You can't keep me away from cliches. I love 'em. The stale, shopworn phrase, that tattered hackney carpet, the careworn, trite saying, oh, they're like catnip to me. My ears pick up, heart beats faster, pupils widen; it's all go when me and my cliches meet up. Believe me.

Laugh... snigger if you want, or go to another blog if you feel like it...but these banal pieces of corn are still useful. Sometimes there's just nothing better to sum a situation up or get to the heart of the matter than to run one of those old horses out and let it do it's thing.

A tale of two cities, not much to think about there, is there; pretty obvious shorthand for the difference between...well....two cities. Find me something as straightforward as these five words that can do the same job. Not that easy... not for me it is n't. Then should we struggle to do so anyway ? Would it be worthwhile ? All that energy expended, and for what ? Lot of truth in that if it ain't broke don't fix it maxim after all.

These five words still have a living, breathing purpose. They flew into my mind earlier this week when I spent a few days in Paris. Perfect for the contrast between where I live - London, and where I was temporarily staying. Because they are two different places. London never seems to be anything less than full on, a challenge to live in, edgy, and almost insomniac. Never, ever quiet. We are awash with noise in this city. Construction work, endless traffic, leakage from another straphanger's ipod on the tube. It just does n't stop.

Paris, like an elderly dowager, glittering, steady on her feet, and civilised. Always coordinated, always elegant, that shoes, bag and scarf matching thing. And it feels safe, a bit dreamy, even sleepy. It's a tonic for frayed Londoners I'm sure. And that's more or less why Paris is one of my favourite cities....oh that and it's great galleries, coffee, literary ghosts on every street corner, that smell of slightly burnt rubber in the metro stations coming of the rubber wheeled trains, the jaw-dropping views from the top of Notre Dame and Arc de Troimphe...