Friday

By now our legs were starting to hurt from all the walking around. I noticed I was now four inches smaller, my legs having been worn away by the Parisian streets.
Before I'd actually met Marie, I knew she liked the film Amelie. My friends had all seen it as well, and every one of them had thought it was lovely. So in an effort to try and impress Marie with our shared love for this film, and so I had something else in my armoury to talk to her about, I bought it on DVD and watched it. It's a lovely film, and made me feel so good after I saw it. Such a sweet thing. So I was a fan of it too, and we both wanted to visit some of the parts of Paris shown in the film. We went to the cafe from the film and had a drink there. We also went up the Sacre Coeur, which was the second in our "Places quite high up with a good view of Paris" trilogy. Marie got relentlessly pestered by a guy who wanted to sell her something, I maintained my best "fuck off" face to keep them away. I really enjoyed wandering round that part of Paris though.
We then went to see Notre Dame which I believe is a place that God lived in sometime in the past. History also reports that a hunchback once lived there as well but I’m sure that the God-hunchback residency is just coincidence. It quite clearly stated that people should show some respect in the way they're dressed - for all my atheist ways, I actually try to show some respect in religious places by not taking pictures, trying not to wee on tapestries etc. - but there seemed to be lots of Americans present in garish shorts, XXL shirts and sandals.
We found out that Frank Black was playing in Paris that night so made the decision to go and see him. It was only when we found out that the venue for the gig was a fucking boat on the Seine, that we started to have doubts. We joined the queue, sampled more expensive brown booze and then realised that this concert was to be in the hull of the aforementioned small boat, which had one way in and out. Now I’m mildly claustrophobic but also have a fear of deep water, and seeing the massive queue realised that this would be an uncomfortable experience. We abandoned the idea of seeing Frank this time, retired to an "English" pub and drunk expensive cocktails instead.
I was becoming quite concerned by now that my legs may actually fall completely off through overuse but it didn't stop us wandering around the Champs-Elysses until it was time for more fizzy wine.

Satdee

We went to a market on Saturday morning. It was shit, like a garlic filled Fleetwood market, but Marie did manage to get a nice handbag. She needed one as well, she doesn't have enough of them. Hee hee...
We then went to the Louvre. Which I believe may actually be the biggest thing in the world. We spent a good few hours in there but only saw about half of the exhibits. Considering it is the most famous picture in the world, the Mona Lisa is rather underwhelming, especially when compared with some of the paintings in there. There was allsorts to see, sculptures on wobbly plinths that made my brain play balance tricks on me for a laugh, relics from thousands of years ago, paintings as big as your house, oooh everything...
There was so much to see, we were never going to have the stamina to see it all but it was cool, I didn't break anything and I feel 1.4% more cultured.
Woo! Yay! We actually found a vegetarian restaurant. Paris didn't seem to cater very much for me in the culinary sense, which is surprising for a capital city. We had to travel to the outskirts to eat at the Aquarius. It was nice, quite simple food but again expensive. Are you spotting a pattern here? It was nothing I can't make though.
More fizzy wine followed.

Sunday

It was going home day but we got up early enough to wander down the road to the Arc de Triomphe. We decided to go to the top to see what the view was like and it involved climbing lots of steps... Jesus, I've never been to a place with more steps in my life. London is full of escalators, a godsend to the lazy amongst us. Paris however seems to have been designed by a step-aerobics nutjob. 'kin hell, it's no wonder they are quite a slender bunch of people. My right leg which bore the brunt of the effort to climb all these steps still hurts a bit today. It was a nice view from the top, similar to what I’ve already described and it helped to finish off the last camera film.
We checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport. We'd given ourselves plenty of time and it was good job. The train journey there was uneventful and quite pleasant but the airport was a nightmare. Even though about a third of all flights that day were to the UK, they put us all through the one check-in desk. People were missing flights left, right and centre, and it was only because we'd given ourselves plenty of time that we weren't another two being forced to look for a replacement flight.
We eventually got on the plane, only for it to be flown by a seemingly pissed up French chap who aborted one take-off, didn't seem to know were Manchester airport was, landed on one wheel and couldn't find the terminal.
It was a relief to get off the plane, only slightly later than expected but a bit more fraught than we'd hoped for. Now for the car park thing.
It cost us over thirty quid to leave the car for four days next to the airport. I tried not to think about it as I put yet another thing on my credit card. I've since put almost another two hundred poundees on it due to giving my car a service and it's MOT. Hee hee, mot!

So that was Paris really, I’ve missed bits out I’m sure but this is already long enough. What else has happened lately?
Hmm, next doors cat has died. Shame really, we had a difficult beginning to our relationship when it kept trying to get into the house or tried bringing me dead things as presents but we eventually became comfortable with each other as neighbours. We never became firm friends or even lovers but we'd wave at each other as we passed on my way to or from work. At least I won't have to scowl at it now for having a shit in the garden or try to stop it eating squirrels.
The social calendar is still full, we are going to see Grandaddy tonight, Easyworld in a couple of weeks and then there is the Leeds festival. A week on Saturday we will be in Colchester for the wedding of my second cousin. Of course, the wedding of the year actually happens this Saturday in Preston. Hee hee hee...