Romantic Holiday Homes:. . . is what we really love. And even those of us who are all common sense when it comes to buying at home can let our hearts rule our heads buying abroad.

The pictures here show why: a chalet in the Alps, a villa in Italy, pièd-a-terres in Paris's city centre and an oceanside lodge in Mauritius have a romantic appeal that makes it hard to concentrate on stuff like return on investment and exit strategies.

Of course you should be sensible, in love and property purchase . . . but maybe not today.

Villas in a development in Mauritius have all the right ingredients for a romantic holiday home: first of all there's the setting, along a stretch of unspoilt Indian ocean coastline. Then there's the history - Villas Valriche is a development built on a former sugar estate once owned by an Irish surgeon and botanist who came here with his wife in the 19th century.

And then there's the villas themselves, which will be built "in Mauritian plantation style" according to the agent. Two-bedroom villas start from €602,000 and owners have access to the development's facilities which include the usual golf, spas and so on.

Or what about a place in Paris, the city of romance? UK developer City Lofts is offering apartments - top right - with the concierge services of a five-star hotel, costing from €325,000 for a studio up to €3.3 million for a four-bed.

Or how about an apartment, bottom far right, four times the size of the average Irish home with a private garden in le Marais, the oldest part of Paris? The price - €9.8 million.

A chalet in Switzerland, centre right, just €228,281, and a villa in Italy - for some the most romantic holiday spot of all - costs €1.375 million. It's on Lake Trasimeno, near the border of Umbria and Tuscany.