Ritz Hotel will put a cork in it

A glass of bubbly before lunch? A digestif to follow? The Ritz has always been ready to serve.

The Wall Street Journal reports today on an upcoming, two-year-long shutdown of the Ritz Hotel in Paris for remodeling. Frankly, the old joint looked pretty good to me, last time I was inside, but then it wouldn't be a five-star palace if it waited for the fixtures and furniture to look shabby. Jamais de la vie! Not on your life!

So, okay, it's going to close. The Hemingway Bar, too, where a gent named Colin Field has been shaking things up for the past two decades. WSJ calls his signature creation, the Serendipity, "France in a Glass." Which rings a bell. My luxury travel company, which often booked private salons at the Ritz, was called, ahem, France In Your Glass.