I love pretending to be an intellectual.  I’ve done it since I first went flatting in Wellington at 19. I never do it in the privacy of my own home of course. But it’s so nice to be Extremely Engaged and Interesting when somewhere that has an Intellectual aspect  to it.

It’s very easy to appear EE and I  in Paris as well you can imagine. Today we went to Merci, a concept store (I think they call it) in the upper Marais .. just two blocks from our hotel. My friend Katie, she of the immaculate taste, told me about it. Housed in a building that was once a textile factory,  dating back to 1840, this is where you’ll find a copy of the  French masterpiece you’ve been coveting rubbing shoulders with a Capellini sofa, a Vanessa Bruno dress and a famous piece of cheese cake.  (I know this because I overheard a pretty american girl say “I hear your cheese cake is famous”). I had my first decent coffee in Paris. Thank GOD.

One thing I especially liked – apparently all the profits from Merci go to charity. You don’t have to be an intellectual to know that’s a good thing.