Bonjour from France. It's been a bit of a mad day so far
. We set off from the BBC Radio Gloucestershire studios in London Road just after 8.30am on Thursday 22nd October a bit bleary eyed after sleepless nights for us both, as we double checked for passports, tickets and ISDN cables. Problems! A short trip to Gloucester station and onto the train - all in good time we thought, not a rush! We were wrong. The train's brakes got stuck and we sat on the platform for 45 minutes while they tried to fix it. During this time, Emma managed to break a pen which leaked blue ink all over her. This wasn't going to be our day. We arrived in Paddington in a bit of a panic - just half an hour to get across the capital to get our Eurostar to Paris. Luckily, we both had our running shoes on, and despite having to leap onto a tube by blocking the doors with the laptop and ending up in different carriages- we made it to Waterloo with minutes to go. After some last minute security checks - with Emma setting off alarms left, right and centre - we made it onto the train
just! France Two hours and a lovely lunch later we left the Channel Tunnel and arrived on French soil to the first blue skies and sunshine we've seen in weeks. Things started to look up. We're sending this diary update from our hotel in the centre of Paris and now the work starts. We've already bumped into some Gloucester fans and they're very confident ahead of the game. They're also looking forward to seeing former player Rodrigo Roncero play for Stade Francais. He came to the French club over the summer from Kingsholm and will be up against former team-mate Phil Vickery in the front row. Right we're off to have a large glass of wine and we'll be letting you know how we got on in our first night in Paris in our next update. Au revoir from the French capital for now!
Kat Brown
Previous diaries: Part 4: Getting ready for the game
Part 3: A busy day in Paris
Part 2: Cookie and Kat in Paris
Part 1: The journey to Paris
Intro: Cookie and Kat go to Paris 
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BBC Radio Gloucestershire's Emma Cook and Kat Brown are heading over to Paris to cover Gloucester's game against Stade Francais. Read the first part of their diary...
