Three espresso and a baguette...a corporate guide to Paris

I was onto my third espresso in a little office just off the Champs Elysees, but the caffeine hadn't kicked in yet. We had arrived on the first EuroStar out of Waterloo that morning and I could still get a faint whiff of Lamb Rogan Josh from my suit - we'd spent the previous night in a hotel on the Embankment (actually most of the night was spent in an Indian restaurant opposite the Tower of London).

This was my first trip into Paris in over 20 years. Last time I had visited, it was strictly for reasons of leisure. This time around I was sitting around a large boardroom table discussing business and sharing baguettes with three Frenchmen, two of my British colleagues and a couple of executives from Amsterdam.

I am not one to stereotype nationalities, but after galancing around the room....I couldn't help myself. While our colleagues from the low country, dressed sharply in crisp white collared shirts and grey pin striped suits, methodically ploughed through the agenda - our Latin hosts wore black turtle-neck tops, fashionable trousers and puffed on conspiciously heavy cigerettes.

My British colleagues were reserved and serious....with stiff upper lips and the faint smell of curry. God knows what they thought of the strange, unshaven Australian who asked for milk with his coffee?