The trip to Paris

Thursday 16th October

The trip began on the Thursday night with a trip to pick up new boy Julien – a real live Frenchie who ran Newcastle’s favourite creperie: La Petite Creperie. He was followed by Silly at a secluded roundabout on the A19 before the trip to York to Alex’s house. There was time to enjoy a refreshing glass or two of cactus juice before crashing....in preparation for a 5:00 start to the Eurotunnel. There was a moment of comfort for Alex’s wife as she recognised the same gleeful look on my face that her husband had when looking at anything yellow and red. The cause of my excitement: finding Alex’s collection of Lens shirts...and his Lens pillow! Sleep certainly would be a struggle after that excitement!

Nevertheless, I managed it and woke Julien and Silly up before meeting Alex in his boxer shorts on the landing. By six we were in the car and heading south.

6am Friday morning - fresh as daisies?

An uneventful trip saw me win the Norbert spotting competition, if only on the grounds that nobody else could be bothered and spent more time sleeping than me (as driver it didn’t seem a good idea) but Julien won the sleeping lions competition hands down.

The car was safely stowed in a multi storey car park in Amiens, a Quick burger demolished before we squeezed ourselves onto a packed train bound for Paris. With seats at a premium we managed to get force one commuter to remove his bags that had been spread over three seats: much to his obvious annoyance. He later met his match when a particularly fierce looking woman insisted he let her daughter sit on the remaining seat next to him. There was abuse for him followed by applause around the carriage as the friend he had been saving a seat for eventually arrived: “trop tard” he kept on muttering: too late...both too late for him and his mate as his new little friend swung her legs about, happily (accidentally) kicking him every so often...until he moved himself. There was a god.