At the station, I got my trunk and suitcase out to the taxi stand and was lucky to get a driver who liked Americans. He said he was here during the war and liked the doughboys. That really made me feels good. I asked if he knew a boarding house near the La Villette School of Architecture. He said that was in the Latin Quarter on the left bank of the Seine River and he happened to have a lady friend who had a boarding house in walking distance of the school.
What good luck to find this taxi driver. The boarding house was a very old house with three stories. A woman in her fifties owned and ran the house. She said it would cost me thirty dollars a month in American money; she made me feel right at home. I would get breakfast and supper with my board. She said four men and three ladies lived there, and I would have a room on the third floor. That suited me just fine. I unpacked and wrote the folks and Uncle Bob letters.
As the darkness filled my room, I could see from my window why Paris was called the city of lights. The Eiffel Tower stands out in a beautiful golden glow. I was so tired I washed up and went to bed without supper. The next morning, my land lady scolded me badly for not eating the evening meal. She fixed an excellent French breakfast. Yes, sir, the French do make French toast.
After breakfast, I took a walk to see the school I was going to attend. It took about ten minutes of walking to enter the grounds of the campus. It sat in a park-like setting with only three buildings, old beautiful buildings. I found out later they were built in the seventeenth century. On the way back, I took a little detour up a narrow street with shops and cafes. It was near noon, so I decided to stop and have lunch in one of the cafes. I sat at a table alone. This young girl came and took my order. She really got a kick out of my French, laughing as she took my order. I saw her go tell another waitress about me. She was still laughing hard. This other girl came right over and asked, “Are you an American?”
“Yes, I sure am; how can you tell?”
She plopped down in a chair next to me and said, “Your French gives you away.” Then she said with a big smile, “I’m half American; my daddy was a soldier in the war.” Right then I knew I had an in with this beautiful girl.
I leaned over to her and said, “You’re the most beautiful half American girl I ever saw.” I gave her my biggest smile.
She said, “You are a funny boy,” and she laughed so nice I had to laugh with her. As I ate my lunch of cheese, bread and milk, I asked if Americans came to her café often. She said she had never seen one here before. I told her I was going to school to be an architect. I asked if she would take a walk with me when she got off work.
“I’d be pleased to,” she said smiling. “I want to ask you about America.”
It took over an hour before she got off. I walked up and down the street for that hour and window shopped the small stores along this narrow street. She found me a few doors down from the Café. We walked around the streets talking for the rest of the afternoon. What a delight she was. She told me her mother worked in the Le Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.
She asked where I came from in America. When I told her the Southwest, right away she asked if I ever saw a cowboy. I told her my folks lived on a cattle ranch and I had been a cowboy. I thought she might have wet her pants; she got so excited about cowboys. What a sweet girl she was. She asked me to go home and meet her mother. “I know she would like to meet you, she always says good things about Americans.”
While we walked toward her house, she took my hand and said, “I haven’t met many Americans, just the tourists that come to Paris. Most of them are in such a hurry, I never get to talk with them.” In a few minutes, she guided me up the steps to her home. It was a block from my boarding house.
Wow, what a beauty her mother was. She looked to be twenty-five, but this girl said her mother was thirty-eight. I couldn’t believe this lovely lady was in her thirties. She was a raving beauty, the most beautiful eyes I ever saw and the rest was pretty darn good, too. She spoke perfect English. She introduced herself as Marie La Vou and her daughter’s name was Lilly. “I like Americans, they gave me my Lilly.” She was smiling all the time and hugging Lilly.
We sat and talked late into the evening. I got a lot of questions about America. Marie had fixed supper for us. I made a date with Lilly for the next day. I had a week and a half before school started. As I walked home, I felt I was the luckiest boy in all of Paris to have met the most beautiful ladies in all of France.
At the boarding house, I had a letter from my Mother. She said that my brother Tom went to work for Smiling Jack as a stunt pilot, flying in an air show. Tommy was to be one of the pilots in the show. Her letter said everybody else was good. I’ll bet Tommy was one happy guy.
The next morning, I had just finished breakfast when Lilly came to my boarding house. She had taken the day off to take me sightseeing. Holy Cow, how lucky can a guy get?
“Is there anything you’d like to see?” she asked.
“I would like to see where Lucky Lindy landed in his airplane.”
“That’s out at Le Bourget Airport,” she said. “Its a few miles north of the city, we can take the Trolley out there.” We had to walk quite a ways to catch the Trolley. We had to stand all the way to the airport. She stood close and she smelled so good I had to contain myself, if you know what I mean.
We arrived at the airport at noon and had lunch in the airport lounge. When the people there learned I was an American, they all had a story about the night Lindbergh landed. It took several hours to get away from those people. We walked around the field. Lilly told me she was there that night with her mother. “I was 10 years old, I remember the night well.” She showed me the exact spot where the plane set down. “The people would have taken his plane apart if the Gendarmes hadn’t stopped them.” She was so good at explaining what happened the whole time Lindbergh was there. We had a fun afternoon.
We took the trolley back to the city. It was the same, standing room only. Again, she stood so close; I had to steady her by keeping my arms around her. Her forehead bumped my chin all the way back. She still smelled so good I could hardly stand it, but I did. When we arrived at her house, it was just getting dark. We shook hands and she said, “Come early in the morning, I have the day planned.” She had took another day off just to be with me.
I was up at six a.m. and on the way to her house. She opened the door to my knock. “Let’s go,” she said. “We’re going to spend the day at the Eiffel Tower, mother has passes for us.”
We walked for awhile, I wanted to get a taxi. She said, “No, I have a surprise for you.” She took me to a French bakery. We had the most delicious pastries I had ever eaten. The coffee was good, too. Afterwards, I did hail a taxi and we got to the Tower before the crowd got there.
At the top, she pointed out so many things I couldn’t remember half of them. She told me Paris was eight miles long and six miles wide, you could see the Seine River cut right thru the middle of the city. “There are six million people living here,” Lily told me.
We had lunch with her mother on the third floor at the café where she worked. After lunch, we went back to the top. It got breezy and cold, I had to put my jacket and arms around her that way I could hold her tight. She rubbed her face against mine and whispered, “I like you, Frank.” That made my day. We took a taxi home with her mother. She fixed supper again for us. Wow, that ended a perfect day for me.
The next morning, I was knocking on their door early. Marie invited me in and announced we three were going to the International Exposition of 1937. It was over at the Palais de Chaillot. Lilly told me America had an exhibit there. “We may meet some of your countrymen. Almost all countries have an exhibit there.”
We took a taxi to the Eiffel Tower, and then walked across the Seine River to the Exposition. We visited the American exhibit first. There were some American college students working there. We drew a crowd right away. All the guys, there were a half dozen, came over to meet my lady companions. The American girls wandered away. Several of the guys got me alone and wanted to know where they could meet French girls like the ones I was with. I turned them off and got Lilly and her mother out quickly and to other Exhibits.
At noon, we had lunch and then visited Germany’s and Italy’s exhibits, it was a fun time. That evening, we had supper at Marie’s café in the Eiffel Tower. Lilly asked me why I never drank wine? I said I didn’t care for it. She and her mother laughed and Lilly said, “You will never make a Frenchman.”
We took a taxi to their house again. There we had coffee and talked about America late into the night, I walked home. It was a cool evening. I was a very happy nineteen year old American boy, soon to be twenty.
That night, I had a hard time getting to sleep. How very lucky I was to have met such wonderful people as Lilly and her mother. I lay awake that night feeling really proud of myself.
I slept late, got up, dressed and was about to leave when my land lady stopped me and made me have some breakfast. She was so nice I couldn’t refuse her. Before I finished, Lilly came in and sat talking with me. The land lady knew Lilly and said she and her mother were lucky to have me as a friend, my day was made. Lilly took my hand as we walked down the street the morning air was crisp and clean. It was good to be in Paris.
She wanted to take me to the Arc de Triomphe. We hailed a taxi and he dropped us off on the Avenue des Champs Elysees, within a short walk to the Arc. We walked all around the Arc several times. What a sight it is, she told me that the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was under the Arc and that Napoleon had the Arc built. We walked back down the Avenue des Champs Elysees and had lunch at a sidewalk café. There are many cafes on this street. Lilly was a joy to be with, she talked about her growing up in Paris.
After lunch, we walked to the Place de la Concorde. She said we were standing in the heart of Paris. I told her she should be a tour guide. “You are so great, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your company.”
She just smiled, took my hand and said, “Let’s walk.” We walked to a street along the Seine River where artists painted and sold their work. We visited with several and watched them while they worked. At a footbridge, the Pont des Arts, we strolled over and stopped in the middle. She leaned over the railing, I was behind her, and a sightseeing boat was passing below. I couldn’t control myself, I spun her around, took her in my arms and kissed her ruby red lips, she kissed me back. The people on the boat gave us a big hand. We both waved to them and they all waved back and gave us a big cheer. One of the men on the bridge said rather loudly, “Paris is full of lovers.” I waved to him.
Lilly said we should take a boat the next day, I agreed. We spent the afternoon walking and talking. We had supper at the Eiffel Tower with her mother again. During supper, Marie asked how we two were getting along. We both told her “Just fine.” She shook her finger under my nose and said, “Frank, I want no monkey business with my Lilly.”
I told her I was getting pretty fond of Lilly. “She’s a joy to be with; if I was going to fall in love, it would be with her.”
Marie said, “I know you Americans.” She had her arms around Lilly and said, “I have my Lilly.” She laughed and we all laughed.
“I promise no monkey business.”
She took my hand and Lilly’s and said, “Sometimes we make mistakes but I have my Lilly.” I knew what she meant. We took a taxi back to their house. We had coffee and talked late into the evening. Oh, how I liked these two women. That night, I wrote a long letter to my mom and Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen.
You know, the taxis we take are very inexpensive, I mean cheap. I thought about getting a motorbike, but Uncle Bob sent so much money and the taxis were so cheap, I wouldn’t need a bike.
The next morning, I was up early and had breakfast with my land lady. She was so nice, I couldn’t ask for better.
At Lilly’s, Marie opened the door and said Lilly wasn’t up yet. “You kept us up late, Frank. I don’t know what we did before you came.” I had only known these beautiful ladies a few days and already I couldn’t wait to see them. What Marie had said made me feel very comfortable.
Lilly and I spent the day on a sightseeing boat going down the Seine and then returned that evening. I asked if she would go with me to the foot bridge. She said she didn’t trust me on that bridge. I told her I didn’t trust myself there either, we both had a good laugh. We took a taxi to her house. Marie was home and had a great dinner fixed.
After dinner, Marie asked if I would like to see where the two of them were born.
“Sure,” I replied. “It would be a pleasure to see such a place.”
Marie said she had a few days off. We could take the train to the town they were born in.
Early the next morning, we were on a train bound for the town of Tours, a small town on the bank of the Loire River. We three sat together, I had asked Marie a question, nothing personal. For some reason, she started to tell me about Lilly’s daddy. He was an officer in a truck transport company. She was dancing in a troupe at the Moulin Rouge night club. He was waiting at the stage door one rainy night. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and he refused to go away. He was tall and very handsome. He had black eyes, wavy black hair and he spoke so softly. “I fell in love that very night.” Tears ran down her beautiful face.
She continued, “We spent several months together in Paris. When the armistice came, he was ordered home. He wanted to marry me first but wasn’t allowed to. We wrote all the time for awhile. When Lilly was born, I quit writing. I was afraid he might come and take her away. He wrote many letters and they were so sad I quit reading them, I would just burned them.” She was now crying hard, so was Lilly.
“When Lilly was about eight years old, a lawyer came to my house and asked a lot of questions. A few weeks later, I got a letter from her daddy. I wouldn’t reply. Then the lawyer came back and told me Lilly’s daddy wanted to give me money. I refused. He asked why. I told him my fears. He said her daddy had a family of his own and just wanted to make sure we had plenty of money. He wanted her well taken care of. I said it would be alright. He had sent money for years now. I still love him.” She was crying again.
Lilly told me she wrote her daddy now. “As soon as I could write, I started to write him all the time. I have two half sisters in America. Rose is ten and Clare is eight. I have pictures of them.” She handed me a picture of two little girls sitting on a handsome man’s lap. The envelope the pictures were in had an auto dealership heading. It was in a town in California. “That’s my daddy,” she said. The tears streamed down her face.
Marie said his wife had tried to stop Lilly from writing. “She wrote me and said if I didn’t stop, she would sue me. Can she do that Frank?”
“I don’t think she can,” I told her, but what do I know? I’m no lawyer.
We arrived in Tours in the early afternoon. A fine looking man and three young girls met us at the station. He was Marie’s brother and the girls were Lilly’s cousins. A lot of hugging and kissing went on that day. We stayed at her brother’s house, a fine French cottage. Tours is wine country; I got to taste a lot of wine the next day. I mean a lot of wine. Most of the people I met thought I was some relative of Lilly’s daddy. No one told them any different. This was a very fun and pleasant time. I enjoyed the trip. So did Lilly, she said.
Back in Paris, we arrived just as it was getting dark. Paris is truly beautiful at night. We had dinner at Marie’s café in the Eiffel Tower. We took a taxi to their house and had coffee. I told them how much I had enjoyed the trip and walked home. I wrote Mom and Bob about the trip. I had money in a letter from Bob. I was one lucky boy.
In the morning when I went down to breakfast, there was Lilly. Smiling and all dressed to go with me. She was more beautiful than ever. She announced that we were going to see some of the churches of Paris. My landlady said Lilly had been there almost an hour. “He’s not only a funny boy, he’s a sleepy boy.” The landlady and Lilly both got a laugh from Lilly’s words.
The first church we visited was Notre Dame, then the tiny St. Jilien-le-Pauvre, then over to the Dome des Invalides. I asked Lilly if she was trying to get religion for me, seeing all these churches. “No, I hoped you would like them.” She seemed sad that I would ask. She turned on me and said, “Let’s go walk the Pont des Arts footbridge.” I was ready and we did. I got a wonderful kiss from her there.
We had dinner at my boarding house. All the inmates were happy to meet Lilly. They told her she should come more often. She promised she would. The next day being Sunday, I had one more day before school started.
Sunday we went to Napoleon’s Tomb and walked thru the Tuileries Gardens and Place du Carrousel at the Louvre. We ate supper with Marie at the Eiffel Tower and then had coffee at their home. I told them both this was the best time I had ever had. They said they enjoyed my company, too. That night, for some reason, I had bad dreams. It must have been a foreboding of things to come.
I spent two weeks at the school doing nothing but drawings and more drawings. In the evenings, I had to do homework of drawings. I had no time for Lilly. I was bored of this work and went to see my professor. “Do I have to do these drawings?” I asked. “I have a portfolio full of drawings.” I tried to make it clear I was not happy doing drawings. “Can’t I get in a more advanced class?” I asked.
“Not here, you must follow our curriculum. If you want more advanced work, you must go to another school.”
“Where might that be?”
“You could go to the University of Munich in Germany. They have advanced classes you could apply for.” Uncle Bob went there, I remember he said so. “How can I apply?” I asked.
“I will give you a letter of recommendation to give to my good friend, Professor Hoffmann. He can get you right in.” I made my mind up right there to go. The only thing that might stop me would be Lilly. “Frank, you will make a good architect. I can’t blame you for wanting to advance faster.” I said I would let him know tomorrow.
I went to see Lilly that evening. She and her mother were busy packing. “I’m so happy,” she said. “My daddy has sent for mother and me. We have our papers all ready to go. Mother has seen the American consulate and our papers are all ready. We go to the coast in the morning and sail day after tomorrow.” Holy cow, what could I say, but how happy I was for them. She said her daddy’s wife had died over a year ago. He would be waiting for them in New York City. I spent the evening with them and said my goodbyes.
I walked home one sick American boy to have lost those two wonderful people. That night, I lay awake until morning. I made up my mind I was going to Munich, Germany. It would soon be a new year, 1937.