Accompanying France Revisited’s examination of surfing and museums in Biarritz, here are five notable hotels in the mid and upper price ranges, i.e. 3-,4- and 5-star hotels, including the history of the imperial residence that launched Biarritz as an international resort destination.
Hôtel de Crillon, the palatial Paris hotel on Place de la Concorde, is closing on March 31, 2013, leaving little time for one last languid late afternoon of high tea-cum-low aperitif. However, you’ll still get [...]
It’s centennial season on Avenue Montaigne as two of the anchors of Paris’s most couture-conscious street celebrate their 1913 origins and moments in their illustrious histories: the ever-chic Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the ever-fashionable Hôtel Plaza Athénée. See how to join in the celebration.
It’s a smooth evening in the lounge-bar at the Hotel Lutetia. Pianist Daniel Roca wends his way through jazz standards at the center of a well-oiled trio. Head bartender Gilles Guyomarch supplies a harmony of cocktails, swaying lyrical conversation from the crowd. And the author is getting a drink named after himself.
Once the height of Left Bank luxury, the Hotel Lutetia seemed to have lost its soul by the end of the 20th century. But now enhanced design, art, literary and jazz cred are helping shake off the Lutetia’s chain reputation and allow it to shine brighter on the map of notable hotels on the Left Bank for a room or simply for a drink.
Olivier Nasti may sound like the name of a villainous cartoon character, mean, bony, bitter and solitary, but the Olivier Nasti I met in the town of Kaysersberg in Alsace is a charming, round-cheeked chef and businessman with a strong sense family. Seven miles northwest of Colmar, in one of the small, colorful tourist-friendly towns along the Alsace wine route,…
Leaving Chatel-Guyon in the late afternoon I felt the call of the hill rather than the plain, in part because I’ve never associated Auvergne with the plain, in part because hills are more exotic to me than flatlands. But I also felt the call of a 5-star hotel, and Château La Canière, the only luxury hotel within many miles, stood out in the plain.
At the bar of the 5-star Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere, just off the Champs-Elysees, I met Stephane Ginouves, winner of the first Meilleur
Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) competition for bartenders, and got his recipe for mixing with Singles.
In which an English family—a self-described “short, fat, dumpy little old lady,” her pianist husband, and their three sons (the voice of reason, the voice of enterprise and the voice of autism)—move into a once-prestigious [...]
