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Some evocative pieces of old Paris have been sold at auction.

The pièce de résistance of the sale, ‘Paris Mon Amour’, at the Drouot auction house, was a set of 40 original iron spiral steps from the Eiffel Tower.

“I have been thinking for many years about organising an auction concerning Paris,” said Christophe Lucien, who put the sale together.

The moment arrived when officials of Nogent-sur-Marne, east of the city, asked Lucien to sell the section of the Eiffel Tower staircase bought by the town in 1983.

“I thought that was the perfect opportunity because there is nothing more symbolic of Paris than a staircase from the Eiffel Tower,” said Lucien.

Things moved quickly. “I just spread the word and everybody started to pull out objects related to Paris from their drawers and cupboards. In almost every French family there are some souvenirs of Paris.”

Apart from the Eiffel Tower steps, the 301 lots included a taxi counter dating from around 1920, a lamp-post from the Champs-Élysées, a pair of wooden Metro (underground/subway) seats and an old rusting iron public urinal known as a vespasienne.

Perhaps the oddest lot of all was a piece of dried bread. During the siege of the famished French capital at the end of the Franco–Prussian war, someone stuck the piece of bread – then a great rarity – on a piece of cardboard. It carries the inscription: ‘Historic souvenir of 1870-1871.’

by Andy Moreton, with Associated Press

If you’re planning a visit to France’s romantic and historic capital city, browse through Luxique’s unrivalled selection of luxury Paris hotels.

I didn’t know whether to rejoice or hold my head in my hands at the news that the plane maker Airbus has sold the first two 840-seater airliners.

My first thought was: I hope there are enough toilets.

The two planes are all-economy versions of the giant A380. They’ve been sold to Air Austral, the flag carrier of Reunion in the southern Indian Ocean. The island is officially part of France, and the airline has nine flights a week to Paris.

The configuration of passengers, euphemistically known as ‘high-density’, has been certified for use by civil aviation authorities after a fire test in which 873 passengers and crew were safely evacuated in under 80 seconds.

Airbus’s Chief Operating Officer, John Leahy, said that far from people being crammed in, it would be more comfortable for them. He said the plane’s size meant there would still be wider seats, wider aisles and more space for each passenger than on its competitors.

The standard A380 recently made its maiden transatlantic flight. Air France took one of the airliners from Paris to New York with 538 passengers, 380 of whom were fans of the super-jumbo and had bid for the seats on eBay.

by Andy Moreton

One of the oldest restaurants in Paris, La Tour d’Argent, is putting 18,000 bottles of vintage wine up for auction.

They include such sought-after tipples as Chateau Lafite Rothschild (1970, 1982 and 1997), and Chateau Cheval Blanc (1928, 1949 and 1966).

La Tour d’Argent, which enjoys an enviable position overlooking Notre Dame cathedral, is a fixture on the Paris dining circuit. It dates back to 1582 and is most famous for its pressed duck.

The bottles for sale were selected from the 450,000 or so that are kept in what is one of the world’s largest and finest cellars. The restaurant says it wants to cut down, vary and modernise its selection.

The auction, set for December 7th and 8th, has captured the imagination of France’s connoisseurs of the grape. A spokesman for the auctioneers said:

“To wine lovers, these cellars are like Mecca, like a cathedral. It’s the holy of holies.”

Some very old spirits will also be sold. When four bottles of 1875 Armagnac Vieux were finally unearthed from the labyrinthine wine cellar, they were found to be covered in a black fungus that looked like matted cat fur.

But they are not the oldest lots in the auction. There are three bottles of a Clos du Griffier cognac from 1788 – the year before the French Revolution. The starting price is 2,500 euros (£2,250/$3,685) a bottle.

It’s thought the whole sale will fetch up to a million euros (£900,000/ $1.47 million).

by Andy Moreton

If you’re planning a visit to France’s romantic capital city, browse through Luxique’s unrivalled selection of luxury Paris hotels.

A hotel in the United States offered itself to the highest bidder for a whole night – New Year’s Eve 2010.

On the eBay auction, the Curtis Hotel in Denver, Colorado promised the winner 330 rooms, the grand ballroom, live music, a champagne reception, dinner, breakfast and the services of all the staff. The
promotion was headlined: ‘One night, one hotel, one unbelievable memory.’

The offer went live on eBay on October 1st and ended on Sunday with 6 bids. The final one was $52,300 (£32,700), but this didn’t reach the reserve price so the chance of staging the party-to-end-all-parties went begging.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has a wide selection of luxury hotels throughout the States, including the highly-rated Teatro in Denver.