Seen from Paris’s Pont de la Tournelle, the eight-story facade of the landmark restaurant La Tour d’Argent looks about the same as it did when its third-generation owner André Terrail grew up there in the 1980s, deploying toy parachutists into quayside traffic. But the interior is no longer indifferent to the 21st century: Late last month, La Tour d’Argent reopened its doors after a yearlong renovation led by the Paris-based architect Franklin Azzi. “It’s my Tour,” says Terrail, who took over following his father’s death in 2006. “The same, but more exacting, more thoughtful.” The new look draws on the outsize history of the classically French fine-dining institution, which has been serving diners since 1582, taking particular inspiration from the streamlined motifs of its Art Deco era. On the seventh floor, the redesigned restaurant — overseen since 2020 by executive chef Yannick Franques — functions more than ever as a theater. The airy dining room, in shades of indigo and silver, looks onto an open-plan kitchen and an elevated platform where the restaurant’s signature pressed-duck dish is prepared nightly. Upstairs and downstairs are new bars suited to less formal occasions: Le Bar des Maillets d’Argent, an all-day lounge with a fireplace, andLe Toit de la Tour, a rooftop terrace. Given that it has the welcoming air of a boutique hotel, it’s no wonder that the building can now host overnight visitors in a private apartment on the fifth floor, complete with a touch of Scandinavian-style minimalism attributable, in part, to Terrail’s Finnish mother.
A passenger hijacked the PA and started singing a French song on a delayed flight
26.08.2023 - 11:37 / insider.com / Edith Piaf / Airlines
Frustrated passengers on a delayed flight briefly got transported to Paris when one of their fellow travellers decided to hijack the PA system and serenade them with a song in French.
A video posted on TikTok by a passenger on the Australian airline Jetstar shows a woman singing what seems to be "La Vie En Rose" by Edith Piaf at the front of the plane, as customers endured a two-hour delay.
didnt even do requests #fyp #jetstar #funny
Commenters were comparing the incident to a scene from the 2011 comedy "Bridesmaids," where Kristen Wiig's character commandeers the PA after taking muscle relaxants.
The passenger on the Jetstar flight couldn't be identified and it wasn't clear when the incident occurred.
A representative for Jetstar told Insider in a statement that the woman had been a passenger on one of its flights, and apologized for the delay.
"While we enjoyed the impromptu in-flight entertainment, and this customer channelling their inner Edith Piaf, the PA system should only be used by crew, so this does need to be a one-off," the representative said.
However, in comments on the video – which has more than 1 million views – Jetstar's TikTok account acknowledged the unauthorized performance, quipping: "Now that's inflight entertainment."
Flight delays can spark strange incidents and behavior as passengers descend suffer collective cabin fever waiting to take off.
This passenger's decision to start singing is among the more lighthearted responses to a delay.
Last week, a woman on a Spirit Airlines flight that was delayed for seven hours posted a video of a passenger having an angry exchange with the flight attendant.
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