Drove through the tunnel (again, a wonderful way of crossing the Channel) and, in a thunderstorm, to my friends near Reims - where we had a beautiful, sunny barbecque the next day (God was on our side) - it then rained the next day as I drove to Paris. It's quite an experience in the Suzuki when it rains; the motorways become canals and negotiating in the waves past huge lorries is intimidating, to say the least!

Left the car at Charles de Gaulle airport and flew to Finland on Air France (very good carriers - I used to fly on Concorde with them).

Helsinki was great fun (see the post on Eurovision).

And watch my diary on You Tube and in Deep Throat.

Then flew back to Paris, a delicious meal in my favourite restaurant La Tour D'Argent (established on the same site in 1582 overlooking Notre Dame and claiming to be the oldest restaurant in Paris - with the same DUCK recipe which, of course, I ate in three courses - breasts with sauce, then legs roast and finally soup from the carcass - and they give you a certificate with the number of the duck - mine was the 1,057,113rd since 1890), after which I switched over to Orly airport and flew to Marrakech.

Three hours later - blazing sun, 32 degrees, blue skies, cactii, camels and those wonderful smells - so exotic, a mix of spices, petrol, sewers, burnt meat, heat, earth...

There are so many truly luxurious hotels there now - my 5* cost a mere