Thanks to Sarah Rothenberg, I spent Saturday night in Paris with four handsome Frenchmen I’d never met before, who accomplished an immediate seduction by serenading me with an absolutely exquisite performance of my favorite French chamber music. What a blissful coup de foudre!

In France, my four new beaux are known professionally as Quatuor Ebène. On visits to the United States, where they have received rave reviews, they are known as the Ebène Quartet.

I discovered them by attending “Ebène Quartet Fin-de-Siècle Paris,” presented by Da Camera of Houston, of which Rothenberg is artistic director. Physically, I may have been sitting in the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall, but from the minute those attractive men in black picked up their bows and began playing Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, I was in heaven. I have heard this piece performed many times before by various quartets, both live and on CDs, but I have never heard it played so perfectly beautifully as it was in their Houston debut.

The quartet’s website features the opening strains to the Ravel piece, followed by samples of other music from their two CDs, Ravel, Debussy, Fauré String Quartets: Quatuor Ebene, and Quatuor Ebene: Fiction, which I purchased at intermission. During the concert, they played all three classical pieces from the first CD.

Then, after receiving standing ovations from the chamber music-savvy audience, they returned to the stage and played two pieces from the second CD: A jazzy “Nature Boy” and a hot, sexy “Misirlou” from the movie Pulp Fiction. Judging by the enthusiastic reaction of the audience, everybody loved everything they played, of whatever genre.

When I decided to attend the concert, I made the decision based on the following factors. First, I love turn-of-the-century French chamber music. At home, when I want to hear something particularly uplifting, I listen to a CD featuring violinist Joshua Bell, accompanied by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, performing French violin sonatas, including compositions by Ravel, Fauré and Debussy.

Second, I know Rothenberg has excellent taste in chamber music as well as the latest Parisian fashions. I sought her out in the lobby at intermission to compliment her on her very French-looking outfit consisting of a long, elegant skirt topped by a black silk jacket with puff sleeves and a charming bustle effect at the back, that looked like a period piece straight out of fin-de-siecle Paris. She said while the jacket was from American designer Betsey Johnson, “everything else is Paris.”

Since Saturday night's performance, I’ve been playing the quartet's CDs and smiling that special smile that a friend of mine tells me I always wear when I come back from a trip to Paris. Actually, she says I look as if I've either fallen in love or just come back from Paris.

In this case, I'd say both.