It seems fitting to begin this blog on the first sunny day we’ve had in Paris for a month. It feels like Spring is just around the corner, which is why as I wove my way through the underground Metro tunnels at Concorde I decided to forget switching train lines, and headed up the stairs towards sunlight. My destination, the Musée de la Mode et de la Textile wasn’t far. A straight walk down the Rue de Rivoli where Parisians, freed from a week of rain had reasserted themselves as stylish beings, out on spike heeled pumps and bicycles (sometimes both) and squatting every available café chair.

France’s Fashion and Decorative Arts museum is located in the long wing of the Louvre that extends along the Tuileries gardens. I wanted to check out the building’s new café/restaurant. Called the Saut du Loup (Tel: 01 42 25 49 55), I’d read that they have an outdoor terrace on the Tuilleries, though it turns out this was under construction and won’t be open until mid-April. Still, the food was good, in that trendy, “I’m-having-lunch-at-the-museum” sort of way. A large first course salad of Romaine lettuce began at 9 euros and a main course of duck with a rhubarb purée set me back 28 euros. But it was too much food. Definitely could have stayed with my first course choice, excellent crab rolls with avocado purée, marinated tomatoes and a bit of salad (14 euros).

If you’d like to order coffee only, you’ll have to wait until the lunch crowd thins out around 2:30pm, or sit at the bar upstairs.

I wanted to have my coffee outdoors, so I continued along the Seine stopping just before the Samaritaine department store – now closed for renovation – to enjoy a noisette (an espresso with a hint of milk) and a view of the Pont Neuf, Paris’ oldest bridge. I had walked a long way, and merited the break, but then with the Euro at about 1.50 US dollars, walking is one of Paris’ great free pleasures.