Get Your Checkbooks Out

ONE OF THE most famous restaurants in Paris is getting ready to do a little house cleaning -- and they're putting some of the items up for sale.

La Tour d'Argent, an establishment that dates back to the mid 1500s, is putting nearly 20,000 bottles of wine and spirits from it's cellar up for auction in an effort to clean out a bit of space and raise about a million euros. La Tour d'Argent has the one of the most extensive wine cellar in Europe, boasting nearly 500,000 bottles -- some that date before the French Revolution (inset photo).

So if you've ever wanted a 1983 Chateau Petrus, a '49 Chateau La Tour, or a 1788 Clos du Griffier cognac (yes, 1788!), this is your chance. Bring your checkbook though -- these vintages will cost you a pretty penny. But the restaurant wants people to know that not all bottles cost a lot of money: thousands of bottles will sell for between 10 and 15 euros.

I will again recommend the book Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure. Among other things, the book talks about how restaurants like La Tour d'Argent hid their most precious wines from the occupying Germans during WWII.

Of course, I'm not in the market -- I just like the idea of a cellar that is big enough to hold nearly 1/2 million bottles of win.
CJS