We have been blessed in many, many ways over our years of travelling. Rescheduled flights, technical issues, late departures and overnight delays - could be counted on the fingers of one hand (ferries... that's a different matter entirely). But when it comes to French trains, we are often cursed. In fact if we have a booking... it almost certainly predicts a train strike that day. But today everything went 100% smoothly. Left Gare St Lazare in Paris on the butt...

Paris - Yay! Our fifth visit to this fine city and we really did think we'd be scrabbling for things to do. Hah! Never! The train from Brussels was a breeze and we were reminded of the ever present security threat as soon as we jumped off the train in the Gare du Nord and a young male of middle Eastern appearance with a small suitcase was immediately pulled aside for a 'random' check. We considered treating ourselves to a taxi to the hotel, only 1.5 km (thankfull...