I love Paris in the summer, because the French aren't there...

Now I know that sounds bad, so I will explain. In August 50% of Paris escapes to the relative cool of the coast, leaving the city quiet, calm and relatively easy to get a table in. And given the amount of food I ate, that's quite a consideration!

But getting ahead of myself; I left Waterloo on the Saturday of a long weekend and arrived in the early afternoon in Paris, to be met off the train by Bertil (lately of my garden, now relocated to Paris) and my cousin Kelly who lives in Amsterdam. After a short metro journey, we emerged from the underground into the middle of Paris! I love the Eurostar.

Bertil proceeded to spend the next 3 days showing us the whole of Paris, which saw us walking from Sacre Coeur, to the Louvre, to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and all over the Left Bank. In the 29 degree weather this was quite a mission, although we were rewarded with large icecreams at suitable junctures, otherwise I think he would have had another French revolution on his hands!

And yet more food - we ate outside on the streetfront for breakfast, and under the Paris stars in the evenings (I counted them, there were 5), and walked home marvelling at the beauty of the city at night, and how hot it still was. Even at 1am I felt safe walking to my hotel by myself through the Marais - as a female in the predominantly gay district I knew I was pretty safe! Yeah Mum, I was careful...

I definately fell in love with the city, and thanks to Bertil for allowing me to walk around aimlessly while making sure I saw the best of the city. I came back very relaxed, and am already calculating how soon I can get back, if only to learn how to stop myself saying 'si' and 'grazie', when I mean 'oui' and 'merci'!

So back to real life with a bump on Tuesday morning, as I stepped off the Eurostar, walked 5 minutes and arrived at work.

On a side note, congratulations to Gabor and Sarah on the birth of their first son Kaspar, the first of a number of happy events that will be happening over the next few months. Glad to hear everyone is happy and healthy.