By MIMI SHERATON, the restaurant critic for The New York Times from 1976 to 1984, and the author of the memoir “Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life.”

“THE shock of the familiar” is how I think of a visit to a once-favorite restaurant after an absence of 20 years, an experience that has shaped my travel plans ever since. The year was 1979, and I was in Paris after a three-week eating trip throughout France to report on the work of the then-young turks of la nouvelle cuisine: Bocuse, Guérard, Chapel, the Troisgros brothers, among others. Fully sated on innovation and culinary cleverness, I was starved for the traditional flavors that defined France to me, and so I decided to seek out the oldest chef in Paris.

Culinary arts colleges are for aspiring professional chefs and also for many of those who want to improve their home cooking. Culinary arts college can be a lot like camp and a fine hotel stay at the same time, mainly because you are able to have a great time and still learn about food and learn skills to make your life a lot easier. Yes, there is a lot of fun to be part of culinary school...

We giggled at the blurb for the new restaurant at Le Meurice...."Between pleasure and greed, the new culinary concept of the restaurant Le Dali – signed Yannick Alléno – undresses French cuisine, designed around a menu that is without and 100% (indulgence or abstinence)."..... it's definitely been a direct translation from the original, but it somehow doesn't come over in quite the same way in english..."between pleasure and greed"?

This is not to be confused with the restaurant Le Meurice, overlooking the Tuileries Gardens. Le Dali is fitted out under a monumental canvas painted by Ara Starck, and Papa had SFA to do with her getting the commission she reports.

Britain's leading hotel reviewer, Fiona Duncan, chooses the best places to stay in Paris, from hip and chic to cheap and charming.

Officially Paris only rises to “four-star luxe” rather than five-star accommodation, which is probably what makes its top hotels so sensational: they are all in traditional mode and set in historic mansions, rather than bling new builds.

If only for its location, entered from the arches of the rue de Rivoli and overlooking the Jardin des Tuileries, the Meurice has the edge, for me, over its rivals the Ritz, Plaza-Athénée, Four Seasons Georges V, Bristol and Crillon.

Inside, the revamped interior glitters in gold, marble and glass in a way that’s dramatic yet dainty, with rows of gilt-framed glass doors leading into the shadowy majesty of the Bar Fontainbleu, and the Versailles-themed, Michelin-starred restaurant.

Rooms and suites hark back to the empire and 18th century and many have superb views, while the terrace of the Belle Étoile Suite has an amazing 360-degree panorama over Paris. Spoiling spa; appropriate service.

One of the highlights of my trip to Paris was an elegant lunch at Le Meurice, one of the city’s palace hotels that is just across from Jardin des Tuileries, between Place de la Concorde and the Louvre.

This historic hotel dates back to the early 1800’s and was the favorite of many creative visitors, from Rudyard Kipling to Salvador Dali. The lobby restaurant just reopened after an extensive renovation by revered designer, Philippe Starck. While Starck didn’t touch the ornate walls and paintings, he did choose the new furnishings in an homage to Dali, after whom the new restaurant is named.