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.

© 1992 by Charles W. Paige

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

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Topics for the four countries can be seen by opening the main file, or on this page by clicking a country's link under MAJOR TOPICS. Each appendix is located in a separate PDF file that is accessible under MAJOR TOPICS and opens in a separate window.

MAJOR TOPICS:

England
France
Italy
Nederland (Netherlands)
Appendix A - Tour Of Windsor Castle
Appendix B - Catherine De' Medici
Appendix C - The House Of Guise
Appendix D - The House Of Cæsar

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

• First mentioned in historic record 29
• Prior to the Viking onslaught 29
• Gello, said to be a prince of Northmen 29
• Joining of Blois and Champagne 29
• Part of the "Conqueror's" invasion of England 29
• The town finding royal favor 30
• Ordinance of Villers-Collerêts 30
• The official language 30
• The Pléide 30
• Joachim du Bellay 30
• Pierre de Ronsard 30
• French-language teachers of Blois 31

WALKABOUT BLOIS 31

• Gare Routiere 31
• "La Loire Fleuve" 31
• The chateau 31
• Escalier St. Martin 31
• Place du Chateau 31
• Louis XII wing 31
• Equestrian statue of Louis XII 32
• Large, wooden door into the courtyard 32
• 13th century state room 32
• Tower of Foix 32
• Gaston d' Orleans (or west) wing 32

CHATEAU DE BLOIS LAYOUT 32

• The tour 32
• Catherine de' Medici's tile- floored cabinet 33
• The third floor 33
• ASSASSINATIONS EXPLAINED 33
• The great feudal hall, or state room 35
• Louis XII museum/picture gallery 35
• Return to Paris 35

A NIGHT AT THE PIGALLE 36

• Comedie de Paris 36
• Places of ill repute 36
• Bal du Moulin Rouge 36
• Traffic and people 37
• Traffic hardly moved 37
• Juvenile delinquents 37
• Particularly unhappy fellow 37
• Singles, couples, and herds of tourists 37
• Young scouts 37
• Batch of older young people 37
• A man's piercing scream 37
• Laundry 37
• A train called Victor 38

A DAY AT VERSAILLES 38

• Town of Versailles 38
• From town to the Chateau, or Palace de Versailles 38
• The Palace 38
• Galerie des Glaces 38
• Cour d'Honneur 38
• Queen's apartments 39
• GRANDES EAUX MUSICALES 39
• Bassin de Neptune 39
• Le Bassin de Latone 39
• Landscape architect, André Le Nôtre 39
• Beautiful, classical music began 39
• White marble pavilion 40
• Equestrian fountain 40
• Watery, lush, marble grotto 40
• Go-cart grande prix race 40
• Indulging in sweet French pastries 41
• On a train heading for Gare D'Austerlitz 41
• Difficult mental and spiritual separation 41

ITALY 42

CITY OF THE SEVEN HILLS 45

WALKABOUT ROME 45

• Arch of Saint Bibiana 45
• Temple of Minerva 45
• Colosseum 46
• Arch of Constantine 47
• Roman Forum 47
• Circus Maximus 50
• Theater of Marcellus 50
• Monument to Victor Emmanuel II 50
• Savelli Castle 50
• Pantheon 50
• Fountain of Trevi 50
• Palace del Quirinale 51
• Piazza dei Cinquecento 51
• AN AUDIENCE WITH THE POPE 51
• SAINT PETER'S IN THE VATICAN 55

NEDERLAND AND VACATION'S END 58

WALKABOUT AMSTERDAM 59

• Guided Tour Of Canals 61
• Houses Of Variety 61

HOME AGAIN 63

APPENDIX A - TOUR OF WINDSOR CASTLE A-1 Click to access this PDF file.

• Castle layout and external tour A-1
• State Apartments Tour A-5

APPENDIX B - CATHERINE DE' MEDICI B-1 Click to access this PDF file.

APPENDIX C - THE HOUSE OF GUISE C-1 Click to access this PDF file.

APPENDIX D - THE HOUSE OF CÆSAR D-1 Click to access this PDF file.

Last modified: Monday August 10, 2009

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