2 Kids, 2 Countries (Slight Return)

[MattA]

After Notre Dame it was time for a restorative beverage and some shade, so we headed over the bridge to a bar on the river: Cie Les Maquereaux



Just as I was ordering there was a sudden roar of jet engines as the Patrouille de France flew right overhead, red white and blue smoke in their wake:



They were followed by about 30 other military aircraft over the space of 20 or so minutes, in what we worked out was a practice run for La Fête Nationale on Monday.



Rounded off our day with dinner at the excellent Les Deux Colombes just back on the island.

 

[MattA]

I’m doing this all wrong.

So it’s Thursday morning and it’s time to swap Paris for Manchester. Thing is, it’s not the end of Paris for us on this trip—we’ll be back on Monday.

People in Manchester should spend the weekend in Paris, surely, not the other way around…

But let’s back up a second. I did mention right at the start that we were doing a bit too much Easyjet for my liking, and that there was a Britpop element to the trip.

Now we get to the reason why.

We booked our SQ flights in to MAN and out of CDG back when the award space opened in July last year. A few weeks later, before we had made any other plans beyond a general idea to start in the UK and head to France, the band Oasis, who split up in 2009, announced they were reforming to play a series of huge summer gigs. I know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I came of age in the 90s, and they were my favourite band as a teenager. I had all the singles, learnt to play the songs on guitar, and saw them play in a tiny venue in Liverpool in 1994 at my first ever proper gig.

It’s the Eras tour for middle aged dads.

Four of the tour dates fell during our trip: the opening weekend in Cardiff and the first couple of homecoming gigs in Manchester’s Heaton Park on the 11th and 12th of July. Could we get tickets? Could we make it work?

Getting tickets turned out to be the easy bit: while many people struggled, and there was a whole scandal about dynamic pricing — Oasis tickets: Hundreds lodge complaints over dynamic pricing - BBC News — I somehow got straight on and was done and dusted with face value tickets for the Saturday in about 5 minutes.

We spent a lot longer putting dates into a spreadsheet trying to make the itinerary work. Workshopped various plans—maybe we could leave the children in France with the grandparents and MrsMattA and I would fly back for the weekend?—before settling on the final version where we would break up our Paris time with a weekend in the North West of England. My sister and partner would be joining us at the gig, and they were driving to and from France, so Paris part one would give them enough time to get back. My mum and dad (who were on grandparent babysitting duties for the day) drew the short straw on what turned out to be heavily delayed Ryanair flights in both directions between Liverpool and Bergerac.

Once we had the dates we started booking up: by the end of September we had the gite and the three Easyjet flights locked in.

And then… about a week later Oasis announced the tour would be going worldwide. They play Melbourne in October.

(Oh well, you’ve got to roll with it. We’re seeing them there too…)

 

[MattA]

“Which terminal does Easyjet use at CDG? 2B or not 2B? That is the question…”



(It’s 2B, but sometimes 2D, the flattest of terminals…)

Another pretty seamless LCC experience: departure was on time and we touched down into MAN early.

 

[MattA]

“I see we’ve got an Australian here” said the friendly immigration lady at MAN, holding Mrs MattA’s passport (myself and the kids are dual AU/UK citizens, so she’s the odd one out when we come back). “Well you’ve brought the weather with you…”

And indeed we had. It was forecast to be 31 degrees on Saturday, which is very hot for Manchester.

We’re back staying with my folks in the nearby town of Southport, so gig day for us started at the town’s main train station for the 1 hour trip back to Manchester.



It’s quite a scenic route, especially in the sunshine through the fields.



Even saw a kangaroo on the platform of Hindley Station (thanks I assume to this community group: Friends of Hindley Station )



A relic from a bygone era at Bolton station:



Manchester was buzzing with activity (and many Oasis T-Shirts).



One of the first things I saw was a shirtless man pushing a shopping trolley full of knock off bucket hats down the street. Never change, Manchester.



Noel and Liam were even hanging out at the hotel (we stayed at the Novotel Manchester Central):



And the hotel restaurant was taking the opportunity to cash-in:



But we didn’t hang around at the Novotel for long. Heaton Park is about 20 minutes drive north of Manchester, so we were off to catch the shuttle bus with everyone else:

 

[MattA]

The gig itself? Amazing. Everything I had hoped it would be. The band sounded great, the crowd were pumped and I could barely speak afterwards from singing along.









Absolutely no regrets about rearranging our trip to be there.

[Aside: not my celebrity spot, but my sister saw the actor James Nesbitt, of Cold Feet fame, lining up ahead of her for the portaloos, three sheets to the wind, posing for selfies and loudly joining in with the crowd’s chants of “there’s only one Jimmy Nesbit”]

 

[RB001]

Even saw a kangaroo on the platform of Hindley Station

The front legs and tail bear a striking resemblance to those of a deer.
Doe!