Hi Moishe,

As your grandparents came from Hungary and reached a port city in Italy, it is very likely that such a city was Trieste. If they continued travelling by ship from there, they had to cross the whole Adriatic sea, pass south to Sicily, cross the Mediterranean sea, enter the Atlantic ocean at Gibraltar and travel along the entire coast of Portugal, France and enter the English Channel. Otherwise, they had to stop somewhere along the western coast of France, continuing by land to Paris. Anyway, it is very unlikely they reached Paris directly by ship, as Paris is not on any coast.

But as you write that they travelled in 1938, before the war, I take the liberty to say that very likely they travelled by land, probably by train. Italy and France have a common boundary, therefore that's the easiest way to move; from Trieste they might have reached Venice, Milan, Turin, then Lyon and Paris. Or from Milan they might have reached Zuerich (Switzerland) and then crossed France to Paris.

I hope this might help.

Regards,
Davide Csermely
Italy  
davide@...