Friday 28 February, 4.45 AM (
AM!) and the alarm goes off. Some students were awake long before now. Some probably hadn't even slept. The short trip to the airport had begun, and five months of waiting had come to an end. St Mac Dara's RUGBY Tour to Paris was on!
We met in the airport departures area and that's when the constant counting began. 28 was the magic number and everyone would have to stay still until that number was reached, over and over again. 29 was okay, but 27 would lead to mass panic! We had loads of time to say tearful goodbyes to mums and dads, or grunts and lazy-waves for the senior students, get some food, take one last trip to the loo, grab a cup of tea or coffee - or so we thought. Security had other plans for us, and especially for William Kelly, who almost had to be strip-searched. He claims it was because he was too gorgeous, and not because of the scaldy head on him. Either way we were last onto the plane, with the ground staff threatening us with lines - "I must not delay the flight to Paris ..."
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| Quiet and subdued students after getting up so early. |
One wobbly flight later we touched down in Charles de Gaulle airport. We counted to 28 (at least four times) and then hopped onto our bus to Paris city centre. Something about the Parisian boulevards and
fin-de-siecle architcture reminded Cillian Smith of Ballymun. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he spent most of the weekend pointing this out to Ms Brady.
Friday was about basking in Paris, accompanied by constantly checking watches and reminding ourselves what classes we were missing. We had a great tour of the city by bus, checking out everything from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre Dame, and all that could be seen in between. Our tour guide told us little facts and stories about what we were seeing, helping to bring it to life. Every statue of a man on horseback ("fellas on horses - just like in Ballymun miss") was discussed and explained, every building, parc and glory. The bus tour was over too soon, but we had some free time that afternoon and we planned on going back into the city ourselves.
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| We've stayed in worse hotels I suppose ... |
We hopped off the bus and began checking into the hotel - it was still before our official check-in so all we could do was drop off our bags. We grabbed lunch in our nearest McDonald's ("as if we were in Ballymun miss") and then walked all of ten minutes so we could see the Eifel Tower. Our hotel was in a really perfect location for Paris - a short walk from the
Champ de Mars and on to the
Trocadero and the
Champs Elysses. We spent almost five hours just strolling around Paris, enjoying the sights, and getting a bit of shopping done. The girls, especially, loved shopping on the Champs in some make-up shop called
"Sephora" or something, while the lads enjoyed looking at the cars.
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| "Totally looks like Ballymun miss, I'm tellin' ya." |
It was close on seven that evening when we got back to the hotel, with blistered and tired feet, still very excited and happy to be in Paris on a Friday evening while everyone else in school was stuck in Dublin ... or Wicklow! We got to check in to all of our rooms, grab showers, unpack, locate boots, count to 28, look for something to eat. The guy in the take-away across from the hotel must have thought it was St Patrick's weekend with the amount of Irish that came through his door that night! We didn't quite make it back to the Eifel Tower that night to see it lit up, but at that stage everyone was wrecked and ready for sleep. 28 were counted, over and over, and eventually everyone conked out.
Day one done. Loads more to do.
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