My Kickstarter now over, I was back in Paris leading a group, 29 strong, of 17 and 18 year olds and five of their teachers. They came from Hull’s School in Zurich. I had been hired as their “docent” and itinerary advisor. My mandate: to provide context to what they would be seeing on their three-day whirlwind Paris tour and, of course, to turn them on to History.

The group’s lead teacher and I had been working since October 2014 to prepare the perfect program: lunch at a famed Paris bistro; a cruise on the River Seine; dinner at the Eiffel Tower; picnic in the Palais Royal gardens followed by a performance at the Comédie Française; a treasure hunt in the temple of impressionism, the Musée d'Orsay; and a guided tour through the vast Versailles gardens, with mini history lessons throughout.

But right away, the students had a lesson for ME...