fter returning from Scotland in May Clare and I discussed additional trips for the year and settled on a September-October journey to Ukraine, to pick up where we left off in 2017 when she fell in Kiev. Another couple we know with ties to that country also was interested in traveling there during the same time frame, so that would be perfect. In addition, I wanted to catch up on some tramway extensions in Paris, while Clare was interested in spending some time with her slightly younger sister, so we decided that such activities could take place concurrently in mid-August.
However, fate would extend its hand, and Clare was injured again toward the end of July, when she slipped in our back yard. It was rather painful, and after trips to the emergency room and consultations with various doctors, the consensus was that there was no permanent damage, but it would take some time to heal and to return to normal activities because of bruising. Meanwhile, I had already made plans for my European trip, including the purchase of airplane tickets, and had arranged for a traveling companion, so it was going to be a tough decision on whether to abort or not. But with our children nearby, especially our son and daughter-in-law just two miles away, and Clare’s sister indicating she would stay at our house while I was away, Clare urged me to go ahead with our original plans, especially after she began driving again.
My traveling companion would be German traction enthusiast Karl-Heinz Roeber, with whom we previously spent time in North Africa, and who roomed with me on a German
Continued from 01.
I woke up early on Tuesday, August 14 without the slightest feeling of jet lag, anxious to continue riding and photographing the tramways of Paris. Karl-Heinz was also hot to trot and as soon as we finished breakfast we were on the road (I mean on the rails) with our cameras and maps. We rode Metro line 5 from Gare du Nord to Place d’Italie (its end point) and then transferred to the 7 to get to Villejuif Louis Aragon, the terminal of one of the rapid transit line’s two branches, but more importantly, the starting point of tram line T7 (see http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/fr/paris/paris-map-giant.png again).
The weather was overcast, so we rode out to the end of the line at Athis-Mons/Porte de l’Essonne without stopping for photos. The T7, which was opened in 2013, is 7 miles long and has 18 stations. With 19 Alstom Citadis 302 cars on its roster, the route’s inner portion was very cleverly sandwiched through an existing street pattern, but appeared to be occasionally subject to red traffic signals at points where the cars do not have priority. Further on, the line has some trackage through partially undeveloped areas, albeit with a few right-angle turns that limit speed. Nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable ride.
The line’s endpoint is at Orly Airport, which has been served since 1991 by Orl
Photos for previous posting. Bit-count too great for server to permit my edit on is thread,
David’s missing pictures:
No problem David. Glad to assist.
Don’t get discouraged by those ganging up on you on the other thread. Your well thought out and respectful comments have run into a deranged mob.
Leave it alone, it will only get you put in moderation again or worse banned.
Their comments are crude and disrespectful.
The narrative and pictures by Jack May would be a lot more interesting if he were a forum member and we could ask questions.
I’ll be glad to forward the questions. He does read the Forum on occasion. His decision not to participate is his. I respect that and perhaps you should also.
From David
Fwd: 03 - Paris, North and
East - 2018 Trip Report - Paris Part 3
May 13, 2018 continued from part 2.
Upon arriving aboard a route 153 bus at Porte de Paris, which is a
stop on Metro Line 13, but also the southern terminal of tram route
T8, we boarded a car that was just changing ends and began to head
northward. That T8 was marked for Epinay Orgemont, one of the outer
terminal stations of the line, as it has two branches (the other goes
There are many many more pictures that David sent … it is difficult to get them formatted though this site but they can be emailed to anyone quite easily. If you would like to see about 20 more I suggest you PM to David and ask him to forward them to you. I’m certain he will be glad to comply.
It might be better if he gives you permission to e-mail them through PM. As I understand it he is severely bandwidth-limited, and may not have access to programs that reduce the size of a transmitted JPEG image, so it may make better sense for him to transmit the images once, and someone better connected to good Internet bandwidth send them on to the ‘interested parties’.-
Thanks!
unexpected visit to hu and wifi-----
May 13, 2018 continued from part 2.
Upon ar
In the end. then, was Miningman’s posting a waste of time? Absollutely not! I used Imgur for some of the photos from jpgs on my hard-drive. But then I found I could stay with thread, copy from the images Miningman posted, and use the edit button, past, and upgrade to place the photo in the right place in the text. Without Mingingman’s posting the process would have taken two or three times as long using Imgur. The result: I had enough time to do the same for Jack May’s second installment as well!
Subject: 04 - Paris, North and East - 2018 Trip Report - Paris to Valenciennes to Charleroi
It was with a little bit of sadness that we left the comfort and ambience of Paris and the Rocroy on the morning of Thursday, August 16, but we were also looking forward to our rather robust agenda for the bulk of the trip . After riding RER line B to Charles De Gaulle Airport we would become road travelers, as for the next few days we would be visiting points not well served by mainline railways.
We had rented a Fiat 500L through Auto Europe in Maine and prepaid about $215 for the 7 days in which it would be in our possession, with the understanding there would be another 40 euros due at the Europcar office at CDG upon our picking it up. But after an uneventful ride to the airport in an eMU and a short walk to the car rental area in Terminal 2, we came upon our first glitch. Yes, they had our reservation and car, but my credit card for the additional payment was rejected. It would have been easy to pay the clerk in cash, but I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t have credit problems for the rest of our trip, so I turned on my Android and called the 800 number on the back of the card. Apparently Chase was worried about fraud. I was able to assure the bank about the charge’s legitimacy after supplying a whole bunch of numbers to their representative in Illinois (why is it when I call them from the U. S. I get somebody
The experiment on posting pictures is so far a failure. Firefox shows no pictures at all; Opera shows ‘broken image’ icons in the experiment post and nothing at all in ‘part 4’
I was amused to see Nungesser’s Corner in a post – many happy hours on the 78 before it was the 178, and at the Castle. Interestingly it has nothing whatsoever to do with Nungesser the WWI ace (in what I suspect was a series of ‘Vieux Charles’*) and unsuccessful transatlantic flyer, for whom the street was almost certainly named; the New Jersey Nungesser owned a racetrack in the 19th Century which was the ‘local landmark’ giving the neighborhood its name (and fortuitously distinguishing it from Guttenberg[:)]).
Ask Jack if he noted any nearby street being named “Coli” after Nungesser’s co-pilot in L’Oiseau Blanc – apparently most of the street-naming was done out of national passion following their disappearance in 1927, not Nungesser’s wartime defense of France, and you find the names together.
As a little ‘aside’, someone in New York published a fictitious account of Nungesser’s triumphant arrival in town, and the stirring reception he received there. This apparently so enraged the French that Charles Lindbergh was advised to delay his flight several weeks. This seems a bit strange (the official Lindy legend often making much of the ‘race’ between contenders for the first solo flight) but that’s the alleged connection.
*as pointed out in a later post, this just ain’t so – and I can’t plead anything but stupidity, as I’d confused it since the 1960s.
Actually, “Vieux Charles” was Georges Guynemer’s airplane, but that’s OK, you remember Charles Nugesser, a great combat pilot and a fine, fun, and very colorful man to boot. That’s good enough!
It’s a tragedy “L’Oiseau Blanc” didn’t make it to New York, but as Nungesser himself might have said, “C’est la vie!”
I remember reading about the ficticious account of Nungesser and Coli’s arrival in New York. I’m tempted to say “Well, there’s nothing new about ‘fake news,’ is there?” but that would be a bit unfair. More likely it was some editors attempt to “scoop” the competition that blew up in his face.
