Birthday in Paris

I celebrated an incredibly happy and beautiful birthday in Paris yesterday, starting with a fantastic walk through the shops of the 6th and the 7th arrondissements, and a stroll past Notre Dame and my favorite ice cream shop Berthillon on the Ile St. Louis, and then over to Les Philosophes, a little cafe in the Marais on a pedestrian street lined with azaleas in full bloom with some friends. An amazing little tarte tatin a la tomate with a little salad, and then some simple grilled sword fish with a good early cocktail of vodka and fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice.

A long afternoon stroll through St. Germain and down toward Montparnasse took us by the Au Bon Marche, where I was able to pick up a canvas sack of that perfect French handmade sea salt fleur de sel de guerande and a little bottle of white truffle oil, with fantasies of a perfect summer wild mushroom risotto and grilled bronzino on Fire Island this summer.

A late dinner was at a new find, Le Comptoir, Yves Camdeborde's bistro, where reservations are usually completely unattainable. But not when you walk in at 11:00pm! I found this on Patricia Wells's list of beloved Paris bistros. It's often been dubbed the best bistro in Paris, and it's worthy of the designation. Started with thin slices of toasted "pain de mie" covered with even thinner slices of perfect foie gras and a glass of pink champagne. For dinner, the perfect "cocquelet a la moutarde" -- a roast small bird covered with a mustard crust and served in its own jus and little roasted potatoes. We forget how really good the simple things can be! A homemade nougat with fresh pineapple sorbet wrapped up a really perfect, beautiful, extremely happy birthday in Paris.

Not a bad way to begin the last year in my 40s!