Welcome to Paris.

"O est le commissariat de police?" or for the benefit of non-French speakers like myself, "Where is the police station?". Asked so that one might report the theft of one's passport not 10 mins after arrival in your great city.

Within hours of our arrival we were seeing places few tourists (thankfully) ever see; the inside of the grubby local police station or the heavily guarded British Consulate; and did you know that situated in the shadow of the great Eiffel Tower, within a mere 30 seconds walk is the grand and welcoming Australian Consulate Office? No, nor did we until we were liberated by our Friendly Parisian Pickpocket.

"O est le commissariat de police?"

Not such a great start then; so tired, dismayed and dreading the days of red tape & documentation ahead, we attempted to find a nice veggie friendly restaurant for dinner. Several unsuccessful hours later, and with hungry now added to our list of ails, we gave up and returned very unhappily to our hotel for the night.

Louise x