If we were to go back to Paris now, on a short break or weekend trip perhaps, it wouldn’t be the same as when we just turned up with our artists materials, a few francs and a thirst for knowledge.  For one thing the informal street painters scene is a lot more tightly regulated than it was  back in the day when you had to take Paris breaks by Ferry because the Eurostar tunnel hadn’t even been dug yet. And I mean that in both senses of the word.

So all that’s left for us now I suppose is the occasional nostalgic Paris breaks with a nice comfortable hotel, so we can shuffle uneasily past the old haunts and try to remember what it was really like after all the false memories which seem to have grown up over the years. We’ll always have Paris breaks., as they say.