Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Mar 12, 2005 10:02:49 GMT
Flowers In December by Alex Patton!
My first Paris trip for Jim's birthday bash on December 8th!
Paris December 2002
Bit of a bugger because I had been nursing a viral bug for a month or so. I was hoping the bloody thing would not spoil my weekend but it seemed to be keeping a low profile when I caught the train to London on the 7th so I was not too overly concerned.
Got in about 5pm and shot over to Paddington to rendezvous with my buddy
Mark Fairclough in the pub where he lives not far from the station.
I settled in to a pint and one of his mates said he would be along around 6pm. He dutifully arrived and after dumping my stuff we got stuck into the beer and the craic back in the bar.
Had a blinding session with him and his pals and rounded off the night with a smoke and a beer and for some stupid drunken reason asked a Polish girl called Kate to paint my nails bright red on my right hand!!!
?
Saturday December 7th
Woke up with bad head and red nails but otherwise fine and after me and Mark sorted our shit out we set off to meet Adam Bonn (our buddy from the land of the concrete cows!!-Milton Keynes!) at Waterloo.
We met him as we sat enjoying a pint inside the Eurostar check in lounge and he joined us for a beer.
We spent the entire journey in the bar drinking cans of beer and having Doors craic...a very enjoyable way to travel as far as I am concerned and the time just flew and before we even noticed we were through the tunnel and were arriving in Paris.
Reaching Gare Du Nord we set off across the city to our hotel in the Montreuil district of Paris. Finding to our delight that we were a stones throw from the cemetery.
So we checked in and after settling in to our rooms we decided on a short walk to La Renaissance. Armed with our trusty map we dodged dog crap (at least I hope it was dog crap!!) mine fields on the pavements and sort of muddled our way through a few side streets via a few hazy directions courtesy of Mark who for an Aussie was at least making an attempt at the local lingo...me and Adam were no help here at all!!
We knew we only had to locate the wall to get our bearings and once inside could find our way to the main gate and the bar.
So after a couple of hiccups we spied the distinctive wall of Pere Lachaise at the end of several streets and set off toward our goal.
Our first glimpse of Pere Lachaise this time round was as we wandered up the steps from a side entrance on the rue De La Reunion and my first thought was I was walking onto the set of the Blair Witch. The starkest contrast between visiting the grave in July and December has to be the lack of leaves around the cemetery which gave it a very eerie atmosphere. I half expected to see stick men dangling from trees and Heather Donahue running back and forward screaming!! The place looked ominous and sinister and I must admit I quite was taken with the portentous charm the cemetery seemed to exude.
Add to that it was bloody cold and you had a very different aura than that in July. We reached the grave in the late afternoon and just checked in on our way to La Renaissance . Michelle Campbell was there (which was no shock as the woman seems to be a permanent fixture) along with a couple of dozen devotees but the most surprising thing was the amount of flowers on the grave considering the actual birthday was the next day.
A nice bouquet from the parents a lot of nice flowers from fans adorned the last resting place of the most respected rock singer in the Patton household.
Which I thought was very nice.
Nyree & Laurie had been unable to come this December so she had sent me a nice poem to put on the grave and this I did for her around 4pm on the day before Jims birthday. (it’s in front of the cross in the picture below Nye if you are reading this dear!!) We lingered for a while and then the call of a pint and the craic overcame us and we trundled off to La Renaissance.
It was nice to see the old place again and we settled down with our beer in the warm company of the dribble of Doors fans that would get bigger as the day wore on. A few people we had met in the summer were in the bar and we chatted with them and whiled the afternoon away. John from The Matrix Doors was there along with his lass Imelda and their Dutch buddies including Hermine who we met in July.
So settling down into some beer and craic we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the bar. The Bad Cowboy made an appearance later on in the early evening and we had the craic with him for a while. The bar got rather full as the evening wore on and we had a rather enjoyable first evening in Paris talking Doors and getting pissed on the rather expensive French beer.
Sunday December 8th
Woke up next morning feeling bloody awful as the bug I was carrying around got its revenge for last nights boozing. Could not face breakfast so got a coffee and a bit of fresh air. Spent ten minutes coughing my guts up and then checked to see if Mark and Adam were up for a wander up to Jim’s grave.
Adam was still knackered from the last nights booze up so me and Mark told him we’d meet him in La Renaissance later that morning and we had a wander up to the cemetery. It was a doddle to find as our hotel was a stones throw away and we wandered in through the side gate again and made our way along the stone paths to Jim’s plot.
A few more flowers were in place that morning including a large bouquet that we wondered whether the other Doors had sent.
We saw nothing from them in July and it would be a shame if the guys did not at least send something on Morrison’s birthday. Quite a few people were standing around the grave taking photos and a moment to remember the birthday boy. We hung around for a while and then made our way to the bar.
We had a coffee and a chat with the few fans in that early and then a bite to eat and I tried a pint but was too ill to really enjoy it. Ciggy smoke was getting to me so during the course of the day I had to keep going outside to cough my guts up! Charming!
But I was determined not to be a whinging sod so stuck to soft drinks and got into the craic with all the guys inside.
John Shureman from The Matrix Doors had a lot of pictures from July as well as some very cool photos of the band and I had a nice opportunity to listen properly to them as John had brought a disc with some live stuff and a studio version of ‘Light My Fire’ on so during the course of the afternoon I checked them out on his CD walkman.
Got to admit they were pretty cool…..Nigel could take a few notes here!
The studio ‘Light My Fire’ was excellent and their live version of ‘Riders On The Storm’ was very cool. John told us that the band wanted to play on the Sunday at Olivia’s but the smaller venues were wary of the noise nuisance and the hassle so unfortunately there were no cover bands playing that weekend which was a bit of a bummer. It would have been so cool to see these guys in Olivia’s as that place rocked with The Lizard Kings in July. By this time Adam had gotten his arce over to the bar and we took the opportunity to wander again up to the grave to take a few pictures.
I was feeling pretty crap so I took the chance to pop back to the hotel as I had a handful of cold drugs in my bag and by then was getting pretty desperate so I said I’d see the guys back in the bar in an hour.
My first Paris trip for Jim's birthday bash on December 8th!
Paris December 2002
Bit of a bugger because I had been nursing a viral bug for a month or so. I was hoping the bloody thing would not spoil my weekend but it seemed to be keeping a low profile when I caught the train to London on the 7th so I was not too overly concerned.
Got in about 5pm and shot over to Paddington to rendezvous with my buddy
Mark Fairclough in the pub where he lives not far from the station.
I settled in to a pint and one of his mates said he would be along around 6pm. He dutifully arrived and after dumping my stuff we got stuck into the beer and the craic back in the bar.
Had a blinding session with him and his pals and rounded off the night with a smoke and a beer and for some stupid drunken reason asked a Polish girl called Kate to paint my nails bright red on my right hand!!!
? Saturday December 7th
Woke up with bad head and red nails but otherwise fine and after me and Mark sorted our shit out we set off to meet Adam Bonn (our buddy from the land of the concrete cows!!-Milton Keynes!) at Waterloo.
We met him as we sat enjoying a pint inside the Eurostar check in lounge and he joined us for a beer.
We spent the entire journey in the bar drinking cans of beer and having Doors craic...a very enjoyable way to travel as far as I am concerned and the time just flew and before we even noticed we were through the tunnel and were arriving in Paris.
Reaching Gare Du Nord we set off across the city to our hotel in the Montreuil district of Paris. Finding to our delight that we were a stones throw from the cemetery.
So we checked in and after settling in to our rooms we decided on a short walk to La Renaissance. Armed with our trusty map we dodged dog crap (at least I hope it was dog crap!!) mine fields on the pavements and sort of muddled our way through a few side streets via a few hazy directions courtesy of Mark who for an Aussie was at least making an attempt at the local lingo...me and Adam were no help here at all!!
We knew we only had to locate the wall to get our bearings and once inside could find our way to the main gate and the bar.
So after a couple of hiccups we spied the distinctive wall of Pere Lachaise at the end of several streets and set off toward our goal.
Our first glimpse of Pere Lachaise this time round was as we wandered up the steps from a side entrance on the rue De La Reunion and my first thought was I was walking onto the set of the Blair Witch. The starkest contrast between visiting the grave in July and December has to be the lack of leaves around the cemetery which gave it a very eerie atmosphere. I half expected to see stick men dangling from trees and Heather Donahue running back and forward screaming!! The place looked ominous and sinister and I must admit I quite was taken with the portentous charm the cemetery seemed to exude.
Add to that it was bloody cold and you had a very different aura than that in July. We reached the grave in the late afternoon and just checked in on our way to La Renaissance . Michelle Campbell was there (which was no shock as the woman seems to be a permanent fixture) along with a couple of dozen devotees but the most surprising thing was the amount of flowers on the grave considering the actual birthday was the next day.
A nice bouquet from the parents a lot of nice flowers from fans adorned the last resting place of the most respected rock singer in the Patton household.
Which I thought was very nice.
Nyree & Laurie had been unable to come this December so she had sent me a nice poem to put on the grave and this I did for her around 4pm on the day before Jims birthday. (it’s in front of the cross in the picture below Nye if you are reading this dear!!) We lingered for a while and then the call of a pint and the craic overcame us and we trundled off to La Renaissance.
It was nice to see the old place again and we settled down with our beer in the warm company of the dribble of Doors fans that would get bigger as the day wore on. A few people we had met in the summer were in the bar and we chatted with them and whiled the afternoon away. John from The Matrix Doors was there along with his lass Imelda and their Dutch buddies including Hermine who we met in July.
So settling down into some beer and craic we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the bar. The Bad Cowboy made an appearance later on in the early evening and we had the craic with him for a while. The bar got rather full as the evening wore on and we had a rather enjoyable first evening in Paris talking Doors and getting pissed on the rather expensive French beer.
Sunday December 8th
Woke up next morning feeling bloody awful as the bug I was carrying around got its revenge for last nights boozing. Could not face breakfast so got a coffee and a bit of fresh air. Spent ten minutes coughing my guts up and then checked to see if Mark and Adam were up for a wander up to Jim’s grave.
Adam was still knackered from the last nights booze up so me and Mark told him we’d meet him in La Renaissance later that morning and we had a wander up to the cemetery. It was a doddle to find as our hotel was a stones throw away and we wandered in through the side gate again and made our way along the stone paths to Jim’s plot.
A few more flowers were in place that morning including a large bouquet that we wondered whether the other Doors had sent.
We saw nothing from them in July and it would be a shame if the guys did not at least send something on Morrison’s birthday. Quite a few people were standing around the grave taking photos and a moment to remember the birthday boy. We hung around for a while and then made our way to the bar.
We had a coffee and a chat with the few fans in that early and then a bite to eat and I tried a pint but was too ill to really enjoy it. Ciggy smoke was getting to me so during the course of the day I had to keep going outside to cough my guts up! Charming!
But I was determined not to be a whinging sod so stuck to soft drinks and got into the craic with all the guys inside.
John Shureman from The Matrix Doors had a lot of pictures from July as well as some very cool photos of the band and I had a nice opportunity to listen properly to them as John had brought a disc with some live stuff and a studio version of ‘Light My Fire’ on so during the course of the afternoon I checked them out on his CD walkman.
Got to admit they were pretty cool…..Nigel could take a few notes here!
The studio ‘Light My Fire’ was excellent and their live version of ‘Riders On The Storm’ was very cool. John told us that the band wanted to play on the Sunday at Olivia’s but the smaller venues were wary of the noise nuisance and the hassle so unfortunately there were no cover bands playing that weekend which was a bit of a bummer. It would have been so cool to see these guys in Olivia’s as that place rocked with The Lizard Kings in July. By this time Adam had gotten his arce over to the bar and we took the opportunity to wander again up to the grave to take a few pictures.
I was feeling pretty crap so I took the chance to pop back to the hotel as I had a handful of cold drugs in my bag and by then was getting pretty desperate so I said I’d see the guys back in the bar in an hour.
