Topic: so, to Paris ..... (Memories of ´81)

[FlashingBlade]

Just down loaded me train ticket for Friday " Meal served at your table''' # EuropeanFootballRoyalty...and time to recall our last visit to Gay Paree in '81.

I was  Twenty years old on a years training working in Bold Street for a firm of surveyors.....been to all games but didn't have  a season ticket...been on list for years...done me head in as mates did have them...   had put feelers out for EC Final tickets but with two weeks to go ..nothing...then phone rings and its me mate Dave saying he had got me a ticket....was buzzing dancing around office, so about hour later phone rings and its me Dad and he says a letters  come and I've got my ticket...I said I know Dave phoned me ..oh me Dad says but how did he know, confused conversation ensues so I say hold on letter?...what does it say so he reads out.... "Liverpool Football club are pleased to advise your application for a season ticket has been approved please find enclosed an invoice"..

Fucking ecstatic  ST and EC final ticket within the hour.

Travelled with work mate via Train and boat long arduous journey over night...these are the days before mass Tourism so still a bit of uncertainty of what to do or where to go....

On train down to Paris some pissed knob head read kicked off on old women...so me and mate grabbed him pinned him down, few smacks and dragged him away...next thing train stops loads of Gendarmes jump on ( been trouble elsewhere on train) Bizzies go to grab me and the mate but these two girls jump up and explain were the good guys...loads of Reds dragged off but we stayed on ...got talking to the two girls..English...and they where fit...Thought were in here,...as we got off I helped carry ones heavy suitcase....next thing she runs down platform and jumps into arms of boyfriend. I walk..drop case by them and carry on walking

We teamed up with two lads looking for hotel and we had a name ..on Boulevard louis Pasteur  a dump a  room , two doubles. One pound fifty a night...but fuck it it done us..

We explored Paris and was in awe....beautiful city...one night we found this Bistro by our Hotel...like something out a film...wine, great cheap food, people discussing Jena Paul Sartre and  existentialism...we discussed footy.

All the mates arrived. Then on day of game, the first beer at 10am..and we carried on...Pigalle for more beer then to Parc d'Prince....me and mate necked a bottle of wine each,...Christ! the folly of youth.....so into ground... the game...cant recall much except we had three quarters of ground....at half time me and mate fell asleep , bloke behind us had to wake us up "European Cup final on here lads'"....then Barney and we win....joy!

On way out I recall saying, this is it, I cannot expect anything more from Liverpool Three European Cups..the stuff of dreams...

We headed back to Pigalle and carried on drinking till metros back on at 8am ....some weird blurry memories.....at one point we lost me  mate...when I got back to hotel there he was undoing his shoe...fast asleep...he had got lost and bascially walked across Paris...and had been asleep like that for hours.

We had another night in Paris...had me first ever Mc Donalds on the Champs-Élysées ...think at the time there was  a couple in London not elsewhere in Uk...it was so fuckign cool to be eating one,....crikey how times change..

There's more anecdotes but bored typing now....we headed back to Liverpool a long tiring trip...but with another Euroepan Cup....I hope history repeats itself..but this time Im travelling in a bit of class.

Hope some of the older lads  ( Edit: and Lasses ) here can add their memories and tales...

[disgraced cake]

On way out I recall saying, this is it, I cannot expect anything more from Liverpool Three European Cups..the stuff of dreams...

I'll say that about number seven if we're lucky enough to win it on Saturday. Then I'll probably get back to moaning about something within days 

Great story. I've been wondering how many who went to Paris in '81 will be going this week. Probably a fair few old bastards.

[duvva 💅]

Love it FB, some amazing memories

[Mighty_Red]

Gread read 

[jambutty]

Sounds like a great experience.

Shame about the match though.

[Millie]

Ah Paris...

8 of us travelled on the Monday with Transalpino from Lime Street.  Boarded the boat at Dover (I think, it was a long time ago) and arrived at Calais where we were met by the friendly French Police bearing gifts of tear gas.  Eventually got the train to Paris and found our digs in Boulevard St Michelle or was it Germain?  Anyway it was one of them.  It was definitely in the Latin Quarter.

Spent a couple of days doing touristy stuff and on the day of the game headed to the Eiffel Tower because we figured that would be where everyone was.  Turned out it was.  No mobiles or Social Media back then, just instinct.

Headed to the ground and again met by the friendly French Police this time with batons and tear gas.  Oh what joy.  I ended up on the ground and was rescued by someone just in time as I was about to be beaten by one of the CRS.  I am female by the way, so not sure what threat I was but c'est la vie.   Anyway that didn't matter because we won  .  After the game went back to the Latin Quarter and hit the bars.  Eventually travelling back to Liverpool on the Saturday.

All in all a great trip and mainly happy memories.

[Millie]

^

Anyone recognise these two dudes? 

[John C]

Great stuff FB and Millie. Love it.

[So… Howard Philips]

^

Anyone recognise these two dudes? 

Definitely a ‘couple of swells’.

[Pistolero]

Went on the midnight train from Lime St after meeting in the Star and Garter at 6ish...was just a kid really so was absolutely twatted and spent the entire journey asleep face down in the string-net overhead luggage rack....looked like the phantom of the opera when i woke up and the net marks stayed on my face the entire day  ..remember little of Paris itself aside from swigging bottles of red wine in the pissing down rain all day and being threatened with police dogs by the Paris riot squad...similarly the match itself is a haze of vino memories, flashes of football, Barney, net bulging, going over about 8 rows of seats in the pandemonium of the goal and big ears glistening in the distance, held aloft by Thommo..found a Real Madrid hat on the floor outside the ground before the game and kept it on for the match and journey home...still got it in the loft...taking it with me on Thursday..goanna be a completely different experience this time around, obviously..none of the recklessness of youth and red wine straight from the bottle....still miss the Star and Garter though ..........Up The Reds 

[Rhi]

Ahhh nice one! Love this stuff. Thanks for sharing all of you!

[Manila Vanilla]

For the three weeks before the final I was working in Versailles. Tickets were like gold dust in Liverpool, so it was my job to get them “at source” for my mates. This proved to be just as difficult.

Three days before the game someone at work thought they’d heard there were tickets available at the Football League of Paris. I phoned and it was true! They reserved me three and I got the train in immediately.

The night before the final I was with American colleagues at the hotel. They said, “Looks like your football fans are here…” I turned around and it was the whole Liverpool squad staying at our hotel. They were milling around the lobby, with Bob Paisley in his tatty cardy and slippers trying to keep an eye on them. I got to chat with the great man and shake his hand. There were also journalists like Elton Welsby – mainly in the bar…

The tickets were really good. At the Liverpool end, behind the goal with pretty much the same view of the goal that you see on TV.

[FlashingBlade]

For the three weeks before the final I was working in Versailles. Tickets were like gold dust in Liverpool, so it was my job to get them “at source” for my mates. This proved to be just as difficult.

Three days before the game someone at work thought they’d heard there were tickets available at the Football League of Paris. I phoned and it was true! They reserved me three and I got the train in immediately.

The night before the final I was with American colleagues at the hotel. They said, “Looks like your football fans are here…” I turned around and it was the whole Liverpool squad staying at our hotel. They were milling around the lobby, with Bob Paisley in his tatty cardy and slippers trying to keep an eye on them. I got to chat with the great man and shake his hand. There were also journalists like Elton Welsby – mainly in the bar…

The tickets were really good. At the Liverpool end, behind the goal with pretty much the same view of the goal that you see on TV.

on Paisleys dress etiquette..mates on team flight back from Euro away ..( they sold spare seats to fans )...mate looked at Paisley eating his in flight meal...he had a lime green jumper with a collar..but had a tie on it..brown....with all rice from his meal over it...me mate nudged mate next to him...pointed to Paisley " Three European cups..most powerful manager in Europe"

[Red_Mist]

Nice one FB!

Undoing a shoe, asleep

[kesey]

Slightly off topics but it's a great story of Paisley.

Coming back from Oxford away in the 86/87 season our coach was pulling into the Rocket . The Liverpool team coach pulls in to and Paisley gets off and walks around the corner and stands at the 81 bus stop to go home. I stil think to this day what the driver must've thought when Paisley gets on  .   

[Theoldkopite]

I posted this quite a long time ago when RAWK was doing a commemoration of our European Cup exploits.

Although the kids were a bit older now money was still tight and a woman’s place was still in the home. (She’s going to kill me when she reads this. I should point out that my wife is also a true red and cut her teeth on the paddock wall where she would stand with her mates and ogle Cally’s legs, as well as cheering the mighty reds on. We both now go to the match together on the Kop. I was able to avoid going with her for a number of years but when they seated the Kop she moved from the adult and child section in Annie Road to be with me. I probably got the best of the bargain there.)
We were going to Paris by road (and sea). Me and Fred and my mate John and his wife Beryl were going in J and B’s car – a Renault 5. Very appropriate!
We didn’t think that there would be any trouble with the Real Madrid supporters but were unsure of the welcome we would get from the locals. To be honest we weren’t too bothered because we had a secret weapon – Beryl’s tongue – it was sharper than a Stanley Knife and frightened the three of us to death!
We had a good journey down to Dover and over to Calais on the Monday / Tuesday. We stopped at a small town called Beauvais and booked in to a B&B. We did the cultural bit and visited the cathedral and then retired to a local hostelry for a drink. After a couple of scoops me and Fred began to teach John and Beryl the words of Poor Scouser Tommy. Those of you who are old enough to remember will know that originally the song was just’I am a Liverpudlian….’ We initially started singing quietly but as the afternoon progressed and we had more to drink and J and B got to learn the new words we did become rather noisy. We were, of course, also getting excited about the game and anyway – Scousers can be noisy bastards at any time can’t they! I think the locals in the bar were getting worried and breathed a sigh of relief when we decided to go off somewhere to eat. I have to say that the four of us were the least scally looking group of supporters ever to be seen on the continent so they didn’t have anything to be worried about – unless Beryl had got her tongue out!
We went out into the town for a few more drinks in the night. Sitting there at a bar in the middle of a town I had never heard of until that day and this guy walks past and says ‘hello Fred’ –  a mate of his  just happened to be in the area! This had also happened on the ferry and was to happen again on a couple of occasions in Paris. Billy no mates me never met anyone!!
We were up early the following day and pressed on to Paris. We stopped on the outskirts and found a
 B & B which wasn’t quite opened for business – but they put us up anyway! It all seemed a bit dodgy and as we set off for the local station we wondered if we would see any of our gear again! 
We got into the Gare du Nord and did the touristy, cultural bit – see, us Scousers were into the culture stuff well before this 2008 thing. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, wandered along the Left Bank and mixed with the Real Madrid supporters who all looked well dressed and rich compared to the vast majority of us lot!
We got to the Parc de Princes and there were the usual large number of Liverpool supporters present. The atmosphere was good – the stadium was quite compact from what I recall. Again, it wasn’t a great game but Alan Kennedy’s goal was a cracker. I prefer to believe that it was a shot and sod anyone who prefers to believe otherwise. Anyway, when you’re at a European Cup Final, if it’s your team and you win, it is a great game!
Paris in the dark is different to Paris in the light and we weren’t sure of the way back tp the Gare du Nord. We eventually got there after midnight, thinking that we had missed the last train. We didn’t think we had enough dosh for a taxi and we didn’t really know where the hotel was by road anyway!
Luckily for us Beryl the Tongue could speak some French and we actually got onto a train which took us back to the outskirts and our B&B. The owners had gone to bed and left the front door on the latch!
We decided that we would travel straight back home the following morning and set off early for Calais. A strange smell pervaded the inside of the car. Anybody who has seen a Renault 5 will know that there was not much space to be pervaded! Our kid got the blame and we drove all the way home with the windows down. Fred got stick all the way but he protested his innocence and the smell lingered. It was only when we pulled in to the Halton Castle car park in West Derby for a last celebratory pint that John looked on the bottom of his shoes and realised that he was the cause of the smell - they had dog muck on them from Paris! What better final memory to bring home with you from a City where dogs rule OK?! 

[oojason]

The Grauniad did a decent piece on this today...


'When Liverpool beat Real Madrid in the 1981 European Cup final in Paris':-

www.theguardian.com/football/that-1980s-sports-blog/2022/may/24/liverpool-real-madrid-european-cup-final-paris-1981






'Paris 1981: Liverpool 1-0 Real Madrid : Highlights' (4 minute video):-

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/f7cFBEgVVI4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/f7cFBEgVVI4</a>

[Barrow Shaun]

My mate who was there told me the actual stand was moving with the Liverpool lot celebrating. Fuck that.

Anyway, I was 10 and a half and jumping up and down on the settee.

[kriss]

Living in London at the time. Flew from Gatwick on the morning of the match. I seem to remember that you were only guaranteed a match-ticket if you booked on a package which had flights not coaches/ferries. I think the travel agency was David Dryer Sports. Pretty well-known at the time and reliable. All our connections were fine, airport to hotel and hotel to ground, etc.

I remember the cordons outside the stadium were very tough. Seemed to be a bit over-the-top but I suppose they didn't want to risk a repeat of what Leeds had done six years earlier.

Fantastic atmosphere inside the stadium. God knows how so many Reds got inside but they always found a way even back then.

The hotel I was in was opposite the hotel where the club held its post-match banquet so I wandered over to take a look. The players, club officials, guests, etc. had to go down some stairs to a lower floor for that. It was bedlam in the ground floor reception as you can imagine. Two things I remember very clearly. Craig Johnston standing on his own looking like a Little Boy Lost. He had only signed in April and wouldn't make his first-team debut until August.

The second thing I noticed burns in my mind every time I think of it. Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley standing quietly opposite each other near the reception-desk just having a passionate conversation. I was so glad Bill was there as there had been some bad feeling between him and the club in the aftermath of his retirement.  I didn't bother them but it would have been wonderful to hear their animated discussion.

I went out for a drink later and as I returned to the hotel I noticed John Toshack walking down the other side of the road with a small boy trotting alongside him. A few years ago I went to a function in Swansea and John's son Cameron was there so I asked him did your father take you to the final in Paris (he would have been about 11 years old at the time) and he looked at me and smiled and said Yes, how the Hell did you know that ?

It was a wonderful trip I will treasure for the rest of my life.

[Cafe De Paris]

Really good read FB. I was only 11 but remember the goal half the family sitting on the couch watching it and the other half in Paris then scaring the cat as we all screamed when the goal went it.  One thing I have from that time was Radio City produced t shirts to celebrate our 3rd European Cup, “Liverpool win it again” with a fairly big radio city badge on it also. But back then the club didn’t produce anything. But it was nice to wear around Bootle as an 11 year old pissing the blues off at the same time. Nothings changes there hey.
Allez Les Rouges.

[Thepooloflife]

Some great tales here about 81 - FB & Pistolero, love that ! I went on the train to Dover too, then ferry/train to Paris - can't remember if it was midnight from Lime street though.....ah, well it was a long time ago ! But I do remember meeting some great people on those trains !

What I vaguely remember is, I think the train was one of them ones with separate compartments seating six, with luggage racks above, a sliding door and corridor outside the length of the carriage. I was on my own but ended up in a compartment with some great Reds, some part of a family but great fun ! Never got a wink of sleep as we just drank and sang the whole night....or at least what I remember of it !

Managed to grab some kip on the ferry over to Calais before boarding the train to Paris - which I can't remember much about to be honest....must have been asleep. On arrival at Gare do Nord, I remember going to a few bars nearby with the group I met on the train - a few beers then cheapo red wine....which did me in a bit, ha !

After that it was off to the game, but somehow I'd lost the group so made my own way to the stadium - and the CRS with their dogs were out in force, smacking anyone within reach of their extra-long batons....bastards ! I remember swapping scarves with a young Real Madrid supporter about 12 years old, who came up to me with his dad - very polite and perfect English. Never forget the smile on that young lads face - to me it showed the esteem Liverpool were held in, even then.....still got that RM scarf. But, when I got home, my mother-in-law was furious as she'd knitted mine, ha (yeah, I know  ..)....a great long red and white bar scarf !

The scenes after Barney scored were like nothing on earth....absolutely mad ! Then Thommo and the boys lifting Big Ears - fantastic !!

Great memories - let's hope for similar this time......'Those were the days my friend, we took the Stretford End.....'