Paris 21st May 2013

Today was a very productive day! My friend Ashley was right in telling me that walking around Paris like I did in Vienna or Brussels simply isn't practical. The City of Light is huge and my hostel is fairly far from the city center. Fortunately the metro system is relatively cheap and, compared to Brussels', very comprehensive.

My first stop this morning was the Gare du Nord, the train station at which I arrived yesterday, to attempt to make reservations for each of my remaining trains and fix the one I made a mistake on in Belgium. The line to talk to someone about the tickets was long but the worker was friendly, a nice change from the opposite (short line, angry people) in Belgium.

Unfortunately I couldn't simply change my Toulouse reservation to Lyon. Why? Because it was made in Belgium. Gosh. But it was only 9€, so I made a correct reservation from Lyon and my trip on the 1st of June is now assured: I will make it back to the USA!

More unfortunately, all the trains to Pau in the time frame I need are fully booked. I will not be able to get there as planned. But I didn't give up: I've learned on this trip that there are usually alternative ways to do anything you'd like to do, even when it looks improbable. I made a reservation to Toulouse two days earlier than I previously planned to arrive there and extended my hostel reservation there. Toulouse is fairly close to Pau anyway, and trains from there to the mountain city do not require reservations. I will visit Pau as a day trip from Toulouse. It all works out. Aside for that my trains are reserved as planned and I am good to go! Exciting. I did not even have to pay a cancellation fee in Pau because I did it early enough, and I actually ended up saving about 30€ because the hostel in Toulouse is cheaper than the hotel in Pau would have been!

Next I headed south nearly to the Seine and visited the Holocaust memorial. I didn't expect much more than a museum there but was pleasantly surprised. On their wall of names I found Chana Najman, my great grandmother, which was very moving. But, in addition, the top floor of the memorial is an easily accessible archive with bilingual archivists!

This place housed microfiche copies of the Paris police records (no info relevant to my project) as well as the records of both the Pithiviers and Drancy camps. The very helpful archivist aided me in searching for Chana (we found some excellent info... She was interned first at Pithiviers from 10-22 August, 1942 and then sent to Drancy where she was held for only four days until 26 August when she was deported to Auschwitz... More evidence for the timeline of events) and for Opa, who interestingly seems to have no existing record at either place. I am puzzled by this because his memoirs place him with her. But there are numerous possibilities. Tomorrow I will go back with information regarding his extended family, cousins with whom he lived in Paris, as their information may give further light to information on him.

After that I ate lunch at a cool little deli and walked to 45 Rue des Francs Bourgeois, where Opa and Chana lived with those cousins in Paris for some time. It was not far from the memorial and on the way I passed a beautiful synagogue. Perhaps Opa prayed there, though I have my doubts. In any case, maybe I will be able to attend services here on Friday.

The apartment building on Rue des Francs Bourgeois made a strong impression on Opa. Judging by his description and the state of the street today I should guess that his cousins were well off. They owned a clothing store on the street level and lived above it. The street still houses a clothing store but the woman inside told me it is only three years old and was previously a library. Either way this is certainly the most luxurious neighborhood Opa lived in: the entire street is lined with elegant and beautiful old hotels, most built before 1600.

I walked west, on Dr. Fouberg's suggestion, to the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre, both beautiful. I sat in the garden and watched people and birds and then headed back on the subway to my hostel. I cooked dinner and did laundry tonight, too.

My tentative schedule is to visit the archive again tomorrow along with more sight seeing and then meet Ashley and her boyfriend tomorrow evening at a cafe. Thursday and Friday I plan to take trips to the Drancy and Pithiviers memorials respectively.

Sidenote: I have officially filled half of my notebook. Forty pages!

Until tomorrow!