It’s always a lovely time to visit Paris but spring is particularly nice. We just went for a short visit to catch up with friends and collect my parents from the airport.

I always enjoy the Haussmann style buildings which are so emblematic of Paris. I was reading recently that to create these lovely avenues and buildings they knocked down lots of poorer and older sections of Paris and basically left those people homeless. Haussmann ran out of time to finish on the left bank which is why there are still lots of smaller streets around St Michel.

We stayed just near the kids old school and it was the last day of term. We were just working out the car parking and a friendly lady walked past and asked if we needed help!

We walked around some familiar places. The grass on the champ de mars was still having its ‘winter rest’ so you can’t walk on it. We noticed quite a few new coffee places more in the Australian style and a few new dog toy shops!

It’s always a great pleasure to catch up with friends and we had some lovely dinners and lunches during our short visit.

Still no drop in petrol prices and people are getting cranky. It’s about 1.95€ per litre. The news is full of the Middle East crisis.

Stopped off at a chateau on the way home.

It has lots of furniture, clothing and items from the local areas and is only a few kilometres from the village that inspired Madame Bovary. I had visited a few years ago but it was new for the others.