Whizzed off in Sir David's vintage Riva speedboat for lunch on his yacht — exquisite fresh lobster and abalone before my speech on General de Gaulle. On the way up to change, I share the lift with a tall man with a suspicious deep magenta toupee. 

"Kinky goings-on at the White House today," he remarks. "Revelations about Hillary Clinton and lesbians."

"Why would anyone care if Hillary Clinton was a lesbian?" I ask.

"They're worse than Nazis." 

We reach my floor before we can continue this fascinating discussion. Suddenly I wonder if he is a spy. I have been transported into a Graham Greene novel styled by Alexander McQueen. 

The Hong Kong Royal Geographical Society are ever so interested in de Gaulle, which is a great relief. We dine afterwards with the director, Rupert McCowan, at Cipriani. Talk is of the "cage houses", lock-up bunk bed dormitories where many of Hong Kong's elderly people are now forced to live. Raw capitalism has eroded the ethos of respect and care for parents formerly so strong in Chinese culture. The consensus is that for a city which has enjoyed a decade of uninterrupted growth the lack of social provision for the vulnerable is a disgrace. But any attempt to agitate politically for improvement is dismissed as "Commie liberalism". 

Tuesday

Bliss, no speeches. We are driven to Sir David's country house for lunch on the terrace with a view of the unspoilt islands that could have been painted by George Chinnery. Another reason to love Hong Kong — unlike Manhattan, it's actually possible to drive out of it in under four hours.

Just time for a ride across the harbour on the Star Ferry before leaving for the airport. My brief experience of Hong Kong has been a luxuriously harmonious bubble, but I'm aware that I haven't begun to apprehend this extraordinary city's potential for discord.