"My First Travel experience" a Les Lilas Travel Page by Angelal

My Dad has always loved football so when my brother Mark started playing, my Dad decided to manage the football team in his spare time. He organised for the boys to travel to Paris to take part in a football tournament against some French teams, everyone was excited as the boys families were going to. I was especially excited as it was my first ever trip abroad!!! I was 10 at the time!

In Paris I made friends with a French girl called Sandrine who was 14/15 and the sister of one of the boys in the Les Lilas football team and she even invited me for tea! While in Paris we saw all the usual sites, the Arc De Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower etc and I remember drinking an ice cold coke in a street cafe. On my return to England we became pen friends and I used to get really excited when I got a letter from her as I didn't used to get post in those days!!

My Mum thought it would be a lovely idea for her to come over for a holiday and I was really excited! It was going to be fantastic!! While Sandrine was in England we had a great time, everyday my parents took us somewhere, to London to see Buckingham Palace to Windsor to see the castle to the seaside and a Theme Park. On the day of Sandrine's departure she thanked my Parents and suggested that maybe I should visit Paris for a holiday also! I was only 10 and felt a bit frightened and very nervous about traveling all that way on my own and staying with a family that I didn't know as I was quite a shy kid really! My Mum thought it was a great idea and before I knew it my Mum had booked me on a Air France flight from Heathrow to Paris! I never told her that I didn't want to go but as the departure date got closer and closer I got more and more worried until the day finally arrived. My Dad took me to the airport and I remember waving goodbye to him as the Air Hostess chaperoned me to the departure lounge. I tried really hard not to cry but by the time the plane took off, I could hold it back no more and huge salty tears dropped down onto my Mickey Mouse reversible sweatshirt.

Sandrine lived in a flat with her parents and brother in Les Lilas, just outside Paris. She was the only one in her family that spoke English and I spoke no French. For dinner on my first night I was given spaghetti, something which I had never eaten before. I was starving hungry but just couldn't get the knack of twisting the spaghetti on my fork so couldn't eat much. We were all say at the table and Vanessa Paradis was on the telly singing Joe le Taxi. For dessert we had chocolate mousse, they all dipped French bread in it so I did the same. I would love to tell you that my time in Les Lilas was brilliant and that I had a great time but it was awful.
The second day Sandrine left me with her mother while she went out with her friends. Her mum spoke no English but we made a cake together and I went with her to the bakery. The second day I was left at home again. On the third day Sandrine took me with her. She said that we were going to the Eiffel tower or somewhere like that but that her friend was coming with us. We came to this tree lines street with huge old buildings which had been converted to flats. We went up to Sandrine friends flat and then the most awful thing happened. Her friend pulled out a packet of fags, offered one to Sandrine (who accepted!) and then offered one to me! Now any good 10 year old knows that smoking is really bad for you and I couldn't believe that this supposedly innocent, softly spoken French girl had a 20-a-day habit!!! Sandrine was now Satan in my eyes and I couldn't wait to leave. The next day I stubbed my big toe so hard that my toenail went black and it was so badly bruised that I could only hobble around.

This was first travel experience - fortunately it didn't put me off for life!!!