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intro

- We have Paris

- Five fatherly decades

- La de da and dee dee dee

- Five motherly decades

- Four score for Grandad

- Christ-mouse Day

- Grand ole Canyon

we have Paris

Pledging to spend your life with one person is a daunting decision. It is one filled with countless unknowns, doubts, worries, enough to send you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but it is a decision made by millions of people, which some live to regret while the majority stick it out till death do us part. This is my story:

Summer 1999 and my Finnish girlfriend had agreed to spend the summer living with my family in Bognor Regis. It was a strange period since we were not only living together but we worked at the same vegetable packing company. Spending almost 24-hours a day together gave us true insight into our personality and, at times, really tested the strength of our relationship.

One evening I walked into my parent's lounge and discovered my Mum showing Päivi a travel advertisement from the paper, which was offering value trips to Paris. Before I knew what had happened I had paid for the trip and was told we would be leaving in a few weeks. Back at work the following day I was sticking labels onto vegetables and placing them into crates when my thoughts turned from packing to Paris, Päivi and what-if?

Once the initial shock of the thought had worn away I began to give serious consideration to the biggest decision of my life, so far. Was I too young? Should I give it more time? Is she really the one? More importantly, would she say yes? The questions swam around my head day after day, until I tried imagining my life without Päivi and that confirmed the action I should take.

We took the Eurostar from Waterloo International to Gare du Nord and prepared to have our first foreign holiday together, which is the real test of a relationship or so I have been told! The evening of the first night was spent on board the very romantic Bateaux Mouche, a boat that slowly cruises along the Seine while you eat some of the finest food on offer and wash it down with too much wine.

Our hangovers in the morning put us in the perfect mood to attack Paris and to skip the breakfast on offer. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower, followed by almost every other landmark in Paris plus a few more. We walked and walked and then took a metro and then walked some more, and through some stroke of good fortune Päivi had decided to wear a pair of shoes designed to torture feet with every step.

Due to our attack on Parisian sights and lack of time in the city we kept putting lunch off, until we realised it was nearly dinner. Tired, aching, hungry and a little grouchy, we returned to the hotel to freshen up before heading back out to find a little bistro to spend the evening. Before we found a restaurant I wanted, or should I say needed, to return to the Eiffel Tower because some careful questioning of Päivi had revealed that the top of the Eiffel Tower at night was number one on her romance list.

She didn't want to go. She wanted food, to sit down, to just do nothing, but I convinced her that it would be quick journey and I really wanted to go. Finally she agreed and we boarded the hot and crowded metro and tried to recall the correct stop…yes I missed the correct station and we had to walk a kilometre back along the Seine. When we finally reached the Tower all the signs said that the top was now closed.

In despair I asked the lady in the booth if I could still get to the top and she said, "Oui!" Two tickets later we are riding in the elevator up to the top and my fiancée-to-be was bitching like hell. "Why are we doing this again? Couldn't we do the Montpanasse instead? My feet hurt and I'm starving. Why is it dark over there?" Thank god the lift doors opened because doubts were beginning to enter my mind. We walked around the top, took a few photographs and the time had finally arrived.

Guiding Päivi into a corner I put my arms around her and began to test the water by telling her how much I love her and what she means to me and, and, and, and, "And will you marry me?" Päivi nodded and replied, "Yeah, some day." I realised that she hadn't quite understood what I really meant, so I repeated the question and it slowly dawned on her what I was asking.

To this day I have never known anybody forget about aching feet, an empty stomach, being hot and tired so fast. She gave me a decent 'yes' the second time of asking and became the happiest girl in Paris. I apologised for not going down on one knee but I didn't have a ring, thankfully she didn't mind especially since I told her she could buy one from a jeweller on the Champs Elysee the next day; she became even happier then!

Engaged and happy we returned to England. Päivi worried about telling her parents that she had promised to marry an Englishman who they had met only once and I wasn't even her boyfriend that day. For my family I explained to them that we had looked all over Paris for a souvenir for them but couldn't find anything half-decent, so I got them a future daughter-in-law instead.