The freshly baked croissant tastes like a slow festive morning, a thick Sunday newspaper, thick aromatic coffee, deep intimate satisfaction. But everything becomes special if this Proustian moment happens in a unique place with views, next to the person you love. And surely there is none as exceptional as the small terraces decorated with pots of red flowers at the Plaza Athenée hotel in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the background as a backdrop. In them, happiness melts like butter in summer.
The croissant is one of the most elegant buns, which is why it was chosen by Blake Edwards for Audrey Hepburn to nibble on on Fifth Avenue, in her black Givenchy dress, in front of Tiffany’s jewelry store. But it was also chosen by Darren Star for Lily Collins (Emily in Paris) to satisfy her desire to conquer the world at Café Marly, in front of the Louvre. By the way, the creator of the series had to trick the image to digitally zoom in on the glass pyramid that allows access to the museum, because a crunchy croissant deserves the best view.
The Plaza Athenée hotel is an institution on the avenue of luxury in Paris, which they named after Montaigne, in homage to a French writer, philosopher and humanist who is considered the creator of the essay as a literary genre and the most modern among the classics. The French like to cover any frivolity with a patina of culture to turn an eccentricity into fashion, a whim into desire and a boulevard into a place of pilgrimage.
There is no avenue like the one that starts in the tree-lined promenade of the Champs-Élysées and ends at the Seine, on the way to the Eiffel Tower, an iron monument that the engineer thought for Barcelona to the horror of the well-thinking bourgeois within the framework of the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and that would end up being the icon of Paris, adored by the entire planet. Avenue Montaigne is barely 500 meters away, where all the big luxury brands compete.
The cocktail bar at Plaza Athenée, Le Bar, with its multicultural DJs, its generous cocktails and its daring decoration is one of the most sought-after places in the late afternoon. You have to ask for a table and don’t even think about dressing casually unless you’re a celebrity. The gastronomic restaurant suffered a crisis a couple of years ago when Alain Ducasse left it and his replacement, Jean Imbert, tried to regain prestige, but there is a long gap between the chef with the most Michelin stars on the planet and the winner of the French Master Chef. even though it has been reduced in a short time.
I love the luxury bistro, Le Relais, at the hotel, with its own entrance, at a much more reasonable price and with a recognizable French cuisine menu. By the way, on the ground floor of the Plaza there is a jewelry store like Harry Winston, famous for its rings and for having been robbed twice in just over a year, the last time on December 4, 2008, and the robbers, who were men dressed in wigs and women’s clothing, they took watches and jewelry worth more than 80 million euros.
Avenue Montaigne one begins with the Gucci store and ends with the Valentino store, but don’t miss the new Dior store -conceived by the designer Peter Marino as a department store-, which is a real spectacle, with a sculpture in rose shape that ascends from the hall to the second floor. His restaurant, Monsieur Dior, couldn’t be more fashionable. And his poached eggs a la Pompadour, which Christian Dior adored, have been magnificently reinterpreted. Be careful with the glassware: the glass where the water will be served costs 600 euros.
And going back to the croissants, you can also try them at the L’Avenue brasserie, where the waitresses are dressed as if for a fashion show. There are slaps to take place at all hours. The views from its terrace are not detracting, with people from half the world parading ahead, with large bags from major brands. Marcel Proust said it: more than looking for new landscapes, it is worth seeing things from a new perspective. And in L’Avenue, at least, you won’t burn your credit card like in the Plaza Athenée, which many Americans discovered thanks to the Parisian episodes of Sex and the City and where asking for the price of the room is considered vulgar.
