A successful attempt at coolness from a top-dollar hotel (see Plaza Athenee), whose restaurants and salon de thé (see La Galerie des Gobelins) are favourites among the powerful and the international. A younger, slightly less moneyed clientele spend their evenings at Le Bar, ordering champagne cocktails and jelly shots from a ‘digital’ drinks menu. One end of the nobly proportioned room is dominated by a long, glowing, sculpted-glass bar; high tables and their perches are lit by low-hanging blue chandeliers. The warmer-feeling half has leather club chairs, oversized classical paintings and a video fireplace. When it first opened, turning up on spec to Le Bar was a risky business; now the fuss has died down, it’s still a classy place to take the weight off your Manolos.