Well, I'm back!  The reason I went to Paris:  some time ago my daughter- in- law and I thought we'd like a couple of nights in Paris - so we organised it.  Then about 6 weeks ago she was given a date for major surgery for last Wednesday,(the week we should have been going away), so we cancelled our plans.  Mid morning on Wednesday - I receive a phone call from Nicky who said that the hospital had 'forgotten' to put her name on the surgeon's list!! The surgeon and Nicky were mortified - and the op will now take place this week.  In the meantime, somewhere deep in my filing system lay two non-flexible Eurostar tickets for the next day. So I said....."come on, let's go - so we did!! We had a great time and laughed until we cried. In my panic to find a bed, I rang the wrong hotel...it was the hotel from hell!!  NEVER go to the Richmond or New hotels near Gare du Nord!!!.A catalogue of bad things - so bad they were hilarious - that is until I got out of a very squishy, smokey bed next morning and my back went!!  I won't bore you with all the details, but some were: we were shoved into a neighbouring hotel, workmen everywhere, shower and bath plug didn't work, only one sheet and blanket on bed so I was cold....and two phone calls at 4.0 am (presumably an early call for someone who must have missed their flight!!)  It was so funny for us - because we had already been awake half the night - had just gone to sleep when the phone rang...I was in a deep sleep and I heard Nicky say, in an extremely calm voice, "go away...".  When I asked (in my stupor) who it was, she replied "a french woman".  I could not work out why a french woman would be ringing us in the middle of the night, and then it dawned on me that we were in France!!  Needless to say, first thing next morning I hobbled across the road to the Hotel I thought I had rung (where we have been several times before) and pleaded for a room.  Luckily for us, they had one....so the next night was spent in complete luxury - and I got £20 knocked off the hovel bill.  Mind you - it did give us a lot of laughs....my back is mending...and we had a great time.  My first port of call in Paris is always La Droguerie  a wonderful haberdashery shop...I love the french shops and show a few images here.  More tomorrow.....and thank you everyone for your lovely comments x