Looking for a ticket to Morocco in Paris

No direct flight from Japan to Morocco, so I tried to buy a ticket from Iberia Airlines, which has the option to add a ticket from Madrid to Casablanca for an additional fee of ten thousand yen. But I couldn’t get it. Eventually, I decided to go to Paris by Air France and buy a ticket to Morocco in Paris. It’s December 6, 1992.

In a plane(B747-400) of Air France, a monitor displayed a tracking of a flight. On a map of the monitor, you see an icon of a plane, a flight route, and a current position. The map described the names of major cities and non-major cities with a small circle. I guessed the circle meant something related to a plane leading(*). After taking off at Narita, the circle appeared at Kawasaki and moved to Niigata, Asahikawa, and Khabarovsk. The monitor also displayed the speed of the plane, the distance to a destination, the time from taking off, the altitude, and the outside temperature in English, French, and Japanese. When the plane flew above Siberia, It was -65 degrees Celsius. It was very cold outside.

It’s interesting while preparing for a landing. A speed was slowed down to 300km/h, an altitude was becoming lower and lower. The plane passed the north side of Charles de Gaulle International Airport and turned for landing. The distance to a destination became shorter and longer, then shorter again.

I arrived in Paris at five-thirty in the evening and got a room near the Luxembourg station underground. After a light supper of a hamburger, I took a walk around there and looked for a travel agency. I found “Nouvelles Frontieres”, it is still open, so I asked about a ticket to Morocco. They had a ticket to Morocco only Saturday and Sunday flights. Return flights are also on Saturday and Sunday only. My return flight was at night on 9, January, Saturday. Hmm, I couldn’t decide.

By the way, I exchanged Franc and Yen at Tokyo Bank, Narita Airport. To get 1000 Francs, it took 26010 Yen.

I woke up at five o’clock in the morning due to jet lag. I spent time reading a book until eight o’clock. At eight, the outside was still dark. But it’s a waste of time, I went out. I had to get a ticket to Morocco because I said to my colleagues that I would go to Morocco.

Walking in the town, still dark, with few people, I waited until 10 o’clock when travel agencies opened. I went to a different agency I visited last night. I wanted to leave Paris on December 25, but a flight on that day to Marrakesh was full. They said a flight to Casablanca was not full, but it took 3,000 Francs. It’s normal because it’s Christmas & New Year they said. After all, at Nouvelles Frontieres, I bought a ticket to Ouarzazate on Saturday, it took 2042 Franc for a round trip. They had also a ticket to Marrakesh, but it only fly on Sunday. The return flight from Ouarzazate was also on Saturday only and it was on January 9, 1993. My return flight from Paris to Japan was at 23 PM on January 9. I think it’s OK.

But I was wrong. This ticket caused trouble later.

Anyway, I got away to Morocco. When I went out of the agency, the sun was coming, many tourists were walking in a street. I wondered where they had been until that time.

I felt good. I go back to the hotel and I told them I would stay until Saturday morning. Then I went sightseeing. First, I went FNAC bookstore at Forum des Halles to buy a map of Morocco. On the way there, I visited Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. There was a cheerful atmosphere by a lot of tourists.

In the Cathedral, a chorus group was singing. I enjoyed the pipe organ sound and the very beautiful voices. If without flush from tourists’ camera, it would be better. At the back of the Cathedral, tourist buses parked, Japanese young girls, talking and taking a photo of each other. It seemed to be joyful.

Then I searched for the famous Ice cream shop near here. Why do I want to go to such a place? Because it’s my second time visiting Paris and I had a lot of time… I found a very long queue, Wow!, it’s the Ice cream shop I was looking for. It’s not tourists but local people made a long queue. Ice cream for Christmas!

I gave it up and walked to Forum des Halles. I bought a map of Morocco at FNAC. The price was 20% off, 26.40F.

After visiting Modern Art Museum at Centre Pompidou, I went outside and found many people together. It was a street performance. One man is tied by a chain. He was doing unchain performance. While he doing this, another man did other performances for a laugh. I was laughing though I couldn’t understand what he said. Inside the people’s circle, children were sitting and enjoying it. One performer was slim and tied his long hair. Another wore big size short pants only, impressive looks, busy to do various performances.

Street performance at Centre Pompidou

I went back to the hotel and slept. At night, after dinner, I went to Jazz Club which I picked up from a guidebook. It was Jazz Club, but very different from the one I am familiar with. A Performance began, and some couples of aged persons began to dance. It was such kind of place. I became very sleepy, performance was dull, so I went back to the hotel soon.

Today I bought

1. Air ticket to Morocco: 2042 F
2. A map of Morocco: 26.4F
3. L’officiel des spectacles(magagine): 2 F

I woke up at 8:30. Today, Let’s go to Musée du Louvre! I thought about how to spend this afternoon, but I need a lot of time to see Louvre until evening.

At night, I went to a Thai restaurant named ‘Mita Phap’ listed in a guidebook. It’s not good. The Thai restaurant in Tokyo is better. Asia is far away from Paris.

On the way to the hotel, I saw a great performance at a platform of the subway station. When I went down to the platform, I hear the sound of drums. It was a drum sound from Black Africa. It’s a real one. Africans were singing to the beat of drums. It was a world of Africa. A strong rhythm beat my body. It’s great.

They were straddling four big drums and beating them. Then someone opened a bottle of champagne and passed around it. Many Africans came around and sang together. Someone began to sing, and one of the drums beat a rhythm. Other drums followed the rhythm with good timing. I guess this was their Christmas party, they couldn’t go back home.

After a while, the police came to stop them.

“Hey, it’s OK, because Christmas”
“No, No, go away”

one of the policemen was African.

“Hey, you are African, you must understand us”
“Hahaha, I have to do this”

I imagined the conversation above.

In the morning, I went to the town and felt a very different atmosphere. It’s very quiet. No cars were driving. It’s the same as Japanese New Year’s Day. Most cafes were closed. I would go to Musée d’Orsay. On the way there, I found a cafe open and took breakfast. Arriving at Musée d’Orsay, mmm, It’s closed! Ah, I regret that I decided I would not go to Musée d’Orsay yesterday after seeing Louvre. I had one hour and a half to see Musée d’Orsay yesterday. I found many tourists came to Musée d’Orsay and return sadly the same as me.

Most of the shops and restaurants were closed. McDonald’s was closed. Museums were closed. So, the only thing to do for tourists was walk on l’Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

I also woke around here and there, but I felt it was stupid, then I went back to the hotel. I watched TV in a Lobby.

A man at ‘Mita Phap’ restaurant was Chinese. When he saw my signature on a credit card, he said so. His name was 呉錦良. He told me how to pronounce my name in Chinese, and asked me how to pronounce his name in Japanese. He also showed me a newspaper in Chinese ‘欧州日報’.

I found a restaurant with Thai/Vietnam/Chinese mixed cuisines in Quartier Latin. There were some Thai/Chinese mixed cuisine restaurants.

At night, I went to the ethnic food restaurant area in Quartier Latin. Many tourists were there.

It’s very cold today. Coooold! Morocco tomorrow.