This Is Paris Calling

Well, it's already Day Four in Paris and this is the first chance I've had to record any details about the trip. We had a totally trouble-free journey over here by Eurostar and arrived amidst the pre-holiday hub-bub of the Gare du Nord. Within minutes, Imogen (daughter number one) came by in a taxi on her way from Gare du Lyon where her train from Geneva had arrived a short time earlier. She picked us up with our huge pile of luggage. We had four ordinary suitcases, two steamer trunks, three portmanteaux, two hatboxes and a valise – the poor taxi driver was horrified. Indeed, this amount of luggage was to cause ourselves some consternation too, when we discovered that Sophie (daughter number two) had taken a delightful yet bijou apartment in Montmartre which was on the fourth floor and with no lift!

However, successfully installed at last, we relaxed with some Christmas Eve drinks. On Christmas morning we ventured up to the Sacré Coeur to do some shopping, partake of a vin chaud and take in the sights. I was given a lift up there on Sophie's scooter – an essential mode of transport when wishing to dodge the crowds and the high volumes of traffic. With total disregard to one-way streets and pedestrian-only areas, Sophie weaved her way up the cobbled hills and there we met up with Imogen and her mother on the steps of the famous church. The weather was gloriously sunny, if cold.

On Boxing Day, Sophie was back at work in the newsroom of the TV station where she is a journalist, so we travelled out to les banlieus to visit her. Her colleagues are all very charming and cosmopolitan and we even bumped into Clovis, Sophie's boyfriend, looking startled in his studio make-up because he'd just come off-air. We then went to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch where we drank Lebanese wine – delicious, and I can't wait to tell Johnny in Shaw's about it when I return to Broad Street. Later, Clovis came back to the apartment where we ate dinner, drank more wine and played darts. Later still, Sophie showed us an article she'd written about President Ahmadinejad's alternative Christmas Message to the British which was shown on Channel Four in the UK. It was a pity I missed it – but then I also missed the Queen's Speech too, so that doesn't matter.

The holidays are soon over and before long, it will be back to work for us all (ha!). Until the next time....