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Welcome to Eden Being Welcome to this, the latest edition of Eden Being, the magazine of the Oetker Collection. Looking through this issue, it’s apparent how much of an important role location plays in the life of our hotels – from the leading Parisian galleries and cultural institutions just a short stroll from Le Bristol to the olive groves that help to make up the exquisite setting of the Château Saint-Martin & Spa – to the way The Lanesborough in London forms the backdrop to the iconic photograph by Norman Parkinson that graces the back page. A great city hotel should always be part of metropolitan life, whether we’re in Paris, London or São Paulo. But at other times, a perfect location is about getting away from it all. To a beautiful Caribbean island perhaps, like Jumby Bay or St Barths (which is bouncing back from last year’s hurricane). Or to Villa Stéphanie, which in a short time has become arguably the ultimate destination spa – though as guests of the Villa and of the neighbouring Brenners ParkHotel will agree, the setting at Baden-Baden is a beguiling combination of both town and country. It’s also very handy indeed for the races at Iffezheim, which inspired a feature celebrating many of our guests’ enduring affection for all things equestrian. We also celebrate some superb flavours – flavours that can be enjoyed throughout the Oetker Collection – from the freshest of fresh ingredients, which form the building blocks of our chefs’ creativity, to the most august of vintages to be found in our wine cellars. Something to savour, we hope, for everyone.
Frank Marrenbach CEO, Oetker Collection
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CONTENTS
Features
Craft, people, ideas and stories Meet board game design star Alexandra Llewellyn
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A history of horse-racing, high society and grand hotels
28
Château Saint-Martin & Spa’s elegant renovation
36
How Paris has regained the art world crown
46
This year’s unmissable art shows near your hotel
56
Wine heaven from T.T.Trunks and the Oetker Collection
66
The making of a Globe-Trotter suitcase
72
Oetker Living
Inspiration from our hotels around the world Elegance redefined at Palácio Tangará
20
Laid-back luxe at Château Saint-Martin & Spa
40
Food for thought from Oetker Collection chefs
58
Unearthing the treasures of our wine cellars
68
Life is sweet for pâtissière Marie Simon
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The incomparable Villa Stéphanie
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Spotlight on Oetker Collection spas
82
Postscript
Hotel news and destination guides St Barths bounces back
88
People, Places, News
94
Dates for your diary
100
Hotel Directory
103
The Moment
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BOUTIQUES GENÈVE • PARIS • LONDON • BERLIN • NEW YORK MIAMI • BEVERLY HILLS • LAS VEGAS MOSCOW • DUBAI • TOKYO • HONG KONG SINGAPORE • SAINT-TROPEZ • CANNES COURCHEVEL • ZERMATT • ZÜRICH
Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Orlinski Titanium. Titanium case and bezel inspired by the sculptor Richard Orlinski. Skeleton chronograph movement. Rubber strap. Limited edition of 200 pieces.
CONTRIBUTORS
ADAM GOODISON Photographer
ADRIAN DANNATT Writer
Photographer Adam Goodison has worked with the likes of Nick Knight and Charles Negre for clients such as British Esquire, Burberry and The Guardian. For this issue he shot some of the superb ingredients that go into the exquisite creations of Oetker Collection chefs. His dream purchase? “I’d love almost any A Lange & Söhne watch,” he says. “The history, craftsmanship and design behind each watch makes them all superb.”
Based between Brooklyn, the Bastille and north London, Adrian Dannatt has worked as an actor, editor, artist, writer and curator. His definitive monograph on French artists Les Lalannes is to be published later this year. “All I now require in life is the Bureau Crocodile,” he tells us. “It’s a working desk draped in gilt bronze crocodile by Claude Lalanne.” In these pages he reports on the resurgence of Paris as a leading art capital.
GERRI GALLAGHER Writer
HARRY MOUNT Writer
For many years as associate editor at British Tatler, Gerri Gallagher is a leading expert on luxury travel and wellness who now spends her time advising clients and writing about the glorious places she visits, such as Baden-Baden’s Villa Stéphanie for this issue. What’s left on her wish list? “A black Robinson R22 helicopter,” she tells us. “I do love a good helicopter.”
A former New York correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, Harry Mount is now editor of the Oldie magazine. For this issue he has written about the worlds of horse-racing and high society, with which the Oetker Collection’s grand hotels have always been intertwined. When asked what his life is missing, he replies, “I long for an Elizabethan house lined with watercolours by Eric Ravilious.”
Cover image shot by JULIAN BROAD at the HOTEL DU CAP-EDEN-ROC
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A L E X A N D R A L L E W E L LY N
MO V E R A N D SH A KER A childhood encounter inspired Alexandra Llewellyn to make beautiful backgammon sets. Alex Moore meets the creative who is turning the humble board game into a work of art – and crafting limited editions for Eden Being
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Alexandra Llewellyn’s limited-edition design for Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, depicting delicate white edelweiss and antlers
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A L E X A N D R A L L E W E L LY N
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Opposite: the “Goddesses” board, a collaboration with photographer Terry O’Neill Right: the Desert Board’s box is made from exquisite creamy-gold masur birch Below: Alexandra Llewellyn at work in her studio; her designs include innovative round backgammon boards
There are certain moments in life, however ephemeral, that have a pivotal effect on one’s future. For British designer Alexandra Llewellyn, a childhood game of backgammon in a Cairo street ranks among the most significant of these moments: one that steered her towards her vocation and, ultimately, to her current position as one of the world’s foremost designers of luxury backgammon boards. “When I was nine,” she recalls, “I played backgammon with a man who must have been ten times my age. He was playing on the street and I just sat down and joined him. Neither of us spoke the other’s language, but we were able to communicate through this game, and that’s what really stuck with me – how games can bring people together.” It wasn’t always Llewellyn’s intention to make a living from one of the world’s oldest board games. While working in product development at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, she was inspired by the multitude of exceptional British craftspeople she encountered. She had been making backgammon boards as gifts for friends and family – handpainting designs onto boxes she’d built herself – but realised that if she were to work alongside other craftspeople, together they could build boards of exceptional beauty. In 2010, Llewellyn rolled the dice and set up her own company designing bespoke backgammon boards. While she continues to design all the boards, she now employs 25 workshops around the country, each with a different specialism, to build the sets. The marquetry is done in Brighton, for example; the leather lining in Norfolk; the custom locks and engraving in London; while semi-precious stones are used to make playing pieces in Enfield (not a place usually associated with high luxury). But it’s this breadth of skills and attention to detail that has caught the attention of clients such Sir Richard Branson, Elle Macpherson and Mark Ronson (to name but a few), leading to collaborations with brands and charities such as Sony, Alice Temperley, The HALO Trust, Terrence Higgins Trust, and now Eden Being. 17
A L E X A N D R A L L E W E L LY N
Left: Llewellyn’s limitededition board inspired by the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc captures the Mediterranean sunlight, blue sky and sea that entranced so many artists. Playing pieces are white jasper and turquoise set in polished brass
For the collection, Llewellyn has distilled iconic features from each hotel, so peacock feathers for Le Bristol Paris (there is a taxidermy peacock outside Le Bar du Bristol) and bougainvillea for Eden Rock – St Barths. Meanwhile, the materials continue to tell the story. The ebony of the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa box symbolises the nearby Black Forest, while the pale masur birch of the Hotel du CapEden-Roc box represents the South of France. “The boards are a great way of telling a story,” explains Llewellyn. “Bespoke designs can often be something of an open biography, detailing the client’s life, so hopefully these boards will tell a bit of the story of the hotels too. Of course, we also want people to play on them and to be reminded of the time they’ve spent there.” Despite adhering to backgammon’s strict geometric parameters, Llewellyn’s bespoke sets are as diverse as they are imaginative. Boards depict everything from flamingos and cow skulls to pin-up girls and cigar smoke, but the designer believes one theme runs through all her creations.
The boards depict everything from flamingos and cow skulls to pin-up girls and cigar smoke 18
“We get the most incredible commissions, and mostly they’re about love,” she says. “We were once sent a shoebox containing 50 years’ worth of love letters that the husband wanted us to turn into a design. It was goose-bumpinducingly amazing.” Meanwhile, her work hasn’t failed to captivate the art world. Llewellyn has collaborated on limited-edition boards with nature photographer Kristian Schmidt, painter and sculptor Miranda Donovan, and, more recently, the legendary photographer Terry O’Neill. The latter invited Llewellyn to spend a couple of days perusing his archive of never-before-seen photos from the 1960s and ’70s – an opportunity she describes as “one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done”. Finally the pair decided on a Goddesses theme, using glamorous black-and-white images of iconic women of the era, such as Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress, Goldie Hawn, Jean Shrimpton, Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy. Each of the 20 boards is signed and numbered by O’Neill and the dice-shakers are engraved with his camera “click” fingerprint. Part of Llewellyn’s success can be attributed to the recent backgammon boom. The game has found renewed favour with players of all ages thanks to its fast-paced, intuitive game-play. This also applies for the digital arena, where, for example, Optime Software’s backgammon is consistently the highest-ranking board game for iPhones. But fundamentally it all comes back to backgammon transcending cultures: a game that requires no words, just a mutual understanding – just like back in that Cairo street. “In the same way that football is its own international language, backgammon can allow you a dialogue with anyone around the world,” Llewellyn says proudly. And if that happens to be over a bellini in Antibes, or a cigar in Baden-Baden, then so much the better…
São Paulo PALÁCIO TANGAR Á
NAT U R A L WON DER With the verdant Burle Marx Park as a backdrop, São Paulo’s Palácio Tangará is an oasis of serenity in a bustling metropolis
PHOTOGRAPHER Adam Whitehead STYLIST Tilly Hardy
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Trees are a recurrent motif at Palácio Tangará. The Amazon rainforest photographs that line the walls of the Burle Bar, the hotel’s intimate dining venue and late-night lounge, provide a blurring of the lines between park and hotel, adding a natural, leafy accent to this chic and opulent space 22
Majestic on the edge of the São Paulo’s tropical Burle Marx Park, Palácio Tangará is an indulgent haven in a vibrant city. The glittering turquoise pool with its iconic butterfly decorative detail complete the picture of a quintessential urban playground
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A flavour of life lived in the grand style runs throughout the Palácio, not least in the hotel’s perfectly proportioned ballroom (right). In a city that pulses with energy, dance and art, it’s the perfect place for a meeting, a celebration... or even a more intimate moment of music – and love 26
HORSE-RACING
A DAY AT THE R ACES
There’s a charming theory that English horse-racing was born the day Charles I was beheaded in 1649. Royalists retreated to their country estates and devoted themselves to horse-breeding. Meanwhile, Oliver Cromwell improved the bloodline of English horses by importing purebreds from the Middle East and Italy. Conversely, when the revolution hit France, the grander families sold the château and hung on to the hôtel particulier (townhouse) in Paris. That explains why country estates remained, and remain to this day, the beating heart of the English aristocracy, while French nobles gathered in and around Paris. It also explains why the most famous racecourses in Britain – Aintree for the Grand National, Cheltenham for the Gold Cup, Epsom for the Derby, and Glorious Goodwood – are scattered around the country. And why Longchamp, the most famous racecourse in France, is in a city – Paris – in the Bois de Boulogne, on the banks of the Seine. More than half the Group One races in France are held there – including the most famous of all, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, held in the first weekend in October. Whether in Britain, France or Germany – and in country or town – racing has always been close to the hearts of people in high society. Big races and festivals have long been red-letter days in grand circles. I know an Englishman who still follows the old upper-class seasonal rule: “Never wear a soft hat in town before Goodwood.” And aristocrats were natural horse-obsessives, too, being military men and keen hunters. Today, races over jumps in Britain are still called National Hunt races, and the minor point-to-point races feature horses that earn their spurs on the hunting field. In Britain, the Royal Family remain avid racegoers – particularly at Cheltenham, Ascot and Epsom – while in Germany and France, the monarchies may have gone but the big races are steeped in royal history, too. Racecourse Iffezheim was built in Baden-Baden 160 years ago, in 1858, to attract German royal and aristocratic circles to the spa town. The owner of the Baden-Baden casino, Edouard Bénazet, dreamt up the idea of creating a racecourse in order to bring rich, smart clients to his gaming tables. Today, the course still lures the upper echelons of German society to its three big meetings: the Spring Festival, the Great Festival Week (including the biggest race of all, the Grosser Preis von Baden) in late summer, and the Sales & Racing Festival in October. German Unification in 1871 very nearly killed off Iffezheim. The Baden-Baden casino was closed, with a nationwide ban on gambling imposed by the Kaiser. It was 28
GETTY IMAGES
Horse-racing has fascinated high society for centuries. Which is why, writes Harry Mount, the Oetker Collection’s grand hotels have always enjoyed such strong equestrian connections
@APRH
HORSE-RACING
ALAMY
Visitors to the hotel included Prince Otto von Bismarck, Grand Duke Michael of Russia, and the Prince of Wales
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GETTY IMAGES
Previous pages: spectators at Royal Ascot, which dates back to 1711, when it was founded by Queen Anne. Today, this high-profile racing event is still attended by members of the British royal family
Clockwise, from far left: French thoroughbred Maintenon after winning the 1906 Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp; Princess Elizabeth at the 1944 Royal Windsor Horse Show; Iffezheim, c. 1865
only thanks to a group of passionate race aficionados that the racecourse was saved. In 1873 they set up the International Club to keep racing going. Its founding members were a Who’s Who of the German, Russian and British aristocracy, including Prince Carl Egon zu Fürstenberg, Landgrave Friedrich of Hesse and the Duke of Hamilton, who had married the daughter of the Grand Duke of Baden, and who divided his time between BadenBaden and Paris – his mother-in-law being Stéphanie de Beauharnais, the Napoleonic princess after whom Villa Stéphanie was named. Aristocrats, of course, need feeding and watering. They had their own clubhouse, but they also migrated to the best hotel in Baden-Baden, “Brenners” [known at the time as the Stephanienbad]. The hotel had existed since 1834 but in 1872, just as the racecourse was about to be revived, it was bought by the Baden-Baden court tailor Anton Brenner. His son Camille Brenner equipped the hotel with the trappings that brought in the racecourse elite. A newspaper said of him, “Like a prince, obsessed with collector’s passion and baulust [love of building], he created his hotel in ever new metamorphoses. He furnished it with rugs that aroused the envy and admiration of collectors, with exquisite originals and antiques, with which he was the first to furnish the luxurious apartments.” Through the 1890s, extensions were built to the hotel, enticing the great and the good to the spa and racecourse. Among them were Prince Otto von Bismarck, Grand Duke Michael of Russia and the Prince of Wales – later Edward VII. American plutocrats came, too, including car tycoon Henry Ford. Walt Disney and Viennese opera star Richard Tauber visited during the resort’s fashionable inter-war years. Since then, under the ownership of the Oetker family, it has gone from strength to strength, with a reinvigorated spa and a Michelin-starred restaurant. Its connections with racing, too, have been reinvigorated. The hotel is always packed for the three big race festivals at Iffezheim. Guests also enjoy Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa hospitality at a special reception room at the racecourse – right by the finish line, appropriately enough, and with its own bookmakers. Bärbel Göhner, spokesperson for the Brenners ParkHotel & Spa, says, “We have had people coming here for generation after generation – owners, trainers and racegoers. Race meetings are sacred to them, particularly at Iffezheim, which holds the most prestigious races in Germany. Brenners is the unrivalled hotel in Baden-Baden for the races. We are the only five-star hotel in the area.” 31
Before and after the day’s racing, racegoers gather in the Oleander Bar, named after a celebrated horse, the first German thoroughbred to star in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Oleander became one of Germany’s greatest sires, too, fathering many German classic winners. Oleander’s most celebrated stage, Longchamp, also has royal roots – or rather imperial ones, the first race having taken place in 1857 in front of an audience that included Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie and leading courtiers. For prize money, cachet and glamour, it can match any race meeting in England – and typically a small army of British aristocrats and bankers make their way to Longchamp on the Eurostar from St Pancras on the day of “the Arc”. Like Glorious Goodwood, the race also has strong Arab connections, as you can see from the number of sheikhs who fly – and chopper – in for the meeting. The Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club now sponsors the Arc, raising the prize money to €5 million, making it the richest flat race on turf in the world. The meeting includes the Arabian World Cup, the planet’s most lucrative race for purebred Arabian horses, with €1 million in prize money. British fans of the Arc are particularly keen on Le Bristol Paris, which has long had English connections. The hotel is named after the 4th Earl of Bristol, who set new standards for luxury accommodation while on his Grand Tour during the 18th century. Americans, too, flock here for the races. The hotel has strong American associations and there’s a long tradition of race-horse owners celebrating wins there. In his autobiography, My Life, Ted Bassett (a major figure in US racing) describes a typical celebration of this kind – the black-tie party thrown in 1985 at Le Bristol by the late Charles J Cella, a prominent American race-horse and racecourse owner – and legendary racing world host – after the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was won by a horse called Rainbow Tree. Entertainment included magicians, jugglers and “a fellow on a unicycle who kept weaving his way around and between the dinner tables”. Other Oetker Collection hotels have strong links with the world of horse-racing. Both the Château Saint-Martin & Spa and the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc are within easy striking distance of the spectacular Hippodrome de la Côte d’Azur, France’s second-largest racecourse, which overlooks the Mediterranean at Cagnes-sur-Mer. Founded in the 1950s, it brought the sport of kings to the Riviera’s smart set – its winter season a reminder that for much of its history, the south of France was a winter destination, not 32
GOODWOOD/CHRISTOPHER ISON
HORSE-RACING
Entertainment at the black-tie celebration at Le Bristol included magicians, jugglers and “a fellow on a unicycle who kept weaving between the dinner tables”
GETTY IMAGES
Clockwise from left: the Oleander Bar at Brenners, with its famous portrait of the eponymous champion racehorse; track action at the Qatar Goodwood Festival 2015; elegantly dressed spectators at the Iffezheim Races in Baden-Baden in 1937
Overleaf (left): a framed 18th-century painting which hangs in The Lanesborough’s main function room, one of the hotel’s extensive collection of equinethemed artworks; (right) a dawn ride in London’s Rotten Row
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a summer one. And São Paulo, home of Palácio Tangará, also boasts the Jockey Club de São Paulo, an art deco gem with fabulous views of the city’s skyline. Of all the Oetker Collection hotels, The Lanesborough London is arguably the horsiest, even if the races themselves are rather more than a stone’s throw away. Handily located for western exits out of the city, the hotel is the ideal jumping-off spot for racegoers heading to Ascot, Epsom and Cheltenham. What’s more, the hotel’s walls are lined with equestrian art. It also overlooks the 1888 Wellington Monument, which shows the Duke of Wellington, mounted on his horse, Copenhagen, opposite his old home, Apsley House – still home to the current Duke of Wellington. Above the Wellington Arch, there sits the mighty 1912 sculpture of “Peace descending on the Quadriga of War”, a chariot pulled by four horses, while in the late 18th century, Hyde Park was the original site of Britain’s most important race-horse auctioneers, Tattersalls. It is now based in Newmarket, but the business began life in 1766 when Richard Tattersall set up his auction rooms near Hyde Park Corner. Today, guests at the Lanesborough will see real-life horses being ridden up and down Rotten Row in Hyde Park. These horses belong to the Household Cavalry, stationed at the nearby Hyde Park Barracks in Knightsbridge. Members of the public, too, ride along here on horses from the Hyde Park Stables, hidden away behind Lancaster Gate, on the north side of the park. Today’s horses in Rotten Row are an echo of the golden days of riding in London. Rotten Row takes its name from the “Route du Roi”, King William III’s route from Kensington Palace to St James’s Palace, laid out in 1690. Lined with 300 oil lamps to keep highwaymen at bay, it was the first artificially lit highway in the country. It soon became the place in the capital to show off one’s fine horses – and more besides. At midday and on weekend evenings, the nobility would ride up and down Rotten Row in the closest the British have ever got to the Continental passeggiata, the evening walk in town that sparks admiration, gossip and flirting. Today, those functions are still fulfilled on big race days in the morning and evening at The Lanesborough. And, in between, there’s the thrill of the chase for the sport of kings, noblemen – and the rest of us, too. Harry Mount is the author of How England Made the English (Penguin) 34
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HORSE-RACING
U N DER S TA RT ER’S OR DER S … Many of the world’s most exciting horse-racing events take place a stone’s throw from Oetker Collection hotels. Here’s what the upcoming year has in store for racing fans… ROYA L A S C O T Ascot, 19-23 June 2018
PR I X DE L’A RC DE TR IOM PH E Paris Longchamp, 6-7 October 2018
The jewel in the crown of British racing. Witness the Queen arrive by horse-drawn carriage
The world’s richest turf race headlines France’s biggest weekend of racing
QATA R G O ODWO OD F E S T I VA L Goodwood, 31 July-4 August 2018
H I PP ODROM E DE L A C Ô T E D ’A Z U R Cagnes-sur-Mer, December-March
One of the world’s largest race meetings set over five days in the Sussex countryside
Enjoy racing through the winter at one of the world’s most beautiful courses
G R A N D F E S T I VA L W EEK Iffezheim, 25 August-2 September 2018
G R A N D PR I X SÃO PAU L O Jockey Club São Paulo, May 2019
The most important and glamorous week at Germany’s premier racecourse
Brazil’s most famous race at perhaps the continent’s most famous course
DESIGN NOTES
T H E WOW FA C T O R Château Saint-Martin & Spa has never looked better following a stunning renovation carried out by talented master craftsmen. Charlotte Hogarth-Jones takes a tour Visitors to Château Saint-Martin & Spa this summer are in for a treat – the hotel has undergone a complete renovation over the winter, with everything from the Château’s 40 bedrooms, private rooms, suites, and villas to the fine-dining restaurant, Le Saint-Martin, elegantly transformed. “We’ve made a lot of improvements, but we’ve stayed true to the DNA of the Château,” says Philippe Perd, Managing Director of Hotel du CapEden-Roc, Château Saint-Martin & Spa and L’Apogée Courchevel, who oversaw the six-month long project. “It was important to us that we were able to freshen up the interiors and come up with a design that was futurefacing, while respecting the history of the Château.” Led by Countess Bergit Douglas and the team at her Frankfurt-based studio MM Design, the restoration involved reworking each room entirely – from wardrobes and flooring to cushions and furniture – while leaving the original structure of the building intact. No knocking down walls or extravagant new extensions, therefore; just a sensitive renovation that pays tribute to the stunning surrounding landscape. “We have changed a lot, but the views of the Mediterranean and of the village of St-Paul-de-Vence will be preserved forever,” says Perd. “It’s been a huge project, and challenging at times, but to see things coming together has been wonderful. I’m sure our guests will love the bright, contemporary new surroundings, and will continue to enjoy many happy summers here.”
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01.
Inspired by nature
Fabrics, furnishings and paint shades have been chosen to reflect the colours of the surrounding landscape – from rich, earthy terracottas to chalky limestone, from bright Mediterranean sea and sky blues to soft greens and floral lilacs. All fabrics and trimmings have been made in France, by a selection of French companies: Pierre Frey, Manuel Canovas, Fadini Borghi and Les Passementeries de l’Ile de France. The bed valances, cushions and covered benches, meanwhile, have used fabrics from English manufacturers across the channel, among them Baker Lifestyle, Ian Mankin and Colefax and Fowler. “The interiors marry perfectly with the Château’s beautiful surroundings,” says Perd. “There’s such a delicate balance between the indoors and the outdoors here, and choosing colours that mirror what you can see out of your window gives the interiors a very peaceful and natural feel.”
Below: the exterior of Château Saint-Martin & Spa; swatches of fabric used in the hotel’s elegant renovation
Left: huge steel sculptures by Bernar Venet will take up residence in the grounds of Château Saint-Martin & Spa this summer; Erick Ifergan’s Tree of Life design in the Château’s chapel
Going to the chapel 04.
Art is a major focus at the Château, with a number of temporary exhibitions and installations planned for the coming season. One permanent – and magnificent – change, however, has been carried out by local artist Erick Ifergan. “We were looking at our old chapel,” explains Perd. “It was nice enough, with plain white walls and a single painting, but we thought we could do better – especially compared with the amazing chapel just down the road [Matisse’s Chapel of the Rosary is also in Vence]. Erick came to us and said, “Why don’t we create something really special?” He was so incredibly excited about it that we said yes.” Making the most of the blank chapel walls, Ifergen has transformed the space entirely, painting a graphic black Tree of Life that trails up the walls and across the ceiling. It’s a contemporary and striking work that took just two weeks to complete. “With the right lighting, it will look incredible,” adds Perd. “Now the chapel will be this vibrant gallery, full of artworks, and of course, some of Ifergan’s pieces will be on the walls too.” Elsewhere, monumental steel sculptures by artist Bernar Venet will be placed in the Château’s grounds (see p56). Installing the works, one of which is 6.5m high and weighs 4,500kg, will be no mean feat. A special crane will manoeuvre it into its home for the season – the centre of an olive grove adjacent to the swimming pool.
02 .
From the ground up
Bringing the inside out
One of the local artisans used throughout the renovation was Jérémy Corso, a craftsman from Mougins, who replaced all the carpet throughout the hotel with a beautiful parquet flooring made from French oak. “It’s part of our commitment to the local community to involve nearby artisans with everything we do,” explains Perd, “and it’s really fantastic that there are so many talented professionals around this area that we can rely on.” Indeed, for Perd, one of the most pleasing aspects of the project was discovering that some of the local carpenters, decorators and upholsterers working on it were the second generation to have contributed to the look of Château Saint-Martin, their fathers having been employed during previous renovations.
The Château has been transformed from top to bottom – but wander into the surrounding olive groves and there’s another surprise to be found. A handful of handmade, open, teak cabanas have also been created for guests. Available to hire for the day, they come with loungers, tables and chairs, and are located just 40m from the hotel pool. “A huge amount of work went into these cabanas,” explains Perd, “because the gardens had to be restructured around them. All the gardeners were involved in the process from start to fi nish. You could see how happy they were when the project was completed – they were so proud of everything they’d achieved, and so are we. There’s no better place to sit with a chilled bottle of rosé. You really do feel privileged to be here.”
03.
Above: nestled in olive groves within the grounds, Château Saint-Martin’s cabanas are available to hire for guests
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TEA HUMIDOR
Born from the desire to find the perfect gift for a tea-lover, Lotusier’s Tea Humidor is the perfect marriage between innovation and exquisite craftsmanship, says Lorna Pope
Looking for a present for the person who has everything? Look no further than Lotusier’s Tea Humidor, an exquisite objet d’art – available from Eden Being – which is also the perfect way to keep fine teas at their perfect condition. And as it happens, this invention was the fruit of Lotusier founder Åsa Eriksson-Ahuja’s long and unsuccessful quest to find a unique gift for her husband – who is a tea-lover. “I was searching for something truly original and masterfully crafted,” she recalls. “It was then I began to consider making a bespoke home for his favourite teas,” which rather like cigars, need to be kept at particular levels of humidity. Once the long development process was completed, “it became clear over a period of time that the discovery has broader appeal than I first imagined,” says Eriksson-Ahuja, who was born in Sweden but now lives in London with her financier husband, Nandi Ahuja. The end result is a finely-tooled piece combining the traditional crafts of marquetry, cabinetmaking and handmade crystal-making with technical innovation – so much so that two patents are pending for elements of its construction. On a purely practical note, as each of the humidor’s four or six compartments has its own hygrometer and two-way humidity control, different teas can all be kept at their optimum level for preservation and enjoyment. But in aesthetic terms, the humidor is the latest in a long and august line of luxurious artefacts designed and produced to complement tea-making at its most luxurious and elevated – from the Sèvres tea caddies prized in the 18th century to the superb teapots made in Japan’s Meiji era. And like both of the above, the Tea Humidor is surely highly collectable. edenbeing.com
“Kyoto Sky” Tea Humidor, part of the Siacho Collection
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T E A F O R T WO
“Tai Yang Emerald”, part of the Cha Jing Collection
“Astaire Night”, part of the Deco Collection
T RUST US… …TO ST EER YO U AWAY FRO M E V ERY RO U TIN E YO U ’ R E USED TO… A N D TOWA R DS IDY L LIC SU NSE TS.
THE TRUSTED NAME IN YACHTING YACHTCHARTER@FR A SERYACHTS.COM FR A SERYACHTS.COM
Provence CHÂTEAU SAINT-M ARTIN & SPA
L A Z Y DAYS Relaxation is at the heart of this historic château – along with spectacular sunsets, shady olive groves and stunning views of the Côte d’Azur
PHOTOGRAPHER Clément Jolin STYLIST David Lamb
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Whether stretching out under a parasol or stretching your limbs with a game of tennis, a stay at the Château Saint-Martin & Spa is sure to refresh 42
A sun-dappled terrace is the perfect setting for a long, leisurely lunch with friends over a chilled glass of rosÊ – exquisite, simple pleasures
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A RT I N PA R I S
FR ENCH R EVOLU T ION For many years the cradle of the artistic avant-garde, Paris is re-emerging as a leading capital of the art world, with a thriving contemporary scene that once again puts the city of light at the cutting edge. Adrian Dannatt reports on the French capital’s cultural renaissance
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© Y.Z. KAMI, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GAGOSIAN. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZARKO VIJATOVIC
A RT I N PA R I S
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OPENING SPREAD: © ARTEFACTORY LAB; TADAO ANDO ARCHITECT & ASSOCIATES; NEM/NINEY & MARCA ARCHITECTES; AGENCE PIERRE-ANTOINE GATIER. COURTESY COLLECTION PINAULT – PARIS .THIS IMAGE: CHRISTIAN KAIN
Opening pages: the cylinder and cupola of François Pinault’s upcoming Bourse de Commerce project, designed by architect Tadao Ando Opposite, from top: Christian Boltanski’s “Animitas” (2014), part of the “In Tune With the World” exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton; paintings from YZ Kami’s “Geometry of Light” solo show at the Gagosian Paris
The old cliché that Paris doesn’t have a contemporary art scene is today as valid as claiming that London has no good restaurants and Manhattan is bristling with muggers – an instant admittance of ignorance. It is true, however, that until recently Paris had lost its place as the epicentre of new art, or the very cradle of creation, as it was justifiably viewed throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. For after World War II, the action moved on in large part to New York, with the rise of abstract expressionism and then pop art and minimalism – altogether very American art forms. And both in terms of creativity, and above all else the marketplace, at times Paris has seemed out-performed by Manhattan and London, while in recent years, cities such as Los Angeles or Berlin have been promoted as new centres for the contemporary art market. But right now Paris is very much back as an art capital – with one of the most interesting art scenes anywhere, closely tied to its unique cultural heritage, its sheer savoir vivre. To begin with, all the A-class heavy hitters are here. You only have to stroll out of Le Bristol Paris and turn left for Sotheby’s, or right for Christie’s, which is next door to Gagosian and across from the highly successful local auction house, Artcurial. If one is looking for major galleries with big names and equivalent prices, then Paris boasts not only Emmanuel Perrotin – the upstart star who transformed the Marais with his pan-international programme – but also that more discreet master-dealer Thaddaeus Ropac,
who opened a gallery, also in the Marais, back in 1990, long before he even thought of opening a London branch. Indeed, Ropac even opened his second Paris gallery, in Pantin, years before his keenly awaited London debut on Dover Street last year. Equally important would be the presence in the Marais of Marian Goodman, the most highly regarded of all American dealers. Paris is also renowned for its museums, and contemporary art has become an integral part of their missions, the latest addition being Monnaie de Paris, where all French coinage was minted for many years, now renovated to feature ambitious contemporary shows along with historic artefacts. This trope – think Jeff Koons at Versailles or Wim Delvoye at the Louvre – is a true Parisian speciality. As Ropac comments, “As a European, Paris feels very important to me, because France embraced the European idea and of course because of its history, the great role it played in 20th-century art and the avant-garde. And artists really like Paris – it’s true, they always want to show there. This isn’t just for emotional or nostalgic reasons – they’re competing with the great artists on display in the great institutions here.” As well as the city’s extraordinary cultural heritage, there are numerous institutions obsessively devoted to the newest of new, veritable “temples to nowness” such as the Pompidou Centre, the gigantic Palais de Tokyo, the Cartier Foundation, Ricard Foundation and now of course the Frank Gehry-designed Louis 49
Vuitton Foundation for Creation. The latter has been a real motor for change, drawing unprecedented crowds out to the Bois de Boulogne. And as its dynamic director Suzanne Pagé admits, this is all down to the determination of one very wealthy man: Bernard Arnault of the luxury conglomerate LVMH. “Arnault shares with artists that concern with perfection, that drive to get it just right,” argues Pagé. “He is the man who said ‘yes’, who dared to throw himself into an incredibly ambitious project and who has offered Paris one of the grand monuments to architecture of the 21st century.” Such highly successful institutions are now joined by Lafayette Anticipations, set up by the eponymous department store as Rem Koolhaas’ first project in Paris. And next year, François Pinault, owner of one of the world’s other leading luxury conglomerates, the Kering Group, will open his own enormous museum in the heart of the city, having employed his own favourite “starchitect”, Tadao Ando, to convert the exquisite 19th-century Bourse de Commerce building. It is hardly a coincidence that Pinault and Arnault should be so firmly committed to contemporary art. For Paris is the true centre of the luxury goods market within which they have made their considerable fortunes. And, in a sense, such art is the ultimate “luxury” item – one that does not pretend to have the slightest utilitarian intention. It cannot be worn or 50
drunk, eaten or carried; its purpose is to be purposeless and extremely expensive. That connection between fashion and art is at its strongest in Paris. For what makes contemporary art special in Paris is the way it links, symbiotically and practically, with those adjacent forms for which the city is known, design, photography, cinema, namely literature, even haute cuisine and wine. Indeed, as contemporary art has broadened its own purlieu, Paris encourages it to deliberately blur all boundaries. France’s most celebrated living author, Michel Houellebecq, devoted an entire bestseller, The Map and the Territory, to the contemporary art world, as well as curating a massively successful exhibition of artworks, many of them his own, at the Palais de Tokyo. The movie producer and distributor Marin Karmitz, meanwhile, mounted an exhibition of his collection at la maison rouge, a foundation created to demonstrate just how many private collectors really exist in Paris. The designer agnès b. has her own gallery to support emerging artists, while there are wine bars with serious exhibition spaces attached, such as Galerie Graphem, and it would sometimes be hard to distinguish between what’s fashion and what’s art in the shows at Les Docks de Paris, the amazing tubular structure on the Seine, housing the “City of Fashion and Design”. France’s most expensive living female artist, Claude Lalanne, exemplifies this Gallic fluidity between fashion, design and high art, having
AURÉLIEN MOLE
CHARLES DUPRAT
A RT I N PA R I S
What makes contemporary art special in Paris is the way it links with those adjacent forms for which the city is known... design, photography, cinema, literature – even haute cuisine and wine
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This page, from top: YZ Kami’s “Geometry of Light” at the Gagosian Paris; Daniel Buren’s “Observatory of Light”, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2016 Opposite: Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s “Potentiality for Love” at the Marian Goodman Gallery
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© Y.Z. KAMI. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GAGOSIAN. PHOTOGRAPH BY ZARKO VIJATOVIC; © DB-ADAGP PARIS / IWAN BAAN / FONDATION LOUIS VUITTON; EIJA-LIISA AHTILA
A RT I N PA R I S
Previous pages, left: Anselm Kiefer, “Das Grab in den Lüften” (1991), at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Pantin Previous pages, right: Nina Chanel Abney, “Hot to Trot, not.”, exhibited as part of the Palais de Tokyo’s Lasco Project, which showcases the work of street artists
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been a friend and collaborator with everyone from Brâncuși to Yves Saint Laurent, Dalí to Tom Ford, and enjoying a major retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 2010. Instead of trying to guard divisions between disciplines, Paris encourages their rich mix, a big new show of artists’ jewellery at the aforementioned museum featuring every “serious” name imaginable but with small, wearable marvels. Likewise, Paris is also a leader in the contemporary form it could claim to have created, “Art Brut”, with one of the world’s leading galleries, Christian Berst, having made the city a destination for this genre, along with such institutions as the Halle Saint-Pierre, the abcd collection in Montreuil and the recently launched Outsider Art Fair. There are some seriously wealthy and sophisticated people who call Paris home – even if their wealth might be generated elsewhere – and all sorts of artists, from Anselm Kiefer to Wes Anderson, who hide out here. There are also many major collectors who regularly, happily, pass through the city. As Larry Gagosian acknowledges, “I love the city of Paris 54
ANDRÉ MORIN
“I don’t know what triggered it, but Paris is once again in the big league”
and I’m delighted to have a gallery here. It is an historical capital of art and is reclaiming its position within the international art circuit through its high-quality museum exhibitions and a growing art market.” Gagosian has even gone so far as to create a second space, a vast hangar, out at Le Bourget, the private airport that services the jets of the super-rich, the perfect spot to pop in and snap up an outsized ashtray by Sterling Ruby before flying off to Courchevel or St Barths. Or as Ropac puts it, “Paris is always the big surprise. Collectors from Latin America and the Arab world – they don’t come to Paris only once a year, they come regularly, say two or three times annually, so you can really build a relationship here. I don’t know what triggered it, but Paris is once again in the big league.” And alongside the big foundations with their gleaming new premises, and the galleries run by leading international art-world players such a Gagosian and Ropac, Paris also has a more underground, home-grown art scene based around artist-run spaces, also termed “curatorial project offices” or “collaborative
laboratories”. Most are minuscule, with nonexistent budgets, and hidden away in the cheaper, sometimes rougher, areas of the city up towards Belleville and Ménilmontant. But they are also wildly ambitious in their programming, emphasising not just objets d’art but a bounty of performances, lectures, screenings. Some are based in apartments and are by-appointment-only, such as Sundogs, owned by Robbie Fitzpatrick (of the recently transplanted LA gallery Freedman Fitzpatrick, which also has its own space near the Pompidou). Some, like Bonny Poon, function as a gallery, but in a working-class housing block, and are fun to visit, if you dare. The current lineup of such destinations might include, La Plage, L’Annexe, Tonus, Treize and Goton. Notably intriguing is Shanaynay, one of the most free-form of all. Previously a laundromat on a 1970s housing estate, this unashamedly basic cube of just 20 square metres has, since 2011, hosted a vast roster of exhibitions and events. Set up by Parisian curator Romain Chenais, together with Jason Hwang, an artist and curator from Los Angeles, it is now run by an increasingly youthful network hailing from all over the world. As Hwang admits, “France
has a particular institutional structure – it’s very much top-down. But we function inversely to that; we come from the bottom up, from DIY culture.” As befits France’s bibliophilic tradition, much of this scene operates bookshops and publishing houses, such as After 8 Books. Other ambitious examples include onestar press and Three Star Books, who host shows as well as expensive limited-edition projects with top international artists. As co-creator Mélanie Scarciglia puts it, “We, as art publishers, work within a tradition that belongs to Paris. Le livre de peintre is a French invention that is still alive now. Early on, Marcel Duchamp proposed that the ‘Air de Paris’ should be exported in small glass capsules. And nothing is better than our strong visual and conceptual history when it comes to art. We would never trade our position, even if we love New York. Manhattan may be the market but Paris is the passion.” Or as Ropac himself concludes with equal fervour, “Paris has always been, for me, the driver of the idea of art – what art means for a society, how it takes place in a society – and you feel this in Paris more than in any other city.”
Right: inside the vast Palais de Tokyo, a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art in Paris’ 16th arrondissement
FLORENT MICHEL
Left: Anita Molinero’s installation “Fill up that hole!”, which is currently on display at the Palais de Tokyo
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ART EXHIBITIONS
The Oetker Collection has always had strong links with the art world, and this year you can enjoy a wide variety of exhibitions within easy striking distance of its hotels – not to mention some taking place within the grounds
PICASSO 1932 – LOVE, FAME, TRAGEDY Tate Modern, London, until 9 September 2018 Tate Modern’s first solo exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s work has been described as one of the most significant shows this celebrated gallery has ever staged. It takes visitors on a month-by-month journey through Picasso’s life in 1932, described as the artist’s “year of wonders”. On display are more than 100 of his most iconic paintings, sculptures and works on paper, from confident colour-saturated portraits to surrealist drawings – pieces that cemented Picasso’s status as the most influential artist of the 20th century.
AFRO-ATLANTIC STORIES São Paulo Museum of Art, June 2018
VENET AT HOTEL DU CAP-EDEN-ROC AND CHÂTEAU SAINT-MARTIN & SPA Spring/Summer 2018 Groundbreaking French artist Bernar Venet is enjoying international acclaim right now. A recent recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award, last year he had three exhibitions happening simultaneously – including a prominent spot at Frieze Sculpture in London’s Regent’s Park. This summer, Venet’s monumental steel sculptures will be displayed at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc and Château Saint-Martin & Spa. Both hotels are about an hour’s drive from Le Muy, which houses his extraordinary private collection and plays host to the Venet Foundation’s annual summer exhibition. 56
The Lina Bo Bardi-designed Museum of Art (MASP) is one of São Paulo’s most distinctive buildings. This summer, alongside its permanent collection of over 10,000 works from around the world, MASP has collaborated with another of the city’s major museums, the Tomie Ohtake Institute, to explore the impact African and European cultures have had on Brazil. The exhibition explores various themes, including portraits, daily life, travel and traffic, punishments and revolts, festivals and religion, liberties and abolitions, activism and African modernism – in a true feast for the senses.
XINYI HU, PARIS/ARCHIVES BERNAR VENET, NEW YORK; © SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS LONDON 2018
A SEASON OF ART T O S AVO U R
KUPKA: PIONEER OF ABSTRACTION Grand Palais, Paris, 21 March – 30 July 2018 This summer, the Grand Palais will host the first major retrospective of František Kupka’s vast oeuvre in almost 30 years. The exhibition will introduce visitors to the Czech artist’s early work in symbolism and his gradual evolution towards abstraction – of which he was one of Europe’s most highly esteemed pioneers. Given the similarities in his work to his contemporaries, Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian, it’s rather surprising that Kupka has remained relatively unknown to the general public, but perhaps this major exhibition will go some way to changing that.
GROUP EXHIBITION Space SBH, St Barths, ongoing Space SBH, St Barths’ leading contemporary art gallery, presents a diverse summer-long group show. Highlights include paintings and photography from an international roster including Hunt Slonem, Marco Glaviano and the rarely seen work of world-renowned ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. Meanwhile, the fashion model turned perfumer, photographer and all-round local legend, Jacques Zolty, has published a book featuring 30 years’ worth of largely unseen images of St Barths, which will also be on show.
JAMES TURRELL Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, 9 June – 28 October 2018
GETTY IMAGES; © ADAGP, PARIS, 2018/© CENTRE POMPIDOU; COURTESY OF SPACE SBH
James Turrell, the world’s foremost light artist, will bring a number of his large-scale, atmospheric installations to Baden-Baden’s Museum Frieder Burda this summer. The extensive “perceptual art” exhibition will revisit works from throughout the artist’s 50-year career, including Sloan Red, Wedgeworks, and an insight into his unfinished magnum opus, Roden Crater. Crater Turrell’s work has caused even the most cynical of critics to rhapsodise, so be prepared for something special.
ERICK IFERGAN Château Saint-Martin & Spa, Vence, Summer 2018 An esteemed filmmaker, Erick Ifergan carved out a career in Hollywood before returning to his native France in 2011 to devote himself to art. Alongside his work in ceramics and sculpture, Ifergan is an accomplished photographer and painter, with various pieces on show at Château Saint-Martin & Spa this summer. He is also painting the inside of the Château’s chapel as part of a time-lapse photography collaboration.
KIKI KAUSCH AND RÜDIGER SIEDT Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, June – September 2018 Two of Germany’s most esteemed artists, photographer Kiki Kausch and sculptor Rüdiger Siedt, are exhibiting work at Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa this summer. Following a series of shows around the globe, Kausch presents her Hollywood Series of photographs alongside an exclusive piece created for the hotel, while Seidt displays a series of steel sculptures around the hotel’s grounds. 57
FOOD FOR THOUGHT We salute some of the superb raw ingredients that help form that most mouthwatering of documents, the perfect menu. Their provenance? All were chosen by the Oetker Collection’s chefs
PHOTOGRAPHER Adam Goodison SET DESIGNER Imogen Frost
PI N EA PPLE H EI R LO OM A N D GR EEN ZEBR A T OM AT OES
The Lanesborough
P OM M ES DE SAVOI E A PPLES
Château Saint-Martin & Spa
BABY ARTICHOKES
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc
VICTORIA RHUBARB
Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa
JULIE MANGOES
Jumby Bay Island
LO CA L HEROES The Oetker Collection is synonymous with haute cuisine. Consider Le Bristol Paris, for example. Its two restaurants, Epicure and 114 Faubourg, boast four Michelin stars between them. The former’s macaroni stuffed with black truffle, artichoke and duck foie gras, gratinéed with aged Parmesan has been the sole reason for many a food-lover’s trip to the French capital. And let’s not overlook Le Saint-Martin at Château Saint-Martin & Spa, or Céleste at The Lanesborough – both are Michelin-starred restaurants, masterminded by industry-leading chefs Jean-Luc Lefrançois and Eric Frechon respectively. In St Barths and São Paulo, legendary chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten – one of the most decorated chefs in history – oversees the cuisine. In both locations, he works to the same ideology as the chefs throughout the Oetker Collection – creating seasonal menus using the very best produce available. For as these leading chefs all agree, sourcing ingredients is key to what they do. Ever since Céleste opened in 2015, head chef Eric Frechon has used green zebra and pineapple heirloom tomatoes. It’s the particular sweetness in these varieties that he insists works so well for desserts and amuse-bouches. “My favourite way to use the tomato – which, let’s not forget, is a fruit – is in a sorbet,” says Frechon. “It’s an excellent fresh ingredient, especially for summer dishes.” At Jumby Bay Island in Antigua, Executive Chef Sylvain Hervochon is lucky enough to reap the benefits of the Jumby Farm and Kitchen Garden. The farm keeps sheep and chickens, as well as gardens full of organic fruit and vegetables – not least mangoes. “In the Caribbean, the mango is considered a comfort food, something that nourishes the heart and soul. There’s even a mango festival every year,” explains Hervochon. “The mango tree represents abundance, giving and community. There are over 100 different varieties of mangoes in the Caribbean, each with a different colour, aroma, texture and flavour. They can
absorb spice, heat and fire with no loss of character or flavour. This means they’re great for just about anything – salads, desserts, marinades, rice, salsa, chutney, slaw or just eaten fresh.” Joël Ellenberger is the young chef responsible for shaping the gastronomic concept at Brenners ParkHotel & Spa’s Wintergarten restaurant. One of his favourite ingredients is the rhubarb he sources from a farm nearby. “Iffezheim is really famous for rhubarb and people come to the hotel especially for our rhubarb dishes,” says Ellenberger. “It’s almost like our speciality. We cook it salty, sweet or sour. It’s been on the menu for years, but I do my own interpretation of the old-fashioned local dishes.” This ranges from rhubarb parfaits with rosewater to a traditional pavlova filled with rhubarb ragout. In Vence, Jean-Luc Lefrançois also subscribes to the idea of sourcing his ingredients locally, from the delicious apples that find their way into his desserts to specialist cheeses – and even flowers. “I attach particular importance to local producers who I know well,” says Lefrançois. “I’ve managed to forge sincere ties and relationships of trust, a sort of complicity I find essential,” and which inform many of his new ideas. “I work with a local flower producer, Eve Vernice, who is now a good friend of mine. She only grows edible flowers and herbs. Flowers have their own specific flavours – acidity or pepperiness – they can bring out the best in food, and so I often add things like daisies to my dishes.” Down the coast at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, it’s an ever-popular species of thistle that Executive Chef Arnaud Poëtte puts on a pedestal. “Baby artichokes epitomise Provence and in particular Antibes,” he says. “We prepare them in several different ways: raw with an anchovy paste, especially when they’re very young and tender; thinly sliced and raw as a carpaccio with olive oil and lemon; and in a barigoule [a Provençal preparation with mushrooms and onions] to go with fish. I love their finesse and tender texture.”
T.T.T R U N K S
T RU N K CA LL If you think your wine collection deserves to travel in style, feast your eyes on the new collaboration between Eden Being and T.T.Trunks, says Alex Moore
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Not many people travel with trunks these days. Those sturdy cases can feel like luggage better suited to voyages on ocean liners or sojourns in Pullman coaches, although the growth in private aviation has seen this 19th- and early-20th-century staple make a return to modern use. But if you feel that your wine collection deserves to travel in style – or merits this kind of luxury presentation – look no further than this handsome wine trunk produced by the Parisian malletier T.T.Trunks, which, since 2009, has been handcrafting premium trunks for every whim. Whether it’s your cigars, watches, wardrobe or wine, T.T. has a trunk to transport those cherished possessions from A to B in perfect condition, and the brand recently collaborated with Eden Being to create a series of Millésime trunks inspired by five of the Oetker Collection’s hotels. This versatile trunk houses ample drawers in which to stow all your party paraphernalia. A temperature-controlled fridge has space for up to 10 cuvées, with compartments for five more either side, while spaces for red wine glasses, champagne flutes, coasters, spirit bottles and a travel suitcase (for day trips) are provided within the trunk’s folding doors. Built-in Sonos speakers mean you can easily soundtrack a soiree, wherever you happen to be. And the hotel’s discreet logo, hidden away in the lid, will offer a welcome reminder of evenings spent sipping cocktails at Bar Bellini or dancing the night away at the Rock Bar. Available from edenbeing.com
STELLAR CELLARS
LIQU I D H IS T ORY Delve into the cellars of any Oetker Collection property and you’ll find extraordinary wines and spirits. Margaret Rand savours the highlights at Le Bristol Paris, L’Apogée Courchevel and The Lanesborough
The most sensible way to approach the dazzling wine lists at Le Bristol Paris, L’Apogée Courchevel and the spirits collection at The Lanesborough is perhaps to listen closely to the words of Mickael Perron, manager of the celebrated Library Bar at The Lanesborough: “It’s not a museum. It’s all here to be drunk.” So... no need for reverence. This is going to be fun. Let’s imagine we’ve arrived in Paris, we’ve settled into our room at Le Bristol, and we’re congratulating ourselves on having booked a table at Epicure. With 190 rooms in the hotel and just 15 tables in its three-Michelin-starred restaurant, we were wise to think ahead. Bernard Neveu, the chef sommelier, hands us the wine list. Millimetre by millimetre, our jaws drop. You expect great wines in a restaurant of this stature. You expect a roll call of famous names and great years. What is unexpected is the thoughtfulness behind this list. Yes, there are famous names by the dozen. But look at the champagnes: alongside Bollinger, Krug, Dom Pérignon and Louis Roederer Cristal there’s also Agrapart and Jacquesson, Pierre Péters and
Jacques Selosse: wines for champagne aficionados, seeking out depth, precision and a sense of a particular vineyard. The list of burgundies covers every desirable wine you can think of. Guests at Le Bristol love a burgundy; it’s the most popular region here. “Especially white,” says Neveu. “About 75-80 per cent of the white wine drunk here is burgundy – and people really want to know about the wines.” With four sommeliers on the floor at any one time, Neveu’s team is wellplaced to guide guests through the almost 2,000 wines on the list, from all parts of France and beyond. And it will, you can be sure, be ready to drink. The cellars at Le Bristol Paris house the entire current list, while younger vintages, always bought direct from the grower, are cellared a little way away until they’re mature. You’ll find Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage here back to 2000; Château Rayas from 2007 to 2000. Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s Hermitage goes back to 1982, but if you want really old wines you must go to Bordeaux. Château Gilette 1937, anyone? Or perhaps Lafite 1945?
GALLERY STOCK
In Courchevel, they like younger wines. Géraud Tournier, head sommelier of L’Apogée, which is open for just 110 wintry days of the year, already has 2016 burgundies on his list. And his guests there love big bottles, so he lists a lot of magnums and double magnums. People often come in big parties, he says: “They may take four or five rooms, and there are big tables in the restaurant.” So a magnum of Cheval Blanc 2005 might fit the bill, or an imperial of Beychevelle 2008, or a jeroboam of Mouton Rothschild 1999. “We also serve by the glass from magnum,” says Tournier. “When people see us pouring Figeac from magnum, they ask for a glass, too.” Every month they get through 250 bottles of champagne at L’Apogée, as well as 1,200 bottles of still wine. Most of that champagne is Dom Pérignon. “We sell twice as much DP as any other champagne,” says Tournier. “Next is Ruinart Blanc de Blancs.” There are seven different expressions of DP on the list, from 2009 through to 1998, and back to 2003 in jeroboam. The food at L’Apogée is quite rich. It is, after all, food for the cold. So what would Tournier recommend to be paired with a classic dish of chicken with truffles? “Château de Beaucastel, from the Rhône,” he says, before talking me through it so beautifully that I’d have it, too. “It’s a perfect match.” And then of course there’s London. How would you spend a day in London if you were staying at The Lanesborough? Perhaps a little shopping in Knightsbridge, before dropping into the famous Library Bar, where you would be greeted by shelf after astonishing shelf of ancient cognacs and rare malt whiskies. “Life is about celebrating the day,” says Mickael Perron. “And I can blow your taste buds away.”
“We specialise in pleasing our guests,” he continues. People might have saved up to try something they’ve always wanted to try, or they might be celebrating an anniversary or a birthday. Whatever the reason, if you want to be the first to try an 1802 cognac, Perron will be delighted to open it for you. “It’s there to be drunk,” he shrugs. And if you happen to be the person who finishes a bottle, he’ll give you the empty bottle. What might you find here, if you fancied a trip through history? The oldest cognac is from 1770, the year the future King Louis XVI of France married Marie Antoinette, and Captain Cook discovered Australia. There’s cognac from 1775, 1778 and 1890, from 1800 up to 1945; and while prices are not low for the oldest cognacs, what else offers such an experience? If you’re celebrating a birthday, a single malt might fit the bill: The Balvenie 50 Year Old, perhaps, of which there were only 131 bottles produced. Or if 1961 is your year, the Balvenie 1961 – a single hogshead, which, after 55 years of ageing, filled just 65 bottles. Perron has designated 2018 “the year of the single malt”, and can point you towards The Macallan 1940, 1956 and 1967 – “not the sort of thing you expect to find in a bar,” he says, with understatement. “You can taste things here than cannot be recreated. It’s legacy; it’s history.” And his favourite? He points to an 1811 bottle of cognac, covered in US Customs seals. “It’s the best I’ve ever tasted,” he says. “When you pour it, the aroma fills the room.” The level is going down, he adds. “It’ll be finished by the end of the year.” But that’s what it’s for, of course, and by then a few more lucky people will have marked a few more special celebrations with something truly unforgettable.
MARIE SIMON
Q U E S T I O N S O F TA S T E
MARIE SIMON Fresh from winning the international pastry competition Mondial des Arts Sucrés for France, Marie Simon, Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc’s chef de partie pâtisserie, shares her creative inspirations
France has a long history of producing excellent pastry chefs. Is there anywhere else in the world that can compete? I find Asian countries inspiring – particularly Japan. The chefs there are so creative, and they work with such high levels of craftsmanship. Do you have an Achilles heel when it comes to cooking? Actually, working on artistic pieces used to be my weak point. The competition forced me to develop my technique and it also made me liberate my creative side a little... Are you naturally competitive? No. In fact I’d taken part in very few competitions before this one. I think I just wanted to set myself a goal in order to improve my skills, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could get this far. Did you find it easy collaborating with Loïc Beziat, your teammate for the competition? Knowing how to say things – both positive and negative – wasn’t always easy, especially when we were both so tired. We’re such different characters and have very different ways of working, but we trusted each other, which I think was evident on the day. Can you describe your winning piece? Our final display, which we called “From Flower to Bottle”, represented the journey of perfume production from the flowers and spices to the final bottle. My piece represented the spicy, more masculine side of perfume. I used an abstract perfume bottle as a structure to position a large
star anise, cinnamon stick, vanilla pod and citrus fruit – all made of chocolate of course! How did you feel when you won? I didn’t really take it in at first. I was happy and relieved, and really delighted to see that all those long months of work had paid off. What do you do when you’re not in the kitchen? I’ve been the lucky owner of a horse for the past 10 years, so when I’m not in the kitchen I’ll be out riding. Where are your three favourite places near the Hotel du CapEden-Roc and why? I love Cap d’Antibes, and I often walk along the coastal path there, or gaze at Port de l’Olivette and admire the view of the Garoupe lighthouse. They’re all well-known sites but I never tire of them. I’m always amazed by what an incredibly beautiful spot it is. What do you think you’d do if you weren’t a pastry chef ? It’s hard to say. It’s always been obvious to me that that’s what I would do! I enjoyed drawing when I was at school, and I was interested in how cartoons were made, so perhaps I’d be an illustrator – something quite creative. Complete the following sentences: My nightmare meal is… a seafood platter. My biggest regret is… missing important family occasions because I live so far away. Luxury is… being able to do the impossible.
ADDRESS BOOK
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PÂT I S S E R I E L I L I A N B O N N E F O I 7 avenue Robert Soleau, Antibes
L E P ’ T I T C AG E O T 5 rue du Dr Rostan, Antibes
L A S U I T E W I N E BA R 12 boulevard Baptistin Ardisson, Juan-les-Pins
“Discover delicious eclairs, Paris-Brest desserts and opera cakes at this traditional French patisserie.”
“Book in advance to be sure of getting a table at this charming bistro, which serves excellent fresh fish.”
“This wine bar-cum-restaurant is a great place to try excellent French wines with cheese and charcuterie.”
ORLEBARBROWN.COM
GLOBE-TROT TER
ON THE CASE Handcrafted since 1897, Globe-Trotter’s suitcases have been used by everyone from the Queen to James Bond. Alex Moore finds out what gives this iconic luggage its amazing strength
In 1912, the British luxury luggage brand Globe-Trotter staged an experiment at the Zoological Garden of Hamburg, known as “The Elephant Test”. In an attempt to demonstrate the strength of the brand’s cabin trunks, a one-ton Indian elephant was persuaded to balance theatrically on top of one. Subsequently, a photograph of the stunt was used as an advert in the company’s catalogue, but what’s most extraordinary is the claim at the foot of the advert, which reads: “Breaking weight of a Globe-Trotter cabin trunk being 8 tons.” That was over 100 years ago, and while the marque prides itself on its traditional Victorian manufacturing techniques, innovation is most certainly at its core. Which begs the question: how much weight could a case take today? The answer isn’t overly important – if Sir Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Edmund Hillary and, more recently, James Bond were suitably impressed, then that’ll do for us. Besides, the weight probably won’t be any less than it was back in 1912 as Globe-Trotter still uses the same trademarked Vulcan Fibre (vulcanised fibreboard) it has used since 1897 – a material that’s as light as aluminium and as hard-wearing as the finest leather. Innovation really comes to the fore in the brand’s collaborations: the carbon-fibre trolley case designed in conjunction with Hypetex, the Stabilist rifle case for the 007 blockbuster Skyfall, or in partnerships with brands such as Alexander McQueen, Charlotte Olympia, The Merchant Fox, and most recently Paul Smith and Gucci. Meanwhile, we’re proud to announce a series of Globe-Trotter cases designed especially for Eden Being. The manufacturing methods and machinery behind the world’s most iconic suitcases have changed little over the past century. The vulcanized fibreboard that forms the 72
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Opening pages: planning and designing a case at the Globe-Trotter workshop Opposite: a selection of cotton rayon lining fabrics. Left: making and fitting the distinctive leather belt strap Below: the Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa suitcase with digitally printed lining
ADAM WHITEHEAD
STEVE LANCEFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY
GLOBE-TROT TER
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The unique material that forms the case’s external shell was developed in the 19th century. Interestingly, it tends to grow stronger over the years
external shell of Globe-Trotter’s luggage is formed of 14 layers of paper, cotton and wood pulp all pressed together. This unique material was developed in Britain during the 19th century and patented by the brand. Interestingly, the fibreboard actually tends to grow stronger over the years. The fibreboard is cut to size by Del Boy, one of Globe-Trotter’s longest-serving employees, using a bluntedge Victorian-era guillotine. Then the sides are shaped by moulding them around a hot rod – a method patented in 1901. After that, a foot-pedal-operated riveting machine is used to attach the side panels together. The next stage involves installing the locks using the same rivets, while leather components are attached by hand. The leather comes from Britain’s only remaining tannery that uses traditional oak bark to process the leather. The case’s distinctive corners are applied over a period of five days using Victorian machinery, while the handles are made by hand, bonded and then pressed for 48 hours. The paper-backed cotton rayon lining is cut to size using a guillotine. It goes through a roller to receive a PVA glue adhesive coating and is then inserted manually. The material works well as it is breathable, and can accommodate the movement of the fibreboard. For the brand’s collaboration with Eden Being, the illustration of each Oetker Collection hotel is printed digitally on to the lining – a truly 21st century element adding lustre to the century-old process of making this superb luggage. Finally, steel lipping is attached to the rim of the lid to protect and reinforce the exposed fibreboard. The leather belt straps are attached, and the case is given one last careful inspection to ensure it meets the exacting standards for which Globe-Trotter has long been known. Available from edenbeing.com 75
S PA H E AV E N
A relative newcomer to the spa world, Villa StĂŠphanie has already set the bar with a revolutionary fusion of medical wellness, lifestyle management and luxurious pampering, says Gerri Gallagher
VILLA STÉPHANIE
Previous pages: Villa Stéphanie’s showstopping Roman bath-style pool overlooks the elegant parkland of the Lichtentaler Allee and the burbling River Oos Clockwise, from left: the Villa’s bucolic grounds are perfect for walking and jogging; the pool and sauna look out on beautiful woodland; treatments include the Classic Facial
Fast cars, classical composers and fairy-tale castles are three things that Germany does exceedingly well, but let’s not leave sensational spas off the list. Some offer detox and weight loss programmes; others specialise in sleep therapy, lifestyle management and holistic healing; and a handful might tackle medical diagnostics. Finding one spa that ticked all those boxes, however, was impossible until 2015, when Villa Stéphanie opened. Despite its recent arrival in the German spa market, Villa Stéphanie is way ahead of the pack, although you could argue that it has benefited from a geographical head start, given its location in the historic spa town of Baden-Baden. For Baden means “bathing” in old German, referring to the natural thermal waters enjoyed by visitors since Roman times. During the 19th century, Baden-Baden became the quintessential, and the most fashionable, continental spa town, attracting well-heeled visitors from across Europe. Among those visitors were many royals, who would come to take the waters and consult the many medical specialists based here, or catch up with other royals. Villa Stéphanie is named after the fashionable French princess, Stéphanie de Beauharnais, who married into the Grand Duchy of Baden’s ruling house, and whose descendants include the reigning monarchs of Belgium, Liechtenstein and Monaco. A discreet Belle Époque beauty, today the Villa Stéphanie is nestled alongside her grande dame sister, Brenners ParkHotel & Spa, overlooking the elegant parkland of the Lichtentaler Allee and the burbling River Oos. But for all the grandeur of its heritage and setting, a look inside the villa makes one understand just why this spa has so rapidly become a world leader in “medical wellness”. Spread over 5,000 square metres on five floors, there’s a showstopper of a Roman-bath style pool opening onto the park, and a sauna 78
area – with plunge pool, private gym, hamam and ladies’ thermal suite – that could make Finland weep with envy. The 12 guest rooms and three suites are noteworthy not only for their country house elegance (a Farrow & Ball palette, Porta Romana lamps, Loro Piana throws, contemporary art) but also for their walls. And we’re not talking wallpaper. Every wall is equipped with a shielding metal mesh and special coating that wards off rays from neighbouring rooms and blocks high-frequency signals. Guests can disable the wi-fi with a flick of a switch on the bedside table. Digital detox is serious business here, but then so is everything on offer.
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OPENING SPREAD AND RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM WHITEHEAD, STYLING BY DAVID LAMB
VILLA STÉPHANIE
The medical and holistic diagnostics are headquartered in the neighbouring Haus Julius, which in the 1920s was a doctors’ surgery. In bright, white, high-ceilinged rooms, the crack medical team – headed up by the dashing Dr Harry König – begin by having a heart-to-heart with every guest about their lifestyle, sleep, emotional mindset, habits, injuries or general concerns. They then conduct a full body examination, including ultrasound, laboratory analysis, lung capacity measurement, physiotherapy assessment) to identify any potential weaknesses or innate predispositions to serious diseases. The brilliance of this practice is that it integrates orthodox medicine with holistic healing – both preventive and palliative – and the specialists on hand are wide-ranging.
The brilliance of this practice is that it integrates orthodox medicine with holistic healing
It’s easy to image how, along with the undeniable delights of a stay in the Villa or Brenners Park-Hotel, an annual trip to Baden-Baden might become a delightful and useful part of one’s health-care routine. There’s also expertise on hand in the fields of gynaecology and midwifery, operative and non– operative ophthalmology, gastroenterology, dentistry and orthodontics, cosmetic beauty – the list goes on and on. In fact, whatever it is that ails you, it can be addressed here with a ground-breaking combination of traditional medicine and natural therapies, including Chinese medicine, vitamin drips and acupuncture. This is innovative wellness fasttracked in the most glorious of settings. Even the exercise and nutrition programme kicks off with an extensive performance evaluation by a private coach. The QPNT (Qualified Personal Nutrition Trainer) assessment comprises body analysis as well as visceral fat, lactate and foot pressure measurements. Yes, foot pressure. From these results, a bespoke schedule of exercise (yoga, kick-boxing and hiking or bicycling in the nearby Black Forest) is created, whether you’re booked in for the three-day Re-Balance package or a life-changing six-week overhaul. Every spa meal is a collaborative effort between the chefs and personal trainers, with the guest’s individualised goal in mind. Never has beetroot carpaccio and Asian chicken curry with coconut froth tasted so good. With medical care and nutrition sorted, there’s physiotherapy to be considered. From her dedicated studio, Martina Nesselhauf works wonders on ailments resulting from injury, illness or disability. Her innovative mix of movement, exercise and manual therapy – whether it’s craniosacral massage, lymph drainage or underwater massage – means that if you’ve been plagued with chronic pain, after a course of treatments it should become a thing of the past.
Left: Dr Harry König conducts in-depth interviews at Haus Julius to ascertain guests’ health needs
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ABOVE: PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM WHITEHEAD, STYLING BY DAVID LAMB
Another transformative experience is a session with magic-fingered Othman Challouf, the Villa’s resident shiatsu guru. He practises the revolutionary massage treatment Kiyindo Shiatsu, which was pioneered by Pierre Clavreux in 1992. This name translates as “pain relief by touch” and focuses on manipulating the body’s energy to relieve tension and sore joints. Using his hands, elbows, knees and fingers, Challouf combines hard and soft pressure on the body’s meridians and acupuncture points, promoting self-healing and restoring the flow of vital energy. After 60 minutes of being pummelled, pushed and stretched, and with all those nasty toxins expunged, you emerge feeling ten feet tall. For guests who have come for pampering, relaxation and beauty – as well as a medical MOT – there’s a spa menu that’s practically encyclopaedic. How to choose between Lomi Lomi, an ancient Hawaiian massage, or the Abhyanga Ayurvedic full body massage is anyone’s guess. One possibility is to work through the entire menu. The Aqua Organic Clarifying Treatment offers cleansing at its most rigorous. A cane sugar and coconut skin peel gets rid of dead skin cells and is followed by a body wrap of white alumina,
jojoba, almond and sunflower oils. While the wrap is doing its nourishing, the therapist performs a facial cleansing and massage. Or there’s the Sisley Phyto-Aromatique Facial with energetic massage techniques using blossom-extract products. As if by magic, 80 minutes later, fine lines and wrinkles are diminished, skin is glowing and you are a lifelong convert to Sisley. Even pregnant women have an option: the Bamford Pregnancy Massage developed by a prenatal yoga expert. And the seven treatment rooms look like no others: plantation-shuttered windows and bleached wood floors make each a sensual, cosy cocoon; the double treatment room even has a canopied bath/Jacuzzi. Villa Stéphanie is all about enhancing long-term wellness while in residence and beyond. Before checking out, guests are presented with a folder filled with all their results, medical and fitness, as well as suggested menus, recipes and tips on follow-through. The personal connection continues post-departure with impressive after-care. The doctors and personal trainers are only a phone call away and happy to answer questions and give encouragement. It’s no wonder then that Villa Stéphanie’s star has risen so far, so fast. 81
GUILLAUME DE LAUBIER
O E T K E R C O L L E C T I O N S PA S
LET’S GET PH YSICA L The Oetker Collection’s hotels and resorts offer the ultimate in wellness and pampering in a variety of stunning settings, from a beachside island paradise to a soothing alpine haven. Damon Syson checks in to our world-class spas
THE LANESBOROUGH C L U B & S PA
Crowned “World’s Best New Hotel Spa” at the World Spa Awards 2017, The Lanesborough Club & Spa is one of Britain’s most advanced and exclusive wellness facilities. The lavish 1,700 square metre space is decorated with opulent materials such as marble, leather upholstery and wood panelling. As well as a state-of-the-art gym, members also benefit from a private restaurant serving healthy cuisine, a carefully curated boutique and a spa area where highly trained therapists administer outstanding treatments using ila and La Prairie products. While guests of The Lanesborough enjoy direct access from the hotel, the spa also operates as a standalone luxury health and lifestyle members’ club and has launched a dual club membership with Bodyism Notting Hill. Bodyism’s experts include performance specialists, sports massage therapists, nutrition coaches and some of the world’s leading fitness coaches. Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 7064
VILLA STÉPHANIE, B R E N N E R S PA R K - H O T E L & S PA
The historic spa town of Baden-Baden, on the edge of the Black Forest, forms the ideal setting for Villa Stéphanie, a cutting-edge medical spa offering a holistic approach to wellness, curated by 82
some of the world’s leading practitioners. Housed in a historic mansion adjacent to Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, Villa Stéphanie offers a bespoke service focusing on five distinct areas: medical, emotional, detox, fitness and beauty. Covering an area of 5,000 sq m, over five floors, an entire house has been dedicated to the world of spa. It includes a sauna, plunge pool, private gym, hamam and ladies’ sauna, with elegant treatment rooms overlooking the hotel’s leafy gardens. Tel: +49 7221 900 – 602
Palácio Tangará’s spa offering also includes an outdoor heated swimming pool and a Pool Bar exclusively for the use of hotel guests, where you can also order al fresco bites, fresh juices and innovative cocktails. There is also a further heated 25m indoor pool and glass-roofed Jacuzzi, and a fully equipped fitness centre boasting top-spec Technogym equipment. Tel: +55 11 4904 4099
S PA S A I N T - M A R T I N BY LA PRAIRIE S PA L E B R I S T O L B Y L A P R A I R I E
Bright, airy and filled with sunlight, Spa Le Bristol by La Prairie opens onto a pretty interior garden and has eight treatment rooms, including a Russian Banïya and a private couple suite. The hotel also boasts an iconic rooftop swimming pool with spectacular views of the Paris skyline. The Spa’s extensive range of treatments includes a “Just for Him” menu and a “Midnight in Paris” treatment for couples. Healthy spa snacks are supplied by none other than Eric Frechon, Le Bristol’s three Michelin-starred chef. Le Bristol Paris has partnered with all-natural skincare brand Tata Harper at Spa Le Bristol by La Prairie, unveiling a new curated treatment menu and suite inspired by Le Bristol Paris’ fragrant Jardin Français (French garden) and the Vermont estate where Tata Harper’s organic ingredients are harvested. Tel: +33 1 53 43 41 67
A haven of natural beauty and privacy, with an impressive menu of treatments administered by leading professionals, it’s easy to see why the judges of World Luxury Spa Awards crowned the Spa Saint-Martin Sisley “Best luxury spa destination in Europe”. Château Saint-Martin’s spa partner is La Prairie, which traces its distinguished heritage to the celebrated Clinique La Prairie in Montreux, Switzerland, a leading pioneer in anti-ageing cellular therapy. The spa has four elegant treatment rooms infused with natural daylight and fresh Provençal air. One is designed for couples and has a private Sweet Spa Crystal sauna, experience shower and steam room. And for those in search of the ultimate natural setting, treatments are also performed in the hotel’s gardens beneath a romantic flower-strewn gazebo. Tel: +33 (0) 4 93 58 40 80
S PA E D E N - R O C B Y L A P R A I R I E F L O R A S PA B Y S I S L E Y. PA L Á C I O TA N G A R Á , S Ã O PA U L O
Palácio Tangará’s Flora Spa by Sisley is one of the finest destination spas in South America. An oasis of serenity, it provides a soothing counterpoint to the buzzing vibrancy of São Paulo – its restful interiors complemented by verdant views of the Burle Marx Park outside. The spa offers a range of Phyto-Aromatic treatments by Sisley, which combine massage techniques from all over the world while incorporating local traditions. Every treatment is tailored to meet the needs of your individual skin type.
Left: the spectacular rooftop swimming pool at Le Bristol Paris Right: paddle boarding in the crystal-clear Caribbean at Eden Rock – St Barths
CHRISTOPHER WALDEKRANTZ
Overleaf: the sauna at Villa Stéphanie, one of Europe’s most advanced medical spas
The Spa Eden-Roc by La Prairie offers exclusive treatments in four elegant treatment rooms, under the gazebo in the hotel’s wisteriafilled gardens or in a private cabana overlooking the Mediterranean. A sauna and steam room are also available for guests to prepare themselves for their pampering. The spa’s high-tech fitness centre includes personal trainer sessions, sports coaching as well as yoga lessons. There are also five tennis courts, petanque grounds and a fashionable boutique at guests’ disposal. Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc’s spa partner, La Prairie, is one of the world’s most highly-respected beauty brands, offering luxurious
O E T K E R C O L L E C T I O N S PA S
skin care lines such as The Caviar Collection and Swiss Cellular De-Agers. Prior to treatment, guests can relax in the sauna or steam room. There is also a Duo Cabin, designed for couples’ treatments, as well as a halotherapy sea salt wall, which is beneficial for respiratory and skin treatments. Tel: +33 (0)4 92 93 76 21
S PA L 'A P O G É E B Y L A P R A I R I E
Enjoy a massage on the sandy beach, with a soundtrack of gently lapping waves and magical sea-views
There is no finer way to relax after a day’s skiing than at the Spa L’Apogée by La Prairie, which describes itself as “an irresistible cocoon of soothing warmth after a day on the slopes”. The spa incorporates a fitness centre, which is equipped with the most advanced facilities, plus a hair salon and beauty room. Signature treatments include the Caviar Instant Lift Facial and Swiss Bliss Treatment, while for keen skiers, there are of course a number of different massages available for tired limbs. Personal trainers and osteopaths are also on hand to help you make the most of your time on the slopes. Tel: +33 (0)4 79 04 01 12 E D E N R O C K S PA BY LIGNE ST BARTH
R O C K S PA O N F R E G AT E I S L A N D
Fregate Island’s dramatic granite rock formations create a truly spectacular backdrop for the Rock Spa on Fregate Island. The spa sits at the island’s summit, with panoramic views of the forest and ocean beyond. Facilities include six treatment rooms, swimming pool, yoga centre and gym, and a candlelit relaxation area where herbal teas and juices are served. A complimentary yoga class and a head and shoulder massage are offered to all guests on arrival at Fregate Island to encourage immediate relaxation. Overseen by ayurvedic physician Dr Abhilash Haridas, the Rock Spa offers a superb selection of treatments, accompanied by a range of products that perfectly complement the various therapies available. Made in the Seychelles using ingredients grown on Fregate Island Private, these Rock Spa products have been designed to encourage relaxation, revitalisation and detoxification. Tel: +248 (0) 4670189
Eden Rock Spa employs artisanal products made on the island exclusively by Ligne St Barth. Guests can choose from a range of facials, massages, manicures and pedicures. The signature treatment is the St Barth Eden Flower, an ultra-relaxing massage that uses an exclusive signature scent oil created by Ligne St Barth. For the ultimate Eden Rock Spa experience, guests can enjoy an open-air treatment or massage on the sandy beach at Eden Rock, with a soundtrack of gently lapping waves and magical views of the sea to lull you into a feeling of pure relaxation and wellbeing. For those who prefer privacy, there is also the option of the Room Service Spa. Give yourself a relaxing and pampering Eden Rock Spa treatment by Ligne St Barth within the privacy of your hotel room. Your dedicated therapist will deliver the selected products to your door, on a tray for self-application, with treatment instructions. Tel: + 590 (0) 590 29 79 99
T H E S PA AT J UM B Y BAY I S L A N D
JEAN-MICHEL SORDELLO
With its idyllic beachside location, The Spa at Jumby Bay Island is firmly rooted in Antigua’s local culture and natural environment. Nestled within the resort’s lush gardens, the spa reflects the open-air architectural grace of Jumby Bay. Guests have on offer a wide range of treatments: indigenous natural ingredients and cultural traditions are combined with modern therapeutic methods to create a healing environment that is unique to the Jumby Bay Island experience. Top-drawer facilities include the spacious and well-equipped gym offering a range of yoga, Pilates, bootcamp and private training options, as well as swimming pools and tennis courts with fabulous sea views. Tel: +1 268 484 6023
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Left: Château Saint-Martin Spa by La Prairie has a Sweet Spa Crystal sauna, experience shower and steam room
Right: guests at Jumby Bay Island can enjoy an idyllic massage on the beach using locally made products
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PA R A D I S E REGAINED
While much of the Caribbean is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Irma, St Barths is very much back in business, with the stunning properties of Eden Rock Villa Rental already restored to pristine condition. Alex Moore reports on a spectacular comeback
EDEN ROCK VILLA RENTAL
PHOTOS: LAURENT BENOIT
Previous pages: enjoy glorious sea views from the living room at Caramba. These pages, clockwise from left: the outdoor terrace at Neo, which has its own nightclub; Sand Club, one of the small number of beachfront villas available to hire on St Barths; Blanc Bleu’s mini tennis court
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Last September, Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean, its 185mph winds tearing up the record books. It was reported that 99 per cent of the buildings on many of the islands in the region were at least partially damaged. St Barths, meanwhile, got off comparatively lightly. On hearing the news of Irma’s devastation, much of the world resigned itself to the idea that the Caribbean would be off limits for years to come. But here, miraculously, this hasn’t been the case. On St Barths, beachfront properties bore the brunt of the storm, while those on the hillsides benefited from their altitude. By Thanksgiving, holidaymakers were beginning to return to the island, and by Spring Break, every available villa on the island was booked up. “The people here are extremely strong, they work very hard, and they really love their little rock,” says Anne Dentel, President of Eden Rock Villa Rental.
“Everything was done to maximise the recovery. Today, you can’t tell that we had a major hurricane six months ago.” Anne manages Eden Rock Villa Rental’s 115 villas, most of which are back to pristine condition. Doing so means overseeing the biggest business on the island – there are around 1,700 rooms in the villas, and only about 700 rooms in all of the hotels. “We aim to deliver a service that brings Oetker Collection five-star hotel service into the island’s villas,” she explains. “It’s the best of both worlds: a private homestay with hotel levels of service.” Guests are able to enjoy a 24/7-dedicated concierge service, with breakfast delivered to their villa every morning. They will also get full use of Eden Rock – St Barths’ amenities: the hotel’s serviced beach, gym, restaurants or water sports – all no more than 15 minutes away from any Eden Rock Villa Rental on the
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EDEN ROCK VILLA RENTAL
While everyone dreams of staying in a beachfront property, those that can be hired are surprisingly few and far between. Eden Rock Villa Rental, however, offers a superb selection, including the exclusive Sand Club on the ever-popular Flamands Beach, a stunning six-bedroom property with its own canopied daybeds right on the sand. And what about the kids? Blanc Bleu has been especially designed to keep them entertained. This palatial six-bedroom beauty has an on-site mini tennis court, trampoline, bubble pool, basketball area and movie theatre, and it’s minutes away from one of the island’s most beautiful and secluded stretches of sand, Gouverneur Beach (which is also great for snorkelling). That might be a lot to take in, but then again, much of the excitement of planning a holiday comes from browsing the options in search of a villa that’s perfect for you. Just don’t expect the final decision to come easily…
M VANDERNOOT
island. Should you prefer to remain in your Eden Rock Villa Rental property, a personal butler is available upon request to see to your every need while a dedicated chef can also be provided, serving delicious cuisine exactly as and when you want it. Ultimately though, it’s the choice on offer that really appeals. All the villas are privately owned, so each has a totally unique personality, whether it’s the cosy cruise ship-inspired love-nest Bel Amour or the hilltop Ixfalia with its driftwood furniture and buffalo skulls on the walls. “There really is a choice for everyone,” says Anne. “If you want chic, you could opt for Legends B, an Ibizan-looking property where each bedroom is based on a famous design house – such as Chanel, Hermès, etc. If you want a great pool, Axel Rocks has one of the most incredible infinity pools on the island. And for groups of friends looking to let their hair down, Neo even has its own nightclub.”
Above: the fabulously decorated Ixfalia has stylish furniture, cool lampshades and amazing sea views. Left: experience the ultimate in Ibiza-style chic at Legends B, which boasts a private fitness room and heated pool
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Your art collection will get jealous.
The difference is Gaggenau. Grand architecture demands grand interior pieces. Your wine climate cabinet, much like your collection, speaks to who you are. Every Gaggenau piece is distinctively designed, crafted from exceptional materials, offers professional performance, and has done so since 1683. Make a statement: gaggenau.com Product displayed is the RW 466 364 | Energy efficiency class: A | at a range of energy efficiency classes from A+++ to G.
NEWS
PEOPLE, PLACES, N EWS The new faces, openings and announcements from Oetker Collection hotels across the world. Here is the latest from Paris to São Paulo, Baden-Baden to the Côte d’Azur
PA R I S I A N PI C N I C
Déjeuner sur l’herbe
JEAN-CLAUDE AMIEL
Should you suddenly find yourself peckish in Paris, you can now request a gourmet picnic basket from Le Bristol, and it will be delivered to you by the hotel’s staff. The picnic basket has been designed by chef Eric Frechon and includes a crunchy vegetable maraîcher with a herby goat’s cheese olive oil, caviar de Sologne on warm blinis with a dollop of sour cream, fresh Breton lobster gazpacho, with a hint of spicy guacamole, and ossau-iraty (a sheep’s milk cheese) accompanied by a black cherry jam. For dessert, pastry chef Julien Álvarez will include a strawberry shortcake, chocolates and confectionery.
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FIN E V INTAGES
A matter of taste One Monday every month, 114 Faubourg at Le Bristol Paris invites guests for an evening of exclusive wine tasting. A representative from one of France’s leading wine producers (think Sancerre’s Domaine Vincent Pinard or Corsica’s Domaine Abbatucci) will present their favourite vintages, which will be matched with a delicious four-course tasting menu. Naturally the character of the wines will be discussed over dinner, and those wines will then be featured on the lunch and dinner menus in the restaurant for the rest of the month.
SEA ADVENTURE
Setting sail The Jumby Bay Island Sailing Academy is a great way for beginners and experienced sailors to enjoy some of the world’s finest waters. The academy takes full advantage of the island’s unique setting: strong trade winds and calm seas make for outstanding sailing. The island’s f leet ranges from junior and adult single-handler sailboats to 24ft elite keelboats and performance catamarans. Jumby Bay Island will host weekly races as well as group excursions and sailing games for all its guests.
B R E N N E R S O P E N I NG
This autumn, Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa will open an innovative new destination restaurant and bar. The décor will be inspired by the nature, history and culture of the nearby Black Forest, with an added dash of 1920s glamour. And the style will be refined yet informal, creating a fun, social atmosphere with a club-like feel. Robert Angell, the designer behind some of London’s most luxurious venues, is masterminding the interiors, while celebrated Swiss chef Nenad Mlinarevic will oversee the cuisine.
JOSEPH RAINEY
The cocktail hour
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NEWS
WA T C H T H I S S PA C E
Hublot collaboration “Luxe and elegance, tradition and innovation,” is the answer from Philippe Perd, General Manager of the Hotel du Cap-EdenRoc, when asked what unites the iconic Cap d’Antibes property with Hublot, the cutting-edge Swiss watch brand. Or as Hublot’s CEO Ricardo Guadalupe puts it, “Places and objects can have an immense power to create and trigger memories – and at Hublot we have a passion for merging diverse worlds.” Therefore their joint aim in producing a special limited edition watch was, as Perd explains, to “develop a unique heirloom watch for our discerning guests” one that would conjure up those memories – and create the horological expression of the spirit of this timeless and iconic hotel, which for generations has been for guests a symbol of the summer, the sea and the south of France. Thus Hublot’s team of designers and highly skilled craftsmen worked closely with Eden Being, the lifestyle brand of the Oetker Collection, to produce a limited edition of just 50 pieces – with details destined to appeal to watch-lovers who also love the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, from the lifebuoy featured on the dial through to the nautical-style decking of the watches’ presentation boxes. The end result is clearly a source of immense satisfaction for Perd. “Across the Oetker Collection we pride ourselves on maintaining individual masterpiece properties, each with its own history and character. It was important to work with a creative team who could embrace the spirit of the Côte d’Azur and the many memories, new and old, from the hotel. Hublot has that spirit of style and adventure that made it a natural choice.” That sentiment is echoed by Guadalupe, who says: “The Hotel du CapEden-Roc is one of those mythical places whose name alone instantly conjures up dreams and memories. Today, these moments are captured in the rhythm of an Hublot watch.” Most of our signature and limited edition pieces are available to purchase online and in our boutiques. For more details, please contact the Eden Being Concierge on: +44 207 079 1635 or concierge@edenbeing.com
H E AV EN S CEN T
Create a fragrance London’s world-famous Chelsea Flower Show returns in May. To celebrate, The Lanesborough is offering guests the opportunity to create their own bespoke ila fragrance at an exclusive interactive workshop taking place on May 21-23 at The Lanesborough Club & Spa. The workshop will be led by an expert from beyondorganic skin and heart care brand, ila, and will include a bespoke massage carried out by one of the Spa’s highly skilled therapists. The hotel is also offering a special Chelsea Flower Show package, which includes an overnight stay and tickets for the show. 96
T U R T L E C O N S E R VA T I O N
Hatching a plot Since 1987, The University of Georgia has been conducting an internationally renowned study into the critically endangered Hawksbill Turtle at Pasture Bay on Jumby Bay Island. The beach is one of the world’s primary nesting sites for this ancient species. From July until September, female turtles emerge from the sea to lay a “clutch” of around 150 eggs in the sand. This summer, the island’s guests can opt to be on “Turtle Watch”, meaning they’ll instantly be informed of any sightings. When, not if, this happens, they’ll be hurried to the beach (cocktail in hand, perhaps) where they can witness this life-affirming spectacle for themselves.
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E D E N R O C K R E N O VA T I O N
Beach ready Eden Rock – St Barths is pleased to announce that it will reopen in December, having seized the opportunity presented by the impact of Hurricane Irma to undertake an ambitious renovation and add a number of additional facilities. Martin Brudnizki Design Studio has led the renovation, which has seen the Sand Bar refreshed with a colonial look and laid-back beach styling, and Villa Nina entirely remodelled with a tropical-inspired aesthetic. Meanwhile, three of the cottages will be entirely redesigned and – of course – the hotel’s private beach will be reopened. Devotees of this much-loved Caribbean icon will doubtless be delighted to see such a splendid return to form. 98
NEWS
V INTAGE BEAU TIES
CAROL GUERARDI
Going for a spin Baden-Baden is no stranger to fast and exotic cars. Every year, hundreds of rare models descend on the legendary spa town for the International Oldtimer-Meeting – a concours d’élégance that celebrated its 42nd birthday this March. In keeping with this automotive spirit, Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa will now offer a unique driving experience featuring one of the hotel’s three classic cars. Guests can choose to take a VW Samba, a VW Beetle or a Porsche 928 for a spin around the winding roads of the Black Forest. We know which we’d choose…
A NEW LEAF
Tea for two After a short break, Palácio Tangará is resuming its traditional afternoon tea service. Guests can enjoy clotted cream scones, an assortment of finger sandwiches and a selection of premium teas and infusions (or maybe even something a little stronger) all to the soothing sounds of a live pianist. Relaxing in the São Paulo hotel’s elegant Park Lounge or basking on the Terrace enjoying a fine cup of tea really is the height of sophisticated living.
ISLAND SPIRIT
Heart beat Guests of Jumby Bay who want to immerse themselves in West Indian culture can enjoy private steel drum lessons with a local musician. The island has a long history of involving guests in local traditions, from cricket and storytelling to fishing and dancing. But music is the real pulse of the Caribbean islands. The best memory to take home is a new skill, so why not learn one from one of the island’s best drummers?
BLACK FOREST TOURS
Peak performance
GROV E A R M A DA
Putting down new roots For many of us, olive trees are emblematic of the South, of the Mediterranean world, of summer – and nowhere are they more evident than in the grounds of the Château Saint-Martin & Spa, which has more than 300 of them. Keen-eyed guests returning to Vence this spring might notice that some of these trees appear to have moved – and made their way towards the swimming pool. Unlikely, but true – for as well as the internal renovations, the Château’s grounds have also benefited from a makeover, with 12 olive trees being carefully shifted from their hilltop groves.
Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa is the perfect base for discovering the lakes and peaks of Germany’s Black Forest. Specially created tours pass through some of the most spectacular settings in this celebrated region, including the beautiful Mummelsee. Adventurous spirits can explore the lake’s perimeter path or scale the nearby 1,164m Hornisgrinde, the highest peak in the Northern Black Forest.
SKI SEASON
Winter is coming Good news for ski addicts – L’Apogée Courchevel reopens on 14 December 2018. 99
CALENDAR
Antigua Antigua Carnival July 27-August 7
Prepare to party at this ten-day festival of colourful costumes, pageantry, revelry, music and food. Expect decorated floats, steel bands and a lively party atmosphere.
Baden-Baden Philharmonic Castle Concerts June 8-9
Warm summer nights, the Neuweier Castle magically lit up and a superb programme of classical music concerts add up to an enchanting two days.
Baden-Baden Summer Nights June 28-July 1
A highlight of the BadenBaden summer season, this open-air party at Belle Époque architectural gem the Kurhaus includes live music and culinary treats.
Côte d'Azur World Music Festival "Nuits du Sud”, Vence July 19-August 3
A roster of top musicians from all over the globe take to the stage in Vence’s leafy Place du Grand-Jardin.
“Jazz à Juan” Jazz Festival, Antibes July 12-22
This much-loved Antibes/ Juan-les-Pins gathering, set amid the pine groves, boasts an eclectic line-up of big-name musicians.
London Masterpiece June 28-July 4
A unique opportunity to buy exceptional works from 160 international exhibitors, with a focus on art, design, furniture and jewellery, ranging from antiquity to the present day.
Wimbledon July 2-15
The world’s best players battle it out at the All England Club in the oldest – and quite possibly the most prestigious – tennis tournament in the world.
BBC Proms July 13-September 8
This eight-week season of daily orchestral concerts, held predominantly at the Royal Albert Hall, is the most important event in the classical music calendar.
PAD London October 1-7
Set in the vibrant heart of Mayfair, PAD is London’s leading fair for 20thcentury art, design and decorative arts.
Frieze and Frieze Masters October 4-7
View and buy art from over 1,000 of today’s leading artists at Frieze, while Frieze Masters showcases a vast array of art from the ancient era and Old Masters to the late 20th century.
DI A RY Our guide to the unmissable events taking place near Oetker Collection hotels in 2018, from international tennis tournaments to magical concerts 100
Paris Roland-Garros May 27-June 10
The leading lights of tennis gather at the Stade RolandGarros for the French Open, the world’s premier clay court championship.
European Museum Night May 19
For one night only, museums across Paris – including the Petit Palais, Musée de l’homme and the Louvre – remain open until midnight, with a wide variety of special events, including torch-lit tours and workshops for children.
The Tour de France
July 7-29 The celebrated cycling competition starts out in the Vendée and climaxes 2,069 miles later, on July 29, at the finish line on the Champs-Elysées.
The Biennale des Antiquaires September 10-16
September 25-30
One of the world’s bestloved sporting fixtures, golf ’s epic tussle between Europe and America will take place at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, on the outskirts of Paris, with five match-play sessions played over three days.
São Paulo São Paulo Bienal September 7-December 9
Founded in 1951, this is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial, on which it was modelled.
The São Paulo International Film Festival October 18-31
Also known as “Mostra”, this internationally renowned festival brings
together film-makers from around the globe, with an extensive schedule of screenings and talks.
St Barths St Barths Music Festival June 21
Enjoy music all over the island on this special day in June, with concerts taking place in theatres, on the streets, and on the Quai Général de Gaulle in the capital, Gustavia.
St Barths Gourmet Festival November 1-4
Returning for its fifth year, this gastronomical celebration hosts some of world’s leading chefs, who will team up with the island’s most talented culinary stars to present exclusive tasting menus.
Far left: an exhibit from the Alexandre Biaggi Gallery forms part of the works on display at last year’s PAD fair
Above: Antigua Carnival. Below: Frieze London showcases pieces by more than 1,000 leading artists
ANDY WILLIAMS; MARK BLOWER; COURTESY OF PAD LONDON 2017
Hosted at the Grand Palais, leading galleries exhibit exceptional jewellery, fine art and furniture from around the globe.
The Ryder Cup
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HOTEL DIRECTORY
5 rue Emile Allais Jardin Alpin (Courchevel 1850) 73120 Courchevel France T: +33 (0)4 79 04 01 04 F: +33 (0)4 79 04 01 14 reservations.apg@oetkercollection.com
Schillerstraße 4/6 76530 Baden–Baden Germany T: +49 (0)7 221 900 0 F: +49 (0)7 221 387 72 reservations.brenners@oetkercollection.com
112 rue du Faubourg Saint–Honoré, 75008 Paris France T: +33 (0)1 53 43 43 25 F: +33 (0)1 53 43 43 26 reservations.lebristolparis @oetkercollection.com
Avenue des Templiers BP 102 06142 Vence France T: +33 (0)4 93 58 02 02 F: +33 (0)4 93 24 08 91 reservations.csm@oetkercollection.com
St Jean Bay St Barthélemy F97133 French West Indies T: + (0) 590 590 29 79 99 F: + (0) 590 590 27 88 37 reservations.edenrock@oetkercollection.com
Fregate Island Private PO Box 330 Victoria, Mahé Republic of Seychelles T: +248 (0) 4670 100 reservations@fregate.com
Boulevard JF Kennedy 06601 Antibes France T: +33 (0)4 93 61 39 01 F: +33 (0)4 93 67 76 04 reservations.hdcer@oetkercollection.com
PO Box 243, Antigua and Barbuda West Indies T: + (0) 1 268 462 6000 F: + (0) 1 268 462 6020 reservations.jbi@oetkercollection.com
Hyde Park Corner London SW1X 7TA United Kingdom T: +44 (0) 20 7259 5599 F: +44 (0) 20 7259 5606 reservations.lanesborough @oetkercollection.com
Hotels with this symbol have Eden Being boutiques on site Rua Dep. Laércio Corte 1501 Panamby 05706 290, São Paulo Brazil P +55 11 4904 4040 F +55 11 4904 4002 reservations.tangara@oetkercollection.com
Most of our signature and limited edition pieces are available to purchase online and in our boutiques. For more details, please contact the Eden Being Concierge on: +44 207 079 1635 or email concierge@edenbeing.com © Copyright 2018 Brave New World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission from the publishers. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors it may contain. For advertising enquiries email chris@luxx-media.com Brave New World Publishing Ltd, 6 Derby Street, London W1J 7AD; +44 (0) 20 3819 752
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NORMAN PARKINSON/ICONIC IMAGES
THE MOMENT
W EN DA PA R K I NS ON I N H Y DE PA R K Misty, evocative and insouciantly stylish – photographer Norman Parkinson captured this unforgettable image of his fashion-model wife just yards from the modern-day location of The Lanesborough in London
Norman Parkinson was a leading light of that generation of photographers who emerged in the middle of the 20th century and who set out to take fashion photography out of the studio and into the streets, the fields and the open air. What better spot then than London’s Hyde Park for this 1951 shoot for British Vogue, which featured Parkinson’s wife Wenda, shown here wearing modishly-cut tweeds by the couturier Hardy Amies. Wenda had been discovered by Cecil Beaton but became Parkinson’s muse and favourite model. Behind her are the classical gates into Hyde Park known as the Ionic Screen – designed to create a grand 104
approach to nearby Buckingham Palace – while just out of the picture to the left is Apsley House, home of the Dukes of Wellington, which has that distinctive address: Number One London. And at the far right of the picture, we can discern the graceful lines of the building now occupied by The Lanesborough. When the Anglo-Irish aristocrat Viscount Lanesborough first built his London home here in the 18th century, this spot was the semi-rural edge of town. But Hyde Park is now right at the heart of the capital – and The Lanesborough is just a stone’s throw from the bustling boutiques of Knightsbridge and Sloane Street.
© Didier Gourdon
CALIBER RM 07-01
www.richardmille.com