Paris, a bit like London, is somewhere that we both have visited a fair few times in fact we will be passing through the city another three times before the end of May!

The weekend itself was not really about seeing the sights, although we did not 'do' many we did 'see' many of the major sights as we wandered the streets, or took a bus around the French capital with our friends, Julie and Paul, who are living in Paris for a year in an apartment within spitting distance of the Arc de Triomphe.

The weekend began with a visit to the Renaissance Hotel at St Pancras station before catching the 20.01 Eurostar from London to Paris Gare du Nord. Being railway geeks it was good to travel on one of the new e320 trains that have recently entered service on this route. There are some good and not so good points about the new trains; they are more spacious than the 'classic' Eurostar sets, they seem much more clinical but they also have a much more wallowing ride quality than the older trains. Free WiFi and plenty of power sockets are available on the new trains, although these will be introduced to the older trains as they are refurbished. Arriving into Paris at a little after 23.30 (local time) we were met by our hosts and soon on the metro heading across the city.

It was nice to catch up with Julie and Paul and see the apartment but we probably should have gone to bed before 02.30 and definitely should have drank less. Note to self, take it steady on the first night!

Saturday morning saw us passing the Arc de Triomphe, walking along the Avenue Champs Elysees, ambling through the Tuileries Gardens, seeing the Louvre building (and the queues to get in) and spotting the Eiffel Tower in the distance. With plenty of walking under our belt we deserved a lunchtime stop at the Paname Brewery on the Canal St Martin - there were plenty of beers on offer and some decent pub style grub French style. I am not that sure the French are quite ready for standing at a bar trying to get food a drinks ordered.

Our Saturday evening in Paris started at La Gare, a restaurant in the Passy area of Paris and a place that we have been to before although the last time was nearly five years ago for my 40th Birthday. This time it was just for cocktails at La Gare as we were booked in at the Grande Bistro Muette across the road for dinner. The restaurant offers an 'all in' price of just €44.00 (or £35.00) which includes an aperitif, starter, main, dessert, half a bottle of wine each and a coffee to round the evening off. If honest this was great value especially given the restaurant ambience and location in a rather well to do part of Paris - a great way to spend three hours of an evening in the French capital.

With our Eurostar back to the UK reserved for the Sunday afternoon there was enough time to see a new sight and after a quick trip on the metro we were at the Pére-Lachaise Cemetery. This cemetery, which has over 70,000 graves, covers a massive area but is also the resting place for some famous people including Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison (of The Doors) and Oscar Wilde to name but a few. Some of the graves were very impressive and clearly meant to be a monument although it was also touching to see the grave of a young girl who was killed at the Bataclan in the recent Paris terrorist attacks amongst them.

With a few hours to spare there was time for a brasserie style lunch before collecting our bags and heading back to Gare du Nord by bus for our 16.28 Eurostar service back to London and then onwards to Derby. One final 'Thank you' or 'Merci' to our happy hosts in Paris, Julie and Paul, for accommodating us and showing us the delights (mostly) of bus travel across Paris as this was something neither Heather or myself had experienced before.

For a weekend of not doing much it certainly was packed with seeing and experiencing some new parts of the French capital city and I am confident that at some point in the future we will have another proper weekend there rather than just passing through!