Review 2005Jacques Baptiste

I have now returned to France after a couple of years living in my adopted home of London England. I enjoyed here very much, your eccentric lifestyles, your obsession with umbrellas and the drinking of many beers. While I lived here I promised myself that when I eventually returned back to my native France I would finally do something that had intrigued me during my time working at the Tour Eiffel. Yes, that had been a summer job of mine once when I needed a few euros to pay my way through university. I had been watching a programme on English television where celebrities had parachuted onto an island and then it turned into some kind of gameshow - I must say I am not sure who these persons were as we dont get much English TV in France. Luckily I recognised Joe Pasquale as back home he is well revired and know as " l'homme avec le voix de le fond". It struck me there and then - I shall parachute from La Tour Eiffel when I return to France. I will not bore you with the legal banter and necessary procedures, but on my return I actually got to do it. As I am assured your readers will know, the view is resplendent from the summit and I savoured the moment as best I could. I felt excitement as the wind blew through my hair. I even felt warm inside my body too. I couldnt not believe that I was here again, but this time I was going to really jump. I now can sense irony as it was shortly before I left for England I had once tried to talk a man from throwing himself off in like a suicide. And here was me now doing the same thing, yet hopefully not ending up in a similar pile of bones and bodily liquid at the foot of the Tour Eiffel - I do apologise for my English but it was not a good sight. But now I was to do it and I would survive, though in the back of my mind I did have serious reservations. But there was no more time to reflect, my instructor told me the time was now or never as the wind was being to make the jump dangerous. He yelled "now !" (but in French) and before I knew it I had taken that leap of faith. I cannot describe the feeling for that brief moment before the parachute takes effect. So many emotions ran through my mind - fear, panic, exhilaration, being at one with nature. Then the parachute opened and I felt an enormous tug back, as my free fall was stopped and I began to float gently towards the ground. I could see the coffee shop from here, the one I used to work at before my time here, the place that will always remind me of that humours incident with the "pan au chocolate". As my feet touched back to the earth I felt I was now totally safe again. Yet with more irony during my first few steps after landing I managed to trip over a small mound of earth and fall flat on my face. People laughed, but I didnt care - I had just jumped off La Tour Eiffel and lived to tell the tale. I wonder how many of them scoffing can tell their grandchildren "la meme chose" !

For an introduction and list of contributors to Review 2005, follow this link.