Having a son and daughter-in-law living in Paris makes it essential to carry out one’s family duties. The city of light always surprises me when I flip back through old sketchbooks. There is no need for captions; even the obscure sketches could not be anywhere else.

The first few days in Paris always consist of lots of walking and sore feet. There seems to be an obligation to keep going, to keep inhaling those places and experiences. To return to old favourites (Notre Dame, the Marais) and to venture further afield.

This trip we made a pilgrimage from Paris to Giverny to visit Monet’s Studio and garden. His studio has recently been restored to a facsimile of its state on his death. Paintings that he had on the walls around him (there must have been 40 at least) had been convincingly reproduced, and his easel and chairs arranged just so.

We met several fellow Australian travellers, some by chance and other meetings were planned. Paris knows how to be a people city, and one stand out for me was technological- the electric car share scheme which is a model for the world (autolib).