a perfect day in… Paris

With Merete Degenkolw-Basset – co-owner of Galerie Dansk

9AM – An ideal day for me is one with no car journeys, so today I’ll stay in the Marais district. With my friend Donatienne, an interior designer, I jog through the Square du Temple, which is in front of the town hall in the 3rd arrondissement. We say hello to the elderly Chinese people who are practising Tai Chi, then breakfast at a nearby café, Le Progrès, where many of the customers are sitting working on their laptops at this hour.

11AM – I go home and change, then go shopping. Plagg is a new shop on Rue Charlot, selling Scandinavian designer clothes. It’s beautiful, with its own garden. The owner, Barbara, is Swedish, and I love the Swedish Dr Denim jeans she sells. Next, I run to the Vanessa Bruno store on Rue Vieille du Temple. I find the perfect black dress – exactly what I needed.

12.30PM – I meet my husband Jean-Loup for lunch at I Vitelloni, a quality Italian restaurant (no pizza place) named after the Fellini movie. The owner, Benjamin, sometimes gives the DVD away to customers. Jean-Loup will open our gallery at 2pm, so we still have time to walk through the Marché des Enfants Rouges, the oldest market in Paris. We stop to have coffee at L’Estaminet, where our friend Thierry serves French country-style food like grilled pig’s feet. My husband and he get into a very technical discussion about wine, so I take off!

2PM – I head to the Musée Picasso. I love it here: the building is a beautiful town house that once belonged to a noble family, with interior design by Giacometti.

3PM – Leaving the museum, I head down the Rue Vieille du Temple. I make stops here and there, then drop into La Galerie d’Architecture to see the exhibition and buy a book on design.

5PM – My next stop is to say hello to our friend Maria Lund, who owns La Galerie Danoise on Rue de Turenne, and to check out the exhibition of Scandinavian painters she’s showing.

7PM – Time for an aperitif before dinner with Jean-Loup and friends. We meet at Georges, the 360° panoramic restaurant at the Centre Pompidou. At night, when the city is full of lights, it’s amazing to look out over all of Paris from up here.

9PM – Dinner at L’Arganier on Rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie. The owner is Egyptian and the place serves Moroccan and Egyptian specialities like meze and tagines, and Moroccan wine. At weekends there are belly dancers. Sometimes we all get up and dance with the family that runs the place.

12AM – We hit La Flèche d’Or on Rue de Bagnolet for live music. It’s a former train station where you can literally dance on the rails. One of the owners, Cyril, is a friend. From folk to jazz, rock and blues, every night the music’s different. We dance, listen and drink until it’s 2am. Time to head home.

Meet Merete and her husband Jean-Loup at…
their store Galerie Dansk at 31 Rue Charlot, in the Marais district of Paris, where they sell original editions of Scandinavian furniture and design by architects and designers such as Arne Jacobsen and Alvar Aalto. www.galeriedansk.com