Paris H3 1000th Hash...

After a sushi lunch, we walked to Vicennes Forest for the start of the Paris H3 1000th Celebration Hash, the one hash event that was actually conveniently located near our hotel. 

The weather was nice for early March with clear skies.

This was Brett’s first non-family friendly hash as the Exeter Hash doesn’t swear or sing songs, so he didn’t really know what to expect. 

For this special run, the RA awarded one lucky hasher the dubious honor of wearing a hot pink Eiffel Tower dildo during trail. 

Any need to even guess who won that honor?

And he clearly wore it proudly. 

While we all knew that COVID-19 was starting to raise its ugly head in Europe, we still all felt comfortable in a large group and had no way of knowing that this would be the last large European hash weekend through at least the fall and possibly for the rest of 2020. 

The trail was entirely in the giant park and was very scenic. Here are Just Brett and Comes Too Soon coming into the beer break. Little did he know that his girlfriend’s mother was about to change his life.

I had already talked to the RA to suggest that we name Just Brett as this was his first adult hash and he was shacked up with his girlfriend’s parents. 

However, when I got up to say a few words about Brett, I fumbled my words and made a major mistake. Instead of mentioning moisture since he worked as a climate scientist, I said moist. When I said he was shacking up with us and mentioned incest, his fate was sealed. 

Brett took it all in stride as he was covered in flour and drenched in beer and forever more to be known as Moist Incest. Not one of my better namings, but at least there’s a good story to go with it. 

He was an excellent sport through the whole thing and even got a headband from a hasher who took pity on him. Lucky for him, Veronica was willing to help him clear the flour out of his curls. 

Colorful Paris Pub Crawl...

Veronica and Brett decided to skip the pub crawl and wandered around the city instead.

Love this shot she captured of the pyramid at the Louvre.

The pub crawl was actually a stroll around Montmartre in small groups as all of the pubs that we stopped at were much too small to accommodate 125 of us, other than the Irish pub where we started and ended. While I don’t have any photos of hashers from that evening, I do have some of the colorful sites along the way. 

We ended in a park with a view of Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower for down-downs and junk food. 

Couldn’t help but laugh at this sink at the final pub. Notice anything missing?

Loved how the art deco sign above the subway looked with the cloudy sky as a backdrop. 

These colorful chairs on the subway platform looked more decorative than comfortable.

Looks like the taggers ran out of wall space so they resorted to defacing the escalators.

Sacre Coeur...

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (aka Sacre Coeur) was built in 1914 at Paris’ highest point. 

We went inside for the first time since 2006. It really is a lovely church...

...with some cool stained glass...

...and an impressive dome.

I wish I could remember why this particular angle made Jimmy and me giggle...but perhaps it’s just because we’re heathens. 

Luckily we weren’t struck down by lightning and there was even some blue skies peaking out when we exited this grand church. 

Montmartre...

On March 6, Jimmy and I took the Thalys to Paris where we met up with Veronica and Brett, whom Jimmy was excited to finally get to meet. Finding an affordable room for four in Paris wasn’t easy, so we cheated and squeezed into a room with two double beds that was slated just for two guests at a hotel on the outskirts of the city. After dropping off our stuff, we headed to Montmartre to the registration desk for the Paris Hash House Harriers 1000th Weekend and then to a vegan restaurant for dinner. 

Along the way, we saw this goofy looking guy... 

...this sweet pink café...

...loads of birds sitting in front of this tiny theater...

...and lots of locks of love.

This style of lock always cracks us up as it doesn’t use a key, which is counter to the whole point of locks of love that the couple is supposed to throw away the key because their love will last forever.

Clearly Veronica and Brett were looking at Jimmy when I took this photo.

Here’s the impressive view that was behind them, looking downhill from Sacre Coeur. 

Carnaval in Tilburg...

After the circle and dinner back at Pink’s, a bunch of us put on our costumes and headed into the Carnaval madness before returning to Pink’s for a slumber party. 

Little did I know when I was laughing at this guy’s effort to be the Coronavirus that the Tilburg Carnaval celebrations actually ended up being ground zero for the virus in the Netherlands as one guy who attended Carnaval apparently brought it back from skiing in Italy. Luckily for our group, we all stayed healthy. 

While Jimmy and I were dressed alike, it was hard to see my costume since I wore a coat. He was happy to pose with this lovely mermaid. 

Here’s Jesus posing with Jesus.

Jessica, dressed as Jessie from Toy Story, was happy when she found Woody, her co-star and love interest.

We were all sad that the parade scheduled for the following day was postponed due to predicted high winds. To make matters worse, because Tilburg was hit hard by COVID-19, the parade ended up completely cancelled. It was raining when we woke up that morning, so after breakfast we just went home. 
 

Hashing in Tilburg...

On February 22, we headed to Tilburg for yet another Carnaval Hash and started our day once again by getting some culture. First we had lunch in a café in an old train car and then went to the incredible Lochal Library, which opened in 2019 in a building from 1932 built for the maintenance and repair of trains. 

This cool industrial place now houses 120,000 books, a digital lab and an exhibition space.

Sadly, somehow I managed to lose all the photos I took, but at least Jimmy had a few on his phone. Guess I have a good excuse to go back. 

Afterwards, we went to the Textile Museum, which photos are also missing, and the De Pont Museum, where these two photos were taken. 

Eventually we made it to Pink’s house, where the hash started. Considering this was my third time hashing from this same spot, I was very impressed with how different this trail was, which was set once again by Just the Tip. Here we are crossing the river on a ferry that operates by a hand-crank. 

Jimmy was sure to document that I even played along and went across these stumps.

Jesus found the perfect seat during our beer stop. Luckily the beer wasn’t stolen this year.