Some twenty-odd years ago I lived in Paris for a while. I fled there to escape a bad love affair.

Paris is the most romantic city in the world, and the irony was not lost on me. Well, the idea of it wasn't lost on me until I found a place to stay in Asnieres, on the north-west fringes of the city...it's a place which has one claim to fame: its dog cemetery. It takes a special talent, I think you'll agree, to relocate to a place which has inspired thousands of poets and writers and artists, and end up in dog cemetery territory.

I tried to get a job. I turned up every day at an employment agency and sat in their back room containing a dozen typewriters, trying my best alongside other young ladies to negotiate the unfamiliar layout of the letters - agraves and acutes getting under my fingers when they weren't meant to be there. I ended up agravated with an acute headache. And a typing speed - after months of practice - of 10 words an hour. And no job.

So I wandered around the museums, took full advantage of the copious amount of free music in the stations and churches, sunbathed in the Tuileries gardens and parks and on the banks of the Seine. Brilliantly therapeutic after a bad love affair.

Nice has art galleries. My favourite so far is the Chagall Museum. Small, perfectly formed, with a pizza and salad restaurant in the grounds under a few umbrellas. The spot always seems to be serviced by a cool breeze no matter how hot the weather. Next time I visit it I'll be without my husband. So I might just have to eat his pizza as a goodwill gesture.

We've started to tell some close friends now about our impending (I hope 'impending' can stretch its meaning to a year) separation. They are all shocked. Some are very upset. We don't really like to do this to them, but the alternative is not an option any more.

Less than two weeks before I fly out to Nice for my first interview. I don't like flying much. The other day I spoke to an aquaintance who trains BA pilots. Where are you going, he asked me. To Nice, I replied. Oh, that's just down the road he said. Who are you going with? BA, I said. Oh, you'll probably be OK.

I'll do the jokes, thank you very much.