Warm and sunny today. It was like that on Saturday in Paris. 25 degrees, and it is almost October.

I spent the morning walking around the first arrondissement on Saturday in Paris.

On that walk, I went to see the newly refurbished Ritz. I, of course, had to get past the bodyguard on the door. No easy task.

“Hello,” I said. “Could I possibly look around the renovations?” The bodyguard looked uncertain. “Yes,” he said. “As long as you do not take any photos.”

In I went. Perfection unfolded before me.

What a tour de force. It was faultless.

However, sometimes, life is stranger than fiction. I was gazing at the newly panelled corridor.

And then I turned to my left. On two seats. A man in a pink jacket. Beside him in a pink quilted carrier bag, a poodle with pearls around its neck. Only in the Ritz.

But sometimes dreams really come true. Like when I turned 41 and I was there in Paris with Anna. She was a girl then, a woman now. I wish that I could bottle that moment in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was joyous. Joy is so wonderful. It is bubbly and effervescent.

Life at its best.

I then went on to the Musee d’Orsay to see the Impressionists and the post- Impressionists. What a setting for great art. Through the transparent clock window, as the building was once a train station, and you must make sure the trains are on time, you could see Sacre Coeur in the distance – white pillars of serenity over the city.

When they designed it as a train station did anyone think that museum guests would view this one day? Non.

I wish that for Paris. I wish that for us all. Peace and good will to all men!

If only that we could live that out daily.

Today, I have more tennis. And that will be a tonic. Radio 4 have conducted a survey of 18,000 people as to their main forms of rest, ‘the rest test’, which leads to well being. Games is one of them. As that stops you thinking about problems and what people think of you. Maybe that is why I am often in tennis shoes.