Chateau Nerf De Pape!

I thought it would be cool to write about something other than exercise and diets this week! A crazy trip to Paris with friends…

Tour De France (without the Bikes!)

We flew out to Paris on Friday the 13th (unlucky!). Even though I don’t believe in superstitions, whenever I fly I always think about that film ‘Final Destination’ – where the people die in a plane crash! Luckily we made it.

Me, and friends (Ryan and Manraj) went to visit our friend Sammy, whom we spent 4 years with at University. It was time for a well needed catch up, we hadn’t seen each other for 5 years!

Chilling & Whiskey…

Most of Friday was spent chilling, catching up, reminiscing over the past, and throwing about old banter! Once we got settled, Sammy aka ‘Ainsley Harrison’ cooked up a mean chicken salad feast (about the only healthy dish I had all weekend!).

It wasn’t long before we cracked open a bottle of Whiskey which we bought for Sammy at the airport – even though he doesn’t like Whiskey lol! We thought it would be rude not to have a few alcoholic beverages, so we did and got slightly merry, before taking a mini site seeing trip around Paris.

At the night time we headed over to a bar/restaurant and continued on the Whiskey, my heart nearly jumped out of my shirt when the bartender told me it would be €80 for 4 double whiskey and Coke’s!

We ordered some food and it wasn’t long before the whiskey hit the bloodstream – we were dancing to a live Jazz band who were frickin amazing – the lead singer sang like James Brown and shared his passion on the dance floor, throwing shapes, and rocking the microphone in style! It was a pretty amazing night and it’s safe to say we all arose the next day to pounding headaches!

Brits On Tour…

Saturday we headed over to the main tourist attractions; the Eiffel Tower, Notre Damn (pic above) and the Arc De Triomphe. This was the first i’d been to mainland Paris and I was totally in awe of the beautiful architecture and thoroughly enjoyed experiencing a different culture.

In the evening we headed out to a French restaurant, I ordered the lasagne (the buffest lasagne i’ve ever had!) and had a few beers (be rude not to?) Again we got slightly tipsy, talked, reflected and laughed at old stories – laughing so hard that my abs inadvertently got a free workout!

Paris Markets…

On the final day (Sunday) we headed over to the local markets to find ingredients to cook an English Breakfast (typical Brits!). Obviously it was full of French people, and there was  this one crazehhhh guy selling oranges, who was just shouting “€2 euros!” at the top of his voice!

Once we picked up some hench sausages, eggs and lean bacon we headed back to Sammy’s pad and devoured our bodyweight in food! We finished off the day by walking around another district in Paris before flying home in the evening.

Reflections…

It was an incredible weekend, so great to catch up with Sammy and spend time with awesome people. It’s amazing that even after 5 years of not seeing someone you can just instantly connect like it was only yesterday – that’s the sign of a true friendship.

It was great just to chill out and take a break from dieting and working out (the only training I did was Whiskey bicep curls! lol). It’s also cool to see how much we’ve all developed as people and nice to see my best friends blossom into noble young men, with prosperous careers and exciting times ahead of them.

Although the Paris trip is over I look forward to exploring more of the world with friends and family. I’ll look back on this weekend forever more with a smile and bunch of fond memories.

Nick