7:20:8 Bonjour & Hola

Well its been a while, I left for Paris about 6 days ago and have been like a madman since. My tourmates are a pretty fun bunch and after about 3 days everyone was getting on like a house on fire. My birthday was celebrated in good fashion and no i didn´t get tied to the Eiffel Tower or do a nudie run. As the first day on tour was my birthday i have been made tour ginea pig i had to try escargot infront of anyone and funnily enough it wasn´t too badjust quite garlicy. I spent the first day in Paris and went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and waited for an accident to happen but no dice. After I wandered down the Champ Délesse (I´m using a crazy spanish key board and its well different apologies for typos) I made my first french fashion purchase as i broke my cheap studded belt from China and had to replace it, not sure how but i think i´ve lost weight. After we wandered round the gardens in front of the Louve and had gelato and chatted by this old school carosel like the one in Amelie. That night we went to the Nouvelle Eve Show I had the time of my life, and in fact I would somehow have been more keen to run nude through the streets of Paris as the girls in the group voted me onstage for a little audience participation requiring me toshake that thing. Day 2 in Paris was a Marathon as I we went through the Louve and saw La Joconda (?) aka my mate Mona and then the Musee DÖrcee where i got to see Starry Night and a heapof others and Notre Dame, we got to hearthe bells at Notre Dame where I couldn´t but help say to those with me The bells the bells...... as we were all feeling the after effects. Went tothe top of the Eiffel tower which was amazing, i could have spent a month in Paris just checking it all out but one ofmy biggest regrets has got to be not getting round to ordering un croque monsier as they always looked so good in my french text books

Cheers has got to go out to Mr Manese and mr Hern as things came flooding back to me. We went to the Palace of Versaille and that place is so big we almost missed the bus after rushing through the palace and walking to the entrance of the garden. It did provide an opportunity to use my long lostfrench as i got to say to the ticket attendant " meme chose, deux, non quarte." Later at the Arc i got to bust it out again as these 2 kids (17)wanted to go to the top but didn´t have a guardian so i saunteredup to the counter handed my ID through and said "et deux enfants sil vous plait" to which the attendent pissed herself as she looked through the glass and saw a very tall German and French girl standing next to me.


We spent the last 2 nights in this chateau in the Beaujolais wine region with nothing else to do but work on becoming eligible for a kidney transplant. I got on the red wine for a taste and once again found something pleasantly surprising. That night we had a first tour party which was a beach party theme. You´re probably wondering what the numbers in the title mean so i´ll spill, its a ratio and reads boys: girls: couples. So there are 39 people partying hard in a bar in the cellar of the chateau. So far I have earned the titles of Dancing Queen ( I later lost it that night) and also group alkie, i somehow managed to drink 6 beers over an hour and a half and followed that up with (what have been told) 7 or 8 torpedoed Smirnoff ices in approximately half an hour earning me the dubious record of being the first person on tour to get cut off fromt he bar, i earned a headache and fatigue for my efforts surprisingly vomit wasn´t required. I hit a good second innings the following nightn after my suspension was lifted with 2 beers and 5 torpedoes. For the record I was averaging 2-3 seconds a bottle with the aid of a straw.

Today we drove the longest leg our trip from the Beaujolais wine region to Barcelona. We stopped off on the way at Pont Du Gard to check out a an Aquaduct which pèople had no idea whatis was and weren´t particularly impressed till i told them that it was made in 70 BC. Even then i don´t know that it made much impact. I ´ve pretty much just arrived in Barcelona and will getto check it out properly tomorrow can´twait to go see Gaudi´s Catherdral am also kicking myself because i probably should have useda shoelace for a belt tilli got to the cheap leather in Espanol. I think wé´re just going to chill at the camp site tonight and have a few drinks although i´ve got this funny pain in my kidneys.......