Farewell dawn

Et à l'aurore, armés d'une ardente patience, nous entrerons aux splendides villes.

Hervé leaves, as promised, just after 6. I chat with Maurine as she gets Alphi ready for crèche, and we head off into early morning commuter land.

I have a number of bits that can't be taken in my carry-on luggage and, rather than put my bag in the hold, I've decided to post them home. I start by looking for a poster tube - for my walking pole - and a nice woman in a stationery company gives me a used one.

The nice lady at the post office tells me that circular tubes are subject to an extra fee, because the machines ("les bo-bo") can't handle them - so she pulls out a used, square-sided tube that she's saved for just such an occasion. She waves away my sellotape and proceeds to seal the package with proper packing tape. I can't imagine this happening at our local Post Office from behind a glass screen.

There's threats of a strike at French airports, so I take the tram out there early. EasyJet flies from terminal 1B, which is still being built, and doesn't appear to be connected to the rest of the airport yet. Security is fairly straightforward, but once through, I discover that the D gates (which are the only ones finished) have very limited facilities. Crap food - even by British standards.

The flight whisks me to Luton. The e-passport gate works fine. I left Lyon at 14:50 and I'm on the 16:06 Thameslink out of Luton Parkway. Smooth, if pricy.

At the flat, I shower, put on my normal shoes for the first time in weeks, and wander through the crowds down to the Southbank. Where I get a standing ticket to see Oslo on its penultimate night at the National. Terrific play, combining politics, insight and humour.

A Chinese man and his Jewish friend were walking along one day when the Jewish man whirled and slugged the Chinese man and knocked him down.

"What was that for?" the Chinese man asked.

"That was for Pearl Harbor!" the Jewish man said.

"Pearl Harbor? That was the Japanese. I'm Chinese."

"Chinese, Japanese, you are all the same!"

"Oh!"

They continued walking and after a while the Chinese man whirled and knocked the Jewish man to the ground.

"What was that for?" the Jewish man asked.

"That was for the Titanic!"

"The Titanic? That was an iceberg."

"Iceberg, Goldberg, you are all the same."