Montreuil

Today's journey began early with a two-bus trip to the airport for a 10:30 flight to Paris. On the plane was our new recruit F, and we travelled into Paris together. An Italian who had never visited the city, he wanted to see the sights, so got off at Gare du Nord. I took the familiar route on RERs B, A and then to the end of line 9, where a 10-minute walk took me to the house of our friends G&D in Montreuil. D showed me around the new annexe that they've had built into the space above the entrance to the courtyard of their old house. He introduced me to the stray kitten they've adopted - much to the disgust of their middle-aged Maine Coons (see extra) - and then we toured the garden.

With an hour to spare before G was due back from teaching, D and I had a quick spin around the local area on bikes. D had his own, but I had my first experience of a "Vélibre", and an electric one at that! Half way around we stopped off to drink a vin chaud outside a bar overlooking the Parc de Belleville.

Back in Montreuil, G was home and, after chatting, we went out for beer and couscous at a familiar local bistro. Long before we'd had time to catch up I had to leave to travel to the BnB southwest of Paris, where I'll be based for the next three nights.