We – Roxanne and I – went to Paris for the weekend to meet quite possibly our favourite person, her sister, my daughter, Scarlett. Scarlett is currently studying Art, with a capital A, in the UK and is wondering what to do when she finishes her A-levels this summer. The serious money down at Ladbroke’s is on her doing a third ‘Foundation’ year in her current college but we took ourselves off to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris for a look around on their open day, and very interesting it was too.

In some ways the Beaux Arts reminded me of my time as a student a very long time ago at the University of London. Students haven’t changed very much over the past 40 years, it turns out.

But these artistic ones are doing some interesting projects and have some interesting ideas, but I think Scarlett wonders if three more years of arting on top of the three she’ll have already done by the summer of 2027 is worth it – especially as what she really wants to do is build stuff like film and theatre props, not paint abstract things and make papier maché sculptures.

Because currently all her materials are provided by her college, where at the Beaux Arts students have to buy their own stuff. Marble does not come cheap, it turns out, so that wasn’t a big plus point.

Also whilst there are 30 workshops, some of them quite large, the professors and chefs d’atelier are sometimes present only once or twice a month. Students are expected to produce work for the shows they do five times a year for the three ateliers they join, but there may not be a lot of actual teaching going on on a daily basis. This, I explained to Scarlett, is basically how I got away with not going to any classes at all for most of my five years at UCL. I do not recommend following in my footsteps.

We went and found our apartment afterwards and then dined at Chez Paul, our new favourite restaurant in Paris. Filet of plaice with a medallion of lobster and shellfish sauce was absolutely exquisite, thankyou very much, especially with a little carafe of lovely Beaujolais. Yes fish, yes red wine, no don’t care.

Sunday and we went to the Dessins sans limites exhibition at the Grand Palais, which is stepping in for the Beaubourg which is now closed for at least five years for renovations. Very good it was, too.