I am not ashamed to be a disciple of Rick Steves, the TV travel guru. He's a Millennium Fielding. A fin-de-siecle Baedeker. A Thomas Cook for the Second Coming. My wife and I owe him 90 of the happiest days of our lives. My love of European travel derives from two sources:  legends of my Dad's attendance at UNESCO conferences, and a love of railroads. Dad visited London, Paris and Leningrad in the 60's when that was pretty exotic to do. He told me almost nothing about his travels before he died. All I have now is a few Kodachromes. With resources like Paris Yellow Pages, I figured out where most of these pictures were taken. It was a great challenge but delightful work. I am re-photographing these locations whenever I travel to Paris.
		Travels in Europe
		Looking into Rue Xavier-Privas, Left Bank, Paris. Taken November 1965 by my Dad. The well known "Rue Chat-qui-Peche" is parallel to this street. The two restaurants facing one another in the foreground were still in business in 2001.  Camera: Zeiss-Ikon Contessa.  Film: Kodachrome, probably ASA64.
										The street had hardly changed in 2001 when I photographed it (right). The restaurant at left still offers couscous and may be under the same owners. The Lamia across the street now serves Greek food instead of Chinese, but the building is virtually unchanged. Look above the sign identifying the rue Saint-Severin. This building predates 1789. Before the blue signs came into style, "Rue St Severin" was carved into the stone. In 1794, the post-revolution Convention government decreed that all "Saint" streets be renamed. The small square patch to the left of the upper corner of the window shutter is where the "St" in "Rue St Severin" was chipped off to comply. See www.ruavista.com.
										All our European travels have been by rail.  Railroads have fascinated me since Christmas morning in Sao Paulo in 1964. I sneaked out of bed early, and in the living room there was a sheet of plywood with some HO gauge track, a diesel engine, and a few cars. My father bought it from ATMA, the Brazillian toy train maker. Mom gave me 2 books about railroads that day. They had beauteous painted facsimiles of photos of British trains. Sadly, she got rid of them when I left home to attend university. Charge me any price if you ever find them. People "buy their past".
			My photo taken from the same place. It's interesting that today, asphalt extends from wall to wall. The paving stones have been covered over. Rue Xavier-Privas was close to Ground Zero for the student insurrection of May 1968. Afterwards, the entire quartier was repaved so that no one could pry up stones to hurl against the "flics".