(Early morning view from our window….. well, it was 9.30am)

Oh my goodness, I am so cold! The weather is beautiful here in Paris, very autumnal, more like October than December. The sun is shining and it is dry. Why am I cold? Well, we were passing a beautiful old building when Denis (very excited) noticed a sign for “Une histoire du jeu video” (that might not be the spelling, but it means the history of video games). Denis loves video games. So we went in through the metal detector and got our bags searched. But we were in the wrong place… with directions from the ticket man we found the right place. There was a queue. But the good news was we were at the top of the queue… or so we thought….

(Our metro station)

We waited…… Denis read his book and I watched the rather handsome security guards greet each other. Each time a new one would arrive there were handshakes and big smiles. By the time an hour had passed they had stopped smiling and begun dealing with the irate “sans billet” crowd.

There were two queues… one for the reserved tickets and one for those “sans billet” (without tickets). Us. Those in the reserved queue were allowed in at noon, but when their queue was empty it was still not our turn. We waited…..

(The video games exhibition… including the handsome security guards)

A further half hour later we got inside. I went directly to the coffee shop to write this and wait for Denis, but…. there was no coffee shop! We’re in Paris, it’s twelve thirty and there’s no coffee shop, 😦 sad me. So I spent five minutes walking through the exhibition, (the history of video games is short) looking for a nice comfy sofa. There are no comfy sofas… but I did find a nice wooden box, and I am writing from there. The exhibition is full of video games from the past thirty-five years. Even though I do not like video games, I think I know every one of them. When we first met, back in the 70’s, Denis’s idea of a Saturday in the city included a visit to every video arcade (for those under thirty – the video arcade was the only place you could play computer games). Back then I was neither patient nor supportive of his interest.

Coffee and desert)

Today, I am being an incredibly supportive and patient companion and I have stood for all this time in two degree temperatures. Behind us the french gentleman was not so lucky with his companion. She was very annoyed (I was reading the body language and empathising). About two minutes before the gate opened both of them stormed off. I felt a bit sad for him but very happy to get out of the cold.

Next time I’m going to find a nice comfy sofa first, and let someone else queue, Mairead.