Paris.  Day off.

Rearrange these words to form the delightful concept of your choice:  Off. Day. Paris.  I love this city and when here for only a brief period, I tend to fall into habitual rituals.  I had a bit of a lie-in before heading down to café Les Deux Magots on Boulevard Saint Germain.  (This translates as 'kings' by the way -  as in €˜Magi€™ - rather than being a comment on the freshness of the cuisine).  There are three famous traditional brasseries right here, the other two being Brasserie Lipp, and Café de Flore which is probably the best known, having been the haunt of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, back in the day.  They are a little touristy now, certainly with prices to reflect their notoriety, but they remain great places to hang out and have a late breakfast with the paper.

One croque madame and a Herald Tribune later, and I was ready to face the world.  My next port of call was a fantastically out-there shop a few blocks away, name of Deyrolle.   It's a taxidermist€™s shop, stocking a vast range of creatures great and small, displayed in a wonderfully evocative series of glass cabinets, or  in the case of the larger exhibits, just stood out on the floor. The place is surprisingly un-creepy or weird, it's all very matter-of-fact, setting out its merchandise like any other store, but there are wonders to behold if you poke around a little. You can pick up small butterflies for as little as ‚¬5, but a buffalo or the rather attractive miniature zebra will set you back ten grand or more.  It€™s a truly amazing place.

From here it's a short walk to the Musee D€™Orsay, which is amongst my favourite art museums on the planet, converted from a vast glass-fronted railway station.  They have a world-class modern art collection and some other curiosities that I always enjoy, including a sectional model of the Paris Opera that I could look at for hours.

I had a date with Frances in the evening and took her to La Mediterranee, a restaurant styled by Jean Cocteau and still well able to serve up a decent round of top nosebag.  After dining we walked down the hill to find coffees and an outrageous ice cream event at Café de Flore.   There€™s really nothing wrong with a day like today.