Frances Whiting

We were staying in a very nice hotel.

Not the sort of hotel I would normally be staying in, sadly.

My boyfriend was unwell.

He got some sort of flu.

After looking after him for a couple of hours, I said, look, would you mind if I went outside for some fresh air?

So I went down to the lobby and I was asking the lobby person something and this very tall, very handsome gentleman was beside me.

He said, are you Australian?

And I said, yes.

And

He said, which direction are you going in?

And I said, I'm heading out towards the Louvre.

We just fell into step between, you know, we fell into step.

And on that walk, there were just a few things.

I noticed that people were staring.

He was American.

He told me he was in Paris because he'd just failed his law exam again and that his family were very disappointed with him.

And that he'd kind of done this almost secret trip to Paris to just get away from what he called the noise.

And I did keep thinking, you're a very striking looking man, but there's also something vaguely familiar.

And then on the way, he was like, do you want a quick coffee?

I said, sure.