EDEN BEING | ISSUE 04

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E D E N B E I N G Issue Four £7.00

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“Welcome to the latest edition of Eden Being, Oetker Collection’s lifestyle magazine”

One of life’s challenges is to evolve, while preserving what’s essential. That’s true of people, places… and hotels. My hometown of Baden-Baden has stunning Belle Époque architecture and a leafy setting, yet it isn’t afraid of the new.

Witness Richard Meier’s bold pavilion of contemporary art, across the river from Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, where we’ve also just added a dash of the new: Fritz & Felix, an innovative restaurant already buzzing with energy. Another addition to Oetker Collection are our Masterpiece Estates, including that Scottish gem, Glen Affric. And we salute our fellow hoteliers who strive to make your stay as pleasant as possible, from The Lanesborough’s butlers to the pastry chef at Le Bristol in Paris, busy creating masterpieces of his own. Enjoy.

FR ANK M ARRENBACH

CEO, Oetker Collection

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GRÉGOIRE KALT

CONTENTS

A N O T H E R DAY I N PA R A D I S E

The most magical hideaways in the Caribbean

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ST Y LE W ITH A SM I LE

Anya Hindmarch and her exquisitely quirky handbags

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W INDS OF CH A NGE

Yinka Shonibare’s monumental Wind Sculptures

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L ON D ON CA LLI NG

Champagne-bar elegance with Laura Bailey

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T H E TA S T E M A K E R

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new São Paulo restaurant

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TH E SOU L OF DISCR ETION

Modern butlering at The Lanesborough

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A PL ACE I N T H E C OU N T RY

Discover Oetker Collection’s stunning historic estates

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HIGHLA ND DR EA M

Glen Affric, the ultimate Highland sporting lodge

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Journey in style with Rolls-Royce and Riva

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“ PA R I S I S A LWAY S A G O O D I D E A”

Paris, a movie star in her own right

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W ELC OM E T O T H E PLEA SU R E D OM E

The German spa town of Baden-Baden

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PA R T N E R S I N T I M E

Hublot’s new partnerships in watchmaking

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TH E A LPI N E J EW EL

The unrivalled glamour of Courchevel

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THE FINE A RT OF TEA

Tastemakers of the luxury brand Lotusier

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SW EET DR EA MS

High-end jewellery and delectable pâtisserie

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PE OPLE , PL ACES , N EWS T H E MOM EN T

Highlights from Oetker Collection

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ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

T H E N E W G O L D E N A G E O F T R AV E L

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CONTRIBUTORS

J E A N - J A C Q U E S PA L L O T

ADA M WHITEHEAD

Photographer

Photographer

Paris-based photographer Jean-Jacques Pallot’s extensive portfolio includes jewellery, watches, cosmetics, gastronomy, beverages and video. Challenging the art of perception and specialising in beautiful mises-en-scène, his work conjures up the unexpected. For this issue, at Le Bristol in Paris, he has done exactly that – photographing an exquisite combination of fine jewellery and pâtisserie.

Adam Whitehead is a fashion photographer whose clients include Graff, Gieves & Hawkes, Daks and Boodles. He has photographed some of the biggest names in acting, including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Viggo Mortensen, and supermodels such as Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Elle Macpherson. For these pages, he photographed the model and writer Laura Bailey at The Lanesborough in London.

LAUR A LOVET T

N A T A S H A F R A S E R - C A VA S S O N I

Writer

Writer

Laura Lovett has worked as a luxury editor and writer in both Hong Kong and London, where she worked on The Times Luxx and Robb Report UK, writing extensively about fashion, watches and jewellery, and travel. For this issue, she interviewed the fashion designer Anya Hindmarch about the new selection of bags and wallets she has created exclusively for Eden Being.

A former staffer at Harper’s Bazaar and W Magazine, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni lives in Paris – that most cinematic of cities, the filmography of which she writes about in this issue.

The biographer of Loulou de la Falaise, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, last year Natasha published her memoirs of life in high society New York, After Andy: Adventures in Warhol Land.

Cover image photographed at Glenn Affric, Scotland, by Grégoire Kalt.

For details on Masterpiece Estates visit masterpiece-estates.com

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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

Big Bang Meca-10 Ceramic Blue.

Blue ceramic case. In-house manual movement, with a 10-day power reserve and an innovative architecture inspired

by Meccano-type design. Rubber strap.

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Creative Director, Eden Being Martin Tonks

Global Head of Communications, Oetker Collection Anne Benichou

Editor James Collard

Creative Consultant Romain Parize

Picture Editor Louisa Bryant

Head of Copy Damon Syson

Commercial Director Chris Wilson, Luxx Media chris@luxx-media.com

Special thanks to:

Charlotte Darnaud, Eden Rock – St Barths; Tom Bates, The Lanesborough; Aude Montagut and Giulia Panossian, Le Bristol Paris; Aleksandra Vukojevic, Jumby Bay; Valérie Muller, L’Apogée Courchevel; Lina Varriale at Jean-Georges Vongerichten; Bärbel Göhner and Verena Sachsenmaier, Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, Fritz & Felix; Guilherme Berjeaut at Palácio Tangará

© Copyright 2018 Eden Being. 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.

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ORLEBARBROWN.COM

CARIBBEAN GLAMOUR

A N O T H E R DAY I N PA R A D IS E As a new book reveals, in the 20th century a series of tastemaking pioneers helped transform the islands of the Caribbean into the world’s most elegant playgrounds. Allegra Donn takes us on a whistle-stop tour of these magical hideaways

Opening pages: photographer Slim Aarons is known for his iconic images of glamorous life, like this swimming pool scene captured in the Bahamas, circa 1957 Left: an image from Laurence Rockefeller’s photo albums shows Mary Rockefeller chatting to two guests aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean

Colonisers, pirates and American millionaires have coveted the Caribbean’s lush islands for centuries.

Its extraordinary history, eclectic architecture and unconventional characters are compellingly captured in a new book, Escape, the Heyday of Caribbean Glamour, by Cuban-born, New York-based architect, Hermes Mallea.

Alongside archive photographs, Mallea catalogues the secret history of this playboy’s getaway.

For centuries the Sugar Islands – today the West Indies – were about industry and commerce, at its most cruel, rather than about pleasure. For it was here that European colonisers made their fortunes off the back of slaves imported from Africa to toil on the new sugar plantations.

Violent struggles for supremacy among European powers also played out in these islands – stepping stones on the trade routes between the Americas that were used to bypass blockades of Confederate ports during the American Civil War and for smuggling alcohol during Prohibition.

In the 1880s, Bermuda (which is widely considered part of the Caribbean region although strictly speaking it’s in the Sargasso Sea) was one of the first destinations to make the transition from trade to tourism, with early visitors travelling on the returning banana boats of the United Fruit Company, which thereby ingeniously doubled its income.

By the 20th century, many islands became politically more stable, encouraging further well-heeled visitors and residents, while the lasting aftermath of the 1926 Florida Hurricane diverted people away from the American Riviera and more towards the islands of the Caribbean.

Each island had its own appeal. Cuba attracted a flow of visitors, fascinated by Havana’s majestic architecture and indefatigable nightlife, which had music playing till dawn.

International stars – and the American mob – decamped 18

OPENING PAGES: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES. LEFT: THE ROCKEFELLER ARCHIVE CENTER .

RIGHT: SLIM AARONS/GETTY. BELOW: SHANNON HIBBARD/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

CARIBBEAN GLAMOUR

Right: Slim Aarons’s photograph of Katharine Hepburn, left, with theatrical producer Irene Mayer Selznick in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1953 Below: a typical Bermudan landscape, with verdant inlets, anchored sailboats and seafront properties, viewed from the top of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse

Bermuda was the first destination to make the transition from trade to tourism Many people choose to charter jets because of the high cost of purchase and ownership. A light jet such as the Embraer Phenom 100 will cost around $4.2 million. A larger jet such as the Gulfstream G650ER will cost $66.5 million, while a converted airliner will cost or anything up to $100 million.

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CARIBBEAN GLAMOUR

The National hotel in Havana was frequented

by Al Capone, Winston Churchill and Ava Gardner

to the luxury hotels sprouting up all over town, such as the National, which towered over the esplanade of the Malecón, and was frequented by mafia boss Al Capone as well as Winston Churchill and Ava Gardner.

Others made more lasting stays on the island. The Delaware-based millionaire Irénée Du Pont, for example, built a Spanish-baroque-style family home in Varadero in 1929 – known as Xanadu. Du Pont would take the train from Delaware to Key West and catch a P&O steamboat to Havana, staying overnight at the Sevilla-Biltmore Hotel.

Du Pont left, never to return, after the Cuban Revolution, but the house still contains traces of its former owner, with some of his books remaining on the shelves. The six guest bedrooms on the first floor look out on to the sea, with the constant sound of waves rising gently over the fortified sea-walls, lulling its occupants to sleep. The white-veined Carrara marble bathrooms are the house’s finest feature – with showers large enough to accommodate a football team. The Cuban government eventually turned Xanadu into a restaurant: “Las Americas” opened in 1963 on the very night of Du Pont’s death in Delaware.

Cuba’s best-loved expat, Ernest Hemingway, first sailed to Havana in 1932 from Key West to pursue his passion for deep-sea fishing. By 1940, Hemingway had settled in Finca Vigía, a farmhouse outside the capital, with his third wife, war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Hemingway was so enamoured of the Cuban people, he dedicated to them his Nobel prize for literature, placing the gold medal in the Our Lady of Charity shrine of El Cobre, where it remains today.

It was war, rather than fishing, that brought the exiled Duke of Windsor, Britain’s former King Edward VIII, to the Caribbean in 1940. He was made Governor of the Bahamas in order to get him and his wife, Wallis Simpson (who was

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Left: a commercial freighter and private sailboat visit the beautiful harbour of St George’s, Grenada

Left: Oliver Messel, the portrait painter-turnedset designer who would become the Caribbean’s most celebrated architect, was known for his extreme attention to detail Overleaf: Slim Aarons captures a bird’s-eye view of sunbathers on the deck of the yacht Traveler II, off the coast of Exuma in the Bahamas, in April 1967

OVER: SLIM AARONS/GETTY IMAGES. THESE PAGES, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: WINFIELD PARKS/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE; EMORY KRISTOF/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE; LORD SNOWDON

Below: catching a blackfin tuna. Teeming with blue marlin, wahoo, bonefish and tarpon, the Caribbean’s waters offer some of the world’s best deep-sea fishing

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PHILIPPE GIRAUD/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES

believed to be a Nazi sympathiser) far from the theatre of war. A German plot to kidnap the Duke, codenamed Operation Willi, had panicked British Intelligence and for the next five years it kept the couple in the Bahamas, where the light-touch tax regime had already been attracting wellheeled long-term residents from Britain and the US. The scope of tourism widened after the war ended and soon Pan Am would be connecting the US to a string of Caribbean islands once a week. Matinee idol Errol Flynn, playwright Noël Coward and writer Ian Fleming moved to Jamaica in the 1940s. Fleming, a former naval intelligence officer, designed his house north of Ocho Rios on the edge of a cliff, naming it GoldenEye after a wartime operation in Gibraltar. Here, Fleming wrote 12 novels, immortalising the legendary character of James Bond, and a shattered Sir Anthony Eden sought refuge after the Suez Crisis. But the property would continue to inspire artists in the 1970s, when Bob Marley bought it, 12 years after Fleming’s death, and when the subsequent owner, Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, expanded the property with a recording studio where many legendary albums were made.

It was the sporting lifestyle in Barbados and a landscape evocative of England that attracted the British politician, Sir Ronald Tree, who, in 1946, built a limestone Palladian villa, Heron Bay, which remains today one of the Caribbean’s most photographed houses. But perhaps the region’s most influential tastemaker – and one of the inventors of that laid-back but elegant décor we associate with the Caribbean – was surely Oliver Messel, the portrait painter who become one of the most acclaimed set designers of the 20th century, before retiring to Barbados in 1966.

Like many artists of the time, he had been a camouflage officer during the war, concealing pillboxes. When Messel

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When Christopher Columbus first set eyes on these dazzling white shores and sapphire waters, he must have thought he had reached paradise

reached Barbados he bought Maddox House, which he set about transforming into a magical villa. Messel soon found himself in great demand as an architect – albeit an improvised one – creating new homes for a queue of friends who clamoured for a Messel house. Using his theatre and camouflage skills, he established his own distinctive architectural style, which is still celebrated to this day. He even has a paint colour named after him – Messel Green – a tone of sage he loved and used frequently. Later, he created Princess Margaret’s hideaway, Les Jolies Eaux, on Colin Tennant’s tiny island of Mustique, where Tennant would eventually lure him to design around 30 more houses.

When Christopher Columbus first set eyes on the dazzling white shores and sapphire waters of this endless archipelago, he must have thought to himself that he had reached paradise. Today, these islands have emerged from their colonial pasts, each retaining its own distinct identity – and infinite variety. Paradise indeed. For what they all possess is a natural beauty that truly lifts the spirit.

Timeless pleasures: St Barths, left, and Jumby Bay, below

PAUL HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES

Escape, the Heyday of Caribbean Glamour, by New York-based architect, Hermes Mallea, is published

by Rizzoli.

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ANYA HINDMARCH

STY LE W I T H A SM I L E Since launching her eponymous brand 30 years ago, Anya Hindmarch has carved out a popular niche with her playful but luxurious accessories – like the exclusive collection of bags and wallets she has created for Eden Being. Laura Lovett meets the British designer who believes fashion shouldn’t take itself too seriously

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Below: Anya Hindmarch, whose witty creations have made her one of the UK’s best-loved designers Right: Hindmarch’s Eden Rock – St Barths washbag, part of her new accessories collection created in partnership with Eden Being

Few fashion brands focus on smiles as much as Anya Hindmarch. For this British fashion designer, the iconic “Smiley” symbol has become something of a house signature. “I think the element of humour is really important and that not taking yourself too seriously is absolutely vital,” she says. “Yes, fashion is a serious business. But it should be about making people feel good. Giving someone a reason to smile really appeals to me.” She adds wryly: “Luxury doesn’t save lives – but it can certainly make you feel better.”

Best known for her playful luxury lifestyle accessories – from the “I am not a plastic bag” ethical campaign, designed to encourage shoppers to opt for reusable carriers, to her kitsch range of crisp-packet clutches and cereal-box styles – Hindmarch is a true trailblazer. Having launched her eponymous business in 1987, working from her kitchen table, she has since grown it exponentially into a global company with more than 40 stores across nine countries.

Hindmarch has carved out a niche in creating luxurious, beautifully crafted products with personality – something that extends to her experiential fashion shows and events. In an era when more and more of us are seeking out meaning from the day-to-day, her Chubby Cloud installation was an immersive experience that saw visitors to London’s stately Banqueting House sink into the world’s largest bean bag and gaze up at the magnificent Rubens ceiling while listening to a series of talks, meditations, music and bedtime stories. It was something, says Hindmarch, that “hopefully gave everyone some time off from their normal lives”.

In addition to her role at the helm of a multimillion-dollar company, Hindmarch wears many other hats. A non-executive director of the British Fashion Council, she is also a UK trade ambassador and a trustee of both the Royal Academy of Arts and the Design Museum in London, and a mother of five children. So for her, taking time out is vital. “It’s important to use holidays in lovely locations like Jumby

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ANYA HINDMARCH

“Something that you buy when you’re away becomes a memory of that moment – and luxury should be about stories”

Bay Island and Eden Rock – St Barths to actually pause and rest.” And she was keen to convey something of a vacation mood in the Anya Hindmarch for Eden Being collection of accessories, which includes leather pocket wallets, bookmarks and washbags featuring blissful images from across Oetker Collection’s portfolio, embossed with pithy quotations such as “Sunshine in my pocket” and “The story goes on”.

“When you’re on holiday, you’re porous,” Hindmarch muses. “Something that you buy when you’re away becomes a memory of that moment – and luxury should be about stories: ‘I have a memory of that,’ or, ‘It was made for me because,’ as opposed to a generic thing that everyone else has.”

Travel is always a precious moment to step away from your routine and reflect on whatever challenges or opportunities may arise on your return, but for Hindmarch, what’s next is anyone’s guess. From candles to clouds, bespoke bags to backpacks, she seems to have conquered it all. “What’s nice is that on holiday you tend to have more time to read but you also 28

have time to stop and think, make decisions, make plans about what you next want to be and do,” she says. “I do my best thinking when I’m away or at 30,000 feet. Every time I travel I have some of those contemplative moments.

In our normal life we don’t stop. There’s not enough thinking time.”

As the fashion industry morphs for a new digital age, Hindmarch continues to innovate, as unconventionally as only she can. “I can’t predict where I’m going next, business-wise.

It’s an interesting time in fashion; it feels like an industrial revolution,” she says. “It’s a time to be brave and make changes, to stay creative.

Everything is changing, so follow your gut. If in doubt, do it. Often, with the best decisions I’ve made, there’s been no rhyme or reason – it just felt right. So I trust that.”

For someone for whom happiness is so fundamental, where is her happiest place?

“Home. I love my kitchen table; friends, wine – what I crave is very low-key. And time on my own: give me a train journey, a newspaper and an empty table. Time where you can do emails or watch TV are like gold dust to me.” edenbeing.com

Above: the iconic image, captured by photographer Antoine Verglas at Eden Rock – St Barths, that Hindmarch used for her stylish washbags

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

YINKA SHONIBARE

W INDS OF CH A NGE From his playful but monumental Wind Sculptures to his tiny textile figures exploring big issues such as colonialism and migration, the work of British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare resonates far and wide. Claire Wrathall spoke to him about his passion for dance, his fear of being pigeonholed, and why he wants to direct an opera

P R E V I O U S PA G E S : C O U RT E S Y T H E A RT I S T, C O L L E C T I O N O F D AV I D S O N C O L L E G E , N Y C , A N D J A M E S C O H A N G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K , P H O T O G R A P H E R : J A S O N W Y C H E , C O U RT E S Y O F P U B L I C A RT F U N D, N Y. T H I S PA G E : M A R C U S L E I T H R A . O P P O S I T E PA G E : C O U RT E S Y T H E A RT I S T A N D S T E P H E N F R I E D M A N G A L L E R Y, L O N D O N

YINKA SHONIBARE

Less than a mile from London’s The Lanesborough, in Howick Place, Victoria, stands one of Yinka Shonibare MBE’s striking Wind Sculptures, a seven-metre-high work that has the appearance of a length of brightly coloured, exuberantly patterned fabric, blown on the wind. Another similar work stands outside the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. And others from the same series have been temporarily installed in New York’s Central Park and Ndubuisi Kanu Park in Lagos, where the Nigerian-British artist spent most of his childhood.

Ostensibly abstract, Shonibare’s Wind Sculptures combine many of the themes that define his practice.

“I was thinking about metaphors for migration, exploring the travel and colonial thing,” he tells me from his canalside studio in East London, when it occurred to him the extent to which migration and the movement of people depended on wind to power the sails of ships. “Wind has played a huge part,” he says, citing the term “trade winds” for the easterly currents of air found in the Tropics that enabled and drove colonial expansion. However you move around the world, he notes, whether you fly or go by boat, “there is always a wind involved.”

Rich in metaphor and subtext, Shonibare’s work is principally concerned with themes of migration, diaspora and the legacies of empire. But, as he told The New York Times in 2009, “I don’t produce propaganda art. I’m more interested in the poetic than the didactic.”

There are contradictions inherent in it too. His Wind

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“I don’t produce propaganda art.

I’m more interested in the poetic than the didactic”

Previous pages: Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture (SG) 1, in New York’s Central Park. The 23ft fibreglass sculpture highlights global migration.

“There is always wind involved,” he says, wherever you move around the world Left: the artist at his canalside studio in East London Below: Diary of a Victorian Dandy 19.00, 1998.

This is part of a fivephotograph suite, in which the artist (centre) depicts himself as a dandy

Sculptures may suggest lightness, but each is underpinned by a weighty steel armature on to which a fibreglass resin cast has been mounted.

Their hand-painted surface decoration, however, evokes the vibrantly colourful, densely patterned fabrics that have come to be associated with West African dress and, by extension, “the identity of people from Africa and the African diaspora”, he explains. In fact, these prints are not “authentically African” at all. Rather they are derived from Javanese batik, designs the Dutch brought from Indonesia to the Netherlands, where they began to mass-produce printed cottons for sale to African countries. In short, it’s a “very good metaphor for trade routes, for the movement of people and global connections and relationships. For contemporary existence, if you like.” And a way too of “making something heavy feel weightless”. On one level, you can “just enjoy” them as “dynamic sculpture”. But “understand the origins of the fabrics, and my motivation for [making them] both historically and [as they] relate to my own identity”, and they assume a multiplicity of meanings.

The son of a Nigerian lawyer, Shonibare was born in London in 1962. He grew up in Nigeria, speaking Yoruba at home and English at school. He returned to the UK aged 16 to finish his schooling, and, despite parental disapproval, go to art school. He was three weeks into a foundation course at Wimbledon College of Art when, as he puts it, he “passed out, basically”. He awoke a fortnight later to be “told I had a virus in my spine and was completely paralysed. I couldn’t move anything.” He had contracted transverse myelitis – an inflammation of the spinal cord. “At first I had no movement

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T O P L E F T : C O U RT E S Y T H E A RT I S T A N D S T E P H E N F R I E D M A N G A L L E R Y. P H O T O G R A P H E R : M A R K B L O W E R . C E N T R E : C O U RT E S Y T H E A RT I S T A N D S T E P H E N F R I E D M A N G A L L E R Y, L O N D O N . C O U RT E S Y T H E A RT I S T, J A M E S C O H A N G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K A N D F R O N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L : C L E V E L A N D T R I E N N I A L F O R C O N T E M P O R A R Y A RT W I T H F U N D S F R O M V I A A RT F U N D, C L E V E L A N D P U B L I C L I B R A R Y A N D T H E C I T Y O F C L E V E L A N D’ S C A B L E T E L E V I S I O N M I N O R I T Y A RT S A N D E D U C AT I O N F U N D, C O M M I S S I O N E D B Y F R O N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L : C L E V E L A N D T R I E N N I A L F O R C O N T E M P O R A R Y A RT, J U LY 14 -S E P T E M B E R 3 0, 2 0 1 8 , P H O T O G R A P H E R : J A C O B KO E S T L E R

YINKA SHONIBARE

at all from my neck down, so I had to work very hard to trick my brain into making parts of my body work.” He still uses a wheelchair.

In time, however, he returned to art school, first Byam Shaw, then Goldsmiths, the crucible of BritArt, where he took his Master’s degree and overlapped with the likes of Damien Hirst, though he was not part of their set. A few years older than the generation of Young British Artists, Shonibare nevertheless caught its wave. Charles Saatchi was among the first to buy his work.

The following year he won the Paul Hamlyn award, then worth £30,000. “It was bags of money back then!” he says, “and it helped me a great deal.” It enabled him to focus fulltime on art by giving up his job at the disability-led charity Shape Arts (of which he remains a patron), which provides access to culture for disabled people. He remembers it as “a very vibrant place. I saw a lot of theatre when I was working there and I loved seeing experimental plays. All those artists pushing boundaries.”

Certainly there is a theatrical element to his work. Take the costumes in his tableau How Does a Girl Like You Get to Be a Girl Like You?, now in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and one of the first of his pieces bought by Saatchi. It consists of three headless female figures dressed in Victorian-style corseted gowns with bustle skirts. “I used to love going to the costume galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum,” he says. “At that time I was thinking a lot about the height of the British Empire. And I thought, how about flipping that on its head and deconstructing [19th-century] aristocratic dress, using quote-unquote ‘ethnic’ fabrics.”

The figures lost their heads for both symbolic and pragmatic reasons. “I didn’t want to racialise them,” he explains. “The whole issue of race in Britain was becoming

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Left: Discus Thrower (after Myron), 2016, featuring the artist’s trademark batik pattern Below: Gallantry and Criminal Conversation, 2002, a sprawling installation featuring lifesized costumed mannequins in sexual positions

so divisive at that time.” Their skin tone is indeterminate too. “In the end we’re all humans,” he says. “I consider myself a humanist. I try to avoid being pigeonholed.”

Dance, especially contemporary choreography, remains another passion. He has twice collaborated with London’s Royal Opera House: first on a video, Odile and Odette, inspired by the dual role – of both white and black swan – played by the principal ballerina in Swan Lake; then on a sculpture based on a photograph of Margot Fonteyn in the same role, its tutu remade in batik-style cotton, with a globe in place of a head.

“I’m very interested in opera too,” he continues, citing works he has made inspired by Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera and the aria Addio del Passato, from La Traviata.

Addio del Passato is the title of Shonibare’s haunting film tangentially about the British naval commander Horatio Nelson’s abandoned wife, Frances Nisbet, whom he married on the Caribbean island of Nevis. The film features the Verdi aria as its soundtrack and was shown in the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town during its inaugural year. Does Shonibare have ambitions to direct an opera? “If the opportunity were to come my way, I’d like to give it a go. Why not?”

From painting, sculpture and installations to photography, film and performance, Shonibare’s works also make frequent allusion to well-known paintings and sculptures from the western canon: the ancient Greek Venus de’ Medici in the Uffizi in Florence, for example; da Vinci’s The Last Supper; Caravaggio’s Medusa; Fragonard’s The Swing; Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews… His series of

“I loved seeing experimental plays. All those artists pushing boundaries”

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YINKA SHONIBARE

“Quite a few of my friends said I shouldn’t accept the MBE, but that seemed sort of an artist’s cliché”

photographs The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters refers directly to Goya’s etching of the same name. His Diary of a Victorian Dandy is in some ways a homage to Hogarth, while his Fake Death Pictures reconstruct works such as Manet’s The Suicide and Henry Wallis’s The Death of Chatterton.

There are often historical themes too. His best-known work, for instance, is Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, made for the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square in 2010.

Now installed outside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, one of London’s royal museums, it’s a 1:30 scale replica of HMS Victory, the ship from which Admiral Lord Nelson commanded the British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, its 37 sails made from Shonibare’s signature “African” prints, contained within a giant glass bottle.

Even before this, Shonibare had been honoured by the Queen for “services to art”, having been awarded the medal that denotes membership of the “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, which entitles recipients to append the letters MBE to their surname, which Shonibare has incorporated into his professional name. “Quite a few of my friends said, ‘You know, you shouldn’t accept it,’ [because of its connotations and the horrors of Empire]. But I thought about it, and that seemed sort of an artist’s cliché.

I would have been putting myself in opposition to it, and I didn’t want to do that. I felt I should own it. The Empire is over, and to continue in that sort of binary opposition to it suggests it still has a hold over you.”

He has also been elected to the Royal Academy, and last summer his work appeared on a Royal Mail stamp.

But how better to make people think than to create art that millions can see and engage with the world over? There may, as he puts it, be “a dark side” to it, “a complexity and a paradox. It’s never binary,” he continues. “It’s never either-or.” But it’s bold and its beautiful too. People stop to look and think. And therein lies its wisdom and its greatness.

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Left: Shonibare’s best-known work, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, 2010, made for the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. It is now on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich Overleaf: The American Library, 2018 – a large-scale installation of 234 books wrapped in Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax print fabric. The spines of most of the books feature the names of American writers with an activist bent

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YINKA SHONIBARE

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THE LANESBOROUGH

T

LONDON CA LLI NG Dazzling champagne-bar elegance – Laura Bailey exudes glamour in the British capital

PHOTOGRAPHER Adam Whitehead STYLIST Tilly Hardy

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Previous pages: dress by Erdem at Harvey Nichols, £2,715, harveynichols.com.

Garrard Fanfare ruby earrings, Garrard Fanfare ruby ring, and Garrard Entanglement ring, all POA, garrard.com Left: dress by Osman at Harvey Nichols, £995, harveynichols. com. Diamond necklace, diamond earrings, emerald-cut diamond bracelet and diamond ring, all by Graff, POA, graffdiamonds.com Right: Chanel jacket in multicolour tweed, £4,900; Chanel dress in multicolour tweed, £5,170, chanel.com; Camélia Précieux’ earrings, £13,300, chanel.com

“I like the classic romanticism of The Lanesborough – and its location on the edge of the park”

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THE LANESBOROUGH

Blue dress by Malan Breton, POA; malanbreton.com

Photographer: Adam Whitehead at LGA Management Stylist: Tilly Hardy Art director: Charlie Thomas Make-up: Sarah Reigate at David Artists Hair: Dayaruci at One Represents Photo assistants: Henry Hunting ford, James Kemmenoe, Martin Baker

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

lanesborough.com

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MY CITY

TA L E S O F T H E C I T Y Oetker Collection’s Creative Ambassador Laura Bailey on the best of London, her hometown

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M Y FA V O U R I T E P A T C H

THERE ARE HIDDEN

OF LONDON

GEMS HERE

I’ve lived around Ladbroke Grove forever. Even when I lived in New York, I still kept a room in a friend’s flat off Portobello Road. Friday morning vintage-shopping under the arches, Golborne Road for a coffee and for the antiques, and Laylow for drinks and music. And bicycling everywhere – from Westbourne Grove to the Electric Cinema, then criss-crossing Kensal Rise and the canals beyond.

I love the Garden Museum in Lambeth – it’s off the beaten track. And be sure to climb the secret stairway for an extraordinary view upriver. The Japanese garden in Holland Park always reminds me of when my babies were babies – a place of calm and reflection. The Courtauld Institute is my favourite gallery, and it’s wonderful to combine it with an ice-skate around the pop-up rink every Christmas at Somerset House.

M Y P E R F E C T S U N D AY

AND FOR KIDS

A fantasy (and extra-long) Sunday would include some combination of a tennis match, a long walk through the park, perhaps lunch at Cecconi’s and a trip to the Royal Academy; then a matinée movie, and supper and cocktails with friends. Or I can have as much fun just messing around with my kids and my dog at home, with time to play.

The fairytale shows at the Little Angel puppet theatre in Islington are an original and memorable treat for children. I’ll take my small godchildren this winter. Kew Gardens are gorgeous for the lights at Christmastime, and I love the Portobello panto – a comedy and charity adventure and an institution that always marks the beginning of the holidays for me and my family.

A C I T Y O F PA R K S A N D

W H AT I L O V E A B O U T T H E

G A R D E N S Q UA R E S

LANESBOROUGH

I love the secret gardens of my Portobello neighbourhood and I take my dog to Holland Park most days. At weekends, we might walk all the way to the West End or to Knightsbridge across Hyde Park, stopping off at the Serpentine Gallery or at Chucs in Zaha Hadid’s Sackler Wing building en route.

I like the classic romanticism of The Lanesborough – and its location on the edge of the park, just a beautiful walk away from the museums of Kensington or the stores and restaurants of Mount Street and Mayfair. The rooms are full of character and my friends from far away all have their favourites. There is service beyond compare from the moment you arrive, and the gym and spa below are London gems, discreet and luxurious. But I especially love the fact that as a Londoner, I can walk there with my dog – who is welcome in the bar – and meet my friends.

It’s wonderful, especially at Christmas.

“On Sundays, we sometimes walk all the way across Hyde Park from Portobello to the West End”

Above, and right: Laura Bailey loves London’s classic romanticism, and its discreet and luxurious hidden gems

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PALÁCIO TANGARÁ

THE TA S T E M A K E R At his new Michelin-starred restaurant in São Paulo, master chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten fuses French tradition, his Alsatian roots, Asian influences and local ingredients in the quest for haute cuisine at its finest and most contemporary. Sudi Pigott asks him what it is that drives him to carry on pushing culinary boundaries

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Opposite: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose São Paulo outpost, Tangará Jean-Georges, has already earned a Michelin star Right: prawn and pumpkin green curry, one of the dishes at Vongerichten’s acclaimed restaurant at the Palácio Tangará

“Staying curious, that’s my elixir,” quips Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who, at 61, is the ultimate culinary Dorian Gray, barely ageing in the 20-odd years I’ve known him, and still as suavely exuberant as ever.

After conquering New York City and running an empire that stretches from Tokyo to Paris, London to Singapore (he currently has 38 restaurants bearing his signature around the globe), legendary chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten finally arrived in the Southern hemisphere last year. And his first outpost in the food-obsessed Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, Tangará Jean-Georges, has already earned a Michelin star.

Tangará Jean-Georges is located in Oetker Collection’s newest property, Palácio Tangará, where the Alsace-born chef is in charge of the entire food programme, including breakfast (where Cantonese congee rice porridge sits beside coconut flour pancakes) and room service, too. It marks a departure beyond Jean-Georges’ trailblazing French cuisine

with an Asian accent. Now, he cleverly weaves in Brazilian ingredients including tapioca, coconut water, Pupunha hearts of palm, and locally caught fish such as tambaqui and pirarucu as well as more familiar sea bass and sea scallops.

“I always head straight to the market when I arrive somewhere new,” explains Jean-Georges. “It’s the most powerful way to connect.” Exploring São Paulo, he adds, has been an exciting new adventure. “I felt like Christopher Columbus when I started to make my culinary explorations,” he jokes.

“I’ve discovered so many different varieties of chilli, yet with a less intense heat, and a far larger and sweeter tropical passion-fruit than any I’ve ever tasted before, called maracujá doce.” And Jean-Georges has now created a version of Baked Alaska using the whole fruit, using the shell as a bowl to present a cream topped with browned meringue. I’ve learnt that the stem of the cashew fruit itself is tasty and fragrant if poached, rather like quince.”

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PALÁCIO TANGARÁ

“This is really what my kitchen is about – my stories, my own journey”

The menu naturally includes a good number of his classics, too. “We’ve brought several of the best dishes from our New York restaurants and mixed them with new ones created here using Brazilian products,” he explains.

How does Jean-Georges manage his culinary empire? “It’s not simple,” he confesses. While I have entire control of all my 11 restaurants in New York City, the remaining 24 dining rooms spread around the world are collaborations with other partners, including the restaurant and bar at another Oetker Collection property, Eden Rock – St Barths. “What’s critical is that I choose my team very carefully,” he explains. He works with trusted lieutenants: Daniel del Vecchio, originally his head chef at Vong in London, is usually on the road with him; fellow Frenchman and former chef at Alain Ducasse’s Louis XV, Pascal Valero, and his Brazilian chef de cuisine, Felipe Rodrigues, “who spent time with me in my New York kitchens and restaurants” run Tangará Jean-Georges day-to-day.

Jean-Georges also has a rule that he only

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travels one week in every month, in order to “stay fresh”. He loves well-made clothes, and “I always wear Prada shoes – they’re so comfortable, and I often spend 20 hours on my feet in a kitchen.” Downtime is spent with his family, eating out, and paddle-boarding wherever he gets the opportunity. “I’m a Piscean, so I like to ride the waves,” he grins.

“I’ve been cooking for 44 years now and I’ve created a huge recipe base. But I still always want to create new dishes that mix my memories from my childhood in Alsace with the flavours and combinations I first tasted when I was working in Asia back in the early 1980s, spiced up with my most recent travels. This is really what my kitchen is about – my stories, my own journey.”

At heart, Jean-Georges believes in oldfashioned hospitality. Endearingly, he insists that he gets “the greatest pleasure from seeing a guest’s eyes light up when their dish arrives, and continuing to smile as they eat it. I love hearing the hum of a happy, busy restaurant.”

Always ahead of the curve, Jean-Georges was already creating dishes based on vegetable juices and herb infusions and eschewing butter and cream back in the 1990s, well before most of the world of “fine dining” caught up with him. He remains a trailblazer. “My mantra in creating recipes has always been that the last bite should be as exciting as the first bite. I like to keep my diners captivated. Vegetables have so much flavour and can be just as decadent as any other ingredient. It is a question of understanding how to layer and balance, colour, texture and flavour.”

“To be frank,” says Jean-Georges, “I think this is the natural way. When I grew up in France, we usually had one small roast joint of pork for 10 to 12 people in a meal, and lots of cabbage, potatoes, and other vegetables. We are going back to a more balanced diet. Proteins are getting harder to raise, and I’m happy people are embracing a more plant-based diet.”

It was a birthday treat meal out that turned the chef on to food. He was 14 at the time, and

had, by his own admission, been thrown out of school for being useless. His father, who ran a successful business, took the family to a local three Michelin-starred restaurant and the young Jean-Georges was blown away. His father asked if they needed a pot-washer and fortuitously the chef-proprietor was looking for an apprentice. Within weeks, Jean-Georges was immersed. “I remember it had never occurred to me that I could make a living from cooking.

I had finally found something I was good at and I was enthralled.” He went on to work at several more three Michelin-starred restaurants in France before going on to open a restaurant for one of his former chef bosses in Singapore.

So will he open more restaurants? “I always feel excited about new projects, but I don’t open restaurants just for the sake of it. They must have a purpose, the right menu, the right destination, something that amuses and intrigues me. Hence, I’ve found my latest: Tangará Jean-Georges.” palaciotangara.com

Above: world-class cuisine combines with supremely elegant decor at Tangará Jean-Georges Right: hitting the sweet spot – the restaurant’s exquisite strawberry and tapioca pudding

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THE LANESBOROUGH

TH E SOU L OF DISCR ET ION For today’s butlers, being able to communicate with guests – and fix the wi-fi – is just as important as possessing arcane knowledge about the rules of etiquette. Oliver Bennett meets the team at The Lanesborough London, where providing discreet but attentive service is all in a day’s work

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Silver service: The Lanesborough’s butlers carry out a wide range of tasks – anything from unpacking or packing suitcases and arranging for shirts to be pressed to pouring your afternoon tea

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The idea of the butler conjures a few images – the all-seeing savant-cum-servant, unctuous yet ultimately in charge. Think of PG Wodehouse’s Reginald Jeeves, Charles Carson in Downton Abbey, Stevens in The Remains of the Day… perhaps even Parker in Thunderbirds.

Unsurprisingly, the 14 butlers at The Lanesborough London, despite the supremely aristocratic setting, don’t conform to this stuffed-shirt stereotype. “For one thing,” says head of guest services Joanne Bursford, “they are increasingly female.” With a diverse team that includes six women, The Lanesborough Butlers even run a Facebook page and Twitter and Instagram accounts (@lanesbutlers) and for the hotel, they’re “a unique selling point”.

Each room has a swanky little butler-call switch, testifying to their restrained omnipresence.

In the duck-egg blue and gilt splendour of a Royal Suite, Bettina Eggenschwiler wears the morning dress of the traditional butler, but attests to a modern spirit. “It’s a different style now,” she says. “We’re as discreet as in the past but more involved and flexible. It’s all about multi-tasking, managing and prioritising.”

Getting the emotional pitch just right is key: over-friendliness is too much, underfriendliness stand-offish, oily servility a no-no.

“We establish two-way communication,” says Swiss-born Bettina, adding that the reason for the guest’s stay also plays a significant role.

“If they’re here for a business, holidays, or a honeymoon, or one day passing through, we take a different approach.”

Hailing from Troyes in France, Bettina’s colleague Elisee Caramla is adamant that modern butlering is about forging an authentic relationship. “It’s important not to be robotlike,” he says. “You’re a communicator, with knowledge of technology and human organisation. We have to be there for them, to fix the wi-fi or even do minor DIY tasks. The crucial thing is that for a guest, having a butler on hand means they can avoid having to call seven different people, from the kitchen to the concierge. We can fix it all.”

Not all guests understand this role. “So our first approach is to explain why we’re here,” says Bettina. “For the most part, they’re excited to see us.” Some, like a recent customer from Saudi Arabia, enjoy having a butler so much, they try to poach them. Others, like a recent US billionaire guest of Elisee’s, put them on a WhatsApp group.

But mostly, the butler is a figure of magical hospitality: there when required, invisible when the situation demands it. Elisee recounts a typical scenario: “My guest was in the shower.

When he left for the day I checked his wardrobe and saw his shirts were creased, so sent them for pressing. I didn’t meet him at all, but he was grateful enough to leave a note.”

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THE LANESBOROUGH

“We want to give guests the feeling that someone has picked up on their preferences – to pleasantly surprise them and stay one step ahead”

All The Lanesborough’s 30 rooms have butler service and while some guests avail themselves of it, others hold back. “If they prefer not to see us we make sure their shoes are polished and their closets nicely arranged,” says Bettina. “We want to give guests the feeling that someone has picked up on their preferences – to pleasantly surprise them and stay one step ahead.” The butlers unpack clothes methodically, with wardrobes colour-coordinated, split between jackets, trousers, casual and evening wear.

Socks and briefs are duly folded.

Access to the rooms gives the butlers an opportunity to find out more about each guest, details which they log in order to offer a more intuitive service. “We don’t nose around,” says Bettina. “But when we tidy we notice if the guest prefers say, Diet Coke or sparkling water.

If they wear spectacles, we provide special Lanesborough glasses-cleaning towels.”

Some, as you’d expect, are more exacting than others. “We do have guests who ask us to open their curtains – but in a way that helps us to find out something about them.” Preferences go on a list and sensitivities are observed. If a guest is Middle Eastern, for example, champagne is unlikely to feature in the welcome package, while hot water is made available for Chinese guests, who like to make their own tea.

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Occasionally there are mega-asks. This summer, a guest asked a butler for a helicopter to transport him from London to Brighton.

“He needed it that day,” says Elisee. “So we secured it and he flew to Brighton for one hour, had coffee, then returned.” Elisee has also organised a champagne picnic on Regent’s Park for eight VIPs from Japan, France and the US – “A bit stressful, but it was lovely” – while Bettina hosted a family whose teenage daughter didn’t have shoes for the theatre. “We’re fortunate to have Harrods close by, as everything has to be done in a timely manner.” With all this going on, Bettina doesn’t need gym membership: “I cover 10km a day.”

Do today’s butlers experience what’s known as “hairdresser syndrome”, where guests confide in them? “With regular guests you do almost become family,” says Bettina.

But boundaries are always observed. Butlers never dine with guests, and although they need to know about where to find the best Indian food in the West End, say, they tend not to get involved with life outside the lobby. “We get as close to our guests as we need to,” says Bettina with admirable understatement. “That needs trust from the guests, as well as from us. It’s an honour to be invited into their private lives.” lanesborough.com

ADAM WHITEHEAD

Upstairs downstairs: for The Lanesborough’s guests, having a butler on hand means they can avoid having to call several different people, from the kitchen to the concierge

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MASTERPIECE ESTATES

A PL A C E I N T H E C O U N T RY The country house weekend has inspired writers and filmmakers for generations. Now, reports Oliver Bennett, we can all experience rural life at its grandest – at one of Oetker Collection’s stunning new collection of historic properties, Masterpiece Estates

The country house weekend is a legendary fixture in British history. It’s a time for languid weekends discussing world affairs over croquet and field sports; for long walks, hearty dinners and the trading of post-prandial wit in the drawing room. As a British institution, the country estate is itself a “symbol of continuity” as historian Adrian Tinniswood puts it. And after a mixed 20th century, it has found the perfect role in the era of luxury hospitality.

Into this revival of our built heritage comes Oetker Collection’s new marque, Masterpiece Estates, a collection of the finest country estates for exclusive use, each hosted by an expert in destination and estate alike.

Starting this autumn with a handful of historical homes in the UK, the Masterpiece Estates collection is to be augmented around the world, taking the utmost care to bring out the character and heritage of each property. And should guests so desire, each of these homes from home comes with a host – someone who knows the property well and is ideally placed to help you make the most of what’s available to you – from the perfect mountain-top view above Glen Affric to the extraordinary shooting, flying and driving experiences on hand at Goodwood.

First up are three properties in the UK, including the celebrated Glen Affric Estate in the Scottish Highlands, where there’s ample shooting, deer stalking and fishing to be had with some of the world’s best gamekeepers, as well as glorious accommodation for up to 20 guests in the stunning Victorian Lodge and Stable Cottage, both overlooking Loch Affric.

Farleigh Wallop has a 900-year history of extraordinary drama. Over the centuries, a who’s who of royals and adventurers have stayed here

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M EET THE HOSTS

The Farleigh Wallop Estate in Hampshire has been with the same family since the Domesday Book was written in the 11th century

“The experiences are relaxed and hugely fun, offering a personal touch that makes sure every one of our guests achieves the most out of every activity” BILLY MOR E N ISBET T

“My years of experience ensure our guests have the best possible country escape, tailoring their stay so they enjoy all that these magnificent estates have to offer” FREDDIE CARTWRIGHT

“Sharing my passion for country life helps me expertly guide our guests so they make the most of these magical destinations” JAMES MIDDLETON

“I am a keen shot, love to fish, and I play golf, but my passion is making sure our guests have the most memorable experiences” TED INNES KER

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MASTERPIECE ESTATES

Left: the Glen Affric Estate in the Scottish Highlands offers shooting, deer stalking and fishing with some of the world’s best gamekeepers Bottom left: Hound Lodge at Goodwood was once the world’s most luxurious doghouse. Today it’s a stunning 10-bedroom country retreat

The 15th-century estate has exquisite gardens, with a tennis court, an open-air swimming pool and a cricket pitch

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And what a landscape it commands: 10,000 acres of wilderness that fully deserves its National Nature Reserve appellation. It may well be the perfect pleasure to conclude a day’s sport in the hills at the Lodge, where – as the day departs and local tawny owls begin their evensong – dinner is served in baronial splendour.

At the other end of the country can be found the lazy meadows and chalk streams of Hampshire, where the Farleigh Wallop Estate has been with the same family (the Wallops, of course) since the Domesday Book was written in the 11th century. After various incarnations – including that of a grand preparatory school as well as a family home – the 15th-century estate now hosts up to 21 guests, and has become a place where a dedicated housekeeper presides over exquisite gardens, with a tennis court, openair swimming pool and cricket pitch: all revealed after the grandest of entrances along a tree-lined avenue. Inside, completing Farleigh Wallop’s pitch-perfect English finery, is a wood-panelled sitting room that opens on to a croquet lawn and walled garden, while a typical day’s activities might include clay pigeon and pheasant shooting, fly fishing, horse riding and – entirely in keeping with the historic home itself – tours of Winchester and Jane Austen country. And all within an hour or so of London.

East of Farleigh Wallop, in the chalky downlands of East Sussex, is the Goodwood Estate, and Hound Lodge, once home to 100 snuffling hunting hounds and now the third plum in the Masterpiece pie. Formerly the kennels for the foxhounds of the Goodwood Hunt, it was a thriving lodge in the 19th century when it was the centre of the estate’s extensive sporting facilities. Now redesigned by top architect Ptolemy Dean to integrate it with Goodwood House itself, it has ten double bedrooms hosting 20 guests, each room named for one of the Glorious Twenty-Three: the stars of the old hunt. Guests are greeted by two hound sculptures on plinths and ushered through a garden planted by celebrated landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith. Within, they can lounge on handmade furniture on handsome oak floorboards, and enjoy the Lodge’s collection of hunting prints – including works by the two key hunting artists of the 20th century, FA Stewart and Lionel Edwards.

With a sense of comfort to complement the sporting history, it’s considerably more luxurious than the home the hounds enjoyed 100 years ago, but full of the tradition of the great country house, with fine food and in-room spa treatments on offer, as well as the full gamut of sporting and leisure activities. As with its stable-mates, it’s a case of old traditions meeting the demands of modern hospitality... in total harmony.

To book your stay at a Masterpiece Estate, please visit masterpiece-estates.com, call +44 (0) 207 079 1621, or email info@masterpiece-estates.com Above: Farleigh Wallop Estate has a 1,000-year history of extraordinary drama. Over the centuries, the most celebrated royals and adventurers have stayed here.

Right: the Farleigh Wallop three-acre walled garden is divided by yew hedges into formal ‘rooms’

Left: Goodwood’s Hound Lodge was the centre of the estate’s sporting facilities during the 19th century

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THE GLEN AFFRIC ESTATE

HIGHLAND DREA M At the heart of the Scottish sporting estate of Glen Affric is the perfect shooting lodge, now a gem in Oetker Collection’s Masterpiece Estates

PHOTOGRAPHER Grégoire Kalt

GLEN AFFRIC

Days of adventure and natural splendour are followed by convivial evenings of great food, fine wine and stories shared – all in the company of your host

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Warm, wood-panelled walls add to the deep comfort and charm of this classic Scottish sporting retreat

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GLEN AFFRIC

Far-off peaks, etched woodlands and infinite shades of misty blue and green reflect in the loch – a highland playground in waiting

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GLEN AFFRIC

To book your stay at a Masterpiece Estate, please visit masterpiece-estates.com, call +44 (0) 207 079 1621, or email info@masterpiece-estates.com

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CELEBR ATIN G CONSCIOUS LUXURY AT E L I E RSWA ROVS K I . CO M

TRAVEL IN ST YLE

TH E N EW GOLDEN AGE O F T R AV E L Boat, plane and car manufacturers are combining cutting-edge technologies and superb craftsmanship to take luxury travel to the next level, says Richard Holt

TRAVEL IN ST YLE

Being whisked without hassle on to a private jet is a winner before you’ve even left the ground

Things are not what they used to be… At some stage during our lives we all find ourselves gazing back with misty eyes to a time – perhaps long before we were born, even – when certain things were just, you know, better. Music and movies, food and fashion, television and table manners – no area of life escapes the rosy glow of nostalgia.

The term “the golden age of travel” gets thrown around a lot. There were the so-called Grand Tours popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, when young aristocrats would swan off across Europe to deepen their knowledge of the world before returning home and taking charge of the family estate. Then there was the advent of rail travel in the 19th century, and the era of the great transatlantic liners, or the opening up of the skies in the 1950s, which meant holidaying far from home was something you could do more than once in your life.

There are, of course, things to miss. The idea of seeing a great city or a beautiful landscape for the first time is very different now. Before you go away you will almost certainly have done some virtual detective work, looking at HD images and videos of your destination. You will obviously be obliged to say that the pictures don’t do it justice. But the truth is, photographs can look better than the real thing – dating websites are proof of this. So the internet has robbed travel of some element of surprise.

But just because travel can be bad, doesn’t mean it has to be. Of course there are more people in the world than ever, and finding unspoilt parts is getting harder. Yet for all you can argue that the world isn’t what it was, there is one thing that has undeniably got better – our ability to make increasingly awesome vehicles.

Ask someone to think of a beautiful boat and the first word that jumps to mind might well be Riva. The Italian

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Previous pages: the RollsRoyce Phantom VIII Left, and below: the 33.5-metre Riva Dolcevita motor yacht. With a Jacuzzi on the sundeck and marble bathrooms, it ticks all the luxury boxes and glides through the water at speeds of up to 26 knots

company first made the exquisite mahogany-hulled Aquarama in 1962 and as a piece of mobile sculpture it is hard to beat. But this open-topped motor boat was not designed for travelling any great distance, just for roaring splendidly around a lake or bay. If you want to go further afield, a little runabout like this will not do – however lovely it is. Thankfully, Riva now makes big, modern boats, and there is no end to their fabulousness.

The company’s new fibreglass flagship is the Riva Dolcevita. This 110-foot (33.5-metre) flybridge motor yacht looks like a vast, elegant dart as it cuts through the water at speeds of up to 26 knots. It combines wood, chrome and extensive use of glass to create a feel that is as understated as you can expect for such a striking vessel. It offers acres of space, inside and out, in which to dine, lounge and generally kick back. The sunbathing area on the foredeck has a Jacuzzi, should extra relaxation be required. Accommodation comprises four double en-suite guest cabins on the lower deck, with crew accommodation for up to five staff. The master suite, on the main deck forward of the saloon, has a bathroom complete with twin marble sinks and panoramic views, because being at sea should not mean slumming it.

Another new arrival this year is the superyacht Ulysses, from the Norwegian company Kleven. The Riva is a big boat by any reasonable standards, but the Ulysses is truly vast, more than three times the length, at 116 metres. It is so big that it is able to store a 21-metre Princess 68 yacht within its well deck, and a Bell 429 helicopter in a hangar on the top deck. Stewart Campbell, editor of Boat International, calls the Ulysses the “ultimate expression of adventure”, declaring it to be “packed to the gunnels with toys and with every conceivable luxury, designed and built to explore the harshest parts of the world in supreme comfort.”

Right: the Embraer Phenom 100. Suitable for more short-haul flights, its sleek, modern design makes it one of the most popular in the VLJ (very light jet) category

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TRAVEL IN ST YLE

Left: taking supercars to the next level is the “fast and beautifully appointed” Bugatti Chiron, with a top speed of 261mph Below: the Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII, for those who want to “sit back and be driven”. This is the eighth incarnation of the legendary Phantom, which made its debut in 1925

While there is no sea the Ulysses won’t tackle, sometimes circumstances require you take to the skies, but that is no reason to cut back on comfort. If the thought of shuffling forward in a queue of passengers awaiting the indignity of airport security is what puts you off flying, being whisked without hassle onto a private jet is a winner before you’ve even left the ground.

At the very top end are converted airliners, with Boeing and Airbus offering privately kitted-out versions, along with the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, with the Lineage 1000E. Adam Twidell, CEO of jet charter company PrivateFly, describes these supersize jets as being “like a luxury hotel suite in the sky, offering a huge, multi-zone cabin with master suite, living and dining areas, multiple bathrooms with showers and a large galley and bar allowing the cabin crew to prepare and serve a variety of onboard dining options.”

If a full-size, $100m airliner sounds a little bit too Bond villain for you, plenty of smaller options are available. You could go for a light jet, such as the Embraer Phenom 100, which is usually configured to carry four passengers and can be used to fly shorter distances. But if you want to go long-haul, you need the daddy of all executive jets, the Gulfstream G650ER, which has a flight range of 7,500 nautical miles, making it capable of 12+ hour flights such as Hong Kong to New York, or Los Angeles to Melbourne. All jets, of course, can be customised in any way that doesn’t alter the mechanics, so if you want to pimp the interior, the only limits are your own taste.

However much time you spend above the clouds, at some point you’ll have to come back down to earth. What you choose depends really on whether you want to drive or be driven. If you want to pilot a fast, beautifully appointed

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car, there is nothing better than the Bugatti Chiron. There may be other cars, such as hybrids and fully electric cars, that are looking to redefine the way a car should work. The Chiron does not do that; it just takes the idea of a two-seater, mid-engined sports car and turns it hyper. The way the 261mph car transfers its incredible 1,500 horsepower to the four wheels and projects you down the road without a hint of wheelspin is nothing short of witchcraft.

If you want to sit back and be driven, on the other hand, you will want something with a bit more room. And for this, there is no finer choice than the latest incarnation of Rolls-Royce’s mighty Phantom. Not that it is bad to drive, of course – the huge V12 engine will make the car shift at remarkable speed should you be rude enough to ask, but that is not really what the car is about.

The company’s standard bearer is now in its eighth series, with the first Phantom appearing in 1925. The Phantom has always been about propelling occupants in the most refined manner that modern engineering will allow. Rolls-Royce has raised a few eyebrows in recent years by allowing its customers to go crazy on the customisation and deck out its cars with all manner of funky interiors and paint jobs. But whether you go for pink leather or opt for something more restrained, the Phantom does its job just the same – carrying you in such calm that it’s hard to believe the silent power is provided by exploding petrol.

This is perhaps the factor that links all of the machines mentioned here. They are the very best transport that the combined technology and artistry of our day can achieve.

Maybe at some point we will all travel around in some kind of VR-enhanced personal luxury jet-pods. But for now, this is the best we have ever seen. The golden age of travel? That would be right now.

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PARIS ON FILM

“ PA R I S I S A LWA Y S A G O O D I D E A” AU DR EY H EPBU R N I N SA BR I NA

Countless French writers may have waxed lyrical about Paris, but it was left to a British historian, the late Alistair Horne, to pose the immortal question: “Has any sensible person ever doubted that Paris is fundamentally a woman?”

Inspired by this idea, Horne penned Seven Ages of Paris: Portrait of a City, a page-turning classic that is steeped in his passion for the French capital. Referring to her “immortal beauty” and “swift changes of mood”, he views Paris as a “hauntingly alluring, and exacting, mistress”.

“Mistress” sounds a bit off-key in today’s climate, but there’s undoubtedly something enigmatic and seductive about the French capital. Perhaps it would be more fitting to compare her to a silent-movie star – one whose eternal glow has captivated countless directors, from Woody Allen and Stanley Donen to Baz Luhrmann and Vincente Minnelli.

Paris lends itself to glossy, Technicolor Hollywood treatment. Think Owen Wilson discovering Hemingway’s demi-monde in Allen’s Midnight in Paris or Audrey Hepburn holding balloons in Donen’s Funny Face or Gene Kelly dancing around the Place de la Concorde in Minnelli’s An American in Paris or Nicole Kidman’s corseted alabaster appeal in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

Directors who actually live in Paris, however – like JeanJacques Beineix, Jean-Luc Godard, Albert Lamorisse, Roman Polanski and Agnès Varda – tend to suggest that a certain murkiness lingers beneath, that the varnished veneer hides something less beguiling – an intriguing yet disreputable underworld, where femmes fatales prowl and morals are ambiguous. Remember the hero Jules riding his moped in the Métro in Beineix’s Diva, or the way Jean Seberg, a lawabiding citizen, ends up being humiliated in Godard’s Breathless, or how the cute-looking schoolkids end up turning all Lord of the Flies in Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, or the red dress worn by Emmanuelle Seigner as she’s clinging on to the rooftops in Polanski’s Frantic, or the narcissistic silliness of Corinne Marchand in Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7.

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© RAYMOND CAUCHETIER

For film directors from Jean-Luc Godard to Woody Allen, Paris is the star, as well as the perfect setting for their movies

PARIS ON FILM

Previous pages: the director François Truffaut and his crew shooting the French new wave film Baisers Volés (Stolen Kisses) (1968) Left: Audrey Tautou in the Parisian fairy tale Amélie (2001) Below: Woody Allen directs Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams in a scene at Le Bristol Paris in Midnight in Paris (2011)

Woody Allen’s sweeping views of the Seine and its bridges capture Paris’s otherworldliness

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UGC/STUDIO CANAL+/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; GRAVIER PRODUCTIONS/KOBAL /REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Left: Owen Williams and Marion Cotillard in Midnight in Paris – a film that conjures up humour and nostalgia, when, every night at the stroke of midnight, Wilson’s character travels back to 1920s Paris

The best way to discover, or even re-discover, Paris is through the eyes of movie directors. Fortunately, most of the iconic locations are available to visit. If there are two rules, don’t forget to say bonjour – Parisians warm up when you greet them – and wear trainers. Paris is the definition of a great walking city.

Allen’s Midnight in Paris conjures up humour and nostalgia. Poignant scenes take place at our very own Le Bristol Paris on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, admired for both its discretion and its buzz during teatime and cocktail hour. Wearing their Le Bristol bathrobes, the heroine Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents have a private powwow about her fiancé Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) who keeps mysteriously disappearing. It transpires that every night at midnight, Gil is travelling back in time to Paris’s Jazz Age. It all begins on the steps of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, a gothic church in the Latin quarter of Paris, just near the Panthéon.

Soon Gil is leading every writer’s dream, showing his first novel to Ernest Hemingway at the Polidor restaurant in the literary 6th arrondissement (the American writer actually frequented the bistro), then making whoopee with Scott and Zelda at the Quai de Bourbon on the fabled Île Saint-Louis.

Allen’s sweeping views of the Seine and its bridges capture Paris’s otherworldliness, while a hysterical visit to the Musée Rodin – Martin Sheen plays a brilliant know-all – reminds us how much the museum merits a visit for its sculptures and garden. There’s a particularly romantic moment in Montmartre when Gil, accompanied by Adriana (Marion Cotillard) descends the steps of rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre, down to rue Lamarck.

It reminds us that despite Sacré-Coeur’s dazzling white domes being an undeniable tourist trap, Montmartre remains charmingly authentic. True, in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, the colour is dialled up. But this merely reflects the overactive imagination of Amélie (Audrey Tautou) a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins, a delightful watering-hole at 15 rue Lepic. Other adjacent places that feature in the film include the greengrocers, Au Marché de la Butte, at rue des Trois Frères and the Métro Lamarck – Caulaincourt, noted for having a stone staircase on either side of its entrance.

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Polanski’s film The Tenant was made nearby in 1976. Just as his dark, brooding movie was thought to evoke the area’s layered history, Amélie gave joie-de-vivre to the ’hood. Meanwhile, her love interest (Mathieu Kassovitz) works at Toys Palace on the Boulevard de Clichy, just by the Moulin Rouge cabaret in the saucy Pigalle area.

Of course there have been two Hollywood Moulin Rouge productions: John Huston’s lacklustre 1952 film, which focused on the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Baz Luhrmann’s musical extravaganza, which combined Alexandre Dumas fils’s La Dame aux Camélias tragic novel with contemporary songs. Filmed in studios in both New South Wales and Madrid, rather than on location in the 18th arrondissement, it still conjures up a Paris that’s brimming with passion and style.

While Satine (Nicole Kidman) and Christian (Ewan McGregor) embrace on the rooftop, the Eiffel Tower twinkles in the distance. It’s a far cry from John Glen’s A View to a Kill where James Bond (Roger Moore) pursues May Day (Grace Jones) until the baddie swan-dives off the tower, before gliding away under a parachute. Another misadventure at the Pont Alexandre III leads to Bond landing in a wedding cake.

The Seine’s glittering waters constantly figure in Stanley Donen’s Charade. In spite of being the ultimate tourists – dining aboard a Bateau Mouche and eating ice cream while strolling along the bank of the Seine, nothing dulls the star charisma of Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) and Peter Joshua (Cary Grant). Wearing Givenchy throughout, Hepburn’s wardrobe is exquisite – though somewhat inappropriate when watching a traditional puppet show at the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées. The Théâtre Vrai Guignolet in the 8th arrondissement remains unaltered – even down to its hidden, leafy entrance – and can be visited on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Alas, the same cannot be said for the New York Herald Tribune newspaper that Patricia (Jean Seberg) sells around the Champs-Elysées in Godard’s Breathless (it folded in 1966). When Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) first sees her, they’re standing on the avenue Georges V. Her gamine face is difficult to forget. However, if you’re looking for the restaurant where she meets her newspaper editor, it’s now the Louis Vuitton flagship.

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In Moulin Rouge, Satine and Christian embrace on the rooftop while the Eiffel Tower twinkles in the distance

SIMON MEIN/COLUMBIA/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; SUE ADLER/20TH CENTURY FOX/KOBAL /REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

PARIS ON FILM

NANCY MORAN/SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES

Above: Nicole Kidman’s “corseted alabaster appeal” in Baz Luhrmann’s fin-de-siècle epic Moulin Rouge (2001)

Above: James Bond (Roger Moore) dices with death on the Eiffel Tower in A View to a Kill (1985)

Left: Tom Hanks takes stock in front of the Louvre Pyramid in Inferno (2016) – the third of the Dan Brown films

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PARIS ON FILM

Left: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1961), directed by Agnès Varda, captures 1960s Paris with this real-time portrait of a singer

Right: Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire in the 1957 American musical Funny Face

MOVIE POSTER ART/GETTY IMAGES; ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

Below: Audrey Hepburn on the steps of the Louvre in Funny Face. Her gowns did their best to outshine the spectacular backdrop

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Audrey Hepburn flounces down the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier opera and channels Anna Karenina at the Gare du Nord

The bedroom close-ups – viewed as risqué and avant-garde for the period – were filmed at the Hôtel de Suède on the Quai Saint-Michel in the 5th arrondissement. Torn down, it was replaced by Les Rives de Notre-Dame, another establishment. Nevertheless, the Café Notre-Dame where the lovers go for a coffee still reigns in the hood, as does Shakespeare and Company: the legendary American bookshop. Michel’s fatal death scene, however, happened on the rue Campagne Première in the 14th arrondissement.

By strange coincidence, Jean Seberg is buried nearby in the Montparnasse cemetery, alongside film directors like Jacques Demy, Eric Rohmer and Claude Sautet.

Shot in black and white in 1961, Cléo from 5 to 7 was Agnès Varda’s first film. Documentary-like, it shows two hours in the life of a chanteuse who believes she has stomach cancer. Encapsulating the hipness of Montparnasse at the time, the Café du Dôme is charged with exquisite creatures. No longer quite the case.

Nevertheless, do visit the Parc Montsouris. The leastknown of Paris’s four public parks, it has a lake, a cascade and an eclectic variety of trees and flowers. In Donen’s Funny Face, the gamine grace of Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) is captured by fashion lensman Dick Avery (Fred Astaire). Easy to track, she poses by the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue in the Louvre Museum, holds balloons in front of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the Jardin des Tuileries, flounces down the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier opera house wrapped in a Givenchy green cloak, and channels Anna Karenina in a cloud of steam at the Gare du Nord.

Starting at the nearby Bouffes du Nord theatre, JeanJacques Beineix’s Diva is more frenetic in style. Jules (Frédéric Andréi) illegally tapes the American diva Cynthia Hawkins singing an aria from La Wally and rushes about Paris avoiding gangsters and the police. The moped scene in Châtelet’s Métro proves memorable, as does Gorodish (Richard Bohringer), the existentialist philosopher who lives with his muse in an industrial loft on the Quai de la Seine in the 19th arrondissement. The area has now evolved into the Cité de la Musique – it has the Paris Philharmonic with the vast unfinished Jean Nouvel building – but in 1981 it seemed bare, isolated and bold.

Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon was filmed in the Ménilmontant area, a hamlet up on a hill and part of Belleville. His son Pascal played the main role – an endearing little boy in grey. Although made in 1956, the 35-minute masterpiece shows that the city hasn’t really changed. Neighbours are as nosy as ever – there are a few brilliant curtain-twitching images – schoolteachers remain strict while children still pop into the boulangerie to buy their tea. Yet ultimately, it demonstrates that in Paris – whatever the condition of the area, however dilapidated – is heartbreakingly beautiful.

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PARIS ON FILM

Left: Pascal Lamorisse in The Red Balloon (1956), a fantasy comedy in which a red balloon with a life of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris

PARAMOUNT/GETTY IMAGES

MONTSOURIS/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Below: Audrey Hepburn strolls along the banks of the Seine in Funny Face

FILMOGR APHY The Red Balloon

Albert Lamorisse

1956

Funny Face

Stanley Donen

1957

Gigi

Vincente Minnelli

1958

Cléo from 5 to 7

Agnès Varda

1962

Charade

Stanley Donen

1963

Last Tango in Paris

Bernardo Bertolucci

1973

A View to Kill

John Glen

1985

Amélie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

2001

Moulin Rouge

Baz Luhrmann

2001

The Da Vinci Code

Ron Howard

2006

Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen

2011

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B A D E N -B A D E N

W E L C OM E T O T H E PL E A S U R E D OM E The elegant German spa town of Baden-Baden has always been about the pursuit of pleasure as well as health. James Collard looks explores its glorious history – and contemporary appeal

B A D E N -B A D E N

There are several towns called Baden, which means “baths” in old German, but there’s only one Baden-Baden – a handsome spa town nestling in a valley on the edge of the Black Forest, a few kilometres from the Rhine and the French border. And it gets that charming double moniker – so good they named it twice? – because this Baden also gave its name to the region that surrounds it. Today, that’s the state of Baden-Württemberg in the Federal Republic of Germany, but in the 19th century it was the Grand Duchy of Baden – and Baden-Baden got very grand indeed.

People have been coming Baden for the thermal springs at least since Roman times, and visitors today can still take a dip in the naturally-heated thermal waters – either in the modern Caracalla Therme baths (named after the Roman emperor who came here to relieve his aches and pains back in the 3rd century AD) or at the splendid Friedrichsbad, a Belle Époque wedding cake of a building – worth a visit for its splendid interior alone. But by the middle of the 19th century, Baden had emerged as Europe’s most fashionable summer playground, with royalty leading the way. Napoleon III visited Baden, while Queen Victoria even owned a villa here (on Kapuzinerstrasse, a short stroll across the gardens from the Trinkhalle or pump room), and so many wealthy Russians summered here that, just like the fashionable winter resorts of Cannes and Nice, Baden-Baden had its own Russian orthodox church, built at the behest of a Romanov princess who’d married into Baden’s ruling family.

But these wealthy visitors weren’t just coming to Baden to take the waters or for a health cure. They also came for fun.

Witness the splendid theatre, modelled on the Paris Opéra, or the Kurhaus’s magnificent casino, inspired by the Palace of Versailles, not to mention the excellent shopping to be enjoyed, then, as now, on Sophienstrasse. Visitors came for 88

PREVIOUS PAGES: HEMIS/ALAMY. TOP LEFT: DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES. RIGHT: ULLSTEIN BILD DTL/GETTY IMAGES

Baden-Baden was Europe’s most fashionable summer playground, with royalty leading the way

Previous pages: the dome of the Friedrichsbad, Baden-Baden’s temple to the art of bathing Left: the arrival of Napoleon III at Stephanienbad, the hotel that would ultimately become Brenners ParkHotel & Spa

Many people choose to charter jets because of the high cost of purchase and ownership. A light jet such as the Embraer Phenom 100 will cost around $4.2 million. A larger jet such as the Gulfstream G650ER will cost $66.5 million, while a converted airliner will cost or anything up to $100 million.

Above: dancing on the terrace of Brenners in the 1920s. The hotel opened in 1872, and has hosted royalty, statesmen and presidents Left: Mr and Mrs Brenner, of the Brenners hotel dynasty, in the 1920s

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B A D E N -B A D E N

the high-society parties and picnics, for the Thoroughbred racing at Iffezheim, for the gambling, the gossip – and the exceptional food and wine.

Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa has been hosting fun- and health-seeking visitors since the 1870s, and is therefore a good place to consider why – no matter how much else has changed since that era – Baden-Baden retains its charm and singular appeal. For a start, there’s the delightful setting – which, like Baden’s English namesake, Bath, combines urban architecture at its most elegant with pastoral, bucolic surroundings. “Do come to Baden-Baden,” wrote the Russian author Turgenev to his friend, the author Flaubert. “Here are the most magnificent trees I have ever seen. They do wonders for the eyes and the soul.” And Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa backs onto parkland, the river Oos and those trees Turgenev enthused about, above the Lichtentaler Allee. This, in the 19th century, was one of the most fashionable carriageways in Europe. Today it’s a lovely park which is also home to the handsome Richard Meier-designed Museum Frieder Burda, which houses visiting shows and the extensive collection of modern and contemporary art collected by the print entrepreneur and philanthropist of that name.

For as well as Belle Époque charm, Baden-Baden exudes contemporary culture. As Brenners’ general manager, Simon Spiller, sees it, this is very much part of Baden’s appeal. “It’s extraordinary that this small city in Germany has such a world-class cultural offering,” he explains, citing the worldclass art at the Burda and the frequent performances by the likes of the Berlin Philharmonic or the Marinsky Ballet at the impressive Festspielhaus (a deft architectural fusion of Baden’s old Belle Époque railway station and a vast modernist auditorium). On a much smaller scale, some of us

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At Brenners, guests enjoy all the comforts of a classic grand hotel, now with a contemporary twist

would also cite the town’s many antique shops, stocked with wonderful Art Deco, or the quirky Fabergé Museum, with its bejewelled eggs, lacquered cigarette boxes and finely worked bonsai trees made by the court jeweller to the Romanovs.

But as the name suggests, the twin pursuits of pleasure and health remain key to the appeal of Brenners ParkHotel & Spa – which perhaps has at is heart the idea that those two pursuits needn’t be mutually exclusive. For example, although it opened just a few years ago, Brenners’ Villa Stéphanie spa wing has quickly emerged as a leading destination spa, with superb wellness and medical facilities and expertise on hand. But its handsome suites couldn’t be less spartan, and in the Villa’s lounge area, guests can enjoy a glass of delicious wine with their healthy fare. Meanwhile at Brenners itself, guests enjoy all of the comforts of a classic grand hotel, surely German’s finest, now with a contemporary twist in the form of the new Fritz & Felix restaurant, which is all about innovative use of the best local produce and a sense of fun.

“For us it’s all about having an exciting restaurant experience,” explains the Swiss-born chef Nenad Mlinarevic, who came up with the concept for a kind of restaurant “that has not existed before in this form in Baden-Baden – and one that should remain in the minds of diners.” The motto here is “casual fine dining” – with a sense of playfulness and fun – as in the name. Fritz and Felix aren’t chefs, but imaginary locals – a Black Forest fox and hare – and local is also a key element for Mlinarevic here, as it is in his own restaurant in Switzerland. “We visited and carefully evaluated local farms,” he explains, “to find the very best of everything”, including the finest meat and “a wonderful Black Forest trout”.

The décor at Fritz & Felix – by London-based designer, Robert Angell – harks back to the Jazz Age, and for chef de cuisine Sebastian Mattis the look and feel of the place is as important as the food. “We want people to enjoy the atmosphere, and themselves, which is why we included music in the concept, with swing and jazz to create a more club-like ambience, whether guests are just dropping in for a quick snack at the bar or to spend an evening here.” Or, as Mlinarevic describes what they’re aiming for, “Simple but with more than a touch of sophistication”, which sounds to me like a combination that is quintessentially Baden-Baden. fritzxfelix.com

Far left: Fritz & Felix, the new restaurant at Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, with an emphasis on sharing plates and casual fine dining Above: the restaurant’s Swiss-born chef, Nenad Mlinarevic Left: the chef visited local farms to find “the very best of everything”

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HUBLOT

PA R T N E R S IN TIME The Swiss watchmaker Hublot has formed exclusive collaborations with industry leaders to deliver unique and groundbreaking timepieces, including this elegant new collection inspired by Eden Rock – St Barths. James Collard reports

“The idea is either to propose something different or talk to a different consumer,” says Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, when asked what the innovative Swiss luxury watch brand looks for in a collaboration. And also to generate buzz, I suggest, tonight being a case in point. It’s September and we’re speaking at the opening of Hublot’s new London store on New Bond Street. Inside are Chelsea FC teammembers Olivier Giroud, Ross Barkley, David Luiz and Marcos Alonso. The players are out in force to celebrate the second collaboration between the watch brand and the football team. Outside, a big crowd of watch – and football – fans gathers to gawp at the players, at England manager Gareth Southgate and at model Lara Stone. It’s quite a scene – and instant, Instagrammable PR. But these collaborations are also about a juxtaposition of brands, skillsets and audiences that make sense for both parties. As Ricardo Guadalupe puts it, “We look for something that a collaborator can bring to us, either in the world they operate in or the product they help us realise.” Witness Hublot’s recent collaboration with luxury innovator Lapo Elkann’s Italia Independent and Rubinacci, the venerable Neapolitan tailoring house, which makes suits for Elkann, just as they did for his grandfather, Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli. “It was interesting to work with this particular iconic fabric by Rubinacci,” says Guadalupe.

And of course there’s the technical challenge of teaming something as soft and ephemeral as a fabric with the essential toughness of an Hublot watch.

“With [artist] Richard Orlinski,” Ricardo Guadalupe continues, “we brought the art into the watch,” with a sculptural watch that was described at its launch last year as a work of art that tells the time. Hublot’s collaboration with Eden Being, the lifestyle arm of Oetker Collection, began recently with a stunning watch celebrating the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc: a limited edition of 50, the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Eden-Roc. The coding that signalled this collaboration? Think Mediterraneanblue strap and a counter for the second hand that features the famous Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc lifebuoy.

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Above: an original sketch of Hublot’s Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc limited-edition chronograph

Ricardo Guadalupe is of course no stranger to making waves. On joining Hublot in 2004 he formed a strong creative partnership with the brand’s visionary boss, Jean-Claude Biver – a partnership that brought immediate results in the form of the launch of iconic Big Bang only one year later. And next up for the Hublot-Eden Being partnership, two new Classic Fusion limited-edition watches, this time for Eden Rock – St Barths.

“These are iconic hotels that you dream about visiting. The Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes is beautiful.” And for Eden Rock – St Barths, Hublot aimed for something “even more fun, more playful”, speaking to the spirit of this much-loved Caribbean destination with two watches, his and hers. His: a 45mm chronograph with an open dial on a self-winding movement. And hers: a 38mm chronograph, also self-winding, but with 10 ruby indices and the bezel set with 36 diamonds.

Only 25 will be released in each and they can be personalised, engraved with your initials and the edition number. Both watches feature the Eden Rock – St Barths logo, on the minute chronograph counter at 3 o’clock on the men’s watch, and at 12 o’clock on the ladies’ edition.

For the destination’s most committed fans, perhaps this could be a little something to keep them ticking along until the property reopens in 2019.

Available from Eden Being and selected Hublot boutiques +44 (0)207 079 1635

For the watches they created with Eden Rock – St Barths, Hublot aimed for something “even more fun, more playful”

Above and right: Hublot’s Classic Fusion watch created in collaboration with Eden Rock – St Barths comes with white alligator, red lined rubber and white lined rubber straps in both the men’s and the ladies’ editions, with a satin-finished and polished titanium case – in the case of the ladies edition, set with 36 diamonds on the bezel

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PHOTO: ADAM WHITEHEAD. STYLING: TILLY HARDY. DIAMOND ABSTRACT BUTTERFLY EARRINGS (15.60CTS),ROUND DIAMOND BRACELET (18.61CTS),DIAMOND BOMBÉ RING (16.7 7CTS), ALL BY GRAFF

COURCHEVEL

T H E A L PI N E J EW EL

Courchevel isn’t just the ultimate ski resort. It’s also the perfect playground – and the last word in glamour, says Sean Newsom

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Opposite: the pinnacle of chic – Courchevel slope style fuses comfort, function and glamour Right: “a kind of heaven” for skiers, Courchevel is part of the world’s largest ski area, the Trois Vallées

When Mother Nature created Courchevel, she was in a generous mood. At the top, she scratched deep scars in the rock to create one of the most eye-catching ridges in the French Alps. In the middle, she smoothed out long, gentle slopes that are perfect for intermediate pistes. And at the bottom she added plenty of trees, so everyone could carry on skiing if it snowed. Finally, she pointed the whole thing north – to keep the snow cold and grippy when other mountainsides have turned to slush.

Proper, iron-willed experts may scoff. For them, the raw, untamed mountains above Chamonix and La Grave represent the true peak of skiing perfection. But for everyone else, Courchevel is a kind of heaven. If you can’t ski backwards down a Winter Olympic half-pipe, and thigh-deep powder isn’t your cup of tea, Courchevel’s slopes are exactly what you need. They’ll settle your nerves and boost your confidence, and give you the courage to ski harder. By the end of a week’s holiday, you’ll be feeling so fast and feisty,

you’ll wish you’d packed a ski-racer’s catsuit.

It’s no wonder, then, that Courchevel has become so fashionable. It was Le Tout-Paris who first fell in love with its happy mix of easy skiing and spectacular scenery, back in the 1950s and ’60s. The Brits weren’t far behind, especially after Courchevel joined forces with its neighbours to create the world’s largest ski area – the Trois Vallées. But it was the arrival of the Russians in the late 1990s that really put the resort on the map. That’s when “prices caught fire” as the locals will tell you, and it became a global symbol of affluence.

These days, Courchevel attracts a truly international crowd: not just Russians, but Brazilians, Israelis, Arabs, Australians and – just lately – Americans too. And it has developed an infrastructure of luxury that no other ski resort can match. Among the many five-star hotels that dot its slopes is the sumptuous Alpine flagship of Oetker Collection, L’Apogée Courchevel, while up on the mountain every imaginable dining

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COURCHEVEL

Every imaginable dining experience awaits in the ski area’s restaurants

experience awaits in the ski area’s restaurants.

Just above the resort’s own airport, the Cap Horn is the undisputed catwalk of the lunchtime scene, complete with a red carpet on the sun deck and DJ sets in the afternoon.

It’s the place to see and be seen – preferably ordering a magnum of champagne and the Wagyu beef spare ribs. Meanwhile, beside the broad boulevard of the Verdons piste, the jeunesse dorée kicks back in Nammos and watches the world ski by.

More discreet (and more gastronomic) options are available too. In the satellite village of La Tania, built to house athletes in the 1992 Winter Olympics, you’ll find the secret little restaurant of Le Farçon. Here, chef Julien Manchet, who has been awarded a Michelin star every year since 2006, offers treats such as celeriac velouté with a pineapple sorbet on his three-course, €42 lunch menu. Drop down to Le Praz at the bottom of the lift system and you’ll find similar quality at l’Azimut.

One of the key features of many of these restaurants is that you don’t have to ski to be able to reach them. They’re the perfect way to rendez-vous with non-skiing friends and family who will be in the midst of their own busy days – because the range of activities beyond the pistes is mind-boggling. Dogsledding, ice-climbing, hot-air ballooning, snow-shoeing: the list goes on and on, with the

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odd spot of shopping in between. Need something new to wear in the bar tonight?

Blu&Berry stocks Céline and Dries Van Noten.

If you’re peckish, the irresistible macaroons at Ladurée are calling. Then, as the sun goes down, skiers and non-skiers can reunite over two recently-opened attractions that have significantly deepened Courchevel’s appeal, especially for families.

The first is Moriond Racing, a high-speed toboggan run of banked turns, tunnels and hell-for-leather straights, which offers 3km of helpless laughter and the occasional tangle with the crash netting. The second is Aquamotion, which threw €63m at the concept of a ski-resort swimming pool, and turned it into the kind of waterpark you never want to leave. Surf simulators, side-by-side water slides, a wave machine, yoga, massages, climbing walls – they’re all here. You can even go swimming, if you must.

Young or old, skier or non-skier, it adds up to a holiday that’s the perfect antidote to our sedentary, 21st-century lives, where all the action seems to take place in computer games or in someone’s life on YouTube. And if, at the end of the day, you feel like raising a glass to money well spent, well, there are plenty of venues in which to do it – starting with cocktails and live music at Le Bar de l’Apogée. lapogeecourchevel.com

Above: enjoy magnificent views from L’Apogée Courchevel, Alpine flagship of Oetker Collection

Some see more.

720S Spider Super Series

cars.mclaren.com

Official fuel consumption figures in UK L/100km (CO2 grams per km) for the McLaren Super Series 4.0L (3,994cc) petrol, 7-speed Seamless Shift Dual Clutch Gearbox (SSG): Low 23.3 (528), Medium: 12.9 (293), High, 9.2 (209), Extra-High, 10.2 (230), Combined 12.2 (276). The efficiency figures quoted are derived from official WLTP test results, are provided for comparability purposes only, and might not reflect actual driving experience.

OETKER COLLECTION GUESTS

THE FINE A RT OF TEA Laura Lovett meets the glamorous tastemakers behind luxury brand Lotusier – a trio of working mothers who are old friends, and who work, rest and play at The Lanesborough and its stunning spa

Why do you love The Lanesborough?

Not everyone uses the spa of a luxury hotel to take business calls and have creative brainstorms, but then again, the long-term friends and colleagues behind the Lotusier brand are, by nature, luxury lovers. “We use it as an extended office-slash-club,” says Åsa Eriksson-Ahuja of The Lanesborough in London, and more specifically its stunning 18,000 sq ft Club & Spa. “We meet there privately and socially. We use the gym, go to classes or to the spa to pamper ourselves. But we also use it as a venue for one-to-one meetings and product launches and so on.” The hotel is just a stone’s throw from Lotusier’s interior design headquarters and as such, it has become a “second home” for the team, which includes Melanie Pansolli Chang and Teodora Filipovic Silva. “We love the sense of continuity and loyalty we feel there – some of the staff have been there since it originally opened in 1991,” says Filipovic Silva. “It’s a great place for relaxing in privacy and with a beautifully calm ambience.”

If you could create anything, what would it be?

The Lotusier team with their children: Åsa Eriksson-Ahuja (above), Melanie Pansolli Chang (above right), and Teodora Filipovic Silva (right)

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The tea humidor, which is now a focus for Lotusier, is a true labour of love, developed by Eriksson-Ahuja after she discovered that her husband found it difficult to keep his collection of fine teas fresh while travelling. Unable to find a product that would solve this problem, she decided to create her own, and commissioned a team of worldrenowned jewellery box and crystal artisans to construct a truly one-of-a-kind gift. “There had never been one before quite like it,” she says. Now, after four years in design and development and with two international patents pending, it is in itself as rare as many of the teas it is designed to preserve and protect.

You’re based in London; what do you enjoy most about the city?

“We love the energy and vibrant atmosphere in London,” says Filipovic Silva. “It’s a wonderfully diverse and multicultural city, with so much choice and an inexhaustible range of things to do and places to visit, from amazing eateries to eye-opening architecture.” The trio are fully in agreement that “it is undoubtedly one of the best cities in the world to live in.”

When you travel, what do you look for in a great hotel?

For women whose professional life is concerned with design and craftsmanship, switching off that well-trained eye must be difficult. “We find inspiration everywhere,” says ErikssonAhuja. “We look for tasteful furnishings, with an attention to detail and a sense of elegance and comfort. A generous dose of style is always welcome, and attentive and intuitive service is key.” They also look for memorable cuisine and great facilities, such as gyms and spas, and while each has her own training regime and preferences for Pilates, boot camp and hydro pool, they admit, “We’re all quite fond of a massage!”

What essentials do you always pack when you travel?

“We love the sense of continuity and loyalty you feel at The Lanesborough”

“Naturally, we always have a tea humidor so we can take our own teas with us,” they laugh. “We’re all such tea fusspots!” Lotusier have even created a special suitcase for the humidor, so that tea connoisseurs can take their collections with them wherever they go. Plus, of course, their own luggage is invariably packed with the paraphernalia of parenting, from water-wings to colouring books, beach toys to SPF 50 sun creams. “We are mummies first and foremost, and entrepreneurs, sun-worshippers and culture vultures only as a distant second,” says Eriksson-Ahuja.

Which are your favourite Oetker Collection properties?

“We’ve often held meetings at Le Bristol in Paris,” says Pansolli Chang. “I love its location in the centre of fashionable Paris, the leafy outdoor setting and charming fountains. The Café Antonia there has the best vegetarian club sandwiches that we’ve ever eaten, anywhere!, Eriksson-Ahuja enthuses.

“I love the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc’s Gatsby-esque French Riviera feel. With its lush, beautifully kept gardens and its breathtaking views of the Mediterranean, the whole estate seems to be sprinkled with the glamour of a bygone era.”

The Château Saint-Martin & Spa in Vence is also a favourite since the team took an excursion there. “The panoramic view, complete with lush undulating hills and plentiful olive plantations, looms large in our memory,” says Filipovic Silva.

“We were enthralled exploring the charms of this grand country residence – and unobtrusive service and excellent local produce were part-and-parcel of the experience.”

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LE BRISTOL PARIS

LE BRISTOL PARIS

SWEET DREA MS Enjoy a delicious combination of jewellery and pâtisserie by Le Bristol Paris’s Chef Pâtissier, Julien Alvarez

PHOTOGRAPHER Jean-Jacques Pallot STYLIST Lola Barthélémy WRITER Colette Forder

Fine jewellery and high-end pâtisserie might at first seem to make an unlikely pairing. But when one considers the affinities between the two skills, both involving the sourcing of raw natural ingredients and their transformation into fantastic confections using imagination and finely honed technique, all becomes clear.

Just as the jeweller works magic with precious stones, minerals and metals, so the artisan pâtissier executes his with beans, pods, nuts, seeds and sugar crystals. Both conceive of and execute creations designed to please the eye and tempt the senses with their miniature works of art.

But no pâtissier’s handiwork could be better suited to sit alongside luxe baubles than that of Julien Alvarez, for the award-winning Chef Pâtissier at Le Bristol Paris is also the master of 100

trompe-l’oeil. A perfect mango seems an ideal complement to the more complex shapes of an elegant pearl necklace… but under the fruit’s sunset-hued skin is an exotic combination of coconut biscuit and mango mousse. The trickery goes on delighting: a marble box seems a natural setting for some Art Deco-inspired white gold and crystal drop-earrings, yet the cut of a knife reveals it is simply a cunningly disguised chocolate shell encasing layers of marbled chocolate and vanilla cake. The visual treats of bejewelled gold against dark chocolate or a cluster of sweet golden ore are at their most dramatic in the recreated prized black truffles, a soft concoction of biscuit and hazelnut enveloping a gianduja cream.

Too good to eat, perhaps? Not surprisingly, the guests at Le Bristol think otherwise.

LA MANGUE Wears Tasaki Atelier “Nacreous” necklace

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LE BRISTOL PARIS

LE MARBRÉ Wears Atelier Swarovski “Mosaic” long earrings

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LA TRU FFE Wears Chanel Joaillerie “Fleur de Nacre” bracelet and Chanel Joaillerie “Tuxedo” ring

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LE BRISTOL PARIS

LA DEM I-SPH ÈR E EN CHO C OLAT Wears Lorenz Bäumer “Mikado” and “Mikado Aquarelle” rings

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LA PÉPITE D’OR Wears Reza “Ruban” rings

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OETKER COLLECTION NEWS

PE O PL E , PL A C E S , N E WS The new faces, openings, and announcements from Oetker Collection’s hotels around the globe. Catch up on all the latest, from Paris after dark to rum-tasting in the Caribbean

SNOW BUSI N ESS

V I E WS T O A T H R I L L Guests at L’Apogée Courchevel who are seeking even more from their vacation in the Jardin Alpin can choose from a range of exclusive ultraluxurious accommodation. The penthouse occupies the entire top floor of the hotel, with four en suite bedrooms, a sauna, steam bath, Jacuzzi and rooftop hot tub, and the most spectacular panoramic views. The two private chalets each offer five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, with their own special facilities such as ski-in, ski-out convenience. To complement the discreet comforts of the apartments, dedicated butlers and chefs are on hand to ensure a smooth run throughout your stay. lapogeecourchevel.com

T OW N A N D C OU N T RY

M EET A ND GR EET Check in to The Lanesborough and enjoy a preferential rate, complimentary breakfast and a bespoke Masterpiece travel hamper full of goodies to enjoy en route to your chosen Masterpiece Estate (see page 56). If you would like to cover the finer details of your trip we can organise for you to meet Nicola or Neil, your dedicated contact during your stay. The hotel can also organise your transfer to the Estate of your choice making your trip through London pleasurable and easy. Your host awaits you… lanesborough.com +44 (0) 20 7259 5599 reservations.lanesborough@oetkercollection.com

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P L AY T I M E I N PA R I S

K I D S ’ C LU B C H I C Le Bristol Paris prides itself on making families feel especially welcome, and now it has set up a kids’ club that takes this to a whole new level. In an innovative collaboration with Bonpoint, the only French couture house exclusively for children, the hotel has opened Le Bristol Paris x Bonpoint, adjoined to the hotel’s La Prairie spa. A delight in playfulness is evident throughout the club, with hideaway places, electric car tracks, dolls’ houses and cuddly animals galore. For a special moment of calm after playtime, there is also a menu of special spa treatments designed for parents and older children to enjoy together, using the purest natural hypoallergenic products, which scent the air with the fragrance of wellbeing. lebristolparis.com

ISLA N D LIFE

M A K I NG MUSIC A N D M ER R I M EN T Guests of Jumby Bay Island who want to learn a little about West Indian culture can enjoy private steel drum lessons with a local musician. The island has a long history of immersing guests in its traditions and activities, from cricket to storytelling, but music is right at the heart of the West Indies, and the best souvenir to take home is a new skill for life. Equally vital to the relaxed Caribbean lifestyle is the multi-layered sensory experience of enjoying a good rum. Jumby Bay offers guests immersive experiences in the finer points of rum tasting, from nosing to sipping, with expert insight from the resort’s food and beverage team. jumbybayresort.com

HOM E GROW N

BL ACK F OR E S T G A L L ERY

T H E U LT I M AT E K I T CH EN G A R DEN

A R T I S T S AT WO R K

Jumby Bay’s Organic Farm and Kitchen Garden encompasses a verdant vegetable garden, herb garden and orchard. The farm’s produce, featuring everything from avocados to green and purple kale, is used to supplement the menu at The Estate House, as part of the daily “Jumby Grown” specials. The farm also boasts a number of local and tropical fruits, including watermelon, tangerines, starfruit, breadfruit and guavas. In addition to providing a peaceful retreat for guests to explore, the farm also offers unique programmes and activities, including gardening classes and private farm-to-table dinners. jumbybayresort.com

Rüdiger Seidt, the steel sculptor whose studio workshop is based in the Black Forest, has installed some of his large-format pieces in the parkland surrounding Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa in Baden-Baden.

Known for exhibiting his works within nature, the artist’s principle of “line-surface-form-space” is followed in the course of this sculpture tour. Meanwhile, Nicole Eisenman has been named as this year’s Brenners Artist in Residence. Since her acclaimed arrival on the New York art scene in the 1990s, the French-born artist has been widely admired for her stylistic versatility, bold imagination and black humour. The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden this year presents the first institutional solo exhibition of her work in Germany. brenners.com

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OETKER COLLECTION NEWS

Sailing off Antigua, which boasts the longest-running regatta in the Caribbean

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CH R IS TM A S SPI R I T

E AT, D R I N K A N D G O S H O P P I N G The Lanesborough is at its most magical during the festive season, softly sparkling with Christmas décor and full of merriment from cheerful gatherings and parties. The magnificent festive displays will appear from November 23, transforming the hotel into an enchanted mansion.

Special features for guests during these months of celebration include the ultimate shopping trip, with chauffeur-driven transport to Harvey Nichols, party pamper spa packages to get guests ready to celebrate, winter warrior fitness memberships, and of course a gastronomic feast of festive menus for lunches, dinners and afternoon teas. lanesborough.com

SH I PPI NG N EWS

OFFSHOR E ST OR IES

A LL H A N DS ON DECK

ISLA N D M A KEOV ER

Antigua is famed as a world-class sailing destination, boasting the longest-running regatta in the Caribbean. New for the 2019 winter season, Jumby Bay Island will debut its Sailing Academy for everyone from beginners to experienced sailors, enabling all to enjoy this unique setting with the strong trade winds and calm seas that make the area so excellent for this sport.

Jumby Bay Sailing Academy will host weekly races as well as group excursions and sailing games for all guests, along with accredited instructional training for all ages. The Academy is expertly equipped with RS Elite and RS Zest sailing boats. jumbybayresort.com

Jumby Bay is a 300-acre private island in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Having joined Oetker Collection in late-2017, the resort has undergone an inspired restoration programme to inject a new lease of life into the much-loved destination. The project has been led by renowned interior designer Patricia Anastassiadis of Anastassiadis Arquitetos, who strikes a balance between laid-back tropical style and a casual elegance. The heart of the hotel, the Veranda, is now even more welcoming with the launch of a new Italian restaurant and stylish retail boutique. jumbybayresort.com

SEASON’S GR EETINGS

A C H R I S TM A S FA I RY TA L E Le Bristol Paris this year opens a magic doorway to a world of Christmas opulence. The Parisian hotel has brought an enchanted forest to the centre of the city, where a pine-scented trail leads to its gastronomic heart, the three Michelin-starred Epicure restaurant. Corridors are suffused with spice and promise, and cabinets display a cornucopia of enticing Christmas gifts curated by the Eden Being boutique. Celebrated chef Eric Frechon is creating gastronomic tasting menus in all three hotel restaurants, with spectacular feasts planned for both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Guests can complete the fairytale feeling by having their apartment decorated with its own Christmas tree awaiting a magical awakening on December 25. lebristolparis.com

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OETKER COLLECTION NEWS

W HISKY GA LOR E

A H IGH LA N D FLING 2018 at The Lanesborough has been The Year of the Single Malt, a celebration of the London landmark’s expertly curated collection of single malts. To mark the launch, The Lanesborough teamed up with The Balvenie to become the only hotel in Europe to serve two of the finest and rarest expressions in the whisky distillery’s range. Guests can exclusively savour these precious drams, including The Balvenie 50-year-old – one of only 131 bottles in the world – or the oldest expression of The Balvenie ever released, a 55-year-old whisky distilled in 1961. lanesborough.com

ALL ABOUT EVE

A N IGH T T O R EM EM BER This year for the first time, The Lanesborough will be closing its doors for a New Year’s House Party like no other – a ticketed event that is already one of the most anticipated New Year’s Eve parties in London. Hosted in collaboration with Moet & Chandon Champagne, guests can expect exquisitely crafted food, served in an elaborate buffet in the St Georges Room and the Withdrawing Room. Cocktails will be served in the Library Room, with jazz in the Belle Époque setting of the Belgravia Ballroom to get you into the mood.

Then the partying gets serious, with Céleste transforming into a nightclub for live music, dancing and DJs. And needless to say, guests can venture downstairs to the Garden Room where they can smoke and drink in comfort.

To book, visit lanesborough.com/nye or call +44(0) 20 7259 5599.

NIGHTLIFE

PA R I S I A N C O U N T E R C U LT U R E Le Bar du Bristol reveals a secret side to its character with its rule-breaking B.A.D. evenings – Bristol After Dark – from 10pm every Thursday to Saturday.

A detour from the usual lobby entrance leads the way through a hidden side door, where the bar is discovered in its daring after-dark guise. The centuryold oak panelling remains, as do the plush sofas and marble fireplace, but reinvented in a new light of mystique and bluish haloes. Bartenders shake and twist original cocktails as futuristic tempos pulsate from the DJs’ turntables. lebristolparis.com

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PA R T Y T I M E

CA R N I VA L C OM E S E A R LY Prepare to welcome in 2019 in immaculate style with an exclusive dinner at Tangará Jean-Georges restaurant followed by São Paolo’s most glamorous New Year’s Eve party. This exceptional night includes a fine dining experience at the Palácio Tangará’s Michelin-starred restaurant, presided over by world-renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and access to the exclusive party in the sumptuous Crystal Ballroom, with premium open bar and special attractions. And the good news is that on top of all that fun, the morning after, guests will be invited to relax and recover on the terrace with a perfect New Year’s Day brunch. oetkercollection.com/destinations/palacio-tangara/festive/new-years-eve-party/ To book, contact our team by phone +55 11 4904 4040 or festas.tangara@oetkercollection.com

M AGICA L M A K EOV ER

D I A R Y DA T E S

EDEN I N DEED

S O U T H E R N C OM F O R T S

Watch this space for news of Eden Rock – St Barths’ keenlyawaited reopening, and the unveiling of the iconic resort’s posthurricane makeover – a pleasure announced for the end of 2019. edenrockhotel.com

Good news: the Château Saint-Martin & Spa, Vence, and the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, will once again be welcoming sun-seekers to the French Riviera from April 19, 2019. hotel-du-cap-eden-roc.com

Above: the Beach Bar at Jumby Bay, where guests can enjoy an immersive rum-tasting masterclass

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THE MOMENT

J O H N A N D YO KO AT H O T E L D U CA P-E D E N-R O C made its own. The Ono-Lennons surely knew that they were following in the hotel’s noble tradition of high-profile discretion, with couples like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as guests before them. Yet little is known about the shoot. Perhaps the First Couple of culture drank Bellinis, swam in the hotel’s basalt pool, took a Riva speedboat to La Croisette or made their mark in the hotel’s famous Golden Book alongside Chagall and Picasso. Most likely, however, they did very little. Whether it was the primal therapy that the pair had experienced earlier in the year, or that three months had elapsed since the Beatles’ fraught split, the young couple seem relaxed, befitting their reputation as paragons of peace.

ARCHIVI FARABOLA

In the summer of 1970, John and Yoko Ono Lennon posed for a photo shoot by the sugarcube stairs where the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc meets the sea. No doubt scented by the pines in the hotel’s gardens, it proved the perfect backdrop: graphic and chic, framed by rocks and railings, and featuring jaunty nautical touches like the hotel’s lifebelt. John wore white bell-bottoms, a more structured haircut than his earlier “Jesus” centre-parting and a t-shirt bearing the uxorious legend: “Yoko Ono”.

Mrs Ono-Lennon, meanwhile, abandoned the previous year’s all-white “sleep-in” theme in favour of a black top and striped trousers.

Married for over a year, the couple were already adept patrons of the kind of discreet and luxurious simplicity that the hotel has

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© Didier Gou rdon

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