The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the world without an automobile

Focus on safe, fast, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit.

Forrest Bastille Day Saturday, July 15, 2017

France celebrtes Bastille Day July 14. is six hours ahead of K&K in Collingswood, who celebrate it on July 15.

Bastille Day party in Collingswood “Let ‘em eat cake,” say Keith and Kris Forrest, hosts of an annual Bastille Day Party at their swank residence on fashionable Bryant Avenue, in cosmopolitan Collingswood, one of New Jersey’s more elegant communities. It’s readily accessible by PATCO high speed rail line from many points in New Jersey and neighboring Philadelphia. Anyone who becomes French that day, as so many seem to become Irish on St. Paddy’s Day, is welcome. Festivities begin Saturday July 15 at 4 pm. If you come, bring an expensive bottle of Champagne, box of tasty croissants, pot of delicious bouillabaisse, a few beurre crepe suzettes, and a dozen napoleons, or at least a potato latke or two.

Photo credit: RATP. Photo credit: PATCO.

Famous subway-el stations of the world include, L to R, RATP’s in Paris, , and PATCO’s in Collingswood, N.J.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Paris metro adds trains and cars for Bastille Day travelers On Bastille Day, more Paris residents and visitors ride the Metro, its regional subway-el system, than on a normal workday. Anticipating this, RATP, Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens*, adds more trains and train cars. RATP is responsible for most public and environs, including and bus services. The Paris Metro itself has about 300 trains running on 16 lines that have 303 stations, including many near the most popular tourist attractions. *English translation: Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports.

Metro doesn’t run all night long Paris Metro trains do not run 24 hours a day. On Thursday and Friday July 13-14, last trains are scheduled to reach their terminus about 2:15 am. Also, on Bastille Day, some stations are closed, due to festivities blocking station entry and exit places. For instance, from 8 am to 12 noon, a parade will keep the Tuileries station closed and empty. During that time, Concorde station entry and exit will be impossible, but train connections within will remain as usual. Champs-Elysées Clémenceau station usually is open, until entry and exist become hazardous; then it is closed. Franklin D. Roosevelt station will have access only at its Avenue des Champs-Elysées entrances. Charles-de-Gaulle station will have Etoile Avenue access only. At 9 pm many stations will be closed. To watch fireworks shot from the , riders can use Pont de l’Alma station or Ecole Militaire station. Stations near the usually get so full they become inaccessible. For more: https://www.sortiraparis.com/interests/articles/54248-bastille-day-2017-in-paris-public- transportations/lang/en#i7LuGCOh2d6EzUWb.99

Photo credit: United States Air Force. Photo credit: Paris Visitors Agency.

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform at airshow. Fench and American troops in parade.

Presidents Trump and Macron review airshow and parade On July 14, 2017, Bastille Day and 100th anniversary of USA entry into World War I , the presidents of France and the United States review a spectacular display of military paradeship, including U.S. and French troops marching near the and U.S. Air Force fighter jets cruising the sky, with flags, horses and latest military weapons and equipment on display, “the sort of spectacle that Trump wanted to stage at his own inauguration in January,” said a news story in The Washington Post on Thursday July 13. President Macron recently posted a YouTube video entitled “Make Our Planet Great Again.” The parade is slated to start at 10 am on the Champs Elysées.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Typical scenes from around Avenues Bryant and Champs Elysées

Photo credit: Agence France Presse. Photo credit: Jerusalem Post, Edition Francaise. Photo credit: Paris Match.

Typical Paris couple. Paris city planner Kameron poses with family. France’s president Macron.

Photo credit: Le Monde illustré. Les plus belles terrasses de Paris.

Paris philosopher Josh poses with family and French flag. Typical scene from typical Paris’ balcony.

Photo credit: Euro Cheapo. Photo credit: Bon Appetit magazine.

Left: Paris #69 bus offers a "Grand Tour" for the price of a €1.90 ticket. Right: Typical Paris restaurateurs enjoy lunch.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Photo credit: Easy Mile Company. Photo credit: .

EZ10 driverless minibus on Paris street. Le Bus Direct poses before Arch of Triumph.

Paris trying out driverless electric minibus/taxicab Called an EZ10 minibus, the contraption pictured above presently is being tested on Paris streets. Similar EZ19 tests have taken place in California, Finland, Japan and Singapore. In Paris, the vehicles run along a separate right-of-way, not on city streets and highways, although their developer claims they could navigate safely in traffic. Paris EZ10 passengers currently ride without paying a fare. EZ10 minibuses presently run between the (12th arrondissement) and Austerlitz stations (13th arrondissement). Each carries up to 12 passengers. Top speed: around 10 mph, supposedly the normal running speed of a typical young French man. Easy Mile, its marketer, says it needs no “heavy infrastructure as is the case with trains and ,” and emits “extremely low emissions.” This comes at a time when a new law introduced by the French government bans all diesel cars registered before the year 2000 from driving in Paris, which is about 6% of all French cars. For more: http://easymile.com/

Le Bus Direct now runs from/to Charles de Gaulle Airport Direct bus service between Charles de Gaulle Airport and central Paris locations is provided by appropriately named Le Bus Direct. It replaces an old operation. Route #2 bus runs between Charles de Gaulle Airport and: Paris-Eiffel Tower, Palais des Congrès de Paris, Place de l’Etoile at Champs-Elysées, and Trocadéro. Route #3 connects Orly and De Gaulle airports. Route #4 connects De Gaulle airport and Gare de Lyon and railway stations. Runs every 30 minutes. Tickets sold at airport bus stops, directly by driver, or online. Fares range from €17 to €21, depending on service.

Paris Metro is mainly a subway system Paris Metro stations are mostly underground, with a few above ground due to local geography. Once past a Metro station’s turnstiles, everyone needs to have a valid ticket or smart card pass. A few stations have turnstiles but no ticket window nor ticket vending machines.

Metro lines are numbered from 1 to 14, each a different color, with two “bis” [b or secondary] lines making 16 in total. At right, Metro platform signs like this one tell when next train is due to arrive.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Right: Outside station sign. Center: Paris Metro ticket such as this is purchased from a green vending machine, such as pictured at right, or from a human being at a station ticketing window. Current price for a single ticket is €1.90.

Paris Metro system doesn’t give discount fare to seniors The Paris Metro, aka the Metropolitan, has about 700 trains on 16 different lines with about 300 stations. Anyone who can navigate New York’s subway system should have no trouble using the Paris Metro. From Sunday through to Friday, it normally operates for 20 hours a day from about 5:20 am to 1:20 am the following day. On Saturday, it usually remains open another hour, i.e., until 2:20 am. Basic Metro tickets are called t+ tickets. They expire 1½ hours after issue. They are good for transfer to other lines, during that 1½ hour period. t+ tickets also are good to ride on Paris trams, buses and on the RER railway within Zone 1. Tickets can be purchased singularly or in packs of 10 or 20. Prices do change, but at last check a standard ticket cost €1.90. Weekly pass €19.25. Unlike in the USA and the UK, seniors, aka the elderly, don’t get a discount fare. Tickets ae sold at Metro and RER stations and at bus terminals.

Paris Visite multi-day unlimited rides pass is for foreign travelers only. Anyone can buy a Mobilis one-day pass.

Foreign travelers can buy a special pass Foreign travelers can get a one-day Paris Visite card that gives nice perks unavailable to locals who use a one-day Mobilis pass. You can buy it online before you leave the USA and activate it on any day you choose. It’s valid for either 1, 2, 3 or 5 days unlimited use on RATP’s entire network, including: Metro, RER, day & night buses, trams, the , and SNCF suburban trains. Paris Visite privileges include: unlimited rides for low as €5.80 per day, 20% to 50% discounts on admission to 18 popular tourist attractions in and near Paris, including 20%-off for tickets to Disneyland, 30%-off at , €20-off plus a bottle of champagne at Paradis Latin cabaret, a free shopping bag plus 10% off on purchases at Galeries Lafayette.

Mobilis one-day pass saves rider time and trouble A Mobilis unlimited 1-day pass, unlike a “t+” paper ticket, allows transfer between bus and rail lines without paying an additional fare. Mobilis can be bought in advance at station counters. Its day of validity starts upon first use and ends around 12:45 or 1:00 am the following morning.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Photo credit: RATP Paris Metro. Registered trademark of Cameron Mackintosh Overseas Ltd.

Metro system map and sign at Bastille station entrance. Movie’s story takes place at the Bastille.

Bastille subway station is a history and art museum Bastille station of the #1, #5 and #8 lines of the Paris Metro is an art and history museum inside a beautiful yet practical modern subway station. Situated near the Bastille – yes that one – the much despised prison “stormed” by a mob on July 14, 1789, at the start of the French Revolution. On its walls are massive paintings depicting scenes from that monumental event, by French artists Liliane Belembert and Odile Jacquot. From its train-awaiting platforms, you readily see five fabulous frescoes depicting historic, heroic and horrific scenes. Exiting this station, you can view remnants of the actual Bastille site, and tour the Bastille Basin, a charming little boating area linking the Canal Saint-Martin and River Seine. For a history lesson: http://metro.paris/en/place/bastille-station For a video tour of the station: https://youtu.be/tSh6beXODgk

Illustration credit: Liliane Belembert and Odile Jacquot..

Bastille station’s artwork depicts not only scenes from the 1789 to 1799 French Revolution but also reminiscences of the American Revolution of 1765 to 1783. Note the name New York to the left of the crown of the Queen.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Illustration credit: Liliane Belembert and Odile Jacquot.

Many subway stations around the world have artwork on their walls, but this station’s artwork is absolutely unique.

Metro riders can still see remnants of hated prison While on a Line #5 train going to Bobigny, riders can still see remains of the eastern moat of the despised Bastille prison, destroyed on July 14, 1789 and replaced in 1813 by a giant sculpture of an elephant. It was demolished in 1846, after becoming rat infested. Originally conceived as a bronze statue by Emperor Napoleon in 1808, the colossal pachyderm was built of wood, along with a smaller plaster cast version. It was immortalized by Victor Hugo in his novel Les Misérables, published in 1862, in which he describes it as a shelter for a street urchin. Elephant and urchin in Les Misérables movie scene: https://youtu.be/hnbQdl5RP7k Over the centuries, the Bastille was used as a reception hall, an arsenal, a royal treasury, and lastly a prison which could only hold 45 people at a time. Important people, aristocrats and rich bourgeois inmates received special treatment. Held there, for a time, was the writer/philosopher Voltaire. Poor inmates, however, were held in awful cells, sometimes chained, and depended on public charity for food, which most often consisted of bread and soup.

Illustration credits: Road Research; Wikipedia; James V. Lafferty, Irish American inventor, 1856-1898.

Ellie in Cookeville, Tennessee. Napoleon’s elephant, Paris, France. Lucy in Margate City, N.J.

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The Travelin’ Grampa Forrest Bastille Day Edition

Photo credit: Wikipedia. Photo credit: RATP Paris Metro.

Railway station at Volgograd, formrly Stalingrad. Stalingrad Metro station in Paris, Framce.

Paris Metro station renamed to honor Battle of Stalingrad Originally Aubervilliers-Boulevard de la Villette station, Stalingrad station in Paris was renamed in 1946 to commemorate the Battle of Stalingrad in honor of the brave soldiers and citizens of Stalingrad*, Russia, who during that famous February 1942 battle repulsed Adolph Hitler’s up-to-then seemingly unstoppable World War II military forces. That battle was, in the opinion of many French people, the “turning point” in the war. In February 1942, Paris was occupied by the Nazi army. * Now renamed Volgograd.

Was Battle of Stalingrad ‘turning point’ of World War II? The Battle of Stalingrad – and 1941 Japanese attack on Hawaii – seem part of a “turning point season.” In retrospect, the actual “turning point” appears to have come in November 1941, as “deep winter” arrived early in Russia. On Nov. 27, 1941, German Army Quartermaster General Eduard Wagner reported: “We are about to be confronted with the dangers of deep winter.” “Deep winter” is what helped defeat French Emperor Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, memorialized by Russian composer Tchaikovsky’s famous ♫ 1812 Overture ♫. British prime minister Winston Churchill said Nazi dictator Hitler’s “first blunder” was fighting Russia in wintertime. “There is a winter, you know, in Russia,” Churchill noted in May 1942. “For a good many months,” added Churchill, “the temperature is apt to fall very low. There is snow, there is frost, and all that. Hitler forgot about this Russian winter.” Or, Grampa supposes, the “turning point” came during the Battle of Britain, the July-October 1940 aerial warfare. “Never was so much owed by so many to so few,” said Churchill, praising Royal Air Force crews who had repulsed the Nazi Luftwaffe, canceling a Nazi invasion plan. Maybe the “turning point” was when Japanese warplanes attacked Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, destroying many World War I style battleships and U.S. Army aircraft. By amazing coincidence, the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier fleet was out at sea. When Admiral Yamamomo heard this bad news, he is said to have remarked: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Historians disagree whether he actually said this. But, fact is, those carriers “turned the tide” during the June 1942 Battle of Midway. Almost nothing went right for the Axis powers after that. ______© 2017, all rights reserved. The Travelin’ Grampa is published monthly by John A. Moore Sr., freelance journalist, P. O Box 636, Clifton Heights PA 19018-0636. Price for one year (12 issues) subscription by email: $75. Special 66½ discount to U. S. residents ages 62 and above.

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