Pausanias
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Take a look at the building and then enter the lobby and it doesn’t take any effort at all to believe you are in Paris. This Baku hang-out has a decidedly haute vibe. We loved everything about it. Except the shower.||The building itself looks right at home here on the edge of the Caspian Sea. There are many fantastic apartment blocks and mini-palaces built by the world’s first oil tycoons in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The surprise is that the Four Seasons was built in 2012. I love a genuine, authentic fake.||And the lobby, a block long, quite monotone except for the blast of colour provided by the trademark Four Seasons flower display. Sofas and seats are formed into different conversation zones, people come and go, often to the Zafferano restaurant at one end or Bentley’s bar at the other. It is all so simple yet so sophisticated.||Our room was on the third floor and overlooked the Old City - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - and all three of the looming Flame Towers. The room was remarkably spacious, beautifully laid out, perfectly equipped for the modern era - charge points, USB ports and so on. The bathroom was marbled luxury, though the shower was a tricky customer that drip drip dripped until they sent an engineer. ||We stayed for three nights before heading off to the hotel desert that is western Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia and Armenia. Knowing what lay ahead we took advantage of the Four Seasons kitchen - a great dinner at Zafferano where they gave us a complimentary bottle of wine after having already ordered one. That bottle was finally opened in Tbilisi. And the Four Seasons breakfasts - a great array of breads, cheeses, fruit and honeys. A bit of a shock, though, to order scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and have it presented as a club sandwich, complete with a cocktail stick!||This is an expensive hotel but it delivered everything we expected and then some. Bravo!