Last night, we discovered a quaint little theatre, le theatre de St Louis, hidden in an apartment building on the banks of the Seine on Ile St Louis. Walking down the little laneway leading to the theatre and knocking on the door, we thought we had somehow missed it or gotten the address wrong. But no, this was obviously the front room of somebody's house that had been converted into an intimate, cavernous theatre. A charming elderly gentleman opened the door and announced that it was "free seating" - No kidding: we were the only ones there, along with an elderly couple who had already fallen asleep in the corner and a younger, well-dressed resident of Isle St Louis. What followed was a performance of enchanting, haunting fusion of gregorian, Ancient Greek, Judeo-Spanish and Middle Eastern chants, sacred, medieval music and percussion - exotic, spirtually sensual and transporting. Catherine Braslavsky was breathtaking with her other-worldly voice. She has dedicated her life to interpreting Hilegard's music, is a specialist of the Gregorian Chant and has studied Indian, Judeo-Spanish, harmonic chant and ancient musics. The singing, some modern and interesting interpretations of Hilegard Von Bingen's chants, were interspersed with narration of ancient fairytales (dionysos, Apollon) by the talented Joseph Rowe, an American composer who had studied music with the late Nubian master Hamza El Din. He played a range of instruments - the oud, tibetan and Burmese bowls, Bendir, darabuka, Tanbura, Mbira. It felt wrong that these exraordinary musicians were playing to a room of four or five people......

This was followed by dinner at the well-known St Louis restaurant Mon Veil Ami. This is a restaurant we had been trying to get into for some time. It does what French restaurants don't do very well- expand the traditional fare with Asian and other influences. My caramelised poitrine de Cochon in a lemongrass/ginger broth, and Wim's stuffed guinea fowl were good, though not outstanding. The menu was very reasonably-priced for this part of town and full of a fashionable crowd sitting on long communal tables. It is a good place to go if you find yourself at the Notre Dame and want to avoid the tourist-hell cafes or bacteria lane (that well-known district of greasy kebab shops and bland greek restaurants in the Latin quarter). Of course, there are a million good restaurants, but this one is a short walk from the Notre Dame.

We hopped into a taxi to the drone of Kylie Minogue on the radio. It wasn't hard to blot this out with the echo of the chanting and hypnotic percussion still with us......