The Parisians Are Over FOGO

Fear of going out? Non! New hotels, restaurants and clubs in the French capital are generating excitement, so get ready for the return of the wait list.

PARIS — On a recent sunny afternoon, a cluster of young women in short dresses and high boots crowded into a special elevator at Cheval Blanc, a new hotel in the La Samaritaine complex along the Seine, and were whisked up to the restaurant Le Tout-Paris. Reinvented as a Pop-inspired contemporary brasserie offering classics like sole meunière for two, it has a terrace that offers an uninterrupted view stretching from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame — and is the perfect setting for a selfie.

As the young women settled into the salon area near the bar, passing tables that had been reserved days ahead, another visitor wearing what looked like Chanel couture accented with pearls and diamonds posed for her own private photographer. The rest of the clientele, dressed in business casual or Deauville-appropriate crisp shirts, jeans and loafers, looked on with bemusement. Next to many tables, Birkins were perched on stools provided specifically for handbags.

In Paris, it appears, few are suffering from FOGO, the fear of going out. Indeed, as the country just achieved an 84 percent vaccination rate for citizens 12 and older, new restaurants, clubs and hotels are popping up like mushrooms all around town. Proof of vaccination still is mandatory and masks are required in crowd settings, but social distancing is fading like a bad dream — even though last week the government website reported an average of 75 new Covid cases for every 100,000 of the city’s estimated 11 million residents and almost 20 deaths.