Back from America

Dreaming in Paris 

Here is the story of a past trip in 1971/1972 to the US and Mexico City. (A story, not a thread)
I do not remember having reading "On the Road" before leaving for the USA in September 1971 even though I had been dreaming of it for so long. I must confess as well I did not know about the beat culture ignored in those days in France as well as the hippie world and culture. Maybe because it was hardly reaching the old continent except England, Holland and Germany that were already enjoying it? The Woodstock concert was far away from the Latin Quarter demonstrations…

In France it is only in 1972 when Maxime Leforestier a young singer back from California "opened the window" and let some fresh air in with his iconic song "San Francisco".He was telling us about an old blue house uphill in San Francisco were anybody can get in freely and live his life, play the quena, dream, smoke. The song was seen as an authentic anthem to an alternative and free life and it was. Maybe this song influenced me more than any other books or movies. I was already tired with conservative petit-bourgeois in France, it was time to leave.

(The San Francisco song is not played by its original interpreter but here you get the English subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fXLYfInYtQ

Original version and real nice pictures but no subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po1VALnnaNY

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Planning (I)

So, once the decision was taken it was time to think about the concrete issues. Actually what determined me is the cheap flight: PANAM, TWA, Air France were definitely out of reach!!

I heard about Loftleidir (the Icelandic Airlines) offering real low prices for transatlantic flights. Loftleidir was not a IATA company, they were paying very few taxes and gas was still very very cheap (US$3 a gallon). The Airlines became very popular with students, young intellectuals who flew with it, the Clintons (separately in those days!) did it!.The company was soon referred as "Hippie Airlines" or even the “"Hippie Express"". Between Luxembourg and New York City there was possibility for a stopover in Reykjavik without supplement. At last, with Loftleidir you did not have to buy both ways at the same time, you could pick up your return date when needed!

What we needed to travel back then? As usual, but things were simpler. A simple backpack, a sleeping bag, a sheet. We would not travel with tons of clothes nor cosmetics. There were no guidebooks for backpackers ! Only by chance I found one a few days before leaving: “A Student Guide to North America and Mexico”. It was a thin two hundred pages small book with some local touristic tips, and some very cheap hotels and restaurant addresses. This was supposed to be my road gospel, some kind of primitive Lonely Planet...

There was one important administrative point to settle before leaving and not a small one: the US visa, compulsory in these days. The visa was delivered by the American consulate, near Place de la Concorde. We had to fill up an application in which about twenty questions were asked all of them supposed to be answered by the negative. 
- Have you ever belonged to a communist organization, are you a Nazi or did you participate in a genocide, have you ever been to Cuba, North Vietnam or North Korea, are you suffering epilepsy or tuberculosis or mental disorder, have you ever been condemned for a crime, are you a drug abuser, have you falsely claimed to be a US citizen... and many more of the same kind…. 
Since it was not my case I was able to recover my passport two weeks later with a big multicolored five year visa covering one full page.

Ready!

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