We decided to visit Paris in order to catch up with our friends there.  Romana and I both lived there, her for years, and me for just under a year.  We love the city, and we miss it.  Time to introduce Conrad to the city.

There are no touristic pictures in this gallery, but I hope I’ve captured the feeling of the week.  There was socialising, there was even a party.  Conrad wasn’t actually too impressed.  Once bistros and bars got noisy, so did he.  At least we can take him there now – a few years ago they’d have been full of smoke and it wouldn’t have been a good thing to do.  Same applied to parties… he just didn’t enjoy the noise and wouldn’t settle easily even in a relatively quiet room.

Still, it was all great until the moment our old VW Gold had an alarming brake failure on the steep entrance to an underground car park.  Thankfully, all cars have split brake system so you’re never left with absolutely no brakes.  At least, not immediately – you just have to press hard.  And the comedy ‘STOP’ sign illuminating on the dashboard didn’t help my mood.

We’ve been back home for a week now.  The car’s still in Paris!  I’ll go and collect it soon, then take it straight for trade-in!

So a bit about Conrad, for family members…

He’s turning into a little charmer when he’s in a good mood (when he’s not, he goes evil) and seemed popular.  He’s starting to sit unsupported, wants to stand when you pull him into sitting position, and adores playing “Where’s Conrad.”  The last is great, just going out of sight with a smile on my face can get him excited that a game’s about to start.

And so to the gallery – the pictures selected are there to give a flavour of the trip.  Plenty of technically dodgy stuff in there!

Why not? Good question. Perhaps because it’s a little personal. I’ve lived there, loved there, and so on. To talk about it in depth may reveal me more to the world at large. Although I present an open face on this site, I keep my personal and social life as private as possible. However, after a bit of thought I’ve realised that I can still write about the city without actually blowing the gaff, as it were.

Festival des Inrocks

For those that don’t know – this is a festival held annually in France, primarily Paris, by the rock magazine Les Inrockuptibles. I wangled my way in to the various shows this year thanks to carefully blagged passes and was treated to a wide range of music. A lot of it British, curiously enough. Seems a long way to go to listen to Brit-rock, but heck, it’s a nice environment to do it in!

This year’s line-up included Lily Allen, Jarvis Cocker, Guillemots, The Kooks and many more – some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t. A lot of the groups headlining were British, so in effect I’d travelled all that way to watch UK acts. Ah well… there were some good French acts too. In particular Rock & Roll, a punk-rock group (watch out, my music terminology is generally off-kilter) who put in a huge amount of energy and effort. Not my kind of music, but I could enjoy the act. And one of the lead singer’s plectrums flew off, hit Romana on the head, and was promptly bagged by me as a memento!

We also accidentally stumbled into a show by Etienne Daho. We hadn’t heard of him, but reckoning that he was one of the biggest names on the list he must be good. So we were a bit shocked when he came out on stage and acted like it was still the eighties. The music, the clothes, the dancing…. I mean, I know the French music scene is a bit mixed up and not as leading edge as in the UK, but this didn’t seem right.

Eventualy we discovered it was something like Rick Astley getting a gig at Glastonbury. Those that were of a certain age when he was about would love it and enjoy it, but anyone who didn’t realise it was a one-off comeback would be left baffled.

The City of Paris Itself

What is so hard about Paris is that it’s been written about by most of the finest writers in the world. How can I expect to add something new to the mix?

And here’s the answer… I can’t.

There is little left to write about, yet so much too. I’d rather create an entire new site for Paris, than try to sum it up in one article. After all, it’s home to millions of people, with a tightly packed centre full of museums, secrets catacombs, alleys, shops, dreams, nightmares and passion. One page here does the city no justice whatsoever.

But I’m not one to give up quite so easily. So in fact I will sum up Paris in one sentence:

It’s a better city to live, love and work in than it is to visit as a tourist.