Paris - France

We arrived in Paris on Wednesday the 19th of November - we'd been two months out of Britain exactly. It was late at night and really cold, so we climbed up onto the first floor of a construction site and slept in our sleeping bags. Well, Paris wakes early and the construction workers surprised us before dawn. Danielle packed up saying we had to get out out quickly, but I apparently refused to get up. The supervisor was not impressed. Danielle pretended she was Australian but understood we were up for beak-in. Luckily he did not detain us or call the cops. We beat a hasty retreat and had coffee and a croissant at a buffet in the railway station. There were hundreds people and it was still pitch black!

While in Champagne picking grapes, we met Jackie Le Yannou who was a family member living in Paris who invited us to stay with her if we were in Paris again. We caught a train to her place in the outer suburbs in the afternoon and found they lived in a block of flats just like Michelle's and Jean-Pierre’s.

She lived with her husband and 2 children, and even though both parents were working full-time we could see that they were just struggling to live - the television was coin operated. For example, for dinner we had bread and cold cuts, but for 6 of us there were only six slices of meat. Danielle an I each took a slice,but the insisted we have more - we realised that this was out of politeness only, because if we had taken more, someone would miss out! The situation was not ideal, it was cramped and they also smoked a lot so we needed to get our own place.

We hung around central Paris again, did some sightseeing around Paris, went to the Louvre and saw the opportunist photo-takers at work, hustling the tourists. We went to an employment bureau where Danielle got two addresses for work  in dressmaking places. One job requirement as a machinist was to provide your own pair of scissors! Strapped for cash, we went to a chemist, and taking the initiative, acquired a proper pair of scissors. We also got pretty good at bypassing the metro ticket turnstiles. On Friday Danielle worked in the first one, but they were too demanding and unpleasant so she decided to try the other one on Monday. We were both pretty depressed - poor and nowhere to live - we tried to find a room, but no luck.

The next day we spent most of the time in the Louvre and then had lunch and a nice cafe near the Musee des Arts Decoratifs (M.D.A.D.). We went into the M.D.A.D. it was a real bore, only old French furniture - obviously not my taste. There were busloads of Japanese tourists arriving at the nearby Osaka restaurant for lunch. At that time Japan had a booming economy, and the Japanese were becoming the new wave of European tourism, with Japanese restaurants appearing to cater for them The Chinese tourists of today, but much more well-mannered and polite.

A week after we arrived, and Danielle went to the second dressmaking address and started work - she finished at 6 PM with only half hour for lunch. Again we tried to find rooms but still no luck, so we had to keep trying. Meanwhile I attended a dance class at the Evonne Goube studio with Molly Malloy. Molly Molloy was an American dancer, choreographer and teacher who worked in Paris, New York and London and she was the originator of the Molloy Technique of Jazz Dance, a form of Modern American Jazz. However I found the class a bit disappointing, especially after learning with Peggy Watson in Sydney who was not only a great dancer, but great teacher as well.

The Youth Hostel at Reuil Malmaison (Google Maps)

Danielle set off to work at 7 AM and wouldn't be back till 6 PM while I went to the cafe with Jackie to ring about rooms. We got three likely addresses but they turned out to be agencies who wanted a huge commission, so we were back at Jackie's place, Hopefully for the last night. Also agents were demanding to see our marriage certificate. Part of the reason Youth Hostels were so popular was that often owners of accommodation such as pensione would not rent to unmarried couples.

The next day Danielle headed off to work early, so I took the backpacks over to the Reuil Malmaison Youth Hostel in the eastern suburbs at 4  Rue des Marguerites in le quartier du Mont-Valérien and we stayed the night. It was a pretty interesting place, run by a Tunisian guy and his French girlfriend. The evening meals were pretty good though and we often chipped in and helped in the kitchen.

To meet her early start time at the dressmaking factory, Danielle had to leave before the curfew time at the Youth Hostel when the doors were unlocked. This meant that she had to leave for work by climbing out through a window in the early hours of the morning. Once she was caught climbing out of the window at the hostel as it had been snowing and they saw her footprints. They said people are usually trying to break in and were really puzzled by the footprints leaving. Danielle told her we were broke and waiting to get money from Australia and she had found a casual job to pay the hostel cost and food. They were very good about it all and said one of the guys would open the door for her in the mornings.

Meanwhile we'd heard that there was a change of government in Australia - Gough Whiltam had been sacked.

We were horrified at this news, so I spent most of the next day at the Australian embassy trying to piece together the events from reading newspapers about the political scene in Australia.

Australian dancer 1975

I was also looking for paid dancing work, and I had an introduction to the Bluebell Dance company at the Lido Theatre from my dance teacher Peggy Watson in Sydney. Because she taught mainly jazz ballet, many of her girls  got cabaret work, and Bluebells was one of them. I rang the Lido and managed to arrange to attend an audition the following day.

The Lido, Paris

The cabarets like the Lido wanted tall girls and Australians fitted the bill - tall, hard-working and good dancers.

I arrived up for the audition pretty well-prepared, if a little out of practice. I’d carried dance gear all the way from Australia and even shaved my off moustache and beard for the occasion.

The Bluebell Girls

There were four girls and me to audition, and their choreographer took us through a set of dance routines where he would show us once, and then we had to dance it - talk about high pressure.  They pay well, but you work for it.

The Lido Boys

Unfortunately I didn’t get a job. I wasn't muscular looking enough (I was pretty skinny and never really 'bulked-up' like many of the male dancers), and a bit too short at only 182cm tall. Also, they only signed 12 month contracts, so it would have been difficult to fulfill.

Most of the girls were the same height as me, but on stage they wear 12cm stilettos and then have up to 1 metre high feather headdresses. I’d look like a midget! My potential professional dancing career came to an abrupt end.

Quote form The Lido website":

"The Bluebird Girls are the quintessential embodiment of Paris, famous around the world for their sensual and sophisticated image…Each artist is selected meticulously by the Ballet Master on the basis of very strict criteria… A Bluebird girl must not measure less than 1.75m and a boy 1.83m."

Most of the days, I spent  wandering around Paris, exploring on foot and looking at many small art galleries.

By the end of November, we decided to forget about trying to obtain official work permits, and for Danielle to work for another two weeks in Paris while I would go to Switzerland and talk to Jean-Pierre about working for him,  and try to arrange Swiss work permits.

I went to the impressionist gallery and modern Art Gallery, the second of which was a bit of a disappointment. I saw a few more of the sites of Paris, and a lot of the inside of the Australian embassy. We met plenty of Australians in the youth hostel, good bad and indifferent. Seems to be only Australians, Americans, and Canadians on the road at the moment. Everyone else is at home for the winter.

Implementing our plan, I went to the outskirts of Paris and started hitching. There were about five people there when I arrived, so after 1.5 hours trying I went to have lunch. During this time Daniel had come looking for me, as I had her passport and she had mine! Unsuccessful, I headed back to Paris in the afternoon and spent another night at the hostel, meanwhile Danielle had a nice day sightseeing.

The next day I was on the road at 9 AM but there were already people there. Some girls got lifts and  I stayed until it got too cold, then went into Port d’Orleans Metro station to get warm. I decided to give up the idea of going to Switzerland myself and stayed on in Paris. Now the second week of December, I spent sightseeing around Paris, but it was too cold to appreciate the place. However I did have tons of cheap Tunisian delicacies in grotty little cafes. Looking for work, I visited a small printing factory, very much like our associates Tomato Press in Australia, called Allemand. I was shown around, however the people weren't super friendly as they had work to do.

Les Grands Magasins

It was now starting to get really cold. Winter was approaching so keeping warm was a problem. While Danielle was working, I started spending daytime in the "Grands Magasins", the large department stores along  Boulevard Haussmann, a 2.5 kilometre long tree-lined avenue stretching from the 8th to the 9th arrondissement. They were nicely heated and had coffee lounges where you could sit and read relatively undisturbed.

While there, I met a American busker called Steve who played bagpipes in the street outside - and played as good as any Scott as far as I could tell. We decided to team up where he would play Irish and Scottish jigs and I’d dance fake Riverdance type routines to his music. We did quite well then, earning more than double his usual take for a day, and I could take home about Fr.15. However we could only perform in short bursts - the cold dry air playing havoc with our lungs as it was quite an aerobic activity.

Mid-December and we finally decided that it was time to leave Paris, and began to plan for lifts to Geneva, Switzerland and then to head south where it would be warmer.