Poules en Paris!

Well we all came back from Paris on Sun­day and I’m still a lit­tle tired today! (And a lit­tle hun­gover yes­ter­day aswell to be hon­est, 2 day-ers are the worst) I’d just like to say first a mas­sive thank you to all my lovely hens who made it a trip I’ll never for­get, I really appre­ci­ate all the effort you all made to come and cel­e­brate with me.

There were nine of us alto­gether, and one lit­tle baby bump belong­ing to Kelly, David’s brother’s fiance. 5 of us (moi, Louise, Kate, Eliz­a­beth and Katie B) met in New­cas­tle first before our flight, we started in Vodka Rev­o­lu­tion  for a cheap and lazy long lunch, before jump­ing in a taxi and head­ing to the air­port to meet Kelly! I’d bought every­one berets as a lit­tle gift to say thanks for com­ing, but I can’t find any pic­tures of them in action!

In Charles de Gaulle air­port we met Renai who’d flown from Lon­don and jumped on a train to meet Katie M (a brides­maid) and Carli who had taken the Eurostar. After fresh­en­ing up, and after some cheap plonk, we were all set and headed straight out to Bastille, where appar­ently it was ‘hap­pen­ing’! We ended up in an inside-out bar, the decor look­ing like a street, and as ‘filles’ we were given two bot­tles of Kir Royal for free. Throw in some free vodka and apple juice and throw­ing some ran­dom shapes on the dance floor we had a fab­u­lous night and ended up look­ing for a taxi at 4am where we realised that none of us had spent a penny!

Sat­ur­day had an early start after crois­sants for break­fast at Hos­tel Oops, and we headed out to the Louve and Musee D’Orsay, both with huge queues and chat­ter that we should have known bet­ter. We wan­dered over to Saint Paul, where snails and frogs’ legs were ordered and eaten before a gor­geous proven­cal lunch. (Ver­dict– OK, like very gar­licky mus­sels and oily chicken respec­tively.) We wan­dered back, past the Notre Dam before we set up camp in a small park by the river.

(l-r) Kate, me, Louise, Liz, Carli, Kelly, Renai, Katie M and Katie B

A few of the girls had con­cocted a game where we had to match my answers to some that David had been asked ear­lier in the week, more cava and kir was drank as we sat in the boil­ing heat. I think this is where I may have had too much to be hon­est, and when we all headed to the Eif­fel Tower for sun­set it was advised that I sit on the grass out­side rather than head­ing up it! (Sorry lovely Louise)

Back to the hos­tel and a quick turn around before head­ing out at 2am to a party on a boat on the Sienne. I’d love to be able to tell you more but I only remem­ber a few glimpses, I do remem­ber try­ing my best french to any­body who would lis­ten and a lot of techno music from ‘a big DJ from Berlin’!

The next day was painful, another lazy lunch with the best french onion soup I’ve ever had before a long, long jour­ney home. Highs of 32 degrees with a hang­over and aching calves from 5 inch heels before catch­ing plane after train after metro wasn’t par­tic­u­larly fun!

Very, very long train journey

Knack­ered, we said our good­byes along the way before lovely David came and picked us up from the air­port. I went to bed shat­tered, and woke up today feel­ing very lucky that I had such fab­u­lous friends and what a lovely week­end I’d had see­ing them all together.

So in sum­mary and some tips for Paris: Thanks so, so much for com­ing Louise, Katie M, Katie B, Eliz­a­beth, Kate, Carli, Renai, Kelly and bump! You all made it so spe­cial and I’ll never for­get it. Don’t bother buy­ing train and metro tick­ets as they won’t work and you’ll have to jump the turn­stiles any­way, ‘Charles de Gaulle’ metro stop is on the other side of Paris to the air­port, leave more than 5 min­utes before board­ing as air­port staff won’t help you get through the air­port in time, try snails and frogs legs, they’re not as bad as you’d expect, you WILL get laughed at by the French if you buy their cheap wine (appar­ently our deli­cious cava and kir was the equiv­a­lent to Lam­brini), don’t have too much wine before try­ing to get up the Eif­fel Tower, don’t eat too much rich food or you’ll put on about 1lb a day. Other than that get over there, take your girl­friends, take lots of pho­tographs and have fun!

Next stop: the wed­ding itself!

Sally x