Good Company - Queen Fanfiction

Chapter 5

March 3rd, 1979

Carrie wakes me up nice and early so we are packed up and ready to go before 9 AM. This is rather surprising considering that I am far more of a morning person than she. When I leave my room she is already having breakfast and has her suitcase at the door, ready to go. Just as I sit down with my food Carrie bombards with me with suggestions about when we do things to get the best stuff done with time to do more. We talk it over for a bit and are now heading to the Louvre for a couple of hours and then going to the Eiffel tower. We are planning on getting a lunch to have at the Champ de Mars, then going to the airport and heading home. I call Marc to tell him and he is going to meet us for lunch which will be nice I suppose.

We are in the taxi and only a few minutes from getting to the gallery. It isn't quite 9 o'clock yet, so it won't be open, but Carrie wants to be able to get in before the crowds get huge during the day. We arrive and Carrie excitedly runs over to the building and tells me to take photos. I can't help but laugh at her childish excitement, but I take out the camera and snap a couple of photos. Hopefully they turn out alright, I've never really had the eye for photography. We walk towards the building and the lights are on inside. My watch says there is only a few minutes until opening time, and Carrie spends those jabbering on about all sorts of random things.

There is a small crowd of people waiting to come in by the time it opens, but Carrie and I are one of the first so we have plenty of time to go to the best paintings first. The Mona Lisa is our first stop as Carrie decides she doesn't want to go on the guided tour because there are so many people going on it that we won't be able to see anything. Because of this we just wander around for a couple of hours, admiring all the amazing artwork. I love making art, the satisfaction that comes from finishing a work is so fulfilling. I did 'traditional' art when I was at school, but university showed me all of the different ways of creating. My favourite is street art. I love how there are strong messages about politics or social justice incorporated into these often huge and complex pieces. There's something about it that makes me love making it, but you can't disagree that 'classic' art is absolutely breath taking.

For most of our visit Carrie is in disbelief that many of these paintings and statues are over hundreds of years old. "But how do they look as good as this?" She'd asks. Every. Single. Time. She has never taken all that much interest in art before, but she has always been a born tourist. Her mum always tells stories of when she was little and would ask for pictures whenever they went somewhere new. The poses are always the best bit, and the red ears of embarrassment that comes with it.

I have only been to the Louvre once before with Marc about a year ago and I have forgotten how big it is. Somehow we have managed to get through it all pretty speedily and are leaving the grand old place at a quarter to twelve. Carrie is positively buzzing and can't shut up about how much she loves it for the whole ride to the Eiffel Tower. When we get there, about half past twelve, we decide to go to the place where Marc was meeting us because he will most likely be there by now.

Carrie and I walk over to the big stretch of grass and search for Marc. We look all over the whole field and he is nowhere in sight.

"Oh well, he'll probably be here soon. Probably stuck in traffic. Everyone is always out and about on Saturdays." Carrie says, sitting on the ground gazing up at the tower.

"Yeah, probably." I mutter.

"You're very quiet all of a sudden, Alex. Why? Is something wrong?" Carrie asks, a slightly worried expression on her face as she looks at me.

"Oh it's nothing. I'm just... tired. Yeah, tired." I say very unconvincingly.

"Well if you need to talk about it, I'm always here." she says giving me a warm smile.