Paris - Maddies 21st

Paris. This holiday was planned last year for Kim’s cousin’s 21st , Maddie. The holiday or at least my participation in it was under serious jeopardy, due to the on-going saga of my Visa. Believe me, it was very touch and go as to whether I would receive my passport back in time. As it turns out it arrived, a couple of days to spare, phew! I took a ½ day off work (my first week!) for a 17:30 flight out of Edinburgh. We arrived in Paris CDG just after 20:30pm. We negotiated the train ticket machine and arrived in Paris around 10:00pm. Our metro stop was Boissoire. We met up with everyone (Nick, Maddie, Heidi, Alan, Jane, Roger, Jill and family friends of the Mobbs) We went out for a cheeky meet and greet over a beer. Everyone was impressed with my sample of artificial grass from my new job. The next morning we went for breakfast at a cafe, coffee, bread, croissants and omelette were on the menu and also the best freshly squeezed orange juice I have every tasted! Now we had time on our hands... Alan, Jane, Kim and myself walked up all 700 stairs to the second level of the Eiffel tower (unfortunately the top level was closed for maintenance). Some facts about the tower; built as a radio tower in 1896, contains 2,500,000 rivets, gets painted every 7 years by 25 painters, weighs 7000 tonnes, took 2 years, 2 months and 5 days to build. Has even had an elephant up to the first level! As expected we took a fair number of photos, the day was a bit misty unfortunately. Next Kim and I ventured off on our own in the city of romance. We visited Notre Dame, Kim lit a candle and we admired the amazing stained glass windows. By this stage our stomachs were starting to rumble so we headed down a back alley and tried to find a secluded restaurant. Our secluded restaurant that we found was linked to the main drag, whoops. I wolfed down a quiche Lorraine. After lunch we just wandered, past the ice rink, pompidou centre and various stores. Back on the tube we returned to the hotel to chill out and meet up with a rather sickly looking Kirsty. We flashed ourselves up a bit met the others and headed to the Moulin Rouge. The weather was a bit rubbish and we had to queue outside. We sat down at a table near the front of the stage, and then we were straight onto the champagne. We had a group photo and before we knew it our food had arrived. I really enjoyed my meal of Fois Gras, seared Salmon and Berries. Kim had chocolate for dessert even though she was on Lent! “Apparently it was God’s Will”! The show absolutely blew me away and far exceeded my expectations. A dazzling display of colour, costumes, dance, song and acts. There was a phenomenal juggler, a lady swimming in tank full of snakes, gymnasts showing amazing balance and strength and a clown who even pulled Maddie on to the stage as part of his act, there was side splitting laughter from our group. And how could I forget the fine display of breasts on show as well! Sunday we had to search for a restaurant open early morning as Paris is still asleep at this time! After breakfast we went for a walk down the Champ De Elysee, we popped into the car stores and I even bought some reasonably priced clothes from a French chain. Next adventure was a Segway tour of Paris. After having some trouble finding the place we were taken through a training session by Rick from New York. There were a few people in the group who were a bit apprehensive at first, but people seemed to pick it up quite quick. It was simply a matter of controlling your body weight to control the speed of the Segway. There was only one minor mishap when Kirsty narrowly missed a parked car. We Segwayed to many interesting sites including, The Military School (with bullet holes in the building from the war), the damaged peace wall, Musee De L’Armee, The Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. We stopped for Lunch, near the Egyptian monument for hot dogs and crepes. It was very cold on the Segway’s so I think the group as a whole was glad to finish the tour around 5 pm. We picked up our bags, said our goodbyes to everyone and caught a ride to CDG airport with Alan, Jane and Kirsty. A fantastic weekend which felt more like a week in length than only two days!