Exploring a city where good manners abound

SIR – My wife and I, both in our 80th year, have just returned from a glorious week in Paris. We are, thankfully, fit and well and walked many miles around the city and in the museums, parks and galleries.

We travelled extensively on the metro, which was often very busy. Every time – and immediately – we were offered seats (Letters, June 2) by young Parisians who also, when we first arrived and when we were leaving, insisted on carrying our cases up and down the metro stairs at Gare du Nord.

While we waited in line at the Louvre to see Mona Lisa, we were kindly invited by a young guide to go with him and skip the long and winding queue and stand, on our own, on the other side of the barrier

SIR – Group Captain Peter Bingham’s memory of Bruce Kent, the chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, giving a lecture at the Army Staff College, Camberley, in the 1980s (Letters, June 1) reminded me of two guest speakers who addressed it in the mid 1970s.

First, the diminutive Hugh Scanlon, the trade union leader, opened his talk with the confession that he was not much of a speaker and would therefore be brief, allowing plenty of time for questions. Sure enough, after six minutes of confirming the low order of his communication skills, he opened up the Q&A session; he refused to answer the second question and promptly left the stage.

The very next day the Russian ambassador addressed us. His performance was delivered in perfect where we had an unimpeded and close-up encounter with this beautiful lady, whose eyes followed me from one side of the room to the other.

Returning to London we stood, as we always expect to, on the crowded Underground and carried our own cases as usual. Quelle différence. Robert Sprague

Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire

SIR – I tripped over in the lane by our house on dustbin day a few years ago and was lifted home by two cheery men, a rubber-coated glove under each of my arms.

I have given a generous Christmas tip ever since.

Stephanie Walker

Woodbridge, Suffolk

English, sprinkled with humour and a subsequent willingness to respond politely to all the questions put to him. The ambassador received a genuine round of applause, although it should not be inferred that the audience believed anything he said.

Michael Nicholson

Moretonhampstead, Devon