Paris for business and pleasure

Christmas decorations were still brightening the Place Vendome in January as I went shirt shopping at Charvet, the premium men's furnishings company located just north of the square. The last white blankets from a once-in-a-decade snowfall were receding, allowing the Paris that the world loves to reassert itself.

With my Charvet shirt in one of the house's distinctively vigorous stripes, I walked to the opposite side of the Place Vendome and ordered a drink at the Bar Hemingway- named for the American author who had speciously claimed to have liberated the bar at the Ritz Paris Hotel, in which this namesake tavern now rests, during the recapture of the city by the Allies in World War II. I do not typically order a $50 dry vodka martini for warmth, but the clubby little bar, a clean, well-lighted place murmuring with French and American voices, has an agreeable solution: when Mother Nature punches with winter's chill, a Bar Hemingway cocktail is a liquid masseuse.

I was staying on this visit at an earthy French apartment in a small, centuries-old building the 2nd Arrondissement. It was complete with a fold-up Murphy bed, and it was there that I was confined as I appeared on phone screens with French doctors who prescribed medications and kept me grounded for two extra, empty days, until the worst of what they said was a case of winter bronchitis was behind me.

The business portion of my stay by necessity not having been concluded, I returned to Paris in the spring, arriving on Easter Sunday. Taking no chances this time with the question of personal comfort, I checked into my favorite hotel in the city, the Plaza Athenee. Agreeably located at the end of a premier shopping street, the Avenue Montaigne, the hotel would return to its twin roles of allowing me to live contentedly and offering an exemplary venue for entertaining business associates.

I attended - which is to say, I respectfully observed - Easter Mass at three churches: the newly restored and revitalized Notre-Dame Cathedral; the marvel in limestone in Montmartre, the Sacre-Coeur Basilica; and the smaller but still quite substantial Church of Saint Augustin. The enthusiasm for the Catholic faith appeared undiminished among the devout of Paris. What had changed was that women's voices could be heard on occasion leading in prayer and song. Such had been the evolution in acceptable male attire, among the thousands of men I accompanied in the services, I was the only one wearing a necktie.

Afterwards, I met up with an old friend and amour (in Paris, it is practically the same thing). We walked together through the elegant Monceau Park, which was in full and regal bloom; we talked about old times, our respective children, poetry and art.

That put me in mind again to brave the crowds at the Louvre the following day, there to see Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." I was amused, as always, that, as international visitors stacked themselves together like pasta in a bowl to get selfies with the painting, the four other magnificent Leonardos that line the left wall went utterly ignored.

By midweek, spring had blossomed with unseasonably warm temperatures and open sunshine. This being Paris, outdoor café tables were quickly repopulated, and young couples were kissing in the galleries of major museums. I served myself measured doses from the bottle of Moet Champagne that I kept chilled on the coffee table of my beautifully refurbished junior suite at the Plaza Athenee. Everyone has a favorite amenity at a grand hotel, and mine for the trip was the curtain that you could raise and lower with a chrome toggle switch to reveal or conceal the bathroom that was separated from the bedroom by clear glass. Channeling my inner naughty kid, I must have flicked that switch up and down a half-dozen times, as whim dictated.

I did a repeat tour of the Place Vendome - from Charvet to the Bar Hemingway once more, served at the former by Redha, a veteran salesman. Skilled at what he does, Redha showed me his favorites among the collection of stripes that had arrived since my last visit and then let me pick the one among them that resonated the strongest with me: a shirt of varying stripes in shades of blue.

That process repeated itself at Mariage Freres, one of Europe's great tea merchants. My salesman, Martin, welcomed me back and then did much the same: he let me take in the aromas of what was new and interesting to him and then offered me to pick from among them. I was particularly glad to see that the spring flush of Darjeeling Namring had arrived. (If you are a tea person, you will understand.)

Near the old opera house, I happened upon the shop of the vogue chocolatier Cedric et la Chocolateries (Cedric and the Chocolate Factory), which I had enjoyed on the last trip. It features a wall of cascading liquid chocolate and a line of hopeful purchasers corralled behind ropes outside. I bought for my son its signature bar of Peruvian and Sao Tome dark chocolate, pressed into the shape of a tablet of letters.

Other than the fact that it is both fun and a good meal, I cannot explain why I so enjoy returning to Le Souffle, a restaurant that serves little else but souffles for all three main courses. I had a vegetable souffle to start, a Beef Bourguignon souffle for the main course and, to finish it off, souffle with Grand Marnier, the bottle again trustingly left on the table so that I might refresh the dessert's souffle base at will.

The next day, I managed to gain entry to the hot-ticket exhibition in town: the Henri Matisse retrospective of his productive final years, 1941-1954, at the Grand Palais. As Matisse aged, painting became difficult for him; working with assistants, he turned his energy to creating collages that, incredibly, look like Matisse paintings. Indeed, the artist had said he was "painting with scissors."

People who travel for business know that, if you like where you must go (which is not always the case), you have to husband your free time. On my last full day, I managed to see the exhibition at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) of the works of the late Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado - another must-see, and one offered with free admission. Well-known images by Salgado were on display, but the exhibition concluded with some of his last photographs, which were taken in 2024 of Paris itself (in fulfillment of a commission from the city) and were surprisingly conventional. Do not let that discourage you from taking the journey through Salgado's powerful oeuvre, which is grounded in his celebration of the lives and work (and, compellingly, the toils) of people from across the globe. No photographer has ever captured the pathos and fleeting grandeur of everyday life on the margins better than did he.

My final evening brought dinner at Le Relais, the Art Deco brasserie at the Plaza Athenee. After a time, your best business associates become friends, and so it was that several of us started our meal with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, and it just got better from there, with a perfectly prepared veal chop with morels, for sharing.

In the morning, before my flight, I hosted breakfast in the hotel's grand main dining room for, along with business friends, two French law students who will be joining me next year as interns. Mentoring the young is my greatest professional joy.

One last note about the Plaza Athenee: when you travel on business, you learn to roll in and out with your luggage. Instead, as my father would have done, I called up and had the bellman cart my things to a taxi summoned by the doorman. Sometimes, simple luxuries make for the richest experiences.

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Staying there:

Hotel Plaza Athenee, 25 Avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris; www.dorchestercollection.com/paris/hotel-plaza-athenee/ tel.+33 1 53 67 66 65.

Wining, dining and snacking there:

Le Relais at the Plaza Athenee: www.dorchestercollection.com/paris/hotel-plaza-athenee/dining/le-relais-plaza/ or call the hotel at the number above.

Le Souffle, 36 Rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris,+33 1 42 60 27 19.

Bar Hemingway, in the Ritz Paris, 38 Rue Cambon, 75001 Paris, tel.+33 1 43 16 33 74.

Cedric et la Chocolateries, 22 Avenue de l'Opera.

Shopping:

Charvet, 28 Place Vendome, 75001 Paris, tel.+33 1 42 60 30 70.

Mariage Freres (le Marais), 30 Rue du Bourg Tibourg, 75004 Paris, tel.+33 1 42 72 28 11.

Exhibitions:

Matisse at the Grand Palais, through July 26. It is best to get your tickets in advance: www.grandpalais.fr/en/program/matisse-1941-1954.

Sebastiao Salgado at the Hotel de Ville, entrance at 3 Rue de Lobau, 75004 Paris. Through May 30. Free but there might be a line for tickets.

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 3:27 AM.