Saturday, June 24: We landed at Orly Airport in Paris at 4:30 on a warm and sunny afternoon. A beautiful beginning for the Monkees’ first trip to France.
The guys got through customs in just few minutes and then they began doing the complete tourist bit—would you believe taking pictures of the airport? For the first time in over a year they could be just themselves without getting mobbed. They took full advantage of it, running all over the airport taking snapshots of everything, and nobody pointed cameras at them! It was beautiful.
The Monkees aren’t on French TV (there aren’t that many TV sets in France, anyway), and the American records are so far behind the times that “Last Train to Clarksville” was just breaking when we arrived. Hence, no mobs, no special security precautions, just total fun.
Right after the airport scene we drove to Hotel George V, an established, dignified hotel in the heart of Paris. The arrival of the Monkees didn’t disturb the hotel routine at all. As far as the French were concerned, the Monkees were just four ordinary guys on a trip.
Davy had room number 451 and Peter had number 452; they both connected. Mike and Micky had separate rooms on the same floor. Everybody’s room was furnished in original Victorian—kind of a change from the Hollywood modern the guys were used to.
Samantha Juste flew in from London so Micky was really excited. They spent a lot of time together talking.
The evening was warm and beautiful. Davy and I walked to the Arc de Triumphe and the Eiffel Tower. We stopped to eat at several sidewalk cafes—just like any tourists that ever hit Paris.
Mike walked with Bob Rafelson, one of the producers of the Monkees TV show, to St. Germain. Peter and Micky stayed at the hotel and talked all night with a whole mess of people, Samantha Juste included, of course. They ate cheese and sandwiches, talking the whole night through.
Nobody got any sleep that night, we were all too excited! But it didn’t matter, because we didn’t have to work the next day—it was Sunday.
Sunday, June 25: Nothing much happened during the day—except everybody slept! Davy got up at two in the afternoon, and that was the earliest of anybody. Mike got up at five in the evening and Peter got up at six. We’d all been dead tired.
Everybody ate “breakfast” in his room, then split to enjoy Paris some more.
Davy went walking again, he was really enjoying the scene. He walked to the Montmarte and the St. Germain areas.
Peter, Ric Klein, Bill Chadwick and I went to the Sorbonne. We ate and sat around the area until about midnight or so, then we came home.
Micky stayed at the hotel and Mike went out for just a little while to eat, then he came back again.
It was a pretty groovy day. Everyone got to go exactly what he wanted to do. Peter got to use the Metro (subway). Can you imagine a Monkee walking the streets or using the subway in the U.S.? Chaos!
Monday, June 26: Back to work. Vacation was over for awhile. We all got up at scene in the morning and made it to the Flea Market where we began filming.
For the first time since we hit Paris we created a traffic jam. At the Arc de Triumphe the film crew caused a lot of people to gather, but they still didn’t know who the Monkees were.
Everybody was pretty happy all day. Peter sang the entire day and Micky was so excited he ran around all over the place.
That night everybody crashed. It had been a groovy day, but two days vacation had gotten us out of the habit of working and we were all about as tired as it’s possible to be.
