A Perfect Week in Paris

Life with my good friend Paddy Bowman is such dizzying fun, it can be hard to remember each glorious moment. But here were some of the high points of her visit, as I remember them:

• Thursday evening -- dinner with Marie and Paddy at Le Vernissoir, the restaurant next door. Awesome beetroot adventures.
• Friday evening -- PB goes to the Institut de Monde Arabe; aperitifs at home, pate and duck salad at the Corsican restaurant around the corner, noted for its Marilyn and leopardskin decor.
• Saturday -- Marmottan-Monet museum, Berthe Morisot exhibit, LaFontaine statue in the park, lunch in the neighborhood, dinner at the Normandie restaurant.
• Sunday -- brunch at Ellen and Leslie's with Nancy and Gabriella. In the afternoon, while PB rests, I go back to the gym (for the first time in quite a while), starting an 8-day consecutive attendance stretch which is still unbroken. Dinner with Paddy's friend Martha in her fabulous rented apartment in Saint Germain de Pres.
• Monday -- lunch with classmates and PB at Le Cul de Poule in Montmartre, at the invitation of Susanna (a former classmate) whose husband is a chef there. Excellent food. Monday evening PB goes to the Matisse exhibition at the Pompidou, David stays home, having seen it already with Marie the previous Monday.
• Midweek -- PB suffers from tummy problems, but still gamely makes it to the Jardin des Plantes and the Mosque with Nancy, to the Museum of Decorative Arts, to the Fondation Cartier with Ellen, while David applies himself to his studies (mostly).
• Friday evening -- the fete of the neighbors, we go next door to sip sangria and munch on appetizers, visit galleries in the neighborhood, picnic in the apartment.

These are just the highlights, folks. And the adventure continues.....