The perfect way to get over last week’s bout of the cold was with a good dose of old-school (literally) banter. And so Notre Dame, lit-up at night, was a beautiful setting in which to meet James and Struan who popped over for the weekend. We headed into a local cafe for an omelette and what James called “just a beer”, turned out to be a litre glass, which is an awful lot. We then sauntered across town to the Champs-Elysees, with a bit of IHM on the way. We stood in the Place de Concorde and admired the grand Napoleonic setting before eventually wanting a taxi and befriending some Indian turbo-LADs who wanted the same thing! We eventually just walked it, sampled a couple of places along the route, one of which turned out not to be the sort of establishment we had in mind. “Shall we just go somewhere else?” “Sod that! I’m getting my money’s worth!”
We also hitched a lift off a man named Bruno.
Day 2 started late and would continue in this fashion. We strolled the left bank and took in the Racing Metro Shop, fast becoming a Paris landmark ranking somewhere in between some tower and the Musee D’Orsay. James’ idea that he could barter for a 70 Euro Racing shirt had me and Chode in fits of giggles. Several trains and a taxi then helped us traverse Paris for the Racing Metro v Biarritz match which we all greatly enjoyed with 10,000 others, even if we were 20 minutes late... Imported Percy Pigs kept our energy levels up for the evening trip to the aforementioned tower. The heightened security alert and visible armed Police presence was not what put us off the climb, rather the tired legs and James’ ‘vertigo’. He got his chance to barter though as we negotiated a model Eiffel tower that changes colour down from 10 to 3 Euros. As far as I know, it still works. We ate an absolute feast at a local restaurant, confirmed the Eiffel Tower was still there and took the train home.
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