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I had four free hours in Paris for my hour-long walk to where I was meeting my nephew this evening. An afternoon of bright sunshine and intermittent downpours through up-and-come Quartier d'Aligre. It's full of 'locally-sourced-produce' restaurants, products to keep your skin at age 25 for ever, artists' tiny shop-fronts, and perfume places.

I reached Place de la Bastille, loved the same building as last time (another take as an extra) then, when I walked to the other side of the huge square, three previous visits crashed into my memory: on one of my Saturday walks 50 years ago, when it was grey, busy with cars, and on a tourist route only for those who wanted to see the site of the prison made famous in the Revolution; in 1989 when the Opera House was opened here; and in 2012 when the only bank that would still exchange francs to euros was here. Isn't perspective an interesting thing?

I haven't been back to the Place des Vosges or much of the Marais for a very, very long time and was pleased to see children playing noisy football in what used to be a very haughty square.

I'd been so distracted by my surroundings that I'd done only about a third of my walk when I got a message from J to say he'd got away from work an hour early. So I leapt onto a metro and joined him for a cocktail (at Classique, 1bis rue Lallier, 75009 - good food but we were booked at Restaurant Cuisine, 50 rue Condorcet, 75009. I'm putting in the addresses for others since, unlike me, my nephew really knows his food places).

A thoroughly good, chatty evening before getting back to my underwhelming Airbnb ready for the next stage of this trip.