France
#3 France – April 2022. Age: 28
I have been to France countless times. As a family, we used to get the ferry or the channel tunnel across. We used to drive down to all different places in this beautiful country, La Rochelle, Le Mans, Shiraz. We spent several years going to the same spot in Souilliac, a golf/country club, where my close friend Cam even came out, and met my holiday friend Callum, who had a villa there and I saw a few years running.
If you’re familiar with ‘Off Menu’, my Off Menu is also derived from various experiences in France, including the wonderful Bon Labourer, which was the first and one of the only Michelin restaurants I have been privileged enough to go to. To this day, stilton and broccoli soup, confit of duck with dauphinoise and sauteed vegetables remain my meals of choice (alongside a Tiramisu I’ll get onto later in the Italy section.
In the last few years, I’ve been to France 4 times. The first was April 2022. This was when I ran my first, and to this date (16/11/2024) only marathon; The Paris Marathon. This again was a healing process following the end of my 5-year relationship with my former partner, Xi. I trained for 6 months, cut the cigarettes and the booze (largely), apart from that thrilling 10-day trip to Barbados, which, call me a bellend, I reckon added a good 20 minutes to my time.
The most important thing to mention for this is that David Jubb, Will Percival and I agreed to run this marathon in aid of Mind and BEWT (links in appendix). These were to remember our dear friends Billie Wood and Thomas Parsons. Other friends came along to support us (and have a piss up in Paris). BEWT is the Billie Elizabeth Wood Trust, which is a research charity into the causes of brain hemorrhages. Mind is a charity which focuses on support for people with mental illnesses such as depression. I’ve mentioned the importance of Bille in lives as one of our groups closest and bubbly, excitable and beautiful people I’ve ever known. Thomas Parsons was my best friend throughout and after university, before we started a business together, TauRho Transcribes. Neither of them will ever leave my heart or thoughts. Part of the reason I was prompted to write these memories down is because I recently decided to sell TauRho Transcribes (sold 30/09/2024). It was a tremendously difficult decision to make but given the foundations we built together, it grew into something reasonably successful and for a number of reasons I won’t go into, I decided to sell (mainly, difficult memories, good money, and I have another business I wanted to focus on, and feel like it was my own and mine only). In selling this it left me with some free time, and with, an ailing father, I thought I’d start documenting some of things I experience for my family and friends to look back on; it’s quite cathartic.
Serious digression… sorry about that. I would have felt guilty if it wasn’t covered properly.
Paris is f**king great, albeit expensive. The marathon was a great way to tick off all the sites and feel like ‘F**k it, I can now just get loose’, which turns out is very very easy to do after running 42km, severely dehydrated, with adrenalin, and having been consistently off the source in 6 months.
I also went to Paris in January 2024 with my family for my Mum’s birthday. We made the very curious and questionable decision to go to the Moulin Rouge – great show but not worth the money in my opinion – the best bits are actually the performance artists who do crazy gymnastics or contortion shit, rather than the endless inbetween acts which are just oh-so-similar ways of doing the can-can with everything on display. Not to criticise too harshly, everyone is beautiful and excellent at what they do; it just gets a bit same-y.
We did all the classics too; Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, etc. You know it. The best part was actually not experienced by me though; my brother is a Cambridge University Researcher and he received unbridled access to the Louvre vaults for his research which was pretty cool; in doing so, he got my Mum an un-toppable present (dick-head) – a one on one tour of the museum including a trip to see the Mona Lisa during closed hours. Wow. What a bellend. Hope she enjoyed my matching crockery set.
Penultimate trip was a lads trip to Nice for our annual AGM. John, Nick, Ed and John all shared a house at uni, + Thomas P (RIP). Each year, we escalate our adventure on the previous year, and we take it in turns based on a pint off (so one pint off every 5 years to determine the order). Nice was great – great good, great beach, great vibe. Would thoroughly recommend. Regrettably, we didn’t hit Monaco which means that’s still on my list.
Finally, I went skiing in Huez in Feb, 2023. We all know how that pans out. Tentatively ski. Drink a shit load, ski extremely drunk, confident and slot into Apres ASAP. Ski the best you ever have down the mountain before a slap up meal and a night out. Rise early, breath in the mountain air, feel recuperated, and repeat.
OH God, I forgot Amit’s stag in Marseille. This was with a whole host of Perse boys I don’t usually have the pleasure of hanging out with. This was such a great trip, kayaking, great food, plenty of booze and a massive open plan Air Bnb with us all sleeping in the same open space – created a lot of chaos and an altogether unrestful experiencing.
