gay paris pt 1, i

we decided to take a break from all the stuff we weren't doing in England and travel to gay pariss in search of the booze, the effiel tower and some decent red wine. instead we found 1% lager, lost aiden but we did find a cabinet load of decent red wine. heres a vine:
 

we ingratiated ourselves with the denizens by at least attempting to speak the language, by all accounts they still speak French so phrases like 'merci beaucoup' (mur-cee ber-koo) and 'deux booze' (doo booze) were relentlessly rehearsed, but as not to  compromise our own cultural identity they were delivered in our own Yorkshire dialects (pronunciation as shown).I also ordered a car for lunch just to make sure that French is still the language spoken, it is, and I had to settle for a Peugeot for lunch.

ofcourse we all had to have drastic makeovers before we dared to set foot on the heavily fashion conscious streets of paris. heres aiden during his makeover.

heres aiden after his 7 hour makeover, we all agreed he should only leave the flat at night.

just some guys looking for an acceptable pastime

inevitable kills.

dog.

we found ourselves shacked up in  Montmartre. home of Sacre Coeur (Sack-rer Cur) and an impressive array of other French things, abit like the Yorkshire Holmfirth but without the attachment to a  successful  TV franchise. 

The project to build the Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) was initiated by a group of influential people, they had pledged to build a church if Paris escaped unscathed from the war with the Prussians and they saw the defeat of the French at the hands of the Prussian army in 1870 as a moral condemnation of the sins of Paris. The project was authorized by the National Assembly in 1873, and a competition was organized. The goal was to build an imposing basilica true to Christian traditions.

Construction of the Basilica started in 1876 with Abadie as the lead architect. When Paul Abadie died in 1884, he was succeeded by Lucien Magne, who added an 83 meter (272 ft) tall clock tower. The Savoyarde clock installed here is one of the world's largest.Due to its location on the Montmartre hill, the basilica towers over the city; its highest point is even higher than the top of the Eiffel Tower. Thanks to this prominent location the Sacré-Coeur Basilica is one of the most noticeable landmarks in Paris. At least thats what I can remember off the top of my head without  consulting  any historical website or anything like that.

the view from Sacre Coeur is ok too, you can almost see Emley Moor mast.

Ofcourse swanning around Paris like Henry V is all very well and good but unless its at the head of an incredible mass of sucsessful english longbowman you'll probably have to pay for most things. with that in mind we were constantly vigilant for any freebees on offer, including dropped change. 

this was pretty cool. the guy singing in the photo was originally in the crowd. the original singers seemed to spot him and ask him to come out and do a few songs, he was reluctant and declined at first and then when the crowd egged him on he eventually stood up and walked towards the front, pulled out his set list and began confidently. He was French but was singing in english, so some of his pronunciation was terrible, he obviously hadn't even bothered to thoroughly learn the language he was singing in. Meanwhile we headed towards Notre Dame and on the way ordered some drinks from a nearby cafe....'je voudrais five beers mate'. 

Notre Dame; this is where we met riggs ;-)

May god have merci, beaucoup

until part 2.

next time, we asses the latest 5 year business development plan from Leeds City Council.