Paris

A wonderful late summer's day in Paris. Warm air, sunlight on the green river, leafy streets. Exquisitely presented lunch in jewel-bright colours, decorated with fresh flowers and accompanied by the most divine champagne I have ever tasted (I wasn't paying!). Wandering in the sunshine down narrow streets and into cool, stone churches, sunlight through stained glass throwing abstract patterns across the floor. Stepping into 'Merci' a fabulous shop on Boulevard Beaumarchais, painted crockery hanging from the ceiling and crowded onto old crates. Coloured pencils in rainbow colours that made me long to go back to school, melamine plates and cups in pastel shades that made me wish it was still the season for picnicing in long grass.

Late afternoon, crossing a bridge, looking up to see the Eiffel Tower, a distant smudge in the bright setting sun, and feeling my heart flutter, as it always does in this beautiful city.

All photos on my dying Ixus. DSLR wasn't insured, or at least, only a very small fraction of its cost would have been.