Report - Parisian party time - February 2015

[sirjonnyp]

What follows is a write up of a trip that a lot of 28ers took part in, although these are only the two core nights, others were there for longer. I only had my compact, and mainly took people shots. I took some more 'serious' photos of the catacombs last year and also put a video together. This trip was much more about le party.

Laurel was celebrating her birthday in February, so what better excuse to load three cars full of English people to join the festivities? After a pretty choppy 2.30am crossing courtesy of Big Jobs Limos ltd. we eventually landed in Paris and after a casual lifting of the right lid made our way in.

The Ram Room

After trying to head West off of the map of GSN and failing after I breached, we took a d-tour via a little network that had been dug out a lot since the last survey. Found some pretty cool rooms, not that my compact could do them much justice in the light.

This room below was sweet, stooping through thick, gloopy mud, to find a room being dug out covered in very fine silt. A nice find.

There was a well around the corner, so I tried a few photos there.

After making our way to the meeting point we met OT's carload, then slowly French people joined us, choppered in supplies from the ladderless manhole above, then headed off to the party room for the main event.

Our hosts did us proud here - burritos for everyone!

As you can see the case of John Smiths I smuggled over was well worth it for quality of photos. No idea when, but the party was pretty much smoked out a bit later on. Lots of people, alcohol and food. Just what you want rather than sleeping in a dank quarry.

Zuuuuuuu!!

Le Sophie et Mark.

Apparently we got smoke-bombed in Oyster, and I snored through it. Twice.

The afternoon after. Every trip to Paris should involve jumping out of a manhole covered in filth, not seeing the Eiffel Tower and a metro ride to Macdonalds.

But preferably not flagging down a French motorist to jumpstart the car...

To be continued....​

 

[sirjonnyp]

From here we made our way north, and after faffing about a residential street we made our way into one big ass quarry, which had some of the biggest tunnels I've come across. I understand form those who did more than just drink that there was a lot to see. I wasn't feeling fantastic once we got in here and waited for about 90 minutes in a cold, drafty tunnel, so didn't feel like spending ages trying to get my compact to play ball off of the beaten track for an eon. Did get to see how to open a bottle of wine using a shoe though.

As with the night before, partying took a preference to actually doing some exploring, so these photos are bad in quality and heavy on people.

Le Sophie went for a ride on the Jonny P train.

Unfortunately none of my photos show it properly, but in the middle of the massive, huge quarry, the locals are built a party room out of dry stone, the main feature being a stone table/bench combo that can fit 20 or so people around. Beware, however, because if you topple the walls (which are of course structurally sound) Laurel's friend will put a maglite up your anus.

We also learnt about a traditional french fish song (link to follow).

The explorer formerly known as Hydra. Jobs had taken my camera at this point.

Still Jobs...

Mark got pretty stoned.... GET IT??

Three hours kip and we were back up, packed up, and followed Andy J's route out, taking us an alternative way through some Parisian woods on a cold, crisp Sunday morning.

The drive back to England was by no means fun, and being so far back in the limo around sleeping people meant that I may as well have some music on. And take photos of sleeping people. Trip was fine until we hit the M25. Nightmare.

Thanks for reading, a big thanks to Big Jobs for driving, and thanks to everyone down there (too many names to mention really). Let's do it again soon.

Sir JonnyPenishead​

 

[Oxygen Thief]

Brilliant ! A great set of candid shots there mate. You don't need any more than that really.

Was a cracking trip, saw loads, met loads, drank loads, explored loads ! Just the way it should be.

And you know what, we were just a small part of it, English, French and god knows what else and how many other groups. And not a single bit of bullshit, it was perfect. Goes to show how messed up the UK scene is.

 

[Adders]

JonnyP, the king of focus.

It was a brill trip, roll on the next one.

 

[Adders]

And you know what, we were just a small part of it, English, French and god knows what else and how many other groups. And not a single bit of bullshit, it was perfect. Goes to show how messed up the UK scene is.

And Jonny would disagree, some twunt put rocks in his bag.

 

[sirjonnyp]

And Jonny would disagree, some twunt put rocks in his bag.

It was the water I was pissed about - calmed down in the morning though

 

[Miss Drippy]

It was the water I was pissed about - calmed down in the morning though

You woke us all up in a drunk rant about finding Speed. Not pro.

 

[Oxygen Thief]

I don't know who I told to 'do one' early in the morning at Hennoque, but I really hadn't had much sleep.

 

[Miss Drippy]

To be fair OT, you told people to "do one" most mornings.

 

[trailboss99]

Looks like one hell of a time. I really, really have to see the place one day.