Dinner party was a great success. Food was very good, and as the cook I am allowed to say that, the wines were excellent and the guests were charming and witty, in English and in French. As the evening advanced and the level in the wine bottles lowered, we were given some hilarious lessons in idiomatic French, many of which cannot be used in polite company. Birthday cake was excellent and we sang Happy Birthday in both official languages. Party ended late in the evening ....

Saturday morning arrived very early, so to compensate, we arose very late and didn't manage to organize ourselves and leave for the day until well after 11:00. A bright sunny day with a brisk nippy little breeze, a very good day for walking so the plan was to explore the Marais with, en route, a visit to the Pompidou Centre. On our way to Boulevard de Sébastopol, the main artery along which we had planned to begin our walk, we discovered and wandered through the Passage du Grand Cerf, a very elegant glass roofed passageway of about 100 metres linking two roads and lined with very interesting shops. At the end of the passage was an attractive little café, Le Pas Sage, where we decided to stop for lunch; appearances can be deceiving unfortunately and the dishes were ambitious failures, not ordinary or boring but examples of creativity getting ahead of technique and skill....