Maya, of course, makes it easier to acclimatise to Europe once again. Abu Dhabi is missed - in ways I will, one day soon, get round to writing about - but two trips to France, one of them introducing the gem pictured above to foreign travel, have made re-entry a lot more agreeable than it might have been.
So this is a brief tale of three women who have dominated life since our return from the Middle East 12 days ago.
Maya speaks, or burbles, for herself. Stunning, adorable ... all the things every dad and granddad (though I have decided I prefer the French papy) is likely to say about his own.
Her mum, Nathalie, pictured below during a (wo)man-of-the-match display, as voted by teammates at Acton Ladies (my photographic skills proved inadequate to the task of capturing her corker of a goal), says men with babies act as a magnet to women. So it seemed as I carried Maya down the steps towards the car decks on a Sea France ferry and females of all ages cooed in admiration (of, I am sure, Maya).
And who is my third beauty?
My colleagues in Abu Dhabi had the bright idea of sending me to Paris, almost as soon as I had set foot in London, to write about grand chefs whose response to recession has been to introduce budget-priced meals at their fancy restaurants.
Hélène Darroze is one such chef. I was treated to an example of her €25 lunch menu of tapas plus dessert at her restaurant, which has two Michelin stars, on the Left Bank in rue d'Assas. It was delicious and, though hardly copious, enough for a busy midday snack.
We did not end up meeting. Hélène runs a restaurant at the Connaught in Mayfair - a friend of mine chose it as the venue for one of the annual "blow out" meals (meaning expensive) she takes with her boyfriend and some pals - and I had to make do with talking to her by phone from Paris.
If you want to read more about the Paris trip, or my return to Europe, please go to the following links:
A French cuisine revolution for the credit-crunched.
You can go home again - but it's a rocky welcome.
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