When Pam discussed our upcoming trip to Paris, she asked me what I wanted to do while there. I told her that I could always pay Jim another visit. She just laughed and said something about me going without her.
I smiled thinking that she was not the first person to have ever said that regarding visiting Jim Morrison’s gravesite in Père Lachaise. That is pretty much what Buzzy told me back in 98 when I informed him of my plans to do so.
He and I were on a Perillo Tour of Three Cities – London, Paris and Rome. While we were staying in Paris, we had what they called “leisure time” which was just a fancy way of saying that there was nothing officially scheduled tour-wise.
The day before, we had done the scheduled tour of Paris and taken in all of the main sights. The next morning Dad and I figured out the Metro and hit Notre Dame, the Eiffel Towere and the Arc de Triomphe on our own. (For previous Buzzyblog post on our visit to Paris (click here.)
We had returned to the hotel because lunch there was included in the tour package. Buzzy wasn’t about to pay to eat lunch while we were out and about if we could eat at our hotel at no charge.
We had lunch with a husband and wife also on the tour and were discussing what we planned to do for the rest of the afternoon. The husband told us that he had stayed in this very hotel back when he was a young soldier in World War II stationed in Paris. He said that he had booked the overall tour mainly because the itinerary included staying in this hotel.
He informed us that he had even tried to book the same room that he had stayed in back then, but was unable to do so because the tour folks had reserved the rooms for everyone. However, when he had checked in, he asked the hotel folks about seeing the room. They told him that when his old room was vacant, they would contact him to let him go and check it out. The hotel folks had advised him that he could see the room that afternoon and that was their post-lunch plans.
His wife made some comment about it was not exactly her idea of time well spent in Paris. The husband protested how much he was looking forward to it. They started going back and forth about it until Buzzy, as always, cut to the chase by interrupting them and asking “How much time you going to need to check the room out – 5 minutes?” The husband paused and said “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I hadn’t thought about it like that. I’ve just been looking forward to re-visiting it.”
We finished lunch and as Buzzy and I were heading back to our room he merely said “I don’t know about those two.”
He then asked me what I was doing the rest of the afternoon and I informed him “Visit Jim Morrison.” He said “Who is Jim Morrison?” After I replied “The lead singer of the Doors” he said “You can go do that one on your own. I’m going to hit this store next door and do some shopping.” (On a trip, Buzzy would always pickup sovernirs and items for family and friends back home. Since we were staying down the street from Paris’ Galeries Lafayette department store, he went there and I visisted Jim.
Found this video of Robbie and Ray visiting their former band member.
Keep your eyes on the road…..