The Last Wall comes down in Paris

Paris is full of music! Last night we went to our concert and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. We took the train to the Stade de France and walked round to our designated entrance. Going through security took AGES and we were worried that we would miss the start of the concert - so were the rest of the people in the queue, who whistled and shouted angrily as we all moved through very slowly. Eventually we got in to the stadium and we squeezed through the crowd to a prime position with an excellent view of the stage. I was not looking forward to standing for ages; I booked the tickets as James' Christmas present but chose the standing area because the seats were unfeasibly expensive. I did find that my back got sore by the end of the concert but there was so much to look at as well as to listen to, that I didn't really mind standing. On the stage there was a partially built wall which was added to throughout the concert until it went right across the stage. Roger Waters and his group sang their hearts out and I enjoyed the music and all of the amazing images projected onto the wall. Needless to say James loved it and sang along with every song. It was quite a spectacle; at the beginning a plane crashed into the stage and towards the end a giant pig floated above the crowd! Some of it was quite moving as tributes were paid to all the people who have died in wars or because of terrorism. It was the last "The Wall" of the long 2010 to 2013 tour and perhaps the last ever - Roger Waters could be seen wiping a little tear from his cheek as he left the stage, At the end of the concert we turned the wrong way out of the stadium (my fault!) and had to retrace our steps for quite a long way, but eventually we arrived back in St Germain where we had a drink sitting outside at one of the many pavement cafés. It was a lovely evening, in fact rather romantic.

And today the music continued as we walked around Paris. It was a warm and sunny morning so after a leisurely breakfast we decided to walk to Montmartre via Notre Dame and Beaubourg. A jazz band were playing at the corner of our street, an accordionist was playing La Vie en Rose on the bridge to Ile de la Cité, an old man was playing the fiddle at the Place du Tertre. The whole of Paris seemed to be full of music. It was also full of smoke - the Parisians love to share their cigarette smoke with unsuspecting passers by. I know that smokers do this in Glasgow too but the French seem to take it to a new level! However this did not spoil our lovely day; we had lunch sitting outside in Montmartre and later on we had a coffee at Les Deux Magots before making our way to the airport. A brilliant weekend.