Road to Elsewhere, Excerpt #25*: That Time Leo DiCaprio, Ellen (Elliot) Page, and I Met Near the Paris Metro...

OK, maybe not during the same decade. But we were all there. Time is funny that way.

MY FAVORITE SURPRISE along the metro routes came along the #6 line, as I emerged from the darkness into the light—or into the sparkling Paris night—of the Bir-Hakeim stop, with a sweeping  view of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. 

Bir-Hakeim sounds exotic, right? 

It was named after an allied outpost in North Africa, manned by what Metro historian Susan Plotkin calls a “motley assortment of men,” including escapees from occupied France, displaced Indochinese colonials, and far-flung Franco-Americans. Nonetheless, for sixteen days the motleys kicked desert sand in the faces of Rommel’s elite Afrika corps, buying time for the British to muscle up and eventually defeat them. And the French holdouts led a daring, successful middle-of-the-night battle and escape from their embattled fort. 

Remember Bir-Hakeim! It’s not just a scenic subway stop!

The pedestrian walkway under the bridge served as the location for a really boring conversation between Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, in the baffli…