FRIDAY 30 MAY 2008
Right, I got my timings all mixed up re: how long to takes to get to the airport. This is very unlike me but, many wheel-spins, f-ings and motorway abuse we got to the car-park with 15 mins to spare before they closed check-in. I had images of all those morons on those airport programmes who turn up late and squawk and squeal their excuses whilst I sit smugly shouting at the telly, "Well, you should've left your house earlier moron!!!!!" I felt my self-righteousness readying itself to smack me in the back of the head.
Anyhoo, we made it.......just. Shoes, jacket and belt off through security and straight onto the plane...no time for a pee or newspaper. One hour and a half later (god that's fast!) and we were greeted by the fella's brother. 2 RER trains later (one of which was a double decker......on a train!!!) and a 20 min walk and we were sitting in the brother-in-laws French house eating risotto in the pretty village of Vincennes. He took us into Paris for a lengthy walk - impressed by everything I saw but as we were up at 4:30am I was a bit too tired to take it all in. Later, he, his French wife and daughter took us out for a Chinese meal. Champion. 
SATURDAY 31 MAY 2008
The fella and I decided to take the Metro by ourselves to visit the Louvre. Bloody massive but we got to see Miss Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. We did the very European thing and treated ourselves to some lunch (Croque Monsieur & Americano cocktail) at one of the many outdoor cafe's and watched all the tourists go by. Chicken and roasties later for me as I'm awkward about food. Thanks brother-in-law!!
SUNDAY 1 JUNE 2008
We dragged our French companions into central Paris to queue for 2 hours for tickets up the Eiffel Tower. It wasn't the hottest day but was enough for t-shirt and gigantic shades. As the queue snaked round it became apparent that we had a bum-rubber on our er....bums.
Tickets bought we queued again for the lift up to the 1st floor. Hot on our derriere's was our friend in the grey top. So, the fella and his brother had to stand behind us ladies as protection only to discover that our handsy friend had no preference to who he sidled up to. We managed to dodge him in the next queue up to the top but spied him enjoying standing nose to shoulder blade to a very tall American (who promptly told him to back off.......which he ignored a few seconds later).
Anyway, the lift whizzed us right to the top, and what a view. The fella, unexpectedly, was experiencing some wobblies at being so high!! We were lucky to have a bright blue day with very little wind. There were so many people though it was hard to get a decent picture and had to often barge through folk rudely.
We decided to walk all the way back down which was probably a mistake as my back started twisting up and my legs started shaking with the strain of standing for so long.
The Catacombes came next where we were promised that there wold be no queue. We are British - of course there was a queue!!! Thought back could take no more but here we where. Unfortunately the Catacombes were not as interesting as the ones we saw in Sicily but it was pretty impressive. The sheer volume of bones was overwhelming, so much so that the guard at the end told us he caught some-one trying to smuggle out some bones! His excuse - he thought it would make a great ash-tray. Some people have no sense of respect of decency.
Stinky Italian restaurant at night where the waiter took the piss out of the fella for being English. The dessert was nice though.
MONDAY 2 JUNE 2008
We chose a good day to fly back to Blighty on Monday. After a weekend of hot, hot, hot it rained on our way to the airport......I like to think it was Paris crying at our departure. Ahem. 
So, did I think Paris is as great as everybody says it is? Yes. Very pretty, laid-back and friendly. Wish every day could be like a day in Paris.
