Margaret and I were back in Bitburg on August 22, and got ready to fly home on Tuesday, August 23, 1977. We had a 3:00 PM flight that got us to Chicago O’Hare International Airport at 7:00 PM. We had to go through customs but it was easy back then, since we were traveling with a young child and coming from an Air Force Base. Rick and Elaine Dutton from across the street on Allemong were waiting for us to take us home to Matteson. It takes about the same time to fly to Europe and back, but the change of times leads to jet lag. I always have a problem coming from Europe to the USA rather than the other way around. You leave in the evening in Chicago and then you are there in Europe in the morning. Coming back to the USA, it only takes four hours but it is a long night, since you are so tired when you finally arrive. Once again, we stopped in Reykjavik, Iceland, but did not get off the flight. I was happy to get back in the USA. I went through all the bills that I saved. We put 3,626 kilometers or 2,284 miles on our Green Volkswagen Polo rental car that cost us $175.00 for all that driving. I was pleased at that. One of the most expensive places to eat was the restaurant in Dinant, Belgium and the Paris restaurant on the Champs Elysees. Obviously, the trip to Paris was the most expensive. All in all, I think that we were able to make this three-week trip cost us a little over $2,000.00, all of it on a credit card. I was happy but tired. Margaret was tired too, but Joy seemed to be okay. She always slept when she was tired. Margaret suggested that our trips should be a little more relaxing next time. I began to realize that I knew more about western Europe, Ireland, Belgium, and Germany than I did about the USA. Maybe we should concentrate on visiting the many wonderful places here in the USA. Have you ever been tired after a vacation?
Sunday champagne on the way home
After an early Sunday morning breakfast, Margaret and I said good-bye to Paris. The fourth day of our trip to Paris in 1977 was a farewell tour. We took the bus to Reims, about 90 miles away. They had a beautiful cathedral in Reims, Notre-Dame de Reims, the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France. Reims Cathedral is one of the most important pieces of Gothic architecture. This cathedral, a major tourist destination, receives about one million visitors annually and has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. Clovis I was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims, in 496, the first Frankish king to be a Christian. Construction of the present Reims Cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 14th century. A prominent example of High Gothic architecture, it was built to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. Although little damaged during the French Revolution, the present cathedral saw extensive restoration in the 19th century. It was severely damaged during World War I and the church was again restored in the 20th century. Since 1905, the cathedral has been owned by the French state, while the Catholic church has an agreement for its exclusive use, so the French government pays for its restoration and upkeep. The original church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, anticipating the decision of the Council of Ephesus in 431 establishing her enhanced status. The work on the new cathedral moved with exceptional speed, because Reims was one of the first buildings to use stones and other materials of standardized sizes, so each stone did not have to be cut to measure. Even after the structural work had been completed in 1275, a lot of work remained to be done. After Henry V of England defeated Charles VI’s army at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, most of northern France including Reims fell to the English. Following the death of Francis I, Henry II was crowned King of France in July, 1547 in Reims Cathedral. However, there was another reason why we stopped in Reims, it is champagne territory. We visited the Mumm champagne cellar and had a tasting there. G. H. Mumm & Cie is a Champagne house founded in 1827 and based in Reims, France, one of the largest champagne houses, currently ranked 4th globally. G.H. Mumm was the official sponsor of F1 racing from 2000 until 2015 and provided the champagne bottles for the podium celebrations after each race. G.H. Mumm’s Cordon Rouge is also the official champagne of the Kentucky Derby and the Melbourne Cup. Mumm was founded by three brothers, Jacobus, Gottlieb and Phillip Mumm, German winemakers from the Rhine valley. Mumm’s label is famous for its red ribbon (Cordon Rouge), patterned after and resembling the red sash of the Grand Cross (Grand-croix), the highest level of the French Legion of Honor. The French confiscated all the Mumm property, although they had lived in Champagne for almost a century before World War I, because they had never become French citizens. In November 2016, G.H. Mumm announced the appointment of eight-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt as its “CEO” (Chief Entertainment Officer) to feature in a multi-media promotional campaign. Today there is Mumm Napa in California. I have a postcard and brochure from Mumm in 1977. Then via Metz, we arrived back in Ramstein, where Tom and Rosie with Charity and Joy met us to take us back to Bitburg. Have you ever been to a champagne brewer?
Late afternoon and Saturday evening in Paris
As if a trip to Versailles, a cruise on the Seine, and a visit to the Louvre was not enough for one day, we concluded this August, 1977, afternoon tour with a trip to Montmartre and the Basilica of Sacré Coeur with its beautiful view of Paris. Montmartre is a large hill in Paris’s northern 18th arrondissement, primarily known for its artistic history, and its white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit, as well as a nightclub district. Near the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, during the Belle Époque, many artists lived, worked, or had studios in or around Montmartre. Montmartre was also the setting for several hit films. The Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre is a Catholic church in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, located at the top of Montmartre. From its dome two hundred meters above the Seine, the basilica overlooks the entire city of Paris and its suburbs. It is the second most popular tourist destination in the capital after the Eiffel Tower. This basilica was first proposed by Felix Fournier, the Bishop of Nantes, in 1870 after the defeat of France and the capture of Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. He attributed the defeat of France to the moral decline of the country since the French Revolution, and proposed a new Parisian church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Construction began in 1875 and was completed in 1914, formally consecrated in 1919 after World War I. I have a postcard from there. The Church is beautiful but the view from there is spectacular overlooking Paris. Finally, our bus took us back to the hotel. Margaret and I then headed back to walk the Champs Elysees at night to have dinner at the Fouquet Restaurant, that still exists today. Fouquet’s Paris is an historic brasserie restaurant located at 99 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, known for its red awnings spread over two terraces on the Champs-Élysées. For decades, Fouquet’s Paris has been a place where people from the entertainment industry would meet. Fouquet’s brasserie was founded in 1899 by Louis Fouquet. The restaurant has been listed as a historical French monument since 1990. In March 2019, the restaurant was severely damaged during the yellow vest protests, reopening a few months later for Bastille Day, July 14, 2019. We were tired that night. Have you ever had a busy day in Paris?
The Louvre Art Museum
After the one-hour cruise, we headed to the Louvre with an English-speaking guide on that Saturday afternoon in 1977. I am always struck by the pyramid outside of the Louvre. There is so much art in there and the Mona Lisa is so small and crowded. I was not too excited about it. The Louvre is a French national art museum in Paris, located on the Right Bank of the Seine, home to some of the most important works of Western art, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory. This art museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collections of art. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation’s masterpieces. Thus, the museum opened in August, 1793, with an exhibition of 537 paintings. During the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Today it holds 500,000 objects. At any given point in time, approximately 38,000 objects are being exhibited, making it the largest museum in the world, with 8.9 million visitors in 2023, and 10.1 million visitors in 2018. The Louvre is the most-visited museum in the world, ahead of the second-place Vatican Museum. I am not that much into art, but I knew that there was a lot of art there. Apparently other people think so, since it is always crowded. Have you ever visited the Louvre?
A Saturday afternoon cruise on the Seine River in Paris
That Saturday afternoon, we had a four-hour bus tour that started at 1:15 PM. First up was a one-hour boat ride on the Seine River. I have an English brochure from 1977 that lists the twenty bridges that we passed under on our journey on the Seine as we looked at both the left and right banks of this river that flows through Paris. These bridges were built over a span of 2000 years. There would be no Paris without this River Seine. Even today Paris is still a world port. This brochure listed 43 sites that we would see on our short trip. We started with the Quai de la Conference, next the Quai d’Orsay, and then the Esplanade des Invalides, the Grand Palace, and the Small Palace. The Concord bridge was built from the stones of the Bastille. The Royal Bridge was built by Louis XIV. There was a Quai Voltaire, the Beaux-Arts building, and the Mazarine Library. Pont Neuf and the Pont Marie are the older bridges in Paris. We passed St. Paul’s Church and City Hall (Hotel de Ville), then it was on to the newer bridges, Pont d’Arcole and Pont-au-Change. You can see the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower from the Seine. The lowest bridge was Alma Bridge that now has been destroyed. The Mirabeau Bridge is one of the newer bridges along with Pont Point du Jour. Finally, there was a copy of the Statue of Liberty. That was just a sample from among the “20 Bridges – 2000 Years” brochure that we used on our Saturday afternoon one-hour cruise on the Seine. Have you ever taken a cruise on the Seine River?
Saturday morning at Versailles
Saturday was our last full day of sightseeing and we made the most of it. In the morning of August 20, 1977, starting at 9AM, we took off for Versailles on our bus tour. The Palace of Versailles is the former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about 12 miles west of Paris. Today, the palace is owned by the government of France since 1995. About 15 million people visit the palace, the park, or gardens of Versailles every year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Louis XIII built a simple hunting lodge, but with his death came Louis XIV who expanded the château into the beginnings of a palace that went through several changes and phases from 1661 to 1715, as a favorite residence for both kings. In 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, who primarily made interior alterations to the palace. In 1789, the royal family and capital of France returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, as the population of the surrounding city plummeted. Napoleon, following his coronation as Emperor, used it as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not use the main palace. Following the Bourbon Restoration, when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the apartments of the southern wing. The palace and park were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 for its importance as the center of power, art, and science in France during the 17th and 18th centuries. There is no doubt that the grounds by themselves are spectacular. However, on the inside, the mirrors of the great hall are the most amazing to me. I have been there a couple of times, and I am still astonished at the beauty and the art in the various other rooms. I have five postcards from 1977 that show the palace, the beautiful gardens, and the empty hall of mirrors. Have you ever been to Versailles?
The Folies Bergère
Our first day in Paris in 1977 ended at the “Folies Bergere,” a cabaret music hall, originally built as an opera house in 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including operettas, comic opera, popular songs, and gymnastics. It became the Folies Bergère in 1872, named after nearby Rue Bergère. The height of its fame and popularity was from the 1890s’ Belle Époque through the 1920s. Margaret and I were taken to the show by bus at 7:15 PM, where we had reserved tickets for this three-hour show. The revues there featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and often nude women. In 1926, Josephine Baker (1906-1975), an African-American expatriate singer, dancer, and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergère by dancing in a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas and little else. The Folies Bergere is still in business today as a strong symbol of French and Parisian life. In 1882, Manet (1832-1883) painted his well-known painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” which depicts a bar-girl standing before a mirror. In 1886, Edouard Marchand (1859-1905) conceived a new genre of entertainment for the Folies Bergère, the music-hall revue. Women would be the heart of Marchand’s concept for the Folies. In 1918, Paul Derval (1880–1966) made his mark on the revue. His revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and small nude women. During his 48 years at the Folies, he launched the careers of many French stars. The Folies Bergère catered to popular taste. Shows also played up the “exoticness” of people and objects from other cultures. In 1926 the facade of the theatre was given a complete make-over in Art Deco style. Since 2006, the Folies Bergère has presented some musical productions with stage entertainment like Cabaret (2006–2008) or Zorro (2009–2010). There was a movie in 1935, Folies Bergère de Paris and another in 1956, Folies-Bergère. This Folies Bergère inspired the Ziegfeld Follies in the United States and other similar shows, including a long-standing revue, the Las Vegas Folies Bergere, at the Tropicana in Las Vegas and the Teatro Follies in Mexico. Margaret and I enjoyed the show. It did not seem extraordinary, since we had seen similar shows in Las Vegas, a few years earlier. However, it was an experience to be in this old showplace. I have a 1977 postcard of the Pigalls, the Follies. Two other of the world’s famous night clubs are also in Paris, the Moulin Rouge and the Lido, but we did not go to them. The Moulin Rouge is a cabaret in Paris, co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller in 1889, but the original venue was destroyed by fire in 1915. Moulin Rouge is southwest of Montmartre, in the Paris district of Pigalle with its landmark red windmill on its roof. Moulin Rouge is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. Today, the Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction, offering predominantly musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. The club’s decor still contains much of the romance of fin de siècle France. Le Lido is a musical theatre venue located on the Champs-Élysées that opened in 1946 and moved to its current location in 1977. Until its purchase by Accor in 2021, it was known for its exotic cabaret and burlesque shows including dancers, singers, and other performers. This was the show that was brought to the Stardust in Las Vegas that we had seen a few years earlier. Have you ever been to the Folies Bergere?
The major sights of Paris
We saw downtown Paris on our morning bus tour on August 19, 1977. We traversed the Champs Elysees from east to the west. Our first stop was at Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, with its early Romanesque style, particularly its pioneering use of the rib vault and the flying buttress. It has enormous and colorful rose windows. Construction on this cathedral began in 1163, and was largely completed by 1260. The 1831 publication of Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris (in English, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) inspired interest which led to its restoration between 1844 and 1864. A fire in April 2019 caused serious damage and forced the cathedral to close, but it has reopened last December in 2024. Notre Dame cathedral is a widely recognized symbol of the city of Paris and the French nation. In the early 21st century, approximately 12 million people visited Notre-Dame annually, making it the most visited monument in Paris. I have three postcards from 1977 of the beautiful windows, an aerial view, and a view from the Seine River. Next it was on to the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, one of the most famous monuments in Paris, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. Originally designed in 1806, but not finished until 1836, it is 164 feet high, 148 feet wide, with a depth of 72 feet. It was the tallest war memorial until 1938, when Mexico City had its own taller one. The Arc de Triomphe is located on the right bank of the Seine at the center of twelve radiating avenues, honoring those who fought and died for France in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, with a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. At the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris, measuring 19 acres, the largest square in the French capital. This was the site of many notable public executions, including those of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. It received its current name in 1795 as a gesture of reconciliation in the later years of the revolution. We also saw the Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, La Madeleine, a Catholic church on Place de la Madeleine. Planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, it led to the present day Place de la Concorde. It was dedicated in 1764 by Louis XV, but work halted due to the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte had it redesigned in the Neoclassical style to become a monument to the glory of his armies. After his downfall in 1814 construction as a church resumed, but it was not completed until 1842. The building is surrounded on all four sides by columns in the Corinthian style. The interior is noted for its frescoes on the domed ceiling, and monumental sculptures by prominent 19th-century French artists. Of course, we went to see the Eiffel Tower, a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889, when it became the tallest building in the world until 1930. Nicknamed the “Iron Lady,” it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair, to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Now it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world, with nearly 6 million visitors in 2022, the most visited monument in the world with an entrance fee. 6.9 million people ascended it in 2015, as it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. The tower is 1,083 feet tall, about the same height as an 81-story building, and still the tallest structure in Paris. The Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. We did not visit the Eiffel Tower. The tower has three levels for visitors. I have 1977 postcards of these major Paris tourist sights. Have you ever been sight-seeing in Paris?
Paris-Bagnolet Novotel
During our stay in Paris in August, 1977, we stayed at the three star Paris-Bagnolet Hotel that opened in 1973. There still is this same hotel there today that I found on a web site with the same address “Novotel Paris Est,” 1 Avenue De La Republique, 93177, Bagnolet, France, with a subway access. The web site picture is the same as the brochure from 1977 with the average price of a room at $150.00 per night today. This web site explains the advantages of this hotel, “Located in Bagnolet, only a 5-minute walk from Gallieni Metro Station, Novotel Paris Est is a modern hotel with La Manufacture MEB restaurant and bar. Guests will have free access to the fitness center and the hammam bath. There is also a snack bar shop open all hours. The spacious rooms are soundproofed and feature a flat-screen TV and free WiFi access. The private bathroom includes a bathtub or shower and free toiletries. The hotel suggests a special price for the half-board. The hotel reception is open 24-hours a day. The tram that circles Paris is a 10-minute walk away and connects the hotel to La Villette Park in under 5 minutes. Both Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport are located a 20-minute drive away. Meeting facilities can be reserved at an extra cost and private parking is available on site and is subject to an extra charge. Porte de Bagnolet Tramway Station is 2133 feet away.” We actually spent two nights there at the hotel, since we traveled on the bus to and from Paris on the first and fourth days of our trip. However, we had breakfast every morning at the hotel. I loved the baguettes at breakfast, but Margaret was not as fascinated by this French bread as I was. We left our baggage at the hotel when we arrived, as an English-speaking guide gave us a morning bus tour of Paris. Then it was back to the hotel to get our rooms and a little rest. We had supper at the hotel before a bus brought us to our nightly entertainment, the Folies Bergere. Have you ever stayed in a Paris Hotel?
A bus trip to Paris via Ramstein AFB
We had one more trip to make before we returned to the USA. We were going to Paris on a four-day American Express Motor Coach Tour out of Ramstein AFB, that was for the US military personal and their families which cost about $50.00 each. Margaret and I would take a bus to Paris and do all our sightseeing via the bus and the local English-speaking guides. I would not be driving in Paris. That was a good thing. Joy was going to stay behind in Bitburg with Rosie, Tom, and Charity. Thus, on Thursday, August 18, 1977, we got a ride to Ramstein AFB, where my brother Johnny Mingin had been assigned from 1964-1966 as an Air Force traffic controller, when I was in Louvain, Belgium. Ramstein AFB is in the Rhineland-Palatinate German area, as the headquarters for the United States Air Force in Europe. Today, there are more than 54,000 American service members and more than 5,400 US civilian employees who live there. With the advent of the Berlin Blockade and the chilling of relations with the Soviet Union in 1948, the USAFE wanted its vulnerable fighter units in West Germany moved west of the Rhine River to provide greater air defense warning time as part of the NATO expansion program. Two bases were laid out. Landstuhl Air Base on the south side and Ramstein Air Station on the north, near the town of Ramstein-Miesenbach with about 20,000 people. In June 1953, Ramstein was opened, as the Twelfth Air Force headquarters, supporting family housing, with a base exchange, a commissary market, and dependents’ schools. In 1961, the base was officially named Ramstein Air Base. South of the Ramstein Air Base is the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, operated by the United States Army. In August 1976, the Strategic Air Command 306th Strategic Wing was activated at Ramstein. From its inception, Ramstein was designed as a NATO command base. American Air Force Headquarters completed its move from Wiesbaden to Ramstein in early 1991. From 2004 to 2006, Ramstein Air Base underwent an extensive expansion with a major construction project as it took on all the activities of Rhein-Main AFB. In April 2015, Ramstein Air Base was an important control center in the drone war against targets in areas like Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Afghan evacuees boarded their final flight from Ramstein Air Base in 2021, as it became the transfer point for thousands of Afghan civilians. In April, 2022, Ramstein Air Base hosted a meeting of the International Advisory Group on Ukraine’s Defense and Counteraction to Russia to synchronize and coordinate Ukraine military assistance in the war with Russia. In December, 2023, a new Space Force component began at Ramstein Air Base. Margaret and I had a pizza that evening and saw the movie Mahogany, with Diana Ross. Then, we got on the bus with the other American military people as we drove all night to arrive in Paris the next morning. Margaret was happy that someone else was driving at night, so that there was no sightseeing that night. I was happy to get a couple hours of sleep. I had become accustomed to sleeping on the European trains sitting up in a chair. Margaret was not as good at it as I was. We just had to have our passports and ID ready when we passed into France from Germany. Have you ever traveled at night trying to sleep in a chair?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 