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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2007 
The Last Time I Saw Paris
 MexicoCityCollege.com
Conclusion of The Last Time I Saw Paris, as transcribed by MCC historian Joseph M. Quinn from two 1947 issues of Mexico City College's "El Conquistador." (start over)
Our next big job was to get permission to leave the country. So I went back to our good friends the Dominicans. One Dominican father said he had a good friend in the Prefecture in Marseilles. This one official, Mme. Esmiol, had helped many men in danger.
My husband boarded a ship in Marseilles which was going to Oran, Algeria. A German commission mounted the ship, but Mme. Esmiol had fixed it up with the captain so that Charlie didn't have to show his papers. Then she told me, "You will not lose him." She was the closest thing to a saint I have ever seen.
I had to remain behind in Marseilles. Meanwhile, I was told that the last ship for Africa was leaving in two days. I had to visit the Prefecture and the Mexican consulate.
There was a heavy, incessant rain and when I got through with my work I didn't even have time to change my wet clothes.Without any luggage, I boarded a train for Port Vendres, which is almost half way to the Spanish border. I was fortunate to get a passage on this last ship to Africa.
The ship, which was going to Oran, was full of farm owners, teachers and rich people who had business in Algeria. I told the people I was going to America and they thought I was crazy. They didn't think it was any longer possible.
In Oran I tried to get a plane to Casablanca. Each passenger was weighed in and I got passage only because I was so light. It was very warm in Oran, although it was November, in 1941. I had no wrap except a heavy winter coat which I had been wearing in France. The only thing I carried was an oil painting of Charlie done in Aix by Mme. Clarisse Marvro.
In Casablanca, I found Charlie waiting for me at the airport. His first impulse was to laugh at my having to travel almost all the way around the world with only the clothes I had on my back. The dress I wore was rather long and as it seemed to get hotter in Casablanca, I found it necessary to make it shorter and shorter.
We could take no money out of the country and after we spent $500 for our passage we had to spend our money as fast as we could. So we hired a fiacre full time and lived like kings until it was time to board our ship.
We sailed on a Portuguese ship, the "Serpa Pinto." The trip to Mexico lasted five weeks and we had no bed. But it didn't make any difference. We had left the land of danger and safety was ours from now on. My only regret was that I couldn't be in France three years later to see the Americans liberate Paris.
For more about Joseph Quinn and the Mexico City College Story, click HERE.
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