Paris

Pulling out on to a main Surrey road in the Ferrari 488 Spider could not be easier as everyone spots the car from a mile away and lets you out immediately. It’s like having a special pass that says you never have to wait at a giveway. The Ferrari is pretty in matt opaque white and people just enjoy seeing it curve around the corner and swiftly accelerate away.

L’Hotel in the Rue des Beaux Arts on the left bank in Paris is utterly exceptional, the perfect bijou, boutique hotel. We pulled up in the opaque white Ferrari 488 convertible right outside the door, popped the front trunk and handed our bags over to the concierge. The entrance is discreet and easily missed, but once inside there is an impressive hall that extends past the front desk, though the bar, into the restaurant and ends in the exterior garden with its wonderful scalloped fountain.

The Victoria Palace Hotel is just off the Boulevard Montparnasse, behind the FNAC in the Rue Blaise-Desgoffe. It is an ideal location and laid back pied a terre close to the Jardins de Luxembourg, the Cartier Modern Art Museum and Odeon with all its fabulous restaurants and bars. It has a terrific parking space, which is a huge plus when you arrive in a Ferrari 488 Spider. The parking is at ground level next to the hotel and there is plenty of room.

Dandyism transgressed: the necktie in the feminine .
For her new Autumn/Winter 2014/15 Collection, Fatima Guerrout has subverted the supreme accessory of male dandyism: the necktie, which we find knotted around the waist of a lace dress as a belt to slim down the silhouette, or feminising a masculine suit. Balzac said that the necktie "helps us to judge the person wearing it." This season, it will reveal the women who choose it as an emblem of elegance.

 
Needless to say that one night in Paris is never enough, but one night is all that I had time for.
It started with a train journey, and I'm sure you've all sampled the delights of the Eurostar, but in case you've missed out during the last nine years, then I suggest you give it a try. It really is the only way to get to Paris - so very simple and easy, turn up at London St Pancras, settle yourself comfortably into your seat, and a meal and a few drinks later there you are in the centre of Paris.