To celebrate the significant birthday of a dear friend from the United States, we are to spend a stately week in Normandy and the Channel Islands, returning to the UK in time for the coronation.

At least, in time to watch it on television. There is nothing the British do better than pageantry. It is also good to see a continuity that arises above the messy business of politics – and has been celebrated in the same place since William I (the conquerer or the bastard, depending on who you are asking) in 1067. History is sometimes not to be messed with. The nitty gritty of having a hereditary monarchy is another matter altogether.

As my friend is flying into Paris tomorrow, I have come on the Eurostar and am ensconced in a rather extravagant hotel just off the Rue de Rivoli. Interestingly, my first challenge was to find my room as only three of the five on my floor actually had numbers. Couple that with movement sensitive lights that don’t go on the instant the doors to the lift open and a power niche to put your hotel key in that is so achingly cool you suspect you will be condemned to going to bed using the torch on your phone, it becomes apparent that the upgrading is maybe not totally en point.

Out to dinner on the recommendation of the lovely concierge. Au Pied de Cochon. Traditional he said. Off for a walk round the flats they have built where I remember a hole in the ground at Les Halles, past Le Chatelet Metro station and the church of St Eustache. Tiny dogs on the grassy bits, homeless people hanging about and many many people sitting outside cafes drinking, smoking and talking hard. Lovely to know that Paris doesn’t change in its fundamentals.

Before leaving the hotel, I joked that the restaurant presumably no longer sold pigs feet. How wrong I was. Specialist pork and seafood place.

The restaurant was very busy and I had to queue. However – and this is the first time it has ever happened- I jumped the queue by virtue of being on my own! Wow. I am now fatter (roast pork and mashed potato, not a green vegetable in sight), white wine and sorbet and considerably poorer.