W is for Wheelchairs open doors!

Well it’s been a week of highs and lows, picking up where I left off… in Paris! Coldplay were just………….. (this is me being speechless) It was amazing, out of this world, incredible, super, fantastic, fabulous, awesome, wonderful, unbelievable, …. and any other extreme adjectives you can think of!

It really was a once in a lifetime experience from beginning to end. I got the train with Di from Rotterdam to Paris, complete with train picnic! We met Es at Gar du Nord station in Paris and our hotel was literally opposite the station so a one minute walk… good job too because it was about 34 degrees and I don’t think I could have managed a much longer walk! We had a wheelchair as well, which I used quite a bit but not all the time. So grateful to Bernd organising that for me, it was a real lifesaver …. and quite an eye opener…it does really open doors! We skipped to the front of several queues because I was in the wheelchair and people (mostly) moved out of the way for us or opened doors (literally) for us. It was lovely. Well, it wasn’t lovely that I need a wheelchair, but if you are going to have one, you might as well take advantage of the benefits it provides!! I can remember a friend suggesting renting a wheelchair to go around town, this was before Christmas, and I felt disgusted that she had even suggested it. I was convinced I wouldn’t need one and now if I am offered one, I usually feel relieved! Funny (not in a ha ha way) how things change so quickly, I have accepted that my body isn’t what it used to be and that I need to use the tools and facilities which enable me to still do things and get out. What I did notice though is that people don’t look you in the eye when you are in a wheelchair, many people just deferred to the person pushing me – asking questions which should have been directed at me, but acting like the ‘carer’ was the one who was in charge of me, like a parent.

Well, like I said, the wheelchair was our passport to success! We were going to get the to the stadium, so went down to the platform (nice and sweaty) and pushed our way through… I wasn’t in the wheelchair at that point, then we saw that there were delays on that line and it was heaving.. there was no way we were going to get on the first train so we said a collective “Fuck it” and went upstairs to get a taxi. The doorman from the hotel got a taxi for us and explained where we were going etc. It was also really busy on the roads of course, it was around 18.30, so it took us about 40 mins to get there but we made it! I got in the wheelchair when we arrived and our priority service kicked in again, we skipped the queue and went straight through, got a lad to take us to our seats. He was really sweet, said he didn’t speak much English, but it was really good! First he took us up to the original seats we had booked in the non-wheelchair section, but that was too high up and he said that one of us could sit there and the wheelchair and one person could go in the disabled section. Gulp!....well obviously that wasn’t going to happen! We were clearly not happy about this so he told us to wait there and disappeared off. He came back with an older guy who gave us new tickets for the disabled section! So we were taken back downstairs and wheeled in to priority! Wow. It was a small section with about 15 wheelchairs and some chairs behind it for the family/friends – we weren’t really close to the stage but it was directly opposite the stage and at the right level. Amazing. We got there nearly at the end of the second support act, Tove Lo, some of whose songs I actually recognised and was quite good. So we had time to get sorted, go for a wee, get drinks etc. and then it started around 21.15.

It was an incredible show, fireworks, light shows with all the bracelets the audience were wearing which flashed and changed colour according to the song. They played for more than 2 hours and were just amazing, chatting in French (very impressive!) between songs and were really engaging and appreciative of the fact that everyone had come out, paid the ticket fee, come to a concert in Paris despite all the attacks etc. that have been happening recently. I always thought Chris Martin was a good guy, but I like him even more now.

Everything up to and during the concert had been really well organised and efficient but the taxi rank at the end was the opposite. By the time we got there, there was quite a long queue but I just thought it would go down really quickly because you assume that there will be quite a few taxis coming, considering a concert has just finished. Well, apparently not. I was in the wheelchair but we didn’t feel comfortable jumping the queue ourselves so went to the end. After a couple of minutes a woman with a red tabard (!) on beckoned us to come to the front and she ushered us to wait on the road. There were still a couple of others in front of us but then it seemed to be our turn and a taxi arrived that she said was ours. The car stopped and Es wheeled me up to the back door when suddenly this group of people jumped in front of us and one guy even pushed in front of the wheelchair and we had to move back! Talk about anti-social! Well, we got the next one so that was fine and we got back to our hotel around 1.00. We were all buzzing from the concert so had a quick drink and I hoovered up some chocolate and then went to bed.

Unfortunately, the bed wasn’t the most comfortable and I woke up around 3.00 with bad back pain, so I had a bath…thank goodness there was one!

Es and I got the train back to Rotterdam and Di left earlier to go to Germany. For some reason, our carriage on the way back was a first class one so it had loads of space and was more comfortable than a normal one. We also skipped the queue at the station… security is really tight there now so to get on to the platform it’s as if you are at the airport, queueing to go through to the gate, you get frisked and your luggage goes through the scanner. Well the wheelchair also enabled us to get on to the platform first and get our seats on the train. It was all so smooth!

So the whole experience was unforgettable, it has even changed my opinion of French people! All the people we met were helpful and friendly (apart from taxi pusher in man!)

I got home around 17.00 and took it really easy in the evening, ready for the appointment the next day; blood test, x-ray, meeting with Nanny and immunotherapy. …. that’s the next instalment!