APRIL 1968: My parents and I have already moved between areas where different languages are spoken a number of times – now we enter another world, the francophone one. Even though I can't speak a word of French, I immediately feel at ease. One year later I am at the top of class in French.

APRIL 1968: I go to the South of France with my boyfriend. We drive all night and park the 2CV in the morning in the Rhône delta, on the sand right by the sea. We make love in the car while the sun rises and then we go to sleep wrapped around each other.

MAY 1968: On my twelfth birthday I decide on my life goals: never give up, don't get bitter, be fair and honest, start a family, find a little thing to be happy about every day, die satisfied with the life you have lived.

AUGUST 1968: I am woken by my cousin crying. She’s at the window looking down at the Warsaw Pact tanks driving past the junction. All day. A young soldier stands there stiffly pointing the way. At lunchtime people from the village take him soup and tea. The Prague Spring is over.

OCTOBER 1968: The film 'Gone With The Wind' makes me a film fan and admirer of Vivien Leigh and Scarlett O’Hara.