After leaving Amsterdam, I headed for Paris by way of Brussells on the train. I traveled exclusively by train while I was in Europe. I had purchased a 15 day Fiest Class Eurorail pass that alowed me to travel in 22 countries. In addition to the basic pass I purchased reserved seats on most train to insure I had a seat. For the most part the train system was reliable, but I ran into a few glitches here and there.

My trip from Amsterdam to Brussells was uneventful. In Brussells I changed trains for my trip to Paris. Some wheree in Northern France the train developed some sort of mechanical problem and we stopped twice in the middle of nowhere. They then announced that we would be stopping at a small town and we would have to change trains before completing our journey to Paris. We arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport about 3 hours later than scheduled. I had also purchased a Visitie Pass for the greater Paris area that allowed me to travel on all buses, trains and subways. My first problem occcured at the airport when I tried to get thru the automatic turnstill to get the local train to central Paris. I got thru the turnstill but my pull along bag did not. My hand got caught in the mechanism and it took a chunk of skin out of my finger. I finally managed to pull my suitcase over the turnstiill and headed toward Paris. When I arrived at the main station in Paris it was 5:00 pm - the middle of rush hour and there were 1000s of commuters haeding in all directions. It was total chaos - boy what had I gotten myself in to !! I asked several people for direction to the subway station nearest my hotel - everyone said to go to the same station. I went down to the subway and all the cars were jammed full. I couldn't get on with by bags so I waited at the platform for about 45 minutes until things calmed down a little. I finally got on the subway and headed for my hotel. I got off at the station everyone had told me to get off at. I made it up to street level and tried to figure out where I was. Something was drastically wrong, I was no where near my hotel. I figured I would take a cab - the hotel couldn't be that far away - could it.

As the cab headed for the hotel I got the feeling I was being taken on a grand tour of Paris, I saw the Eiffel Tower, crossed the Seine River and went up and down countless small streets. When I got to the hotel the cab meter read 26 Euros about $39 US Dollars. I thought I had been ripped off. I went into the hotel and they said the cab fare was about right for where I had come from. They told me there was a Subway station about 200 yards from the hotel, but the one I had gotten off at was 3 miles away - so much for the info I got at the train station.

It was getting late and I walked down the street and got dinner at of all places a Chinese restaurant. I found out later that there are 100s and 100s of Chinese and Japanese restaurants in Paris and the local government has now restricted the number of these restaurants that can open in Paris. It was late and I was tired so I headed back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow would be a better day !!

The breakfast at the hotel was really great with all kinds of Frenc pastries, etc. I headed out for a full day of sight seing in Paris. I took the subway to the Arch de Triumph and then walked and walked and walked the rest of the day. I walked all the way to the Lourve and then spent 3 hours walking all over the Lourve and looking at all the world famous art - Mona Lisa and everything else - it was incredible. When I got out of the Lourve I decided to go to Casino Barrierre about 15 miles outside of Paris. I was now acclimatecd to the subway system and got to the train station and to the small town of Enghien-les-Bains without any problems. I then had to walk about a mile to the Casino.

I paid the entree fee 14 Euros ($21.00) and went in to the Casino. They had several Roulette tables all with generic roulette chips. The minimum bet was 5 Euros and each chip was 5 Euros. I played my favorite # 27 with no luck. As I was playing # 13 came up 3 times in a row. On the single zero wheel 13 is right next to 27. If three 27s had come up in I would have won sveral 1000s of Euros and paid for my entire trip, but it was not to be.

When I got back to Paris, it was raining but I decide to go up the Eiffel Tower. I got to the top of the Tower and the view was spectacular inspite of the rain and fog. I got back to the hotel around 11:00 pm. It had been a looong day and I figured I had walked about 10 miles.

I slept good that night with visions of Monte Carlo one of my prime destinations swimming around in my head. Tommorrow would be a day I would never forget.

Stay tuned for more stories about my European trip, but now the commercial !!

For sale e5 Casino Barrierre chips. I only have 3 of these chips available for sale. The chip is bright red with yellow inserts. They are $10.50 each plus flat rate shipping of $2.00 per order. Please email me jerrybirl@verizon.net if you want any of these chips.

Take care,
Jerry