Atlantica - 01.03.2001, Side 27

A T L A N T I C A 25
new light effect on the Eiffel tower, a
shower of tiny sparks which appears
every half an hour. We are too
impressed by the interior to pay much
attention to the food, an east-meets-
west sort of affair. Our waiter remains
remarkably offish until my French
husband realises that they were fellow
students at college, whereupon the
mandatory arrogant-waiter disguise is
discarded and replaced by a big smile.
“This is the latest restaurant to open
by the Costes brothers,” he gushes. It
seems that we’ve gone from Costes to
Costes. We’re joined by Tania, a leggy
Lebanese “It” girl, who orders only a
miniature chocolate fondant and a glass
of champagne. “Oh there are so-o-o
many new restaurants,” she drawls in
her accented French, and names at least
five we should have gone to instead.
We pay the rather hefty bill and prepare
to leave. Tania is off to the Man Ray,
an oriental-looking restaurant-cum-bar-
cum-nightclub owned by Sean Penn,
Johnny Depp and Mick Hucknall. We,
however, decide to head home with a
short stop at the Buddha Bar, the origi-
nal version of the Man Ray. These plans
are thwarted by a burly Middle-Eastern-
looking doorman who, on seeing
the photographer, grunts “No shorts
allowed”. After ten minutes of discus-
sion we give up. “Come back tomorrow
wearing trousers,” says the bouncer,
friendly at last. “I’ll come back tomor-
row wearing a moustache,” retorts the
photographer.
SENSUOUS SHOPPING
The rue Faubourg St Honoré is where
the fashion houses line up side-by-side.
We start at the Élysée palace end, where
two black-clad bodyguards stand out-
side an impressive-looking four-wheel
drive. “Is that a French car ?” the pho-
tographer asks them, inspecting all its
angles. My husband tries to explain that
one shouldn’t really talk to these guys,
and that, yes, the jeep is a Peugeot.
“Your car is a Peugeot, but it has
a Mercedes engine,” continues the
photographer excitedly. “It has a
German engine.” This remark results in
outraged faces. “Zees eeez a French car,
Monsieur.” We pass the boutiques of
Givenchy, Chloé and Louis Vuitton and
head towards Colette, a three-storey
emporium of design. Every object in this
minimalist store is carefully selected,
and ranges from Gucci dog collars, Nars
COOL CHIC
Le Buddha Bar.
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