Emergency Paris Trip!!!

I went to my favourite city in the world, Paris! Because I won a competition to go see my favourite band in the world, Placebo!!

Only booked this on Monday after I found out I’d won (wheeee!). It started out quite stressful, as I’d stupidly decided to book a 5:40 Eurostar in a bid to save £50. And then I found out there was a bus strike and ended up catching a cab to St Pancras which cost me £35, so I saved all of £15 and had to get up at 3:30. *sigh* I also had a headache through all of this, which was a complete drag. But it got better from there.

When I arrived on Friday (at 9:20, the earliest I’d ever got there since booking Eurostar. I do remember I used to go on the 6:20 BA flight from Heathrow as well, lol), I whinily asked my hotel if there was any chance they could get my room ready earlier than the usual 2pm and they amazingly and very kindly had it ready by 11:30!! It was also a very nice, big, double room (for reference: Little Regina just outside Gare de l’Est). So I went to bed and rested. And took painkillers after padding my tortured stomach with food. Which worked, woo!

Concert time! I got to the venue around 17:30, two hours before doors opened, and tho there were a fair number of people ahead of me, I ended up in my “usual” spot in 3rd row in front of my most beloved and oh so pretty Brian. Also, the event was pretty cool – organised by Mercedes-Benz for the launch of their new A Class, so it was all quite posh with free drinks and amuse-gueules (and no boring warm up act to suffer through). And the concert was AWESOME! I mean, it was “just” a Placebo concert (tho they did play two new songs), but the spot was great, the people around me were great, and I was happy. HAPPY PLACE!!! 😡

Saturday my headache was back but I decided not to let it deter me. The weather was nice and I spent most of the day cycling around Paris and taking various breaks doing stuff. I don’t quite remember the order, but these are the things I did:

• Went to the Champs Elysées where I’d read there’d be a 24hr event to celebrate five years of Vélib’. I had to be part of this of course! But it wasn’t on yet.
• To the Saturday market at Montparnasse where I had a falafel sandwich and bought redcurrants and raspberries.
• To Trocadéro to check if this was still where football would be shown (it was).
• To the Jardin du Luxembourg for a break. Here I watched Podium – le choeur gay des variétés, a gay choir who didn’t sing too well, but seemed to have fun doing it and were generally entertaining. I also ate my berries, which had kinda turned to mush. *lol*
• To the Jardin des Plantes for a photo exhib about life in the biggest mangrove in the world. This was actually quite interesting. I also sat around and read.
• To the Bastille for Marché de la Création. I’d seen fun colourful belts there last time, and they were still there, so I bought one. Yay!

 
Aaaand then finally home to the hotel for dinner and rest. And then out again to watch the football. Unfortunately this was utterly pointless – anywhere there was still room to stand you couldn’t see a thing (I guess if you knew that the little white men were your team and the little yellow (?) ones were Spain, you could sort of follow it… but it was boring to me). I did however walk aaaall around Trocadéro (up one side, down the other) just to see all the people there. I am guessing to get into the enclosed bit you’d’ve had to be there at 3pm or sth.

I yet again forgot to log all my cycling on Runkeeper, but I worked out that I used the bikes for around four hours in total, so that’s quite a lot of cycling! I’ll see if I can retrace my steps (wheels?) on mapmyrun.com to get an idea of the distance I did. My bum hurt! [Day later, I have mapped it, it was around 35km]

Sunday! I’d finally managed to squash the headache on Saturday night (with caffeine this time! I’ll never get my head… yes, I’ll go see a specialist Mon!), so I was in good spirits. The weather wasn’t so great tho, it drizzled the whole day. All the same I went to the Vélib’ event and cycled around the Champs Elysées for charity. I did 20 laps = 12km! I was quite proud, and it was really rather fun! Even tho at the end my bum hurt even more. *lol*

After that I went to the Pinacothèque for La Collection Jonas Netter – Modigliani, Soutine et l’Aventure Montparnasse. This had been on my “maybe” list, and my mum went and said I’d like it (I love Soutine, but find Modigliani meh). It was actually really very good, almost everyone in it except Modigliani appealed to me. And then I bought their catalogue and the wonderful Paris vs NYC book (from this blog).

Aaand then it was time to get some lunch at Les Halles, and to catch a (fairly early – again, £50 cheaper…) train home. This (earliness) was ok cuz of the rain which was getting worse, and cuz I’m going again in a month and three days. 😀

The End. Now I’m going to bed.