Brian Dougherty's Euro 2016 blog: Saturday, June 18 - A touch of '˜The Birds' in '˜City of Light'

I look into my glass.

At 7 euro a pint it’s at least a 50-50 call and I take a quick sniff and sip. Nothing seems untoward. For the next two hours a discussion ensues with the locals in District 19’s equivalent of the Cosy Inn bar, as to what it might have been.

With the lack of hard matter in the substance we argue as to whether or not birds urinate. It’s become that type of trip.

What was supposed to be a couple of days of recuperation has simply seen the momentum build.

The euphoria of Lyon continued with the train journey from there to Paris when we fell into the company of a group of supporters from Ballyclare and Belfast.

It’s just myself and Graeme Doc for this leg of the trip. We have found the locals very friendly too. In the aforementioned bar they even allowed us to smoke inside.

They passed Graeme a glass with a clear liquid. ‘Ah is this the local shot’ asks Graeme, putting the glass to his lips. ‘Non, non its some water for your cigarette ash’ shouts the barman!

It hasn’t all been socialising though. We have taken time to walk around this beautiful city, really the only way do it and probably the easiest given that Graeme is colour-blind and Le Metro is more complicated than it really should be.

We did spend time at the fanzone under the Eiffel Tower. For those of you coming out give yourself time. There are three layers of security to get into the zone. Bring your bank card as they don’t deal in cash. Food and drink though is nowhere near as expensive as in the other fanzones.

After the heat and sunshine of Nice, the weather has been more temperamental. After managing to get a bit of colour down there – its back to the long trousers again. My skin colour had gone from blue to off white (magnolia) and is now back to blue!

In Paris we have found that the locals have really embraced the tournament and seem much more knowledgeable about their football than in Nice and Lyon.

Bryan Hastings from Donegal joins us on Sunday for his first experience of the Euros and the former crew of Willis and Philsy as well as my brother and family are all due up from Nice. Scotty Doc is also set to return with his son Sam.

It promises to be quite a final leg as we are on the verge of qualifying for the knock-outs. Maybe it wont be the final leg after all.