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As the plane touched down at Gatwick Airport I realised, with a sense of satisfaction, that I had "made it" and I remembered how it started.

One evening last March, someone in the Ward above mine opened a door. A radio was on and I could hear the dreamy voice of Ella Fitzgerald singing "April in Paris." As the door slammed shut, I sud-denly thought -- April in Paris -- why not? I had been to Brighton and Southend last year, so why not try something more ambi-tious? We could fly to Paris, something I had always wanted to do. Surely it would not be all that difficult to arrange, but, as it turned out, this was the understate-ment of the year.

Owing to the extent of my disability -- I am a respiratory polio, paralysed from the neck down (which is preferable to being paralysed from the neck up) -- it was going to be necessary to take a considerable amount of equipment. Not least were a port-able respirator, 12 volt batteries, a port-able suction machine, oxygen and a wheel-chair. It was impractical for me to stay overnight in Paris, which meant we had to get there and back in one day.

We fixed the date for the last Fri-day in April. My first idea was to hire the same car which I had used on previous occasions and fly it over by Silver City Airways, with me inside. When I looked into this, I discovered that there is no car ferry di-rect to Paris, only as far as the coast. So, with a 175 mile drive after that, we would get there just in time to start home. So we had to think again.

At this point it was considered advis-able to bring in some outside assistance, so I got in touch with the Travel Depart-ment of the British Red Cross. They were extremely helpful, but more and more com-plications mounted up. In the end, we de-cided to throw expense to the winds, fly over in a chartered aircraft and send the car over by sea the day before. Then we all sat back and waited for the day.

But, alas, the French, or was it the Algerians, decided to have a revolu-tion. Consequently, we had to post-pone our trip. The next convenient date for everyone was in June. "Everyone" meant the car hire peo-ple, the Aircraft Co., and those coming with me -- a doctor, a nursing sister, a physiotherapist and a hospital porter.

Flying over Paris was an experience I do not think I shall ever forget, and somehow the haze which covered the city made it even more im-pressive. Above the haze I could see the Eiffel Tower. I wondered, would we manage to get to the top?

We had a hectic six hours' sightseeing ahead of us, so as we left Le Bourget by car to drive to the cen-ter of Paris we made sure our first stop would be to sample some French cuisine. This we did at the fash-ionable Bagatelle restaurant (above).

It is not everyday, I am sure, that the Eiffel Tower has to cope with the likes of us, so we warned there of our intended arrival by telephoning from the restaurant, This was a job for the interpreter, our French vocabulary being confined to about a dozen words between us.

After lunch we did a quick tour of the city, taking in Notre-Dame, the Left Bank, Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. In order for me to be able to go up the Eiffel Tower, I had to change from the stretcher on which I had been travelling to my wheel-chair. This feat was performed in the courtyard of the British Embassy.

At the Eiffel Tower, we entered the first of the three lifts that were to take us to the top -- 1e etage, 2e etage, 3e etage, et voila (see cut). I was struck by the magnificent view of the French capital. There were buildings everywhere, lining the narrow streets and the crowded boulevards. Look-ing from this great height I could pick out Notre-Daxne, The Invalides, the Sorbonne, The Louvre, Sacré-Coeur, and winding its way through the city into the distance, the Seine. This was Paris -- Paris, the city of grandeur and gaiety.

As the deafening roar of the engines gradu-ally died away and the aircraft came to a standstill, I could hardly believe I had been so far and seen so much in such a short space of time. In another hour or so I would be back in my iron lung and the day's adventure would be over.