Surprise Weekend in Paris

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Every once in a while an opportunity presents itself and you have a choice, accept or decline.

Whenever I think about it, I smile, it was complete madness and it was wonderfully spontaneous. I had been writing to a new friend for a little while, we had several things in common and our emails were getting longer. The more questions we asked of each other, just brought more questions than answers.

One very wet Thursday evening, he wrote, "I have checked the weather forecast for the weekend and the best place with sun is Paris, I am thinking of going, what are your thoughts". He had been going through a real rough patch and of course I encouraged him to go for it, get away, and enjoy the sun, it'd be just the tonic he needed.

An hour later, after a nice bath, I check my mail again, and I had a reply, it was the kindest and most amazing offer, an invitation to share his weekend in Paris, to talk properly, no strings, all expense paid and separate rooms. A note at the bottom read, "wish I could see your face as you read this". At that point I closed my mouth, and read it again another 6 times at least.

It is at a time like this, that you have to trust your gut instinct, everyone knows the craziness of such a plan, but it really felt OK, we had talked already about some personal stuff, there were even a few coincidences in where we were living, and it was time to meet. Why not have some adventure thrown in? I accepted, feeling slightly doubtful it could be arranged, on a summer weekend, at such short notice. The tickets came through at midnight, and I had all day Friday to panic, and get excited all at the same time.

We met on a damp and cloudy Saturday morning at Exeter airport, and I wasn't surprised that we got on straight away. After some puzzling panic with the security staff, we sat in the very empty VIP lounge with our coffee's, catching up like old friends.

The sun was definitely shining in Paris, and we talked and strolled, taking in the sights - it was an amazing weekend. In the evening we even found a seafood restaurant called La Lorraine, well, what can I say....

I don't know why, but I kept feeling reminded of San Francisco, maybe the city had the same vibe, or maybe, because I had to keep pinching myself to believe that I was there, (I had planned and bought tickets to go to Newton Abbot horse races on the Saturday - no contest really ........).

Sunday evening we flew back to Exeter, the time went by so quickly but the memory will last for a very long time indeed.

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