I missed their concert in London because my short film crashed at the time, so how appropriate was it that they now were coming to Paris. Not the least because I had been waiting for some sort of excuse to take the Eurostar and go to Paris.
So I stepped in the Eurostar Saturday morning 8.32am, at St. Pancras station London, and stepped out of the train in Gare du Nord, Paris at 11.45am (it’s 2 hours 13 minutes though as there is an hour timezone difference!). Never again will I consider taking the plane to Paris, this was so convenient and relaxed. My hotel was 100m from Gare du Nord, no waiting for luggage, no passport queue (although there was a passport check in London), no stress. Je t’aime le Eurostar.
After checking in my hotel I had only one tiny little detail to take care off – I had to pick up my concert ticket. Which was easy, right, as I had marked the location for the ticket pickup on my google map, and had that map on my phone, so I was just going to jump on the Metro and find the place. It needed to pick it up at FNAC.
First I bought my 2 days Metro ticket. (I can recommend it, it’s called a Paris Visite card, and you can use it on all public transport in Paris). Then I had a look at the metro map and panicked – this looked so much more complicated than the tube map in London?
What if I get lost?
It took me 1 minute to calm down and to remind myself that I had managed the Moscow metro once, so the Paris metro would be easier. Get a grip.
But the problem was that the pinpointed FNAC address on my map turned out to be a totally random location in Paris, as the place where it pointed at was a back street in a very quiet area far from any shops. I probably marked the wrong place as there was nothing there. A look at my watch told me that I should really get that ticket soon before the shops closed.
I stepped into a hotel and asked the girl at the reception. And thank goodness, she spoke English and gave me two options – there was a FNAC on the Champs Elysees or there was one at the Saint Lazarre train station.
So I thought – let’s go for the Champs Elysees, I wanted to see that anyway. Whereabouts on the Champs Elysees? I asked this hotel girl? She didn’t quite know, but I would find it she assured me. That was probably because she didn’t realise that I was in a hurry.
So I jumped on the Metro again and hopped off at the Champs.
Now – do you have any idea how long the Champs Elysees is? It is huge!
And – do you have any idea how much it rained by the time I surfaced at the Champs?
And how late it was!
And how stressed I was by then!
And how I thought that Paris wasn’t any fun at all!
And – how I could see myself miss the whole bloody tv-2 concert!
And how convenient it would have been if I had been married to a prince on a white horse who knew his way around Paris.
But that it wouldn’t help if I just stood there being annoyed as I needed to find the Saint Lazarre station, as soon as possible.
The Metro was now a piece of cake (I had a lot of practise in the very short time I had been there) so I found the Saint Lazarre station pretty quickly (for someone who had only just arrived in Paris) and if only it was as easy as finding the FNAC! It wasn’t! As it wasn’t at the station itself it turned out – after I had checked every single corner of the station – and they have pretty big train stations in Paris I can tell you. After having asked three more people, the FNAC turned up outside opposite the station. It was still open, there was a queue from here to Tokyo for the get-your-ticket-here till but it was dry inside and I checked my watch – I was going to make it. Phew.
Finding the concert place was easy, it was on walking distance from my hotel. I met up with some Danish people from my past and went to see the band which defined my 10 years in Denmark.
It was great to see them again. Great but weird.
I had been seriously struggling speaking Danish to the people I met. It has been three years I moved from there, I never use it anymore and it has become very rusty. I wasn’t able to speak sentences without having to dig my brain for the right Danish words.
As soon as tv-2 started playing – it felt like a switch had been pressed in my head. I could sing along to all the songs in fluent Danish, and in the break my Danish was pretty much like it had been three years ago – fluent (with an accent of course as I am not a native). Where did it come from so quickly?
The concert was great. Three years later (where did the time go!) nothing has changed, they didn’t even look older, they still boost your mood to extreme heights, and Steffen Brandt is still a master of lyrics and a great entertainer. They were absolutely worth the trip.
The Elysee Montmartre was the perfect place for a concert. It was not too big, the atmosphere was intimate, the audience was relaxed and laid back, no pushing in front of the stage. Lovely.
Here are some photos from the concert:
They have promised to play Paris again in a year or two, if they do I’ll be there. I realised how much I had missed them.
For now it’s – Au revoir, goodbye, farvel.
(And here is my first photo, one of my favourites)
Didn’t you know the C.E. is almost 2 kilometres long? Then you were in for a big surprise.
All and all going to Paris was a huge success, or am I wrong?
Paris wasn’t bad :) This concert was great and I had a nice Sunday where I did manage to see some of the sights. It was a bit chilly though! So I hope tv-2 will return a little later in the year when they return to Paris a year or two from now.
But my heart belongs to the UK :) At least right now :)
Oh and the Champs E. ! I can’t believe she just felt that I would find that shop somewhere along those 2 kilometres :) I mean – hello! :)
Oh dear, what an adventure before you could enjoy the concert…
I love your first photo. Would like to print it out in XXL format and hang it on the wall in our hallway :)
Yes it was a bit of a stressful start that! :) But with a happy ending :)
The first photo – it’s a bit grainy (a lot of noise on the photo because of long zoom lens and not optimal light conditions in the Metro) and not knife sharp but those 5 people on their seats – I just love the whole setting of it :)
We never doubted you would get your tickets, you are, after all, a traveller extraordinaire!
the metro in paris is such a great place to take pictures!
i’m looking forward to the london tube as we’ll be in london for a week next month. :)
Enjoy London! I hope the weather will stay nice for you :) (It’s pretty good at the moment)
And the Paris Metro has the advantage that both lines run through the same tunnel so you can secretely take photos of the people waiting on the other side of the platform :) This is harder in London!
A Danish band singing Danish songs in Paris? Surprising. Was it crowded? Wonder if any Dutch band will ever sing Dutch songs in Paris.
I know there is a German band singing German songs, which created a new wave of german learning kids in french schools.
@Joachim: it was crowded yes. It was organised in cooperation with the Danish Embassy in Paris and there are a lot of Danes in Paris. And their most loyal fans came over from Denmark.
They have performed all over the world (in Danish) in places like Beijing, New York, London. Paris was a first, but not their last I am sure!
Steffen Brandt, did he speak english in between songs? I’ve never heard him speak english I can only imagen how funny he must sound. Hope it was a lovely concert.
Sjovt at du har boet i Danmark!
Hvor boede du? (where did you live?)