Before coming to Paris I had never eaten in a 3-star Michelin restaurant. Last week, I had lunch at two of them.

Before you start throwing stale baguettes at me, I should point out that we were hosted. We had some friends in town, staying on Ile St. Louis, the island in the middle of the Seine. They were two couples doing a week of Michelin starred dining, either a lunch or a dinner each day, and they invited us to tag along.