Paris in a Van

It was late so we decided to spend the night in the van. It was an impromptu trip over to Paris and we hadn't quite thought ahead to accommodation. Well we were young. We managed to layer up the blankets and coats and jumpers over the top, we were like the princess and the pea but in reverse. Three girls in jumper’s, hats and scarfs under another mountain of clothes.
In the morning we flung open the doors and Paris was ahead of us. I had just started to learn the Accordion and Jess and Rhona had their fiddles, so with romantic notions we decided to busk. Up we climbed to the foot of the Sacré-Coeur, flights of steps that seemed to go on forever. I was nervous being an English girl with an accordion in Paris...
Inside the Sacré-Coeur we went to warm our hands. An American couple asked where we were from; we could tell they had made up a romantic notion about us. I was a Romanian Accordion player, Jess with her red hair was Irish and Rhona was Scottish with her fiddle and porcelain skin. 'No' we said ‘we are from London.’ 'Oh' they replied their faces sunk. I leant that day that they too like us were creating memories to take back and sometimes it better to let the magic linger. So we got a hostel that night and didn't quite miss the romanticism of the previous night but still I had the memory.