TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

Tales of travelers whose vacations were affected by the events of

Sept. 11 continue to come in. For Robert and Loretta Curci of Newport

Beach, their detour landed them in Paris.

“Let’s say we enjoyed ourselves because we were able to see things

that were magnificent to see in France, that we perhaps wouldn’t have

seen had we not had to stay there,” said Robert Curci, who had never been

to Paris before. “But we had mixed emotions.”

They had the Louvre. They had the Seine. They had all the sights and

sounds of the dream vacation/honeymoon/anniversary spot.

They had a cloud of tragedy hanging over them too.

“I felt very saddened, first of all, to be so far away from home and I

knew that we might as well enjoy ourselves for the time we were there,

but I wanted to go home and see my family,” said wife Loretta Curci. “I

didn’t know what the future would hold.”

The couple had just completed their 42nd anniversary cruise through

the Mediterranean. The 14-day ride stretched from Barcelona to Istanbul

and the last chapter of their trip was to be a flight home after a

two-hour layover in Paris.

But two hours became five days. Five days of Parisian culture and,

most of all, Parisian hospitality.

“We had heard in the past that they were somewhat aloof,” Robert

Curci, 67, said. “But we saw friendly, warm French people. And we were

proud to be there as Americans.”

Last minute accommodations by American Express lodged them at the

“magnificent” De Crillon Hotel, which was next to the American Embassy.

The couple wondered about possible terrorist attacks on the embassy. But

gestures of sympathy and grief by the French for people thousands of

miles away reassured them.

“We found the French had made a canopy and made a book that French

people were coming to sign in two separate lines,” Curci, a marina

businessman, said. “And for almost the whole five days we were there, the

French were bringing bouquets for sympathy.”

For Loretta Curci, whose only previous stay in Paris lasted one night

13 years ago, visiting the city’s historical monuments made her wistful.

“You’re looking at history and seeing what today is and being on these

cruises and at the historical sites, you see what happened to

civilization and what war does,” the 63-year-old said. “I’m still sad

today. I’ll never be the same.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.