L'enfant gâté (or the "only slightly" spoiled brat)

We were met in Le Havre by my aunt and cousin. My aunt and my mother had planned to travel to Paris on the train from Le Havre, spend a few days there and then take the train to Brussels. (My aunt was the one the family decided could tell my mother about my grandfather's accident and subsequent blindness!)

We arrived into Paris at the Gare Saint-Lazare and made our way to the train station that would eventually take us to Brussels: Gard du Nord.

[Front entrance of the Gare du Nord, Paris, France ==>]

My grandfather had recommended a hotel right across the street from the train station that he had been to and he said it was excellent and quite comfortable.

When my mother and my aunt checked in, they were shown to a large suite with a living room and two bedrooms. They easily determined, after the second night, that our room was probably the only "real" room that wasn't used as a place of business for the late night ladies of the evening!!! Still it had a lovely balcony and faced a beautiful station.

We were the perfect sightseers, and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, where we looked through the telescopes to see where we'd go next. Then we walked all around Paris. In the Jardin des Tuileries there were donkeys you could hire for children to ride, while the adults could sit in the cafe and enjoy an aperitif. My mother and aunt took full advantage of that! After my donkey ride I made friends with the little ponies that pulled little chariots. (I got to ride on that one too!)

I remember at the Jardin du Luxembourg, my cousin and I played with the sailboats on the pond, and he sank mine.

~~~

There's a picture of me eating "des frites" (french fries) out of a cornet twist of paper that we bought in the street below on the way back to the room after our walk. It seemed that every corner had a "friture" on it, and that was the most common street food of the times! (They were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and had big pieces of salt on them! )

I remember we also went to visit a school friend of my mother's who lived in Paris and she had a sleepy orange cat. My mother's friend was very pretty and looked like a movie star, with lovely styled long blond hair and beautiful hands. She was very nice to me and gave me wonderful cookies.