T here is nothing, nothing like youth to lift the heart and make the spirit sing.
J uliette, wearing a shy smile and a lace-trimmed blue velvet dress, escorts us to our table, where a tea light flickers and fat pink cabbage roses are bunched in a yellow ochre clay pot. I face a large, colorful oil painting, done in Impressionist style, a bright blue, sun-splashed Mediterranean morning, looking out to sea. A fter that the evening unfolds with such silky, silent, unhurried tact and efficiency, it seems like magic. A tidbit of curried chicken on a golden potato crisp floats down and alights before each of us. The amuse bouche is delivered an instant before the wine is poured.