There are two things in this world which i have grown to love a great deal. these are Surfing and Traveling, so naturally when these two are combined im a very happy yeti.

it began on a delightfull sunny morning in Swansea (my adopted homeland) with the packing up of my entrepid little green ford fiesta with the belongings of four people, 3 surfboards and an 11ft kayak. the trip then kicked off with the usual upbeat, over-the-top, windows down cruising through swasnea to some well chosen loud music. 5 hours later we arrived in dover and borded our ferry bound for Dunkerque. our crossing involved the usual childish sillyness of being on a boat which proved quite novel for some. We arrived in the heavily idustrialised port of Dunkerque and with headlights adapted we headed south into the evening sun. Stopping every three hours or so to re fuel and change drivers we trucked on through the night covering 800 or so miles arriving outside our new home for the next two weeks at about 8:00 am.

Upon arrival we found the other gang, fresh from adventures in spain, looking blearly eyed who informed us that the only person able to let us in (wilkins) was fast asleep and wasnt going to be woken for hell or high water. so naturally we did what anyone would do when locked out in Hossegor, went surfing :) a good fun session with small waves and the lesson that wetsuits were not going to be needed on this trip!

that afternoon we all managed to move in, bag some bed/floorspace (it was in very short supply) and the first order of the day was food so we head off to the local L'clerc store and equipped ourselves with enough brie and salami to sustain a small army. the rest of the day was spent chilling out on the balcony or the beach awaiting the arrival of the final car load (as if it wasnt cramped enough) followed by some chilled out beers untill my eyes couldnt stay open any longer.

day two started with the first (and only) dawn rise of the trip which was met in typical swasea surf trip style by not a single ripple. which set the tone for the rest of the first week, which then decended into a blurr of killing time, sun sea and decedance. Several attempts at fishing, to many 5 euro beers at d*** sand bar (chicks love d*** ) a few early morning swims, one 4am skinny dip, 3 intense lightning storms, one desperation surf on a pink NSP in 1ft surf, and whole lot of bridge jumping later it all changed, and boy did it change.

about to get into the car to go to 'go ape' high ropes course Mr musgrove informs me of a wave, this was like music to my ears. half an hour or so later i was half way through what felt like longest paddle out ever at the nudest beach. i joined musgrove, matt more, chritso and george out in the line up for a session that was later described quite accuratly by musgrove as 2 hours of controlled drowning. a good session none the less with one epic ride and one qually epic working. That night wast the second night of 'Latiossegor' a 3 day latin music festival on the beach front. i declined the invitation to go out that night in favour of rising early for a surf, this turned out ot be my only regret of the trip as it sounded like it turned out to be a pretty dam good night! My pennace was rewarded the next morning though when we caught the first glimpse of ocean at 6.30 that morning, another big session where getting caught inside was not what you wanted to be doing. The rest of the week went a bit like this, 2 or three sessions a day (depending on how worked you got the first session) some sunning on the beach and some well earned beers somtimes a little earlier than i would care to admit!

Our last day was one of frustration, with the palava of the apartment cleanliness and deposits etc. Not to mention the fact ym board was finless, leashless and strapped to the roof of the car whilst i had to sit and watch the perfection that was Hossegor, hence the picture of me sitting looking a bit depressed at the top there. But come 3pm everything was sorted and we set off once again with over excited, windows down, music blaring but not home, this time we were headed for Paris!

Arriving at midnight with the eiffel tower glittering in the distance I figured the whole driving in paris thing wouldnt be such an issue.I was wrong. it was quite possibly the most terrifying thing i have ever done. On french roads you go where you like, when you like honk and flash and never indicate, an orange traffic light means everybody go and once your an a roundabout its dam near impossible to get off. never the less we arrived bedraggled at our hotel and hit the sack pretty promptly.

The day started early with a 5 min walk to the nearby metro station followed by 10 minuets of working out where we were and where we wanted to go on the multicouloured spagatti diagram that is the paris metro. eventually we made it to the station beneath the louvre where we wasted no time jumping in the cue and and decending into the iconic pyramid. Saw the Mona lisa, let me just say, you cant get close enough for a good look, and the 10 inches of bullet proof glass doesnt help so if youve seen a picture of it or on t.v then your not really missing out on much. 2 hours later after seeing only about a 3rd of the museum we went to wander around the city in search of food which we ate in the gardens at the end of the champs elysees which we later strolled the entire length of (its really bloody long!) sampling the expenisve boutiques and frankly odd car showrooms/merchendise shops and stopping off for possibly the most upmarket macdonalds one can have.

Following our 'posh lunch' we had a quick look at the Arc de triomphe and marvled at the chaos that is the roundabout it stands in the middle of (its as mental as the stories claim). Our last stop was the eiffel tower which we climbed the first two levels on foot, some 600 odd steps, before getting the lift to the very top where we watched the sun set and the streets below light up providing a spectacular end to a spectacular trip.