No Maiden show would be complete without an appearance of the seventh member of the band and sure enough mascot Eddie appears in all his horrific glory in a moment of sheer comic book brilliance. It was all I could do to tear my eyes away from the stage to look around and witness for myself the pure and universal pleasure that this moment evoked in the crowd, there to see the masters of theatre themselves, Iron Maiden. The relentless pace continued through such timeless highlights as "Can I Play With Madness", "Number Of the Beast", "Run To The Hills", "Fear Of The Dark", and of course Eddie’s moment with the track "Iron Maiden". There are encores and there are encores and this crowd would have literally dismantled the place had the band not reappeared.

To a roar of delight they returned and attacked "Moonchild", "The Clairvoyant" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name" before a truly memorable night came to an all-too-soon end. Collective exhaustion and emotional meltdown was written all over the fans as they trooped away past the busiest merchandise stalls I have ever seen, with many of them wearing Maiden’s trademark t-shirts showing the star of the show, Eddie, in his various incarnations.

Jumping into my car and heading out onto the dreaded Paris Peripherique I suddenly realised that I was traveling at a far greater speed than I had when I had arrived several hours earlier. I felt drained yet thrilled. Enthused yet exhausted. Quite how the band recover in time to do it all again the next evening and then take London’s 55,000 Twickenham Stadium by storm a few short days later is beyond me. That, of course, is what makes Maiden so very different. They never fail to deliver, never fail to put on a high energy show, and are quite simply the hardest working rock band in the world. The age range in the Bercy highlighted that this band need to discover the elixir of youth because the audience will always be there and they can never get enough of all things Maiden.

I finally slowed down and reached for my car’s CD player and flicked on Fear Of The Dark. Proving once and for all that you can never grow tired of Iron Maiden and with a maniacal grin, I drove off into the night.