One of the things about moving so often is that it can be a little hard to make friends in a new city. In Stockholm we were lucky, in that a ready-made supply of what turned out to be very good friends came gift-wrapped when we started our Swedish lessons. In Singapore Isobel was too young for us to think about making friends (and Sam met a lot of people through her mother and baby group). But here in Paris it hasn't been all that obvious where I was going to make friends.

I looked on google and found this: an expat social group called Expat Contact (slightly unfortunate name because it sounds like a dating agency). From the website, to be honest, it sounds a little wanky. You're left with the impression that everyone will be fabulously wealthy, gorgeous and earn ten times what you do.

I went to my first weekly do last night, which was held on the rooftop terrace of the Hotel Raphael just off Place d'Etoile (which is where the Arc de Triomphe is). As you can imagine, the views were spectacular - with the Eiffel Tower sparkling, the Arc de Triomphe illuminated and the whole cityscape stretching out before us. It almost made up for the fact a glass of wine was €10.

And I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world, which for me is the best part of being an expat. I met my first ever Senegalese person, and lots of people from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany and so on.

I'll be going again next week.