This, and the traffic on the freeway leading to the centre of Paris, were the first two things which marked me on arrival here. I had never seen traffic like this. Four streaming lanes into Paris, and four streaming lanes leading out. All on the "wrong" side of the road too.... I was fascinated. Our Auckland Harbour Bridge has more lanes and more traffic now, but it certainly did not at the time I left New Zealand.

Once in Paris proper, I could not imagine how anybody could find their way around. Not only each street looked exactly the same to me, but the buildings looked exactly the same as well. The fabled Paris rooftops were everywhere, with their higgledy piggledy chimney pots and TV antennas - but decidedly un-Coronation Street like appearance.

Many of the suburban Paris streets were still cobbled at the time, and I was delighted to find that our street, where we would be living from now on, was also cobbled.

Today, however, our quaint cobbles have since been replaced by smooth asphalt, as with most streets these days.

We settled ourselves into our new home - or rather apartment - and began to get used to the fact that we would now be living without a back and front door leading to a back and front garden, complete with barbecue. The "barbie", good old kiwi icon which no respectable kiwi home lives without... Once "in" our french apartment, there was no way "out" so to speak.

However, we considered ourselves fortunate to be living in an apartment with a balcony, from where we were able to study the local street life with interest. We joined others in lining up and hanging over the balcony if, for example, a domestic quarrel took place down below ; if a delivery van blocked the street leading to a chorus of angry horns and frenzied gesticulations ; and for studying other such daily diversions in French life.

Learning to speak and understand the French language was a priority. My school french helped me to be able to read french, and, surprisingly, my french class at school had taught me the words to the French national anthem "La Marseillaise", whereas I did not even know the words to my own New Zealand national anthem ... now rectified ...

However, speaking my school french was another matter.

I remember walking down to the corner grocer shop, with the aim of buying a bottle of wine to have with dinner. I walked out with a cauliflower. To this day I have no idea how I ended up with a cauliflower - but I obviously needed french lessons... A french family member kindly wrote out a little note for me, which I presented with a wry grin to the amused owner of the grocer shop, and my cauliflower was graciously exchanged for a bottle of french wine.

I enrolled in french conversation classes the next day.

Understanding and adapting to a different culture was another priority. We decided from the start that we would not mix with the english speaking ex-pat community in Paris - which is very large. It is, in fact, possible to spend a lifetime here without ever speaking the french language.

We soon made some very good french friends, who took these strange foreigners from a far off land - which nobody seemed to have heard much about in those days - under their wings. By trial and error we learnt the things "one does" and the things which "one does not do" in french society. We discovered that the french are very formal and reserved, contrary to our preconceived ideas. We also delightedly discovered the lack of discipline - although this appears more external than a true fact.

For example, we would join a number of people at the bus-stop. Not an orderly queue, as in New Zealand, but simply a huddle of people. We wondered what would happen when the bus arrived. Would there be a stampede - were we supposed to remember in which order we had arrived? But no, there was neither stampede nor shouting. The huddle simply moved towards the bus doors to sort of dissipate, each person melting into any empty space which presented itself, in order to enter the bus.

During those early days we found that if - on the whole - we were not sure how to react to a certain situation, we simply reacted in the opposite sense as to how we would react in New Zealand - in other words, by doing things back to front. And it actually worked.