Last Monday at Drouot, Paris main auction room, a piece of Eiffel tower staircase was sold for 80,500 euros ($105,000). It’s 3 meters and a half high, 20-step section, 1 meter 70 cm round, and weights over 700 kilos.

It’s a piece of a staircase leading from second to third floor, which was cut in twenty four pieces and sold in auction in 1983.

The original 1911-step staircase leading up the tower was removed so that elevators could be installed. Gustave Eiffel himself climbed the staircase in the 1889 inaugural ceremony.

A few months ago, we mentioned potential plans to change the Paris skyline. Now the first project, is moving into more serious planning stages.

Indeed, Paris council has unveiled plans for a 50-storey glass pyramid following an official decision in July to break the ban on buildings higher than 37m.

Proposals for the Projet Triangle, designed by Swiss architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron (who designed the Olympic stadium in Beijing), include offices, a conference centre and a 400-bed hotel as well as restaurants, cafes and gardens.

Recently, I discovered an incredible pastry-shop in Paris, Pierre Hermé, where you can try some interesting flavored macarons, such as caramel with fleur de sel , passion fruit with chocolate or even rose petal cream.

(Macarons are French, meringue-like cookies made with almond flour – sometimes called luxembourgers – while Macaroons are cookies made with coconut)

Pierre Herm̩ is an artist Рan artist of pastry making - and he is known for his innovative recipes. He began his apprenticeship at Gaston Len̫tre at the age of 14, where he discovered his passion for pastry making.

The Wealth Bulletin (a Dow Jones site) has come up with a list of the 10 most expensive streets in the world. The survey revealed that the prices for the top homes in the best locations appear to have decoupled from the gloom and doom being felt in the wider property market.

If you want to live in the best accommodation in these streets you will need to be a billionaire, or not far behind !

Avenue Princess Grace in Monaco has been named at the top with a price tag of $190,000 per square metre. It is followed by Hong Kong’s Severn Road with a price of $121,000 per square metre (sq mt) at second and New York City’s Fifth Avenue at third place ($80,000 per sq mt).

Here is the complete list, with some sample property prices as tallied by Wealth Bulletin:

French people are well known for their Luxury taste, and this brand new concept phone is another proof of just that !

MobiFrance has recently partnered up with Sony Ericsson to develop a concept cell called the French Luxury.

The FL is designed to commemorate France’s Independence Day (July 14) by bearing a strong resemblance to the Eiffel Tower, the most recognizable French landmark.

One of the world’s most beautiful city skylines could be changed dramatically after a ban on high-rise buildings in Paris was scrapped last week.

The Paris city council voted Tuesday to consider erecting tall buildings on the rim of this historically low-rise capital. Plans to build towers of up to 220m at six sites in the French capital will now go to public consultation. They will contain shops, offices and childcare centres.

Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe also wants new blocks of flats to counter a housing shortage.

The ban on buildings exceeding 40m was introduced in 1977. Many believed that the 350m Eiffel Tower should be the only building dominating the skyline.
Building height limits have changed little in Paris since Baron Haussmann redesigned the city during the mid-19th century, with caps now at 121 feet.

Only a handful of exceptions have been made for high-rise projects in recent decades
The new decision means that six new sites, under consideration for completion between 2012 and 2014, could host buildings reaching as high as 656 feet, or a little under two-thirds the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The city is currently home to only a scattering of towers, notably including the Montparnasse Tower, which, at 690 feet, stirred controversy when it was built in 1972 and is still considered an eyesore by many Parisians today.
Mr Delanoe insisted the new rules would not blight Paris, saying the administration would not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Via heraldsun/npr