A chance encounter outside a Paris brasserie salvaged a couple's trip to last month's Champions League final.
Sheila Callaghan, 63, and her husband Duncan, 58, had always wanted to go to Paris. The couple run Moules a go-go - a bar and bistro in Chester and when they opened the restaurant 23 years ago, Duncan bought a print of "Glance" by American photographer Peter Turnley to hang on a wall.
In the photo, a French woman is standing at the bar and glancing out of the door of La Brasserie de l'Isle Saint-Louis in central Paris. The couple love the picture and Peter Turnley's work, which depicts all manners of life in the French capital.
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Duncan had told Sheila that he would take her to Paris one day and they would visit the restaurant. When they were successful in securing tickets for Liverpool's Champions League final against Real Madrid at Paris' Stade de France, they set about doing so.
Arriving a day before the game, the couple set about fulfilling their tourist dreams in Paris, taking plenty of photos and wandering around the Seine. The brasserie was just a two-minute walk from their accommodation and Sheila and Duncan, who grew up in Greasby and West Kirby, quickly decided that they wanted to recreate the picture that has been hanging in their Cheshire restaurant for over two decades.
Sheila told the ECHO : "This brasserie was literally in the next road from where we were staying. We went a couple of times and then got talking to the waiter, who said ‘I will take a picture for you if you want'.
"The waiter took a couple of pictures and Duncan took a picture and we thought that was the end of the story. We were so happy to have recreated the photo.
"We made it black and white like the original and we were really pleased with it. I’m 63 though, I’m not going to look like her."
With the photo in the bag, attention then turned to Saturday's final. However, like many Reds, Sheila and Duncan had an arduous time at the final itself.
After queuing for over three hours, Duncan and Sheila eventually got into the stadium - although she said the experience left her traumatised. Sheila said: "The experience at the Stade de France was absolutely dreadful.
" Duncan and I would happily have walked the 10 miles back to the safety of our hotel if we could have got out. It really did kill what should have been a magical experience of being there in a fabulous city that had really entranced us when we arrived.
"I was so excited for the game but it just turned all sour. We didn’t know where to turn, we were being shoved this way and that. It was just horrific.
"I really wanted to get in, but you just thought that it was not going to have a good ending."
In order to lift their spirits after the match, Sheila and Duncan spent the following day sight-seeing in the city. Their flight home was not until 10pm, so they returned to the brasserie, where their evening was struck by an incredible coincidence.
Sheila said: "We were downtrodden and feeling awful after the game. We thought we’d go back to La Brasserie de l'Isle Saint-Louis and wait for our flight.
"It’s right by a bridge over the Seine. We were sitting there and having a little Aperol. Each time we’d been there, I’d been looking at every white-haired man to see if Peter himself was there.
"So, I could not believe it as Peter Turnley walked very slowly across the front of the restaurant and then stood on the bridge. I went running over and Duncan shouted ‘where are you going?’ and I said ‘that’s him’.
"I recognised him immediately, ran over to him and blurted out the story. I showed him on my phone how we’d recreated his photo.
"He then said he would come over to us, so I came back and told Duncan that he was coming over, to which Duncan said ‘oh my god, I can’t believe what you’ve done’.
"But he was just so lovely and he was excited about what we’d done. Duncan told him the whole story and then he said ‘well then let’s get a couple of pics of you two then’.
"He took my phone and took some photos of us outside and then he said ‘come on let’s do the picture’. I had bulbous eyes from the night before crying. I quickly got my lipstick on for the shot.
"Obviously he knows the people in there, he was talking French, moved everything off the bar and he knew exactly where I had to stand. He took about three shots and said ‘I think we’ve got it now’.
"He then said ‘just look out for your lover’ because the original picture is called ‘Glance’.
"It was a fantastic case of being in the right place at the right time. I honestly can’t believe that he was there."
Duncan and Sheila have their recreated version of 'Glance' hanging in their home. It acts as a reminder of how a chance encounter salvaged what otherwise would have been a weekend to forget.
