It was the nearest Kate Moss has been to London since she was pictured apparently snorting cocaine in a recording studio last year.

The model arrived in Paris at the weekend and checked into the Ritz Hotel.

But if police were hoping she was en route to Scotland Yard, where they are keen to question her about her alleged drug abuse, they were disappointed.

Miss Moss, who insists she is too busy to meet detectives, was in the French capital for the serious business of celebrating her 32nd birthday.

That involved a 15-hour drinking session involving champagne, cocktails ... and more champagne.

The woman now known as Cocaine Kate had insisted this year's celebrations would be quieter than previous birthdays.

Not such a difficult feat, given that the guest list for her 30th included Jade Jagger, Grace Jones, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, the artist Tracey Emin and designers Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.

That party, in a suite at Claridge's Hotel in London, apparently culminated in a wild orgy.

Her 31st, held at Miss Moss's £2million Cotswolds home, was equally starry - with REM singer Michael Stipe, Travis singer Fran Healy and actress Samantha Morton joining Moss Posse regulars Sadie Frost and Davinia Taylor, from the notorious Primrose Hill set.

This time, perhaps wary of Miss Moss's current negative image, few of her famous chums bothered to attend.

Undeterred, and despite having only recently emerged from a rehab clinic, she showed a huge thirst as she embarked on a marathon celebration.

Miss Moss, whose three-year-old daughter Lila Grace is believed to have stayed in California with a babysitter, joined four friends in the hotel's lavish Bar Vendome for a 'champagne tea' at 3pm on Saturday. The posse, which included Davinia Taylor and her husband Dave Gardner, then moved upstairs to the model's £700-a-night suite. They downed more vintage champagne and generally made a racket until complaints from fellow guests forced them to pipe down.

Having opened a few presents - including a £1,000 Alice Temperley dress - Miss Moss and friends were first into the hotel's smaller bar - the Hemingway - when it opened at 6.30pm. In a pink shawl and black trousers, she gulped down a cocktail then returned to her room to get changed. Two hours later, in black dress and red stilettos, she led the group out of the hotel through a back exit.

In a blacked- out Mercedes, they sped to a friend's house on the banks of the Seine, ahead of the chasing paparazzi.

At one point their car was travelling at 90mph in the city's Pont d'Alma - the tunnel in which Diana, Princess of Wales was killed nine years ago.

They were later joined for dinner by Marianne Faithfull and supermodel Naomi Campbell. Sadie Frost, Miss Moss's on-off best friend, did not turn up despite being invited, prompting speculation of a rift.

After the meal, Miss Moss returned to her suite at 4am with her friends in tow and ordered more champagne from room service.

Not surprisingly, the Croydon-born model, who is in Paris until Wednesday on a photoshoot, did not surface until the afternoon having had a breakfast of boiled eggs and bread 'soldiers' sent to her room.

Having issued a statement saying she is ready to cooperate with Scotland Yard, there is speculation that she might still return to London at the end of the week.

Since the drug story broke in September, Miss Moss has holidayed in the Caribbean, Los Angeles and Colorado - where she had a fling with Jamie Burke, an English former public schoolboy.

Burke's previous girlfriend, Australian model Jessie Leonard, 23, said she was still living at his New York flat when she heard about the romance after waking up on New Year's Day. At the weekend she said: 'I didn't even know he'd met Kate Moss. I felt shocked. When your trust is betrayed it's shocking and hurtful.'