Tag #124022 - Interview #88421 (Nico Saltiel)

While Father was in Paris he never came to Thessaloniki. Life in Paris was tough. It was during the recession, and as there was an economical crisis here, there too was the same. And surely the crisis had started from France and Germany. We were never careful with money at home, but business in general wasn’t going well. The business didn’t do any better in Paris. Everybody lived conservatively. We didn’t go out to eat. Rarely on weekends, but never during the week. My parents didn’t go to the movies, and I don’t remember ever going to the theater. There was no spare time and the days were long and tiring. 

On the main holidays, the French ones, such as 14 Juliet [July 14, the celebration of the French Revolution], we didn’t go out at all. We didn’t go to the parade. We didn’t have a radio while in France, it was a novelty and not very widespread. Our fun on weekends was going for a walk in the park or to a friend’s house, as was in general common in Paris. 

In Paris my father had quite a few friends whom he met regularly on weekends together with Mother and us. They were old friends from Thessaloniki who had immigrated to Paris earlier than us. I remember a certain family, the Beraha family. My mother had fewer friends in Paris than in Thessaloniki. It wasn’t easy for her in Paris. Here we had many relatives, cousins and friends; there she had none.