Rounding out the three-star trio: Pierre Gagnaire

The winner of this evening's Van Name Culinary Endowment was another Michelin three-star establishment, Pierre Gagnaire.  After the disappointment of Arpege, I was hoping for a stellar meal, and I'm happy to report that it was.  Though not up to the dinner at Guy Savoy, this one was nonetheless delicious from start to finish, inventive, lovely, and entirely worthy of the accolades I've read about the restaurant. 

On paper, the tasting menu offered seven courses plus dessert.  Actually, there were five starter items, two of the seven courses featured two plates, and dessert included two small plates of "pre-desserts" plus five dessert plates.  Pierre Gagnaire does love his sweets! 

In other news, today brought the first 100% certain celebrity sighting here at the hotel of insane luxury:  Owen Wilson.  Hiding under a large-brimmed baseball cap and with his concentration entirely on his phone, his face was nonetheless unmistakable.  (Sunday yielded an 80% Howie Mandel sighting, but I can't go higher than that in certainty.)  Such excitement.

To be clear, I don't give a shit about celebrity sightings, and I never bother people who are just trying to live their lives.  It is fun, though, to have an odd thing to report.

A bigger sighting from today was the front of the wonderful bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.  Wandering its crowded stacks is, despite the many people always there, relaxing, soothing in the way that only a grand old bookstore can be.  If you visit Paris, have not been to this store before, and are at all a book lover, definitely go.