Celebrating the upcoming Bourget Air Show on the outskirts of Paris, the Peninsula Hotel is taking its patrons back to a time when flying was about looking sharp while sipping on a glass of bubbly at the bar, with a specially designed menu and cocktails to enjoy while gazing out over 360° rooftop views of the City of Light.
This year, the Bourget, which alternates annually with London's Farnborough Air Show, takes place between 15th and 21st June, the date until which the Peninsula will be serving up a healthy dose of nostalgic glamour with a special lunch and dinner menu that echoes the upscale fare served onboard the first transatlantlic flights between Paris and New York. For the event, the Peninsula is also putting on an exhibition of Air France's first advertising campaigns for what was a revolutionary flight path. The show is taking place throughout the hotel's public areas.
One of the best rooftop restaurants in the French capital for views that will dazzle even the most recalcitrant of travellers to the charms of Paris, the Peninsula's Oiseau Blanc (meaning 'white bird') restaurant is named after the plane used for the first attempt to fly direct across the Atlantic in 1927 by French pilots Charles Nungesser and François Coli.
However, while the real Oiseau Blanc came to a tragic end in the ambitious flight, the legend remains very much alive at the Peninsula restaurant with plenty of reminders like a small replica of the plane and elegant Bernardaud china tableware painted with a dainty Oiseau Blanc circling the skies.
An ode to aviation's golden era, (when one could still use the word 'gourmet' to describe in-flight meals), chef Sidney Redel's 'Service à la parisienne' menu is an homage to those served onboard the 'Super Constellation' Air France plane, which came complete with beds, lounges and a bar - alas, another very distant reality for most travellers today.
Step into a very sophisticated time warp up on the sixth floor of the hotel and try Petrossian caviar served mimosa style, rediscover salmon à la parisienne, followed by a Challans duck filet and finish with Grand-Marnier baba, not forgetting the choice of tipple, picked out especially by sommelier Xavier Thuizat who plays on French and American wines for the occasion. Visitors looking for something with a little more bite, can sample an 'Aviation', 'Bombardier' or L'Escale', three cocktails the bar staff are rustling up especially.
While lunching high up in the skies in celebration of Air France's glamorous beginnings across the Atlantic leaves visitors with a certain nostalgia for an era many haven't lived, the event also makes for a wonderful and rare opportunity to indulge in top-end service that you would be hard-pushed finding on a commercial flight today.
The Peninsula Paris - 19 avenue Kléber, Paris 75116
