36 Hours in Paris

What if world famous monuments were to vanish? What would Paris be without the Eiffel Tower? New York without the Empire State? London without Big Ben or the Eye. Still so much to see and do. Paris was veiled in a thick, mysterious fog the day 16 of us gathered around the table to celebrate cousin Sebastien's'12th birthday and the season. Jas and Iris are utterly smitten with their cousin, who looks like a manga superhero, or maybe a scholarly version of Lucky Luke. Paul and cousins Lucas (see Zhonguuo wine link top the right), Jonas (newly hired by Officine Panerai, another cause for celebration) and Basile (same age as Paul, studying at Uni) were there too. After lunch the boys hit Quai Branly to see the Samourai show, while the ladies paid a visit Le Shop au Vintage Bon Bons. Steak, cake, fog and candies. And a Mendoza from Sandrine for travel reading! 

Sebastien, Iris & Jas

We also caught up with three generations around a magnum of Bordeaux at Madame Fougeron's elegant apartment just off Place des Vosges. Martine is someone we met through her photography. It was a charm meeting her sons Adrien and Nicolas, and their friends, not to mention a wider family circle, who we've come to know in her chronicles of adolescence as adventure. Ah! The promise of being able to do absolutely anything with one's life!  

At one point, it was quite clear to me that I was destined for diplomacy. It seems diplomacy has been everywhere around me - my father studied law with a view to becoming a diplomat before the war obliged a creative detour. My godfather Stasys Lozoraitis was for many years the government in exile for Lithuania, then latterly Ambassador to the US and the UN, before campainging to be President of Lithuania (something which Mom still insists I'm destined for, naturally). Pierre & Iris of Brussels live in (ever widening or ever-diminishing?) diplomatic circles. And Pierre-Charles, true to his diplomatic training, held court over charcuterie and Malbec in his Parisian penthouse about the amazing things he'd done himself in the French Corps Diplomatique, looking like a Buddha in his robe and slippers, chain smoking Chinese cigarettes to punctuate his stories of living among the clay armies in Tsian, the haughtiness of Buenitos, recieving Godard in Peking, the inevitable Asian mistress (I've lost count how many that makes it now...). "Can you help me find a buyer for 150K tons of magnesium... How about spent fighter-jet fuselages?" 

Basile, Paul & Jonas

Always an interesting proposition from PC. I felt like I was listening to the script for the next Tin Tin adaptation (Spielberg's first wasn't half bad). But what is diplomacy for in a world of nation states in decline? When I was studying Political Economy I thought econometric tools and theory could provide something akin to a universal language of nations and societies and political organizations around the globe. Maybe by now I'm just inured to it's'propaganda, but I think that finance may yet be that universal language. Drop me into any (developed) society and I should just ablut be able to get my bearings. And what is IMF strong-arming and bond market vigilantism if not diplomacy? 

Thanks to Les Demellier-Cuzons for the apartment exchange, a uniquely Parisian blend of the orientalist and the whimsical, overlooking the Boulevard Beaumarchais (you can see it on Flo's Pirouette... under "A Day in Paris". An amazing way to be chez soit même in a city abroad. Any of you thinking of a holiday week or two in Blighty while school's'out, give us a shout! 

Eiffel Tower from below

Check out: more beautiful bikes, especially handmade Heritage frames at Bicycle Store . Ever wonder about the origins of the oysters on your platter (or your wine or mineral water, for that matter?). Check out the interactive iPad menus at Bar a Huitres. Also topical, Hugo by Martin Scorsese... Iris and Jasmine and their friends were grasping at the CG snowflakes falling on Hugo's Paris, demonstrating Scorsese's point that 3D may be as revolutionary as the Lumiere Brothers' arriving train. Lovely film.