Great Day in Paris

An unforgettable day in Paris! Started with croissants and coffee at Cafe Le Flore, then met my old friends Phillippe and Beatrice for Easter mass at Notre Dame.  This was followed by lunch at Le Petit Pontoise, a great little restaurant  in the Latin Quarter recommended by an old  friend and reader of this blog. They make their own foie gras, which was transportingly delicious. Then we walked lunch off in the Luxembourg Gardens, and had a visit to the Pantheon, an eerie temple of France-worship and revolutionary ideology. Dinner at a Marais oyster bar, and I will simply say that I will reserve that tale for when I’m back home later this week and can publish the photos. I do not exaggerate when I say that eating French oysters was one of the greatest things I’ve ever had the privilege to do. Nothing prepares you for their intensity. It was as if all previous oyster experiences were in drab black and white, but these were in supersaturated Technicolormust will endeavor to eat raw oysters every day this week. You cannot imagine how good these things are. They ought to inter them in the Pantheon.

Anyway, we ended the evening with a cruise on a bateau mouche, aboard which I took in the Paris by night and thought that like New York, Paris is a place on earth where you don’t have to use superlatives to describe it; they can  just be assumed. How I wish blogging were easier on this iPad! I can’t post photos or hyperlink. Hey, somebody please call the euro and tell it to give me a break. The exchange rate is painful, and oysters are very dear.

I can say without fear of contradiction that my niece Hannah is having the time of her life.