I love Paris in the springtime . . .

I am a one lucky girl. My fabulous sister just treated me to un weekend manifique in sunny Paris. She really pulled out all of the stops for our last hoorah of sister food and fun in Europe (she's moving home next month) and I loved every last minute of it.

I arrived in Paris before 6am on Friday morning and headed straight to the George V, our spectacularly gorgeous home-away-from-home for the weekend, right off the Champs-Elysées. If you have a loved one who works on Wall Street and who spoils you with shared fancy vacations in Paris, I highly recommend that you ask him or her to book you a room at the George V.

For breakfast on Friday morning, we walked over to the Place de la Concorde, where we enjoyed two tartines (baguette with butter and homemade mixed berry and cherry jam) and some strong French coffee at a small boulangerie. My sister, after years of living on a modified South-Beach plan, is on what our friend Shannon has described as a "no carb left behind" mission as she makes her way through some of Europe's tastiest cities while they're still only a train or short flight away, and I was happy to help her locate and enjoy some of Paris' best bread.

And we weren't just interested in finding the best bread -- when my sister moved to London nearly two years ago, I got her a comprehensive guide to Paris' top 102 restaurants, "Hungry for Paris," written by Alexander Lobrano, the former European correspondent for Gourmet magazine. In preparation for our trip, Kristy thoughtfully read, highlighted, and tabbed the entire book, before narrowing the list down to about ten restaurants, the reviews for which she photocopied and faxed to me, and we settled on three must-visit places for our long weekend: Le Florimond, Chez Georges, and Chez René.

After I took a brief post-breakfast nap, we headed out for a wonderful lunch at Le Florimond. In fact, Kristy had already eaten there on a previous visit to Paris and I was very eager to try their stuffed cabbage, which she had loved. I started lunch with broccoli soup with fresh peas and mint oil. I haven't had a fresh (as opposed to frozen) pea in a long time and I didn't realize what I'd been missing! The texture is completely different - fresh peas kind of pop in your mouth and their texture was a lovely contrast to the creamy broccoli soup. I don't normally love the flavor of mint, but the mint oil added a surprising brightness to the soup. My sister's lunch started with a cooked carrot salad with fromage blanc and honey. Simple, fresh, and elegant. For our main course, we each had the stuffed cabbage - an enormous green bundle of cabbage stuffed with ground pork and rice, bathed in a brown sauce, and served in a small casserole dish. I probably wouldn't have guessed that I'd find stuffed cabbage in a French restaurant (isn't it Polish?), but there it was. And it exceeded my expectations.

We spent our afternoon walking around and shopping, and eventually stopped at the Tuilleries Gardens to enjoy deux boules of vanilla ice cream on a shady bench - it was quite warm in Paris this weekend and I particularly love French vanilla ice cream -- it has more egg yolks than American vanilla ice cream -- and is incredibly rich.

For dinner on Friday, Kristy and I returned to Chez Georges, where we had enjoyed a memorable dinner during our last trip to Paris together in December of 2004. We were not the only fans -- both Alexander Lobrano and Ina Garten recommend it, too. To start, I had a plate of sliced rosette de lyon - a mild saucisson sec from Lyon, which was served with a basket of baguette hunks, a pot of spicy mustard, and a jar of house-cured cornichons. My sister started with room-temperature ratatouille, which came in an enormous bowl with a spoon with which she was supposed to serve herself a suitable portion!? Such a funny notion to Americans who are used to Cheesecake-Factory-sized portions of everything. For my entrée, I ordered grilled filet of beef with bernaise sauce and fries. There are few dinners I love better than a great steak frites and Chez Georges did not disappoint. My sister had a salmon in a rich buttery sauce, but I don't like salmon, period, even when doused in a buttery sauce, and didn't try it. For dessert, we shared we a tarte tatin - YUM! - and strawberries with a generous serving of decadent creme fraîche. The only downside of our dining experience was how close we were sitting to our fellow-diners. We were practically on top of each other which made it impossible to keep our conversation to ourselves, since we were sitting next to a nice retired couple from the Upper East Side.

On Saturday, we started our day with more tartines over breakfast at the George V and set out for a day of shopping, including a stop at E. Dehillerin, a huge, slightly chaotic, and un-airconditioned kitchenware store where I picked up a tart pan, a fish spatula, and a few small Revol porcelain bowls.

For lunch, we took the Metro up to Montmartre to find Le Grenier a Pain, a small bakery which recently won the annual Grand Prix de la Baguette contest for the best baguette in Paris. As a result, they are now the official baguette supplier to the home of President Sarkozy.

We selected four of their offerings to share (clockwise from the top): a doughy mozzarella cheese and tomato calzone-like roll, something resembling an alsatian calzone with lardons and caramelized onion, an emmenthal cheese sandwich on the award-winning baguette, and a slice of zucchini and hazelnut quiche, and proceeded to a nearby park bench to enjoy them. Each was very tasty, but the lardon-studded calzone was the real standout.

For dinner on Saturday, we booked a table at Chez René on Boulevard St. Germain des Pres. It was fantastic. Busy but not bustling, old fashioned but not outdated, and upscale but not stuffy. I started with a goat cheese salad. Unfortunately, the arugula in my salad was a little too fresh and I bit into a few sandy leaves before deciding to focus on my two gooey goat cheese croutons. Kristy fared better with a mache and beet salad. For my entree, I ordered a traditional boeuf bourguignon with boiled potatoes. The beef, which arrived in an individual dutch oven, was incredibly tender and succulent. Kristy had coq au vin with sauteed spinach, which also came in its own dutch oven. Both were excellent. For dessert, we shared a gateau a riz (like a rice pudding formed into a loaf and sliced) covered in creme anglaise and caramel along with a mille feuille (puff pastry sheets filled with pastry cream). It was a marvelous meal.

On Sunday morning we shared a final basket of French breads, including a memorable warm croissant, at our hotel, before taking a long walk down the Seine to the Notre Dame. Afterward, we met my sister's friend for a quick lunch at Findi, a perfectly fine Italian restaurant on Avenue Georges V, where we shared a burrata and tomato salad and rotini with four cheeses and toasted walnuts. Then it was time to say our farewells. And for me to set out on my 10-hour journey home. Well worth it.