After Frankfurt and Dublin in October, I decided that I definitely wouldn’t go anywhere else until next year, because I had a lot going on at home. Then the invitation to the Montreuil Book Fair came along, and I decided to make an exception. I love Paris, and I already knew, thanks to Frankfurt, that I loved my French publishers, Casterman. So off I went.

The book fair was wonderful. I met lots of my French readers, including a whole load of bloggers who are absolutely wonderful, with incisive questions and lots of enthusiasm. I talked to two classes from local schools, and signed so many books that my hand started to hurt.

On top of that, my publishers were wonderful, and took me for cocktails and dinner, and gave me recommendations of places to go shopping in my free time. There was a brief flurry of snow at one point. It was amazing.

Right up until I came home, of course, and the Tube didn’t go all the way to Paddington, and then when I did get to Paddington every train out of the station was cancelled for hours. That’s how you know you’re (not quite) home.