One of the great things about working online is that armed with a computer and internet connection, you can work from anywhere. That benefit has largely been a theoretical one for me as I've not hitherto been one of the world's great travellers. But since a new international train station just opened recently 5 minutes from house, I couldn't not make use of it.

So I decided to go from Ebbsfleet to Paris, taking only 2hr 5 minutes, and am currently in the Marriot Rive Gauche in Paris' 14th arrondisement. Thanks to the ultra portability of my new Eee PC, keeping in touch with emails and my affiliate activity is really easy.



Last time I was in Paris, it was a work trip and a complete nightmare because of a mess up with the Eurostar, so it's nice to be able to take a more leisurely look at this city. The people aren't always over friendly (ok, I'm putting that mildly), but something I really like is that there seems to be some kind of collective pride in the city's appearance. Streets, trains, metro stations and other public facilities and amenities seem really clean.

If you're coming to Paris at all, look out for this cheeky little scam I nearly fell for. A woman bent down before in the street and appeared to find something. "ooh la la" she exclaimed. She showed me a ring she had found on the street and asked me if I thought it was gold. She pointed to the inscription and said she thought it might be. As it was too big for her, said I should take it. She shook my hand and wished me well. On I walked and then 10 seconds later, she came running back and said as she had given me the ring, could I spare some money for food. She even suggested that 2 euros would do the trick. Her ploy became apparent and I have her 10 cents, to her disappointment, and gave the ring back and told her to try someone else. About an hour later, I saw someone trying exactly the same thing on another obvious looking tourist. I kind of admired the ingenuity of it!


Parisian enjoys a game of Boule