Drunk teenager goes out in Oldham, wakes up in Paris

Luke Harding got trashed and bought a £170 ticket to Charles de Gaulle airport at 3am.


We’ve all experienced that moment of waking up in an unfamiliar place after a night out – whether it’s someone else’s bed or in a field.

But spare a thought for the hapless British teenager who found himself in PARIS after a night out in Oldham.

Luke sent Snapchats from outside the Arc de Triomphe

Luke Harding is nursing the mother of all hangovers and an empty wallet after waking up in Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, after booking a flight on his phone, following a raucous night on the tiles in Oldham.

Luke told The Academy breakfast show how a few casual pre-drinks with some mates soon escalated.

He said: “I went out after work and we just decided that we were going to go out… it was just a normal night. Then we went to the club and that, nothing out of the ordinary.”

But at 2.30am Luke and his mate decided to leave the Tokyo Project nightclub in Oldham and head home.

“By this point I was absolutely plastered so I said to the taxi and got this notification saying ‘Cheap flights to Paris.’ So I thought ‘oh I fancy a trip to Paris, I fancy seeing the Eiffel tower.’”

The well-oiled teenager then told his taxi driver to take him to Terminal 3 at Manchester airport after booking a return ticket to Paris on his phone. Too embarrassed to admit the truth of his drunken antics, Luke pretended he was a junior doctor going to Paris to deliver some medical equipment.

Metal-sheet worker Luke boarded the Flybe red eye flight to Paris at 6am: “I walked up to the [check in] desk and said as little as possible…and then I took a picture of the flight and sent to all my mates saying ‘going to Paris hahaha’”

However, it didn’t turn out to be as glamorous as he imagined. 500 miles later and Luke recalls how he woke up “to the sound of a Frenchman taking a poo in the cubicle next to me.”

He did manage to do a spot of sight-seeing whilst he was there, notifying his friends on Twitter that he was “Sat outside the arc de triumph [sic] eating a croissant.”

Judging by his Twitter feed, Luke has a penchant for wild nights 

He added: “It’s fucking expensive here though. Mum thinks I’m a pillock. Walked past the Eiffel Tower 3 times! Not a clue where I am!”

And the bon viveur had to dish out £170 to get back to Manchester. 12 hours later, Luke’s escapades had cost him a mighty total of £300 – the equivalent of 100 pints of lager.

It seems Luke has a history of drunken ventures – his Twitter timeline is littered with tales of getting “smashed” and photos of him drunkenly falling on pavements.

Sadly, since his beer-goggled Parisian voyage Luke has been made redundant – someone give the man a job.