Paris November 1979

The Gnome scanned in the photo below today at work. It is a photo of me in Paris when I'd just turned 20, and is probably the best ever photo of me. Giddy with the freedom of being at University, I went with some of my new University friends to Paris for a long weekend. A trip well worth getting into trouble with Martin Warner my personal tutor for. (And I was in trouble when I returned.)

Because we were doing it on the cheap, we had to share beds. The first night I shared with a Californian guy called Scott who took this photo. The next day I was asked by another guy (who we were unkindly calling Captain Sensible) to swap with him. Oddly Captain Sensible had been sharing with a beautiful girl called Julie who was on my floor at my hall of residence. Naturally I was only too happy to help him out.

In the middle of the night (everything had been very proper between me and Julie) I woke up to a sound which I took to be the ceiling caving in. Very soon, however, I noticed Julie sitting bolt upright in the bed, flashing her black eyes at me and the noise was of her demonically grinding her teeth. Suddenly I wondered why the other guy had chosen not to share with her, and the fact that we were in room 13 seemed horribly meaningful. I was so freaked out that I said the Lord's Prayer to her. This seemed to work, and she fell back into a calm sleep. I remember lying awake for some time afterwards, listening to a couple arguing in shouty French on the cobbled street outside and feeling slightly disconcerted.