Girls' night

Every Wednesday night, my favourite girlfriends and I all group together with the sole aim of having a good laugh and natter, all in the name of “Girls’ night”.  “Here we go again”, “get in line with the thousands of other Carrie Bradshaw wannabes”, I hear you say.  But it’s not like that.

Whilst I genuinely do call these girls my “actual” friends now, we are yet to obtain the closely-knit bond that the SATC girls have (SATC is short for Sex and the City, a popular TV series).   However, for us, girls' night represents something else.  You see, Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte (the SATC girls, if you’re not already familiar with them) have known each other since the day dot.  They already know the ins and outs of every aspect of each other’s lives ... yes, every aspect.  For us girls here in Lyon, it’s slightly different.  We all moved here around 5 months ago now and that’s the only thing we really knew about each other.  However, thanks to girls' night, this is no longer the story.

We meet religiously every Wednesday night eagerly awaiting that week’s onslaught of gossip about absolutely everything and anything.  This week, for example, we met at a fancy restaurant in the increasingly popular hotel chain Mama Shelter and had yet another splendid evening. 

Girls' night enables us to really get to know one-another and provides a sneak peak into the other’s lives before they came to France.   Yes, I could quite easily (and have) fired up my laptop and had a good old-fashioned Facebook stalk on the girls.  But, although this did provide a few obligatory giggles at my girlfriends’ expense, it failed to share the story behind the chocolate cake smothered all over Laura’s face, the reason for Sophie’s awful full fringe/bangs (there is no valid excuse, by the way) or even the pink velour tracksuit bottoms Hannah promises were all the rage in the 90s. 

So whilst girls’ night may just seem like yet another reason for us girls to get together and have a good gossip, it’s the girls I’m sharing it with and the bond that we’re building that really makes it what it is.

So here’s to my favourite Lyon gal pals: Franny, Lucy, Martha and Laura for sharing this adventure with me and making Wednesday nights all that more fun!