La Vue bar opens in Paris

Just when we were wishing January would hurry up and be over with, we received a nice invitation: would we like to head over to Paris to attend the opening party of a new bar? Would we heck as like. You know us, we hate to offend, particularly when someone has gone to the trouble of arranging Eurostar tickets and accommodation. Trust us, we didn’t miss a beat saying ‘oui’.

La Vue, the bar in question is situated in the Hotel Concorde LaFayette, right in the heart of Paris. Nothing particularly special about that you might think and you’d be right if it wasn’t for the fact this particular bar occupies the 34^th floor of the hotel and offers amazing panoramic views of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

With such a stunning backdrop, you need an interior to match and designer Pier Luigi Copat was brought in to give the 180-seater bar some va-va-voom. He’s gone for playful pinks – not as garish as it sounds – with a dramatic chandelier made up of 11,000 glass rods providing the focal point.

Tout le monde were at the opening party last Thursday which took in a live set from French faves Black Minou and top choons from world renowned DJ Frederic Beigbeder. To give you some idea of the crowd let’s just say it was Notting Hill meets Shoreditch somewhere in Primrose Hill. Everyone was lithe, gorgeous and achingly cool. We don’t know much about the French hip list but we’re guessing that guests including Greg Boust, Jeanne Damas, Jules Pelissier, Lauren Ricard, Lou Lesage, Marco Prince and Ultra Orange all feature pretty highly.

And what of the cocktails concocted by award-winning mixologist and Best Mixologist in France 2009 Stephen Martin? Ah, well, there’s the thing – after all that, we didn’t get to try them. In true launch party fashion, it was more of a champagne affair but we’ll be back next week to put them to the test (any excuse).