We'll always have Paris

It was the time for the Newnham Classics annual trip to Paris and the annual pic in the Palais Royal (above). Thanks to generous donations, we go off for a (long) day to Paris each May, for a bit of serious study in the Louvre and a long lunch (at La Table du Palais Royal).

In my experience, it���s where those revision anxieties get dealt with best.

And the Louvre does always make you look at things afresh and again ��� or at least feel you are. Especially when I manage to take us on a lengthy dead end through Egypt till we eventually get back to Classical art (how many times have you been here before, Beard?)

This year we spent quite a lot of time with the Louvre version of the ���Boy with the Goose��� (playing with it? strangling it? that���s always been the question).

We have looked at this many times before, but it is a perfect example of searching for what is really ancient and what is restoration. The more you look at this, the more you see that almost all the distinctive bits are not ancient at all.

Like the head on the boy (with its slightly odd top-knot) and the head on the goose. Careful examination shows that the webbed feet are ancient, but the brilliantly scaly legs aren���t; likewise any seriously feathered bit of the goose is somewhere c 18th century.

Yes, you could do all this in the UK, but there is something about going away that helps you look harder. We are very lucky to be able to do it.