British Airways, Europe’s third-largest flag carrier, on Wednesday said it is going to buy the French all-business airline l’Avion for 54 million pounds ($107 million) as it steps up efforts to take advantage of the recent liberalization of transatlantic travel.

The privately owned airline flies two Boeing 757 aircraft with 90 seats each between Paris and New York. L’Avion has flown 65,000 passengers since its January 2007 launch.

The deal, which includes £26m of net cash on L’Avion’s balance sheet, will allow OpenSkies to raise its Paris Orly-New York flights to three per day. Both carriers use reconfigured Boeing 757 aircraft.

The idea behind Open Skies was to capitalize on the deregulation of traffic between the U.S. and Europe that took effect at the end of March. Until then, BA couldn’t offer direct flights from Paris to the U.S.

L’Avion is the sole survivor of the four all-business class airlines launched in recent years following the collapse of Maxjet, Eos and Silverjet. But given oil at around $140 a barrel, industry observers doubted that l’Avion ever turned a profit.

BA plans to integrate L’Avion under the OpenSkies brand. L’Avion’s aircraft have 90 seats in a single-class cabin, while OpenSkies has 82 seats in three classes : 24 seats that convert into beds, 28 in premium economy and 30 in economy making it closer to the l’Avion model than traditional British Airways flights.

If you ever go to Paris, one of the places you must visit is Ladurée. It’s a luxurious patisserie that, since 1862, has been creating beautiful pastries.

The venerable brand has just launched a small line of beauty products. The original Ladurée beauty product collection pays homage to almonds, known for centuries for their hydrating properties as well as for having formed the basis of Ladurée’s celebrated Epicurean cuisine.

The collection comprises six products and the boxes holding the products are, as usual, decorated with the guardian angels from the Ladurée universe.

Although we love Ladurée, we’d rather eat its macaroons than trust a patisserie for our beauty needs…

Hotel Everland, the creation of Swiss artists Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann, on the roof of Palais de Tokyo is an art consisting of an actual one-room hotel. It offers 1970’s-style glamour, a turquoise-tiled bathroom, a record player with a collection of vinyl discs, & a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower but remember no TV.

If you are interested in the room in the hotel, you can actually stay in it & is offered at a price of 333 Euros per night during weekdays & 444 Euros at weekends. But do remember it will remain atop the Palais de Tokyo until the end of 2008 only.

Via Crooked Brains

From Piaget’s new Limelight Paris-New York collection, this ring was unveiled at SIHH 2008, and is part of the New York Couture inspired part of the line.

The collection shows contrasts between the two fashion capitals of the world and their diverse fashion and architecture influences.

Loaded with 528 brilliant cut diamonds of approximately 7.17 total carats, this ring a shiner! Add to that 35 baguette cut diamonds totaling around 3.8 carats and luscious blue sapphires – about 2.64 total carats over 116 pieces.

Inspired by a sensual and exquisitely feminine couture style, Piaget dares to go for a “sexy “look with creations echoing the lacing on corsets that are tied and untied with voluptuous delight. In an ultra-chic interpretation of wild Parisian nights, a ruby and pink sapphire necklace imitates untied ribbons hanging nonchalantly along a plunging neckline.

In the same glamorous spirit, Piaget introduces a fabulous cuff watch, a recurrent and emblematic object in the brand’s history.
Entirely paved with diamonds, this watch literally wraps the wrist in light, evoking a luxurious corset delicately laced by a ribbon of square-cut diamonds, and also comes in a version with a colourful satin ribbon.

SPECIFICATIONS: 18-carat white gold cuff-watch with case, dial and bracelet paved with 1576 brilliant-cut diamonds (85.8 cts) and 83 baguette-cut diamonds (7.4 cts) Piaget 56P quartz movement

Due to ever increasing crowds, SERERO architects have submitted a proposal to extend the third floor of the world famous tower.

Since its creation the amount of visitors coming to reach the top of the tower has increased to reach its limit capacity, 6.5 million.

The floor area of each level decreases with the height because of the tower geometry resulting in very long waiting lines and crowd management problems.

In celebration of the 120th birthday of the tower, the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel decided to restructure the public reception and access areas of the tower.