Paris before we part

It's 8.00am and I'm feeling as nervous as I can remember.

Jennifer and I have had a great time in Paris and wanting to spend our last days together before we part the blog hasn't been updated for a couple of days.

Our journey from Market Harborough was smooth, taking the 11:12 train and arriving in Paris at 16:47, French time. It's only the second time that we've taken the Eurostar and the first since it began to operate from St Pancras. The line across Kent is now as fast as that in northern France and I calculated that the train covered a whole day's walking distance in about four minutes.

We queued for a taxi, which brought us to our hotel, in the 7th Arrondisement.

Our plan for the first evening was to eat and then to go to the top of the Tour Montparnasse, where there are fabulous views across the city. We changed for dinner and set off on foot.

We settled on the rather pricey Restaurant Josephine ('Chez Dumonet') in Rue du Cherche. It was clearly an up-market place, judging from the types eating there. No tourists, but well-to-do Parisiens. The menu confused us and we almost ordered two main courses each by mistake. We settled on just a Cassoulet de Maison for me and a Petit Canard for Jennifer.

The wine list was the most intimidating I've ever come across. I scoured it to find the cheaper wines and chose a 2004 Languedoc but I could have selected one of the many finer Bordeaux which were listed at over 5000 euros per bottle!

It was a shock when the waiter brought out the cassoulet in a huge pot and set it beside my plate. Cassoulet is a traditional peasant's dish - this would have fed half a village.

Jennifer's canard was anything but petit as well.

We struggled on but there was no way we were going to finish these. We shared a cheese plate - again enormous, to finish.

The elevators in the Tour Montparnasse are the fastest in Europe and took us to the 56th floor in 37 ear-popping seconds. We emerged into a bar with panoramic views but the real treat came after climbing the final three flights to the roof-top terrace. It has uninterrupted 360 degree views across the whole city, with its millions of lights. The Eiffel Tower was splendidly lit. From its top a rotating searchlight scanned the skyline every 30 seconds. At 11.00pm the Eiffel Tower flickered into a dazzling light show of its own for five minutes, as thousands of xenon bulbs flashed around the whole structure.

Yesterday we breakfasted at the nearby patisserie and then walked to the Musee d'Orsay. The museum is a wonderfully converted railway station and now houses a fabulous collection of art, including lots of impressionist paintings. We enjoyed the works of Monet, Gaugin, Pissaro, Lautrec, Renoir, Cezanne, Signac, Degas and many others.

I recognised some of the most famous paintings, including one or two which we had in our Wolverhampton home as prints which were all the fashion in the late 1980s.

But there were many surprises too. I loved the joy and exuberance of Renoir's Bal du Moulni de la Galette, full of youthful fun. By contrast, the woman in Degas' Au cafe du l'Absinthe looks pitifully sad in contemplation of her life. Caillebotte's Raboteurs de parquet, depicted men hard at work striping the floors of an apartment.

It seemed to me that one of the significant elements of impressionism is the everyday subject matter. Who would have thought that a group of floor-strippers would make subjects for a fabulous painting? I relished these celebrations of the ordinary.

We bought a picnic lunch and ate it in the sunshine on the embankment of the river, watching the boats.

We then walked through the Tuilleries Gardens, pausing for a while at one of the fountains to sit and people-watch.

In the evening we dined at Au Pied du Fouet, a tiny two-storey restaurant in Rue Babylone, just yards from the hotel. It was a big contrast to the previous night and a lovely treat. Every table was taken, and the cramped interior was filled with conversation. Jennifer had an assiette de saucisson seche followed by fish curry. I had a salade de lentilles followed by roast veal. Jennifer had a chocolate fondant and we shared a plate of cheeses.

We honeymooned in Paris in 1986 and it was lovely to return. Paris hasn't lost any of its charm and I'm so thankful that Jennifer and I are still as much in love as we were back then.

And here we are, about to set off for Notre-Dame and our parting. I've got to sort out my rucksack and separate the holiday clothes from the walking gear.

I'm thinking of the folk at home and the Annual Parochial Church Meeting tonight. I think it's the first in about twenty-three years that I've missed.