In any case, it felt like a king's ransom, and along with the fine crystal and china, Simon's flowing Hebrew and Henry's starlet, the evening always felt somewhat magical.

WSJ: Passover Challenged

Flute-like in shape and made of fine Czech crystal, they were designed to minimize the loss of carbonation during pouring, or at least that's how I understand it.

WSJ: An Enduring Tradition

To create the point-contact transistor, Shockley's team modified the cat's whisker by placing two fine metal wires close together on the surface of a germanium crystal, turning it from a diode into a triode.

ECONOMIST: The middle age of the transistor

Finally, order a glass or two of fine champagne at one of the city's stellar nightclubs - try Crystal on Rue Monot for bling or B018 in Quarantine for subterranean cool - then sit back, watch Beirut's beautiful people out to play, and toast to the completion of a road trip with which few others back home will be able to match.

BBC: Lebanon in a week: The ultimate road-trip guide