Looking for a quiet break

From cafe bans to calls for child-free flights, is Britain becoming an anti-child society?

My husband and I took our children, aged seven and five, for dinner at a pizza restaurant in Paris recently. We'd spent the day climbing the Eiffel Tower and taking photographs of the skyline, so spirits were high - but the meal was ruined by some obnoxiously bad behaviour. Not from our kids (they were happily focused on their pizza margheritas) but by the petulant 60-something British woman at the next table.

First, she simply shot death stares at us. Then, just as our desserts arrived, she said loudly to the man opposite her: "The only problem with this restaurant is that there are so many children." Maybe I should have remonstrated, but since becoming a parent I've learnt that the best way to deal with tantrums is to ignore them.