March 10, 1918 - Don Martin arrives in Paris to cover the American Expeditionary Force

Don Martin diary entry for Sunday, March 10, 1918:

Arrived in Paris 10 p.m./

Here I am in Paris after a very tiresome but interesting day. Arrived at Havre at 7 a.m. but heavy fog necessitated staying at anchor till 10 when we came in. Calm all the way over. I lay down for few hours but kept my clothes on. Long unpleasant wait to get passports vised and baggage passed at Havre. Had lunch at famous Tantoni’s with couple Englishmen, one of them decent. Went for long walk all over the city.

Started for Paris at 5:19. Had no trouble with baggage. Slept most of the way to Paris. Met fine young aviator named Hodges of Albany, Ga., on the train and brought him with me in a taxi to the Crillon Hotel. Probably won’t see him again. Bennett picked out a good hotel for me. Went to Herald office and met staff. Burn Price and I then went for an hours walk up one side of Seine and down the other. Back to hotel at 1 a.m. ready for bed!

Weather ideal.

Arriving in Paris for the first time, after two months in London, Don Martin was immediately taken by the city, calling it the “wonder city of the world.” The Commodore, James Gordon Bennett, had put him up at The Crillon, just about Paris’s best hotel. And eating there and at Prunier led him to exclaim ‘the London people ‘feed’, here they feast’. In the fourth year of war and not far from the front line, he still found ‘steak and a dozen oysters’. His diary entries portray a first week spent sightseeing, while angling with success to get closer to the front. He also had time for letter writing – perhaps reflecting his newspaperman’s necessity to put words on paper everyday.

The Hotel Crillon is located on the Place de la Concorde, facing the River Seine and next to the U.S. Embassy. Here are photos from October 2017. The Crillon was recently purchased by a Saudi Arabian and a complete internal refurbishing had just been completed.

Hotel Crillon, Paris, October 2017

Hotel Crillon entrance

Hotel Crillon on Place de la Concorde

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