2095Lucie tells a tale via her audio commentary of how she went to the London 2012 Olympics. “I was at the opening ceremony and standing in front of the stadium, saying ‘French girl gives a smile for a ticket’ because I didn’t have one and I really wanted to go.

”Many people were passing by, smiling and mocking me a bit but they were nice. Then a French guy came around. He looked at me, laughed and said this, which means ‘Your smile means nothing.”

”I felt a bit hurt but I really wanted to prove that it did mean something, and that I could go very far with my smile. I did. Someone gave me a ticket worth £2,000, it was one of the best tickets at the opening ceremony and I had a great time. Afterwards, I did this sign thing a lot and I got in a lot of places with my smile.”

Lucie runs the Voyages et Vagabondages site. Taken in Rotterdam, Holland, during the Travel Bloggers Unite conference.