Partant du bon pied

Putting my best foot forward

Spend any more than 5 minutes in my company and you will learn that I used to live in Paris.  Although I returned to the UK over 30 years ago, my 6 years there remain as fresh and cherished in my mind as when I arrived at a friend's apartment in le Marais with £400 in travellers' cheques and a single suitcase.  It was Easter 1981.  By May I had a job and by June I had a studio apartment of my own: j'étais parisienne.

Paris is such a beautiful city that simply walking around, taking in the sights - and I don't mean the tourist attractions like the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe or the Sacré Cœur, lovely as they are - never failed to lift my spirits, and was one of my great pleasures.

Priorities change over the years.  Responsibilities fill up the free spaces in our lives and it can be hard to find time for the simple pleasures we once took for granted.  In 2019 I intend to return to Paris on foot, virtually running and walking the 222.2 miles from my front door in Southampton to my old home in the 11th arrondissement of the city I still love.  I hope you will join me for some of the way.