Paris! Well, Finchley.

Surprise!

That was how Kate got to find out that we were going to Paris. Doing a Surprise like that for someone who doesn't do surprises was a particularly brave act of mine. She took it well but then taking the Eurostar to Paris was a 'bucket list' thing for her.

In the end, taking the train to Paris from St. Pancras required spending the previous night in a travel lodge in Finchley.

Going from a North Yorkshire village to Finchley felt about as foreign as going to somewhere like Paris. We could have stayed there for the weekend and tried getting our heads round warm weather, a cosmopolitan vibe and watching people drive very fast in big cars and felt that we'd achieved enough in terms of a holiday.

Our arrival in Finchley started with the slightly surreal experience of parking our car on someone's drive who we've never met and never will, and hoping to find it there, in fact, when we return to it, post Paris. It's a very clever website which enables people who actually own a drive somewhere in London to make some money out of it by charging a bit less than a driver would pay elsewhere. It also means that people don't have to talk or even set eyes on each other in this increasingly isolationist world of ours. If it works, it's a win win. 

After the two minute walk to the travel lodge to dump cases, we were left to peruse Finchley high street. It's a massive fusion of cultures and nationalities but exudes an air of busyness, significance and success. 

Our travel lodge room boasted a view which would be unrivalled by the majority of posh London hotels. An expanse of attractive buildings liberally dotted with trees and some distant hills, easily visible as the sun set on a day of glorious weather.

What holiday could start without a picnic at Watford Gap?

Impressive view from the Finchley Travelodge.