A red dot marks the spot. It's a sunny Saturday afternoon in Paris and I am poring over a map of the Buttes Chaumont, a park fashionable among Parisians but little-frequented by tourists. I am hereto attend a picnic with 60 or so strangers with one thing in common: a blog.

It sounds like the social equivalent of standing on a train platform with a notebook and binoculars but I have come along hoping to learn more about the nuts and bolts of blogging. My blog, www.toutsweet.net - the diary of a former newspaper fashion editor who has hung up her high heels to renovate a house in rural France - already has a loyal following among friends in London. But I am still a relative blog novice and want to learn more about improving my (site) traffic statistics.