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24 Oh La La Hours! - 17-Nov-003/Paris (Page 1 2 3)
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New Cross, new panic. My eyes ache, tiredly, a bit. They’ve been that for a week now, but I’ve needed to take a break. I’ll soon wake up. At the moment I am on schedule to miss my plane by around 20 minutes, so I’ll probably have to go home. I’ll be gutted - I’ve been saving £2 coins for I don’t know how long - but it’ll mean a whole day in bed I guess... A couple of hours ago, during a dream about scaling up telegraph poles, my alarm went off at 6am. If I had packed last night I would have been on time. Instead I act out a one hour Norman Wisdom sketch. I left in such a hurry that the essentials (shades, jewellery) were left behind.
When we reach London Bridge I have missed the Gatwick Express and the 8.12 train which would have got me me to the airport just in time to whizz through to the gate. In blind despair I run to the platform it was advertised at anyway. The whistle goes, it’s still there. I fling myself at it, cockney-style (Londoners will put their head in a closing tube door!) and somehow the train that wasn't there gets me to the airport just in time.
There’s even enough time to buy some perfume (yes, I’m poor, but I smell nice). The lady in front takes ages so that I’m nearly sweating with anxiety again... half an hour later I am in the sky looking down on paradise. The bit between London and Paris to be precise. It’s not too early in the morning for a glass of wine, I’m on holiday!
There’s a train from Gare Du Nord at 5am back to Charles De Gaulle airport. Perfect. My friend Naz says I can stay with her this evening. I wonder if there are placesaround the Moulin Rouge area. Oh, that’s hours off...
I don’t drink coffee but I’ve had one. It’s gonna be a long day. It’s sunny and my heart is light. I’m hundreds of miles away from everything and everybody. Even my pay-as-you-breathe mobile network doesn't work here. I was up late making sure I’d sorted everybody instead of packing. Well whatever, I am here, a foreigner with enough french to say please, thank you and get a beer.
I get a 1+2 zone day travel card at Gare Du Nord and am ready for a long walk and later, some food and wine. I get my bearings at Notre Dame where I will meet Naz later, then walk for hours, Saint Germain, like an outdoor gallery, along the Seine, in the Eiffel Park. It\s wonderful. When I do eat, all the trees are brown and the sky is grey, just like in the song. The hazy wintery sun is a mustardy yellow and the nice waitress is happy that I make an effort to speak french. I really stuff myself because I don’t know when I’ll eat again until next morning, it’s also something to put my alcohol on later.
Then, head back to Notre Dame and take a quick shufty inside. It’s amazing what creativity has added to Nature’s beauty. I take a picture of one of Paris's many amazing buildings, for my golden girl, it looks just like off her cartoon video. We are in the old part of the city. I meet up with Naz and we hang out at a really great little bar full of smoking people that remind me of the posters from 100s of years ago of old Paris. They serve strong beers, we're all set us up for an adventure.
It’s a short bus ride to Bercy Stadium where we meet up with more friends. The stadium is surrounded by broad steps covered in thousands of people, it looks like a huge outdoor demonstration. Coldplay and Feeder flyers are thrust into our hands, music is still one of the UK’s great exports.
Hooray, our tickets are there! Inside Bercy is a huge, widespace that fills up rapidly to the rafters with over 17,000 music fan friends. On Planet Earth, Britain and France don’t get on politically, but in real life (music world) we are one big family. Paris’s radical cousins are over from LaLaLand to entertain Oh La La Land for the evening. There’s time before the bands come on to grab some beers, I amuse our gang by practising ordering a can of 1664 lager. Not easy in French. Parisians talk very fast. “ses sont swasont cat” or something like that. Of course when we get served I chicken out and point at the can!
Continues on Page 2.
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