home > Paris - April 2002 Well I've finally made it to Paris after years of being convinced that I was jinxed where this city was concerned. The trip was born out of a chat around a kitchen table on St Paddy's day with Paz, his flatmates, Lisa E and Amanda, and Amanda's friend Lisa. It seemed like the whole idea was conceived and agreed withing about 15 minutes, and by the same time the next day we had booked our flights. CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR THE BIG PICTURE Me, Paz and Amanda acting like your average tourist and taking pictures on the plane. This was one of probably 10 photos that we took between us for reasons best known only to ourselves. My apologies to the more sensible people sitting around us... Le Tour Eiffel. My personal bête noire. Well more of a bête brun, but you get the general idea. Suffice it to say if you're going to discover you have a fear of heights, may I suggest you do so before you are 320m above the ground clinging in fear to some metal girders on what you have been reassuringly told was intended as a temporary structure when it was built about a hundred years previously. From the terrace at the Trocadéro. I had just about managed to stop shaking at this point, but still had problems looking at the tour without feeling sick. Paz, Amanda, Lisa and Lisa on the Champs Elysées in front of the Arc de Triomphe. The Champs Elysées from on top of l'Arc. We managed to go up at about dusk and the views from the top were stunning as we watched the sun set over Paris. Getting darker and colder by this point, forcing us to huddle together for warmth... The sunset we were waiting for. In the background you can see the district of La Défense with the Grande Arche just visible in the centre of all the skyscrapers. Apparently it was built so that it would line up with the Arc de Triomphe and the Obilisk, but someone really needs to point out that they built it wonky. Our final day in Paris. After a rather heavy night at Club Med that saw us dancing and drinking until the early hours, we scraped ourselves out of our beds and trundled along to Sacre Coeur, where a friendly Finnish woman took this snap for us. Even managed to say 'Thank you' in Finnish, which I picked up from Paz and my trip to Helsinki. Very flash... Sacre Coeur. An amazing building with fantastic views of Paris. All in all it was a fantastic weekend, but I felt like I barely scratched the surface. I will definitely be going back, if only to go back up the Eiffel Tower and get a grip on my newly discovered vertigo.