"MacLeod has a barge just across from Notre Dame." - Kalas, Finale
Sometimes, you just get plain lucky. I was in Paris on holiday in July 1997 and, jokingly, I'd wondered if I'd see them filming any of Season 6. Well, Lady Luck smiled and I was fortunate enough to see them filming part of "Avatar", the Season 6 opener. The images on this page are taken from the photographs my companion and I took and have been blown up to 640x480 during the scanning process. If they seem a little fuzzy, we plead that we didn't have telephoto lenses and these are the best we have to offer, and they are the best bits - some, such as the one of Adrian and Jim, represent only about a third of the original snap, which had a lot of background and only a little of them.
As always, click on the thumbnails to download the larger image, to which you will see I've added the same Highlander-style logo as I've used above. Reproduction of the photographs, logos and text on this and all pages of this website for any commercial use whatsoever is forbidden.
So, there we were, doing the tourist bit on the Ile de la Cite, when Companion looks up river and, with a shriek of "the barge is there!", takes off like an Olympic sprinter. Considering she had one foot in plaster a few weeks previously, she didn't half have a good turn of speed. The four photos above are, from left to right:
 | Our first view of them filming. Passers-by not in the know must have thought we were escaped lunatics. |
| Taken from the Quai. The two small figures sat in chairs next to the jeep-thingy, basking in the sun, are Jim Byrnes and, behind him, Adrian Paul. |
| Taken from across the river and oh, for a telephoto lens! Adrain and Jim, a.k.a. Duncan and Joe at that moment, are filming the scene from early in Avatar when Joe tries to give Duncan his katana back and the Highlander is having none of it. They are on the left, at the jeep-thingy. |
| After filming, we saw them again. Adrian was sat under the trees and it was a good opportunity to confirm that he had kept his hair short for this season. |
| Taken from a tourboat on the river on the second day, Jim Byrnes goes on board. Note the sheeting on the barge windows - filming was taking place inside and, from what Jim is wearing, it looks like they may have been filming the extra tag scene shown in the Euro-version. |
| A long shot, showing Adrian coming off the boat in the afternoon. They were filming a dream sequence that ended up in the Eurominutes for the episode. |
| Adrian and Jim had a well rehearsed routine going for autographs, using each other's backs as a writing desk. |
| Dunno who these guys are.... |
| Companion gets up close and personal with a sweaty Jim Byrnes. Purely historical interest. |
| Adrian talking with some of the production crew. |
| Time to carry on filming. Notice the blackouts now on the windows - this was because they were doing the dream sequence. |
| When people were taking too long to get back on board, Adrian stopped and said "Are we going or what?" Jim Byrnes, who had stopped for a quick snack on a piece of melon, was the only one who seemed not to be too ruffled by this, but everyone else seemed to jump to it. Whatever 'it' is. |
So there you have it, a piece of sheer luck for a "Highlander"fan. During the time I was there, we also did the tourist sights, (if they'd been in an episode - Darius' chapel, Shakespeare and Co, that sort of thing), and joined in the Bastille Day celebrations. I been back to Paris a few times now and, despite the fact that it's all a fond memory, there's a kind of magic there still.
