Here’s the thing. As I live in Oslo, I don’t stay at hotels in the city. There’s a shortage of rooms anyhow, with business travellers clogging up reservations throughout the year.

But when I fantasise about a night away from the kids, of dipping my toe (or all ten of them) into the persona of the carefree tourist, I picture myself emerging from the Grand Hotel’s Sunday Jazz Brunch onto Karl Johans gate, Oslo’s main street, blinking in the glare of the dazzling northern light, and greeting the city on my doorstep.

As its name implies the hotel is very grand. It’s also old (1874) but modernised whilst maintaining its atmosphere of tradition and style. Ibsen used to sip coffee in its café, Nobel laureates overnight there, and I once came across a crowd waiting outside for a glimpse of Tom Cruise and Oprah who were staying there (at the same time but not together, presumably). Needless to say I was above such celebrity-induced lingering and simply walked on straining my neck trying to look backwards just in case they might appear.

Should I opt to leave my husband at home as well as the kids, I’d be tempted to stay on the hotel’s Ladies Floor which, unsurprisingly, is just for ladies. It has thirteen rooms individually designed in collaboration with 13 famous Norwegian women, to ensure a unique aesthetic experience.

The Grand is five-star, prestigious, expensive and almost certainly very posh; worthy of fantasy indeed.

The Grand Hotel, Karl Johans gate 31, Oslo