Louvre 25
Garden of the Tuileries 25
Place du Carrousel 25
Place de la Concorde 26
The Luxor obelisk 26
Revolutionary guillotine was located 26
Musée D'Orsay 26
Assemblée Nationale 26
Esplanade des Invalides 26
Grand and the Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts 26
Eiffel Tower 26
Parc du Champ de Mars 26
Ecole Militaire 26
Nearly run over 27

Richard Carlion's surname 27
Welch Arthurian legend 27
Castle Carlyon 27
Stay clear of street sweepers 28
Gare D'Austerlitz 28
Train #4011 28
An American couple 28
A game I found enjoyable 28

TALES FROM THE VISCOUNTY OF BLOIS 29