Full disclosure: I am not a spontaneous person. To a fault, I’m a home bird (the furthest you’ll see me travel is to Peckham on the night bus), and very comfortable being a creature of habit.

But one morning, I decided to do the opposite. Summoning up a little joie de vivre, I raced to King’s Cross St Pancras and did something I’ve always wanted to do: I hopped onto the Eurostar – or, to be slightly more precise, fell onto it with one canvas tote bag – all the way to Paris.

This was my whistle-stop tour of the city, escaping all of life’s perils for 24 hours. I mean, where better to spend a day away than Paris? The city is, after all, the cultural capital of the world for good reason. The French capital has a certain je ne sais quoi that beckons you.

“I spent 24 hours in Paris – here’s what happened”