View allAll Photos Tagged Spacious-Room
Je suis très fière de vous présenter ma première création Cottage" 100% maille originale. Ce cottage comprend à l'étage une pièce spacieuse, au rez-de-chaussé deux pièces dont une avec une cheminée et avec plusieurs fenêtres qui s'ouvrent au toucher comme les portes à l'étape facile.
Ces produits sont en mesh 100% originaux et ont été réalisés avec des matériaux 100% mesh full perm sur mon seconde Life.
I am very proud to present to you my first Cottage" creation, 100% original mesh. This cottage comprises a spacious room upstairs, two rooms on the ground floor, one of which has a fireplace and several windows that open to the touch like doors to easy step.
These products are 100% original mesh and were made with 100% full perm mesh materials on my second life.
Land for DEMO : maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Enchanted%20Haven/221/100/801
Land For Picture: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Le%20Monde%20Perdu/195/136/37
Market: marketplace.secondlife.com/p/House-Eyla-Constructor-100-M...
The room for visitors is the only other spacious room in the convent. Comfort is provided inasmuch as possible, cork being extensively used to protect the dwellers from the cold of the monastery.
=======================
Leica M246 Monochrom, Color-Skopar 4/21 MC, Affinity Photo, EI 6400 ISO, 1/60s, f/5.6
It took a lot longer than expected to get to my hotel close to Zilina, Slovakia. The road was narrow, full of curves and rather busy. I did enjoy, though, and I enjoyed the warm dish and the spacious room at the hotel even more. The next day, I had planned a day on the non-electrified railway lines around Horna Stubna, hoping to see some of the 754-series locomotives in action. And who knows, maybe even a "Bardotka" with a freight train.
Not knowing what to expect, I just went to the station of Klastor Pod Znievom where I was lucky enough to catch 754 020 hauling a train to Horna Stubna. A very good start of the day!
ZSSK 757 020, Klastor Pod Znievom 22.9.2016
Finally, victory from the jaws of defeat, Owner tracked down a pride of seven lions laying in the grass beneath a copse of trees on a small hill. You can see four of the lions in this shot. Below, an extract from this morning's Journal:
After our break we drove in silence until we came to a small hill beside the road, it was covered in trees, and lions. Owner drove around the hill and told us about the 7 lions in that pride. Owner knew the life history of every animal, it was fascinating to learn about them and their individual histories.
As photo opportunities go, this was not a good find. The lions were concealed in the long grass and they were difficult to see, but Mary was thrilled. This is what she had come to Africa to see, and now Owner was her hero, even if he didn’t speak American. At lunch Mary told anybody who would listen that she had seen at least 20 lions. Joe said nothing.
After lunch I left Kanana along with several other guests. Among them were Bob and Bonkers, who arrived with me. I'd avoided them until now, but as we waited for our transfer to the airstrip Bonkers showed me some of her outstanding photo; she was an accomplished photographer. She declared everybody should come to Africa, because she'd learned so much in just a few days. It's true, she'd really blossomed and I was happy for her. Bob still struck me as a dummy.
Packed into a tiny aircraft, we made two short hops to dusty isolated airstrips where passengers got off or on. At the second stop I transferred to a second plane for a short hop to Okuti, I was their only passenger. I was met at the airstrip and whisked away to a rendezvous with my new guide, Chachos, who was conducting an afternoon game drive in the Moremi Game Reserve.
This was quite a culture shock, first the roads are incredibly rough, and secondly we are sharing with vehicles from different lodges, along with private vehicles.
Chachos had found a leopard in the morning, and was keen to show me the animal. When we arrived at the spot, about a dozen vehicles were gathered around and it was impossible to see the leopard which was in a tree. We waited and eventually Chachos got a spot and I had my photos.
Apart from the truly awful roads with potholes big enough to swallow a small car, this is a very different landscape from Kanana. It's more heavily wooded, there's much less ground water and many dry water courses. There are the same animals and much less sage bush. I found myself missing Owner with his vast knowledge and wonderfully dry sense of humour, but not the mosquitoes; those I can do without.
The accommodation here is even better than at Kanana. The rooms are on stilts and connected to the main building by an elevated walkway. I have a very spacious room built of thatch and brick, the roof is thatched. There is a large balcony with a comfortable seat, a table and chairs, and it all looks out over the Xudum River with papyrus reeds on the far bank. It's all very lovely.
After visiting Húsavík and Goðafoss in the north of Iceland, we really wanted to drive south to the amazing Aldeyrafoss, but since it was one of the few days with rain, we decided to skip it and instead try to reach the famous seastack Hvítserkur in the blue hour. We knew that the drive would take more than 3 hours, but if Google Maps is right, we should be able to see Hvítserkur in the last faint light of the day. After 2 and a half hours of driving, we turned right onto a gravel road that got more and more bumpy along the way. Moreover, it started to rain and got increasingly dark, but since the visibility was still pretty good we kept speeding over all those bumps with the allowed 80 km/h, passing only a few lonely houses and farms along the way.
We eventually reached the parking lot, and as we got out of our camper van, we noticed that not much of the car’s white color was visible as it was splattered all over with dirt. Since it was already late and the weather was pretty bad, there was only one other car in the parking lot which was leaving when we arrived. So we hurried to get to the viewpoint on the cliff, and for a moment we really thought about going down to the beach, but due to the sketchy “trail” down and the extremely strong winds we decided to stay up there. We then set up our tripods and I really wasn’t sure if I can take my hands off the tripod without it flying away. My girlfriend and I then held each others tripod while the other mounted the camera on it. We kept the tripod as low to the ground as possible and tried some long exposures, but soon found that the wind was so strong that even shorter exposures of only a few seconds resulted in blurry images. To make things worse, the intensity of the rain increased, but we stayed out there and waited for the brief moments of calm where I could capture the only sharp image of the evening. To make the foreground a little more interesting, I then blended in the water from a blurry exposure of 13 seconds, which was nowhere near enough to smooth out the water.
Battered by the Icelandic winds and slightly soaked by the rain, we returned to the camper van and both hoped that we got a least one sharp image on our SD cards. Finally back in the car and protected from the elements, I looked up the way to the nearest campsite and my girlfriend then told me that she remembers an accommodation right next to the Hvítserkur parking lot. Since we had to drive by there anyway, we stopped and had a look, but the lights in the house were already out and not a single person was to be seen. I then checked booking.com and found this accommodation, but there seemed to be no room available. However, there was a phone number listed and so I asked my girlfriend if I should try calling them. She was a little hesitant since it was already 10:30 pm, but I figured they don’t need to answer the phone or probably already have their phones turned off if they don’t want to be bothered by late requests. So I gave it a try and a super-friendly Icelander picked up the phone and said: “Sure, there is still a room available! Where are you?” We were actually standing right in front of the house and 2 minutes later he came out of the house across the street, greeted us and showed us the rooms. We were so happy that we had found a nearby place to stay and especially enjoyed the luxury of a spacious room (compared to our camper van), took a hot shower and fell asleep very quickly in the comfortable bed.
The next morning, we both somehow hoped for an epic sunrise, but the sky was covered with clouds, the winds were still brutal and rain was pouring down. So it was with a heavy heart that we left this beautiful and remote place to head to the Snæfellsnes peninsula, and despite the far from ideal conditions, I am very happy about this picture because it captures the memories of another great adventure in the land of fire and ice. I hope you like it too!
El Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Santes Creus és una de les joies de l'art medieval català i està situat al poble de Santes Creus, capital del municipi d'Aiguamúrcia (Alt Camp) CAT. Actualment és l'únic monestir de la Ruta del Cister que no té vida monàstica.
Dormitori
Segles XII-XIII
És una sala espaiosa –de 46 m de llarg per 11
d’ample– i transcorre per sobre de la sala capitular,
del locutori i de l’escriptori. L’edificació s’inicià el
1191 i s’enllestí l’any 1225. La solució emprada per
cobrir l’estança, una coberta a doble vessant o a
dues aigües sostinguda per onze arcs de pedra
diafragmàtics, destaca pel seu alt valor arquitectònic.
Els arcs de diafragma, lleugerament apuntats,
descansen en les gruixudes parets i en unes
mènsules piramidals amb decoracions vegetals.
El resultat és una dependència sense columnes
ni pilars i, per tant, d’una gran amplitud. Aquesta
tipologia arquitectònica fou aprofitada pel mateix
orde –per exemple, al dormitori de Poblet–, pels
ordes mendicants –a l’església de Sant Francesc de
Montblanc– i en moltes altres construccions civils.
Els monjos dormien en comunitat, vestits sobre un
jaç de palla i en una mateixa dependència. Amb el
pas del temps es toleraren les cel·les individuals i
aparegueren els primers llits amb màrfega de palla.
ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reial_Monestir_de_Santa_Maria_de_Sa...
------------------------------------------------
The bedroom (XII-XIII centuries)
Bedroom
XII-XIII centuries
It is a spacious room - 46 m long by 11
wide – and runs above the chapter house,
from the booth and from the desk. The construction started on
1191 and was completed in 1225. The solution used by
cover the room, a double-sided roof or a
gable supported by eleven stone arches
diaphragmatic, stands out for its high architectural value.
The diaphragm arches, slightly pointed,
they rest on the thick walls and on
pyramidal corbels with vegetal decorations.
The result is a columnless dependency
no pillars and, therefore, of great amplitude. This one
architectural typology was used by the same
order - for example, in Poblet's bedroom -, by
mendicant orders - in the church of Sant Francesc de
Montblanc – and in many other civil constructions.
The monks slept in community, clothed on one
haystack and in the same outbuilding. With the
over time the individual cells were tolerated and
the first beds with thatched roofs appeared.
ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reial_Monestir_de_Santa_Maria_de_Sa...
Riad Salam Fes 26/06/2022 18h56
Our entry to this luxery Moroccan hotel was one big wow. This is the lobby, with in the distance another spacious room. My first night in this hotel exceeded my wildest expectations. Literally!
Riad Salam Fès
The Riad Salam Fes has spacious rooms, equipped with air conditioning, satellite TV and free Wi-Fi access. They are all equipped with a balcony. You will appreciate the hammam and the relaxation area.
The hotel's restaurant serves traditional cuisine. You can also sample a selection of teas and beverages on the terrace, which offers panoramic views of Fez.
The property is located in the medieval city of Fez. The Medersa Bou 'Inania and Al Quaraouiyine University are a short distance from the property.
This district (Fez el-Bali) is an ideal choice for travelers who are interested in these themes: open-air markets, shopping and markets.
RIAD SALAM FÈS
18 derb Bennis,
Douh, 30110 Fes Medina
Tél. : +212 535638988
Mail: riadsalamfes2010@gmail.com
This photo "Explored" on 05/10/2022, rank # 349
Cette salles par son nom rappelle le souvenir du plus célèbre souverain du Moyen-Âge : Louis IX, dit Saint Louis. C’est en effet dans la deuxième salle logée dans l’épaisseur de la vieille muraille du donjon qu’était installée, depuis le Moyen-Âge, la chambre du Roi. Lorsque la chambre changea d’emplacement au XVIIème s, cette salle fut rétrogradée au rang d’antichambre, c’est-à-dire de pièce dégagée et spacieuse, garnie de banquettes, où l’on attend d’être introduit auprès du souverain. De l’autre côté de l’arcade, la figure équestre en marbre du roi Henri IV par Mathieu Jacquet, vestige d’une monumentale cheminée de la fin du XVIème s, fut installée à l’entrée de l’appartement du roi sur la demande de Louis-Philippe, qui rendait ainsi hommage à son ancêtre, « le plus aimé des rois ».
The name of this room recalls the memory of the most famous sovereign of the Middle Ages: Louis IX, known as Saint Louis. It is in fact in the second room in the thickness of the old wall of the dungeon that the King's chamber was installed, since the Middle Ages. When the chamber was moved to a new location in the 17th century, this room was demoted to the rank of an antechamber, i.e. an open and spacious room with benches, where one waits to be introduced to the sovereign. On the other side of the archway, the marble equestrian figure of King Henry IV by Mathieu Jacquet, a remnant of a monumental fireplace from the late 16th century, was installed at the entrance to the king's flat at the request of Louis-Philippe, who thus paid tribute to his ancestor, "the most beloved of kings".
This is the most spacious room in the large suites and was used as a reception room for the Princes of Condé. It was decorated at the end of the 17th century for Louis II of Bourbon-Condé, known as the Grand Condé, by Jules-Hardouin Mansart, principal architect to King Louis XIV. The Gallery of Battles exhibits a series of eleven paintings illustrating the main military victories of the Grand Condé in chronological order.
The complexe cathédral (“Cathedral compound”) in Le puy-en-Velay is made up of multiple buildings arranged in an indeed complex manner, to which the various remodelings and additions undertaken over the centuries have added another layer of intricacy.
The building which was meant to house the clergeons, or choirboys, was built above the eastern gallery of the canons’ cloister. Within the same wing were the personal lodgings of the Dean of the canons, which also served as an office of sorts for the Dean, as well as reception rooms.
The spacious room I am showing today is out of bounds to the general public. It used to be the main sitting room of the Dean. When he was on duty (as I already mentioned, the canons were secular, not regular, which implies, inter alia, that their continued presence was not requested), he would spent time here, entertain guests, have his meals, do his correspondence and more generally attend to his duties. The chapter of canons of the cathedral was a very powerful body and its Dean was one of the most prominent persons in the city. As most of the other canons, the Dean also had a private residence in town, and probably a more luxurious one.
I was quite happy to be invited to view this room, and even more so with a very knowledgeable guide who made the visit all the more enjoyable with his detailed accounts of how life must have been for the Dean of canons, back in the Middle Ages.
This room was occupied by clerics until the late 1960s. It is, as we say in French, “in its juices”, meaning in the state it was originally, having never been restored, except for the removal of several successive coats of whitewash and paint that had been applied over the centuries, until the Mediæval alfresco painting were exposed again.
The whole extent of the western wall, with what’s left of the “Griffons fresco” in all its splendor. The fresco ran all around the room but has been very damaged on most of the other walls.
With its oversized and deep frame, the Kube Daybed is the perfect modern piece to fill a spacious room with its sleek leather style. Double it as a sofa, or use it for a luxe lounging spot elsewhere.
* Texture HUD included with black, grey, cream & pink tones.
* It's Not Mine!, Physics & Lovense integrated.
* Inclusive all-in-one animation menu for MF/MM/FF couples.
* PBR & fallback textures.
* 10 LI.
→
Fort Ross Kuskov House 1812-1838
The old house for the commandant, two stories, built of beams, 8 toises [sazhens [1]] long by 6 wide, covered with double planking. There are 6 rooms and a kitchen. Inventory for Mr. Sutter, 1841.
This building served as headquarters for the first manager, Ivan Kuskov, and as a storeroom for arms and other valuables. It must have been one of the first of the Russian buildings to be lost; there are no pictures or reports of it from the following ranching years. Archaeological investigations found a line of postholes to aid its reconstruction. The substantial building was carefully designed based on the 1817 stockade layout, visitors’ descriptions, and on other Russian American buildings of similar use. It stands in its original location, built by 20th century craftsmen using old joinery techniques.
“In one corner of the commandant’s living room there was on a canvas two feet high a painting of St. Peter and St. Paul and another very small one below it of St. Nicholas. Writings of Mariano Payeras, 1822.
The first room we entered was the armory, containing many muskets, ranged in neat order; hence we passed into the chief room of the house, which is used as a dining room & in which all business is transacted. It was comfortably, though not elegantly furnished, and the walls were adorned with engravings of Nicholas I, Duke Constantine, &c... An (anonymous) Bostonian’s description, 1832.
The replica Kuskov House was completed in 1983. It has a furnished armory and storerooms on the ground floor, and a trade room and attached living quarters upstairs. From the second floor “dining room,” one can see the sea, and any approaching ships through the old-style hand-made glass. It is now the most spacious room in the fort, and worth a climb up the stairs, over which heavy doors were installed in the reconstruction.
Also upstairs is a small room on the northeast corner designed as a scientific study. The Russian naturalist Ilya G. Voznesenskii spent part of 1841 at the fort, collecting and sketching; the lab is arranged as he might have used it. Several local plants and animals are named for Voznesenskii, and his watercolor of Fort Ross is one of the most accurate and valuable visual representations of the settlement.
[1] A sazhen (Russian) is seven feet or 2 1/3 yards. In the French version of the Inventory for Mr. Sutter the term is toise, in the Spanish, braza, each meaning fathom. The correct translation is the seven foot Russian fathom, called a sazhen.(Glenn J. Farris)
Mainstore: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Onsu/122/127/203
Marketplace: marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/175901
The "Horizon" is a stylish, contemporary, yet cozy modern house featuring elegant thought-out design throughout. Some of its key features are: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a custom built-in kitchen, a back patio with an attached infinity pool, optional custom rugs in all bedrooms, driveway/walkway pieces, and much more!
This is our first PBR only release but we've made sure to apply some basic fallback textures to surfaces that have PBR materials ensuring your house looks great on all viewers, including older ones.
Not all surfaces necessarily benefit from PBR, so not every material uses it. As a result, the house should look fairly similar on older viewers, with a few noticeable differences (mainly in reflective objects and water surfaces).
So if you're on a Non PBR viewer, do check out the demo! You might still like how it looks :).
______________________________________________
Key Features:
- Clean and easy to decorate layout/design.
- 3 Bed. 3 Bath.
- 1 Main Bedroom Suite with its own bathroom and walk-in closet, 1 Large Bedroom with a walk-in closet and 1 Medium sized bedroom with a private attached bathroom, 1 separate bathroom.
- Built-in Kitchen.
- Optional custom rugs in all bedrooms (HUD Controlled).
- Curated color options for wood accents dotted throughout the house (4 colors) and exterior deck (3 colors).
- A back patio with an attached infinity pool.
- Two types of separately rezzable optional fountains for the front water feature.
- Optional driveway & walkway pieces for the front of the house.
- Optional separately rezzable light casting spotlights object to compliment nighttime settings.
- Optional decorative house number.
- Advanced lighting effects ensuring your house looks its best at all times of day. Daytime, nighttime and everything in-between!
______________________________________________
PBR Note:
Due to engine limitations and peculiarities introduced with and related to PBR, the house requires that you use it with a sky setting that has "reflection probe ambiance" set to zero (we've included some).
Failure to do so will result in some very unsightly shading seams due to no fault of our own. More on that inside the box!
We have two sets of compatible sky settings out at our mainstore for 1 L$ as well. Look for "Subtle" and "Structure" Sky Settings in the Homes & Skyboxes room.
______________________________________________
Layout:
On the ground floor, an open floor plan living area awaits.
This space, located directly off the entryway, consists of a living room with a sleek fireplace, sliding doors to the back patio, and an attached custom built-in kitchen.
Also on the ground floor is the main bedroom suite. The suite features a spacious bedroom, a high-end boutique-style closet, and a beautifully paneled wood bathroom with built-in ceramic pedestal sinks, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, chrome fixtures, and glass shelving. The main bedroom also features sliding glass doors leading to an outdoor hardwood deck, which connects directly to the elegant black-tiled infinity pool and the surrounding travertine-clad patio.
Upstairs, you’ll find 2 additional bedrooms and 1 separate bathroom, bringing the total to 3 beds and 3 baths.
The first bedroom, located just off the exotic hardwood staircase, is a medium-sized space featuring a built-in bookshelf, access to the back balcony, and its own private bathroom with built-in sinks, mirrors, and shelving for towels, bath products trinkets and such :).
Continuing through the well-lit, glass-walled corridor, you’ll arrive at the separate bathroom. This tucked-away gem features matching wood paneling, glass shelves, and built-in sinks, as well as its own standout feature: a skylit shower area with a waterfall wall and marble seating designed to evoke the feeling of a Turkish bath.
Last but not least is the large bedroom. This spacious room features large expansive views on both sides of the room, a fireplace, built-in shelving with cove lighting, a small walk-in closet with a chrome standing mirror, and access to the balcony from the main sleeping area.
______________________________________________
ANIMATIONS:
Built-In Kitchen/Bathroom/Sinks/Shower Bench:
The kitchen features a functioning sink with a couple of hand washing animations, a stove top with light up burners, and a built-in glass door refrigerator which was left empty for you to fill with your own favorite foods :).
The bathroom sinks in the house feature hand washing, shaving and teeth brushing animations.
Pool:
The pool can seat 6 people at a time and features 30+ lounging animations (28 Singles and 6 Couple animations).
Shower Bench:
The shower bench in the separate bathroom sits 3 and features a bunch of lounging/sitting animations.
______________________________________________
Terraforming:
Due to the inclusion of a pool, the house has to be sunk into the ground and requires a minimal amount of terraforming. It comes with a small margin of mesh terrain to make the process as smooth as possible.
To ensure a seamless transition you will want to apply your own ground terrain texture to the mesh margin around the back of the house.
If you do not have access to the terrain texture found on your region/plot of land, we have included a HUD with a few picks you can tint to match, however applying a matching texture is always preferred and will result in a match that is close to seamless.
______________________________________________
As always, the house comes with a Details HUD which includes a few different customizing options for you to play with!
Full and half texture resolution versions are included with this house, with the latter being designed to prevent lag and/or texture thrashing on lower spec systems.
Excerpt from www.firstontarioartscentremilton.ca/en/rent-the-centre/ho...:
The Holcim Gallery is a spacious room with up to 150 feet of wall hanging space. Our facility is equipped with easy-to-use hanging tracks and is well-lit to optimize the viewing experience. Located next to the Cogeco Escarpment Hall, glass doors offer visitors a view of the exhibition anytime the Arts Centre is open.
Feeling like a king at Grand Hotel Palace Thessaloniki during my stay in Thessaloniki 👑 I particularly loved my spacious room with a view of the magnificent inner courtyard of the building, the succulent breakfast as well as the spa and fitness area. Thank you very much Grand Hotel Palace Thessaloniki! I hope to come back very soon
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however, we are south of the Thames in the middle-class London suburb of Putney in the front room of a red brick Edwardian villa in Hazelwood Road, where Lettice has come to see her childhood chum Gerald’s friend, Harriet Milford. The orphaned daughter of a solicitor with little formal education, Harriet has taken in theatrical lodgers to earn a living, but more importantly for Lettice, has taken up millinery semi-professionally to give her some pin money*. As Harriet made Lettice a fetching picture hat for her brother Leslie’s wedding in November, Lettice thought that Harriet might benefit as much from her patronage as Lettice herself will by commissioning a new millinery creation for the wedding of Lettice’s friend Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon** who is marrying the Duke of York*** in a few months.
As the taxi she has taken from Mayfair putters away down the street, Lettice pushes on the black painted wrought iron gate flanked by two capped red brick pillars. It protests shrilly with the squeal of hinges as she opens it. She sighs and walks up the garden path snaking across a well clipped lawn. Lettice can hear the notes of an oboe being played as she walks.
“Coo-ee, Lettice darling!” comes a bright, rather effeminate call from above as the oboe music abruptly stops. Shading her eyes from the sun as she looks up, and peers to the roofline where she can see Cyril, one of Harriet’s theatrical lodgers, leaning out of his open oriel bedroom window above, waving madly. “Hattie! Hattie, Lettice is here!” he calls down over his shoulder. As well as being Harriet’s tenant, it has also come to light in more recent times that he is Gerald’s younger lover, and Lettice worries about Cyril’s indiscretion at being a homosexual, in comparison to Gerald who is very appropriately circumspect about his inclinations.
Without replying, she smiles and waves weakly in an understated way, embarrassed at being called to from above like a butcher’s boy or some other domestic. She glances around to make sure no-one has seen the interaction, not that there would be anyone she would likely know or run into in her upper-class circles in middle-class Hazelwood Road, Putney.
She goes to depress the doorbell next to the front door, but as she does, it is flung open exuberantly by Harriet, her mousy brown hair framing her pretty face, her bright print frock covered by a white cotton pinny, looking rather like the maids Lettice is used to answering doors for her, rather than mistress of the house she is about to enter. “How do you do, Miss Chetwynd!” she says brightly.
“Miss Milford.” Lettice replies with a pinched smile and a curt not of her head.
“Lord love Cyril, eh?” Harriet beams, glancing up, wincing into the unusually sunny sky above. “Who needs a doorbell when you can have an oboist trumpet your arrival. Right, Miss Chetwynd?”
“Err, quite.” Lettice says awkwardly.
“Right this way Miss Chetwynd.” Harriet says with a genuine smile of pleasure at receiving Lettice. “Well, you know the way.” she adds, flinging open the first door on the left side of the hallway and indicating with an extended arm for Lettice to enter her parlour cum salon. “I’ve got the kettle on already, and you can be the first to sample my freshly made fruitcake.”
“The second, actually, Hattie.” a rather deep and drooping male voice annunciates clearly. From behind Harriet’s shoulder, a mature man with white hair and an impressive, expertly waxed handlebar moustache appears dressed in full evening attire with a top hat in his hand. “I just appropriated a slice from the kitchen table on my way out. Good of you to cut it for me in anticipation of my expedient departure.”
“Oh you cheeky boy!” Harriet slaps the older gentleman on the forearm playfully. “Without even so much as a by-your leave!”
Eyeing Lettice standing in the hallway dressed in her powder blue three quarter length coat and matching hat with a large arctic fox fur wrapped around her neck and draped down her front, the man asks, “And who have we here Hattie, my dear? An ingénue come to steal away the hearts of your bevvy of lead actors?”
“No lady will ever steal your heart away!” she scoffs.
“Never a truer word was spoken, my dear.” He puts a hand to his mouth. “But a great thespian can put on a convincing act.”
“Miss Chetwynd, may I present Mr. Charles Dunnage.” Harriet announces. “Charles, this is the Honourable Miss Lettice Chetwynd.”
“The honour,” Charles replies. “Is all mine, dear lady.” Taking up Lettice’s kid glove clad hand in his own white evening glove clad ones, he raises it dramatically to his lips and kisses it.
“Oh, get away with you, Charles!” Harriet laughs. “We don’t want Miss Chetwynd thinking she’s entered a home for retired theatrical lunatics.” She turns to Lettice. “Sorry, Miss Chetwynd. Charles is a Shakespearean actor at the Old Vic****. I…”
“How many times must I tell you, Hattie!” Charles huffs irritably, suddenly animating his shoulders, making them rise and fall with every syllable. “I’m a thespian,” He emphasises the word with reverence. “Not an actor.” He spits the last word out like an insult. “He’s an actor.” He points upwards with his cane to the plastered ceiling above, where the sound of Cyril’s oboe playing can be heard. “Only true thespians can perform the works of the Great Bard. Anyone can be an actor, and anyone is!” He arches his eyebrows, causing her brow to furrow in folds of pale white flesh.
The oboe playing stops. “I can hear you, you know, Charlie Boy!” Cyril calls down from above.
Charles shudders. “Like I was saying, my dears,” he pronounces loudly so that Cyril can hear. “Anyone can be an actor, however only some of us have the strength of character to be a thespian!” Looking at Lettice he continues conspiratorially in a more moderately toned voice. “My dear Miss Chetwynd, I suggest you flee this den of iniquity and retreat to the salubrious surrounds from whence you came, before you are swept into the maelstrom of actors that pass through this door.”
Stunned into silence by his dramatic and verbose statement, Lettice can only look the older man in the face with wide eyes and a closed mouth.
“Oh get on with you, Charles,” Harriet laughs good naturedly. “Or you’ll be late for rehearsals. You don’t want to miss your train. When shall I be expecting you?”
“I’ll be home around eleven, my dear, but don’t feel you have to wait up. I have my latch key.” He reached into his pocket and pulls out a key tied to a russet coloured ribbon which he dangles from his finger.
“Right you are then, Charles. See you later then.”
And with a bow, the older man dons his top hat and sweeps down the garden path, his black evening cape billowing behind him.
“You must really think I run a theatrical madhouse, Miss Chetwynd.” Harriet says apologetically with a shake of her head as both women watch Charles slip out the gate. “Please do go in and make yourself comfortable. I’ll be back in a jiffy***** with tea and what cake is left that Charles hasn’t yet consumed.”
Stepping across the threshold of the room, Lettice’s critical eye again glances around the front parlour of the Putney villa, which doubles as Harriet’s sewing room and show room for her hats. She crinkles her nose in distaste. She finds the room’s middle-class chintzy décor an affront to her up-to-date interior design sensitivities, with its flouncy floral Edwardian sofa and roomy armchair by the fire, a pouffe hand embroidered by Harriet’s deceased mother and the busy Edwardian floral wallpaper covered with a mixture of cheap botanical prints and quaint English country scenes, all in gaudy gilded plaster frames. Yet what makes it even worse is that it seems that no attempt has been made to tidy the room in spite of Lettice and Gerald’s constant nagging of Harriet to present her hats in an orderly space. Harriet’s concertina sewing box on casters still stands cascaded open next to the armchair, threads, embroidery silks, buttons and ribbons pouring from its compartments like entrails. Hats in different stages of being made up and decorated lie about on furniture or on the floor in a haphazard way along with baskets of millinery provisions. The brightly patterned rug is littered with spools of cotton, scissors, ribbon, artificial flowers and dogeared copies of Weldon’s****** magazines. Lettice usually sits on the rather lumpy and sagging overstuffed sofa, but today that is an impossibility, with the seats covered in cardboard hat boxs spewing forth a froth of white tissue paper and hats stacked upon them. She sighs irritably and remains standing amidst the chaos of the room, unable to take a seat.
“I really am grateful that you’ve come back to see me again, Miss Chetwynd!” Harriet gushes as she steps across the threshold into the parlour carrying her wooden tray on which stand tea things for two and a silver platter with several slices of dark fruitcake on it. “You were true to your word, telling people at your brother’s wedding about who made your hat, and I’ve already had an order from a Mrs. Minchinbury and her sister, Miss Rentoul.”
Harriet unloads the teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl onto a small hexagonal Indian table, and whilst balancing the tray on the edge of her deceased father’s former chess table, she pushes aside cotton threads, ribbons, a tape measure and a pair of scissors in the shape of a stork with her elbow to make room for the teacups and the tray of fruitcake slices, which Lettice notices rest upon a pretty lace doily.
“Ahh yes, they are my second cousins on my mother’s side.” Lettice says.
“And a Miss Eglantine Chetwynd from Little Venice, who I believe is your aunt.”
“She is, Miss Milford.” Lettice smiles.
“Please do sit down, Miss Chetwynd,” Harriet says as she leans the tray against the flounced edge of the sofa. “There’s no need to stand on ceremony here.”
“I’d be happy to, if only I had a place to sit, Miss Milford.” Lettice remarks crisply.
“Oh!” Harriet’s eyes grow wide. “Sorry, Miss Chetwynd,” she mutters apologetically as she quickly whisks a tangle of ribbons off the salon chair she uses when at her sewing machine onto the floor and draws it up to the Indian and chess tables. “I know you and Gerry keep telling me, but, well as you can see, I still haven’t had an opportunity to tidy up in here yet. I just don’t seem to get the time.”
“It’s of no consequence, Miss Milford, so long as I can sit.” Lettice lies as she perches on the salon chair and hangs her crocodile skin handbag over its arm. “And I would imagine my Aunt Egg would have rather enjoyed the chaos of your theatrical household.”
“She did, Miss Chetwynd.” Harriet admits with a shy smile and a nod.
“Shall I be mother******* then, Miss Milford?” Lettice asks poignantly staring at the teapot.
“Oh no, Miss Chetwynd,” Harriet springs from her own seat in the overstuffed armchair. “I’ll do it.”
Resuming her line of conversation whilst Harriet pours tea into the two pre-war Edwardian style cups, Lettice says, “Of course Aunt Egg would like this because she is an artist. However the likes of my cousins, or some of the finer people, even more exalted and refined, you may yet encounter doubtless wouldn’t approve,” She waves her hand around her. “Of all this.”
“Well, Gerry tells me that I should give this place up and move to your side of the river.”
“Gerald’s suggestion is quite a prudent one, Miss Milford.” Lettice replies, taking her teacup and saucer and placing them on the closed lid of the top layer of Harriet’s concertina sewing box.
“But I can’t afford that,” Harriet admits as she resumes her own seat. “At least not until I know my hat making can support me.”
“Then I strongly suggest that you take Gerald’s and my advice and make the time to tidy up in here.” Lettice takes a sip of tea. “Not to be unkind, Miss Milford, but it’s slovenly, and if you want to be taken seriously as a milliner, you need to present a professional front. Surely there is an equally light and spacious room upstairs you can use as a workroom.”
“You’re quite right, Miss Chetwynd. That wasn’t unkind at all. It’s the truth,” She looks guiltily at Lettice. “And I know it. I’ll do better. I promise.”
“I should hope so, Miss Milford, for I have a commission for you, and if you take it up, which I hope you will,” Lettice pauses for a moment for impact. “It could lead to many more commissions from much finer people than my second cousins.”
“I’ll be delighted to accept, Miss Chetwynd.” Harriet says, moving forward slightly on her chair, her teacup and saucer perched on her knee, help in place by her hand. “What do you wish to commission?”
“Before I tell you, do I have your solemn promise of secrecy, at least for the time being?”
“Yes of course, Miss Chetwynd.” Harriet’s brow furrows with concern. “What on earth is it you want?”
“My friend, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, is going to marry the Duke of York in a few months.”
“But the papers say she is supposed to marry the Prince of Wales********.”
“It’s not been officially announced yet,” Lettice interrupts Harriet’s spurt of unfounded gossip. “But it will be very shortly, that she will marry the Duke of York.” Her eyes widen a she nods at Harriet, making her statement of fact clear. “And I need a hat for the occasion, Miss Milford, but not that one.” She points to a hat of straw decorated with garlands of lace ribbons and faux flowers around its wide brim sitting in a hat stand on Harriet’s appropriated work table. “Who on earth is that for? It looks like something the Miss Evanses would wear to one of my mother’s tombolas.”
“Well, I’m not sure who the Miss Evanses are, Miss Chetwynd, but this hat is meant for Mrs. Leonowens who lives down the street. Her granddaughter is getting married next Wednesday. She was very particular about what kind of hat she wanted, and its trimmings.” Looking critically at the hat she adds. “I suppose she is a little old fashioned in her taste,” She shrugs. “But that’s what she wanted.”
“Well, I’m very relieved to hear you say that your Mrs. Leonowens decided what was to go on that hat, and not you.” Lettice says with a sigh of relief. “After the beautiful creation you made for me for Leslie’s wedding, I consider you to have more than an ounce of good taste,” Looking again around her critically she adds. “In clothing and hats at any rate.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, Miss Chetwynd,” Harriet says somewhat warily, yet with a smile. “I take it that Gerry is going to design your frock for the royal wedding?”
“He is, Miss Milford. Although even I am still a little unclear of the exact date, I believe the wedding will be in late April or early May at Westminster Abbey, so a spring wedding. Gerald thinks that as Lady Elizabeth is quite romantic, and loves pastel colours, that I should wear peach floral crêpe de chine, which I’ve agreed to. What do you propose, Miss Milford?”
“Well, Gerry and I can chat more about this when he visits Cyril later in the week,” Harriet pauses. “I take it I can talk to Gerry about this? I’m not sworn to secrecy from him, am I?”
“Oh no, Miss Milford! Gerald knows Lady Elizabeth too, so he knows her news and will doubtless be on the guest list too.”
“Oh, that’s a relief!”
“But not Cyril, even if he and Gerald are…”
“Friends, Miss Chetwynd?”
“Friends, Miss Milford, you mustn’t mention why you are making this hat for me, at last until after the official announcement of the engagement is made in the newspapers. I do not wish to be the source of more gossip. I know Lady Elizabeth is very irritated by the current rumours.”
“I doubt Cyril will care to ask why I’m making a hat for you, Miss Chetwynd, but if he asks, I shall make up an excuse. Now, if your friend Lady Elizabeth is romantic, and looking at her pictures in the papers, in keeping with your friend’s style and something that would suit you as well, I suggest a deeply crowned hat with a wide, poke style brim.” She gesticulates around her own head how wide the brim would be and how it would sit. “Stiffened of course.” she adds. She looks at Lettice’s expectant face. “Made of apricot felt, edged with the thinnest trim of white lace I think and ornamented with pink and orange taffeta roses. What do you think, Miss Chetwynd?”
“That sounds quite splendid, Miss Milford!” Lettice says, returning her cup to her saucer and sitting back in her chair. “Yes, do it!”
“Splendid, Miss Chetwynd! It will be subtle and yet striking as well.” Harriet remarks. “You might even outshine the bride.” She giggles girlishly.
“I do hope not, Miss Milford.” Lettice replies, albeit with a slight smile.
“But secretly, you wouldn’t mind it if you did.” Harriet responds with a knowing look. “A slice of cake, Miss Chetwynd?” She holds out the silver tray on which lay four slices of rich, dark fruitcake with a thin layer of white marzipan icing.
Lettice saves herself from having to reply by putting the piece of cake to her lips and taking a bite of it, allowing the moist sliver to fall apart in her mouth.
*Originating in Seventeenth Century England, the term pin money first meant “an allowance of money given by a husband to his wife for her personal expenditures. Married women, who typically lacked other sources of spending money, tended to view an allowance as something quite desirable. By the Twentieth Century, the term had come to mean a small sum of money, whether an allowance or earned, for spending on inessentials, separate and in addition to the housekeeping money a wife might have to spend.
**Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, as she was known at the beginning of 1923 when this story is set, went on to become Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions from 1936 to 1952 as the wife of King George VI. Whilst still Duke of York, Prince Albert initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to". He proposed again in 1922 after Elizabeth was part of his sister, Mary the Princess Royal’s, wedding party, but she refused him again. On Saturday, January 13th, 1923, Prince Albert went for a walk with Elizabeth at the Bowes-Lyon home at St Paul’s, Walden Bury and proposed for a third and final time. This time she said yes. The wedding took place on April 26, 1923 at Westminster Abbey.
***Prince Albert, Duke of York, known by the diminutive “Bertie” to the family and close friends, was the second son of George V. Not only did Bertie propose to Elizabeth in 1921, but also in March 1922 after she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Albert’s sister, Princess Mary to Viscount Lascelles. Elizabeth refused him a second time, yet undaunted Bertie pursued the girl who had stolen his heart. Finally, in January 1923 she agreed to marry him in spite of her misgivings about royal life.
****The Old Vic theatre in the London borough of Lambeth was formerly the home of a theatre company that became the nucleus of the National Theatre. The company’s theatre building opened in 1818 as the Royal Coburg and produced mostly popular melodramas. In 1833 it was redecorated and renamed the Royal Victoria and became popularly known as the Old Vic. Between 1880 and 1912, under the management of Emma Cons, a social reformer, the Old Vic was transformed into a temperance amusement hall known as the Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern, where musical concerts and scenes from Shakespeare and opera were performed. Lilian Baylis, Emma Cons’s niece, assumed management of the theatre in 1912 and two years later presented the initial regular Shakespeare season. By 1918 the Old Vic was established as the only permanent Shakespearean theatre in London, and by 1923 all of Shakespeare’s plays had been performed there. The Old Vic grew in stature during the 1920s and ’30s under directors such as Andrew Leigh, Harcourt Williams, and Tyrone Guthrie.
*****The expression in a jiffy was in use as early as 1780. It is a colloquial English expression for “in a short amount of time.” The origins of jiffy are unknown, though there are theories. One suggestion is that it comes from British thieves’ slang for “lightning,” hence very fast. An early instance appears in 1780 edition of Town and Country Magazine: “Most of the limbs of the law do every thing in a jiffy”.
******Created by British industrial chemist and journalist Walter Weldon Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was the first ‘home weeklies’ magazine which supplied dressmaking patterns. Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal was first published in 1875 and continued until 1954 when it ceased publication.
*******The meaning of the very British term “shall I be mother” is “shall I pour the tea?”
********In early January 1923 a newspaper ran a gossip item that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was soon to be engaged to Prince Albert the Duke of York’s elder brother, the Prince of Wales – a story that reportedly annoyed her. Rumour has it that part of Elizabeth’s hesitance to marry Albert was due to her being in love with David – the loftier “catch” – however, these stories are highly unlikely and probably have more to do with trying to explain her later hatred for Wallis Simpson. More likely, she knew that the story meant more pressure for her to make up her mind about Albert and she knew the rumour would wound him.
This rather cluttered and chaotic scene of a drawing room cum workroom may look real to you, but believe it or not, it is made up entirely with pieces from my 1:12 miniatures collection, including pieces from my childhood.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism such as these are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. The natural straw hat with white lace ribbon trim and faux flower garlands on the table was made by an unknown artisan in the United Kingdom and was sold through Doreen Jeffrey’s Small Wonders miniatures shop.
The concertina sewing box on casters which you can see spilling forth its contents is an artisan miniature made by an unknown artist in England. It comes from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop in the in the United Kingdom. All the box’s contents including spools of ribbons, threads scissors and buttons on cards came with the work box. The box can completely expand or contract, just like its life-sized equivalent.
The black japanned fire screen in the background, the black metal fire tools and the potted plants and their stands all come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop.
Harriet’s family photos seen cluttering the mantlepiece in the background are all real photos, produced to high standards in 1:12 size on photographic paper by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The frames are almost all from Melody Jane’s Dollhouse Suppliers in the United Kingdom and are made of metal with glass in each.
The porcelain clock on the mantlepiece is made by M.W. Reutter Porzellanfabrik in Germany, who specialise in making high quality porcelain miniatures. The pot of yellow and blue petunias and the ornamental swan figurine on the mantlepiece have been hand made and painted by 1:12 miniature ceramicist Ann Dalton.
The tilt chess table I bought from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, whilst the Indian hexagonal table comes from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The Edwardian tea set and plate of fruit cake slices on its surface come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop, as do the spools of threads, the silver sewing scissors in the shape of a stork and the spool of ribbon. The skeins of pink and blue thread I have had since I was a teenager, when I acquired the from a high street doll house miniature specialist shop.
The sewing basket that you can see on the floor just behind the chess table I bought from a high street shop that specialised in dolls and doll house furnishings. It is an artisan miniature and contains pieces of embroidery and embroidery threads.
The floral chintz chair is made by J.B.M. miniatures who specialise in well made pieces of miniature furniture made to exacting standards.
The Chinese carpet beneath the furniture is hand made by Mackay and Gerrish in Sydney, Australia.
The Edwardian mantlepiece is made of moulded plaster and was acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The paintings and prints on the walls all come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House in the United Kingdom.
File: 2018002-0042
Land Rover Owner International Show at the East of England Arena, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom, on Saturday 15th September 2018.
About the photograph.
This is a first generation Land Rover Discovery.
I admit that the Discovery Series I and Series II looks too similar to me, so I can’t be sure if which one it is.
This is a five-door model, and I can’t be sure if it got a petrol or diesel engine. I did not think to make any notes as I only went there to enjoy the show for myself.
The majority of this Discovery looks standard, but the axle and suspensions are customised modifications for extreme off-roading, and are not factory standard.
The Range Rover was designed to be an everyday four wheel drive car that could work as both a utility vehicle and a family car, it however moved upmarket and become more of a luxury vehicle.
So the Land Rover Discovery was created to fill the role of an affordable family SUV.
While the Discovery comes in either a 3-Door or a 5-Door model, offering 5 seats for a driver and 4 passengers, the large spacious room in the back makes it possible to add two more seats, thus making it a 7-seater.
Most of the Series I model have an engine size ranging from 2.0 L to 3.9 L, while the Series II could have a 2.5 L diesel or 4.0 L petrol engines.
The Series I models were made between 1989 to 1998, and the Series II were manufactured between 1998 to 2002.
The second generation models are the Discovery 3 and Discovery 4, both have similar looks, but totally different from the first generation.
Why did I take the photograph?
I was not doing any photo-shoots. At that time, I was a full-time single parent, and was taking a break for myself while the ex-wife looks after the kids for a day. As I happen to be a Land Rover owner and driver, I decided to go to this event to enjoy myself, and hope to find anything useful for my own Land Rover Freelander. I bought along my Nikon DSLR simply just to take snapshots, mainly to remember that day, it simply was my change to have a break and unwind.
About the event.
Land Rover Owner, often abbreviated as LRO, is a British monthly magazine aimed for the Land Rover enthusiasts. Sometimes the title is subtitled as Land Rover Owner International. The magazine is published by a company based in Peterborough, United Kingdom, and had been publishing the magazine for over 30 years.
The magazine would host an annual Land Rover show, known as Land Rover Owner International Show followed by the year the show is being hosted. The show is mostly hosted at the East of England Showground on the east outskirts of Peterborough.
The show would feature a Live Action Arena, where various Land Rovers would drive around the arena, while customised and modified Land Rovers would show their off-road capabilities over a rough ground in the middle of the arena. Included in the show are Club Stands, displaying various Land Rovers, which are often members of various Land Rover organisations (For example: South West Land Rover Club, Wales Land Rover Club, Ladies Land Rover Club, etc., in additional to G4 Challenge, Camel Trophy, RNLI, etc.). There would be stalls selling spare parts, merchandises, food and drinks, etc. Plus some funfair and events for the kids.
For more details, just Google “Land Rover Owner International Show”
The Comment Box is NOT an adverting space or billboard for the groups you are member of, therefore those “as seen in…” kind of comments will be deleted. The Comment Box is for the photograph, or the subject, or for you to say something if the subject reminds you of your experience.
The Westin Bellevue Hotel Dresden (since has become Bilderberg Bellevue Hotel Dresden) is the best and most elegant hotel that I've ever stayed. And it wasn't expensive when I booked it. My room cost only EUR 84 per night including all fees and taxes.
Very spacious room by European standard, large bed, large bathroom, a proper desk and plenty of space for luggage and souvenir storage :D
The centre block Restaurant Canaletto is the hotel restaurant. Most of the rooms are actually in the two green wings seen behind on both sides of the restaurant. The park and grounds in front of the restaurant is part of the hotel property, but is open to the public.
A story from Lands of Classic Castle.
“Sir Caelan Munro, Duke Cartney will see you now.” The clerk nodded at the young knight for him to come in to the duke’s study. The duke was the senior leader of Durrough and his study showed it. The spacious room was elaborately decorated, with the duke’s heraldry prominently displayed on the fireplace mantle. On the polished wooden floor was a bright blue and yellow embroidered rug, a now well-known gift from leaders in Garheim which they called an “Alliance Rug”.
“Well Caelan, welcome home from the war,” the duke began as he snatched up an enticing sealed envelope from his desk and rose to meet him. The duke was known as a bit of a fop, generally overdressed for every occasion, but he had a firm handshake. This was their first meeting, Caelan being fairly unknown prior to the war, but the duke lived up to all the rumors--tall, thin, overly-groomed and clean, but a respected and highly capable leader nonetheless. “You’ve done a bit with these archers of yours haven’t you? Scout Snipers, you call them, yes?”
“Yes sir, they’re all deadly shots to the man.”
“So I’ve heard. Your reports stated you inflicted over one hundred casualties on the Loreesi, including some war elephants amazingly…”
Caelan immediately thought of Flannery and his tree-crunching, elephant-smashing tactic. “Three of them, sir.”
“Most remarkable. And you held on to Mitah’s tower despite a full assault by Fazeel’s bunch too. Tell me, how many casualties did you take?”
“Twelve sir. Three will recover and fight again, but three probably will never draw bow again and…” he thought of the men he would never see once more and stopped mid-sentence, growing somber over the loss.
“And six died for their country,” Cartney finished his sentence. “No decent Lenfald commander enjoys that part but we must accept what we cannot change. How many effectives do you have now?”
“Twenty-six, sir.” The feeling of regret continued within him, as he had started the war with thirty-eight, plus his friend Tavish.
“And have you dismissed them yet?”
Caelan suddenly went from a deep feeling of regret, to one of great alarm. “Uh..sir no, I had hoped…”
Duke Cartney interrupted in a correcting tone, “Now Caelan you must know that only Barons and above can have standing forces in Lenfald during peacetime, yes?”
Caelan’s heart sank like a stone. All that training, fighting and his mens' sacrifice…
“So,” Cartney suddenly changed his tone, “we must correct this infraction of the rules.” He handed the envelope to Caelan stating with satisfaction, “From High Lord Triphian himself.”
Caelan broke the seal and read quickly. His heart suddenly shot back into place again. “A baroncy!!” he exclaimed before he could prevent his emotions from rising.
“Congratulations Baron Munro. And there’s more.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a note, “Give this to Durrough’s exchequer.”
Caelan did a double-take at the sum. “1000 draken!”
Cartney smiled, “Not for you of course. The baroncy’s all you need to woo that Lady of yours, Kensie I believe her name is yes...no, it’s for you to raise, train and maintain one hundred Scout Snipers as soon as possible.”
His head swimming, Caelan blinked and the meaning came clear. “You believe this peace won’t last.”
Cartney smiled a joyless smile. “This peace is about as stable as a one-legged man hopping a tight rope across the Aines River. And I am certain we will soon need lots of young men who are dead shots, to the man.” He nodded, walked back to his desk and waived over his shoulder, “Congratulations again Caelan, now off to the exchequer with you.”
That apparently was the end of their meeting, but as Caelan turned to go a thought stopped him and he asked the duke, now with his back to him, “Sir, how could you possibly know of my interest in Lady Kensie?”
The duke gave him a clever look and stated, “You are not the only one with scouts, young Caelan.” And he waved him away.
-----------
Previous Caelan stories:
СТАНИСЛАВ ЖУКОВСКИЙ - Осень (Интерьер)
☆
Location: Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia.
Sources: goskatalog.ru/portal/#/collections?id=9867099
www.nsartmuseum.ru/journal/id/207
Poetry of the departed. S.Yu. Zhukovsky (fragment) // Online Edition "Art Museum", Novosibirsk State Art Museum, 2018, Issue 2 (32)
Author: O.G. Kurzhukova
Few of the visitors to the permanent exhibition of the Novosibirsk Art Museum can indifferently walk past S.Yu. Zhukovsky "Autumn". Located at the far end of the hall, from the entrance it attracts attention with its size, rich color and energy of a stroke. On a large, almost square canvas, the viewer sees a spacious room of a rich manor house, furnished with mahogany furniture in the Empire style and decorated with portraits of the first half of the 19th century. From them, a gray-haired nobleman with a red sash over his left shoulder, a fragile girl playing the piano, a respectable lady are looking at the viewer ... But are these portraits just interior decoration? These are the people who lived in the space of the room: they sat on armchairs upholstered with patterned silk, put elegant porcelain cups on the table, listened to the music of the piano.
The artist was familiar with both the charm of the estate life and its loss. He spent his childhood in a similar house, but not as the owner: the father of S.Yu. Zhukovsky was deprived of the nobility and property for his involvement in the Polish national uprising of 1863 and lived with his family on his own estate as a tenant.
In the 1920s, all Russian estates lost their owners. These were the years of the death not only of such mansions, but of the entire Russian noble culture. How not to recall the works of L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov, poems by I.A. Bunin? At the same time, the interior depicted by S.Yu. Zhukovsky in 1918, cannot be called a museum, it is still full of life. The windows are open, the vases contain late, lush and dim asters. A stream of light, reminiscent of the interior painting of the early 19th century, bursts into the coolness of the room. Zhukovsky depicts him with impetuous pasty strokes. Under the rays of the dazzling sun, the silk of the upholstery shimmers, the arms of the chairs and the golden frames of the portraits flash with hot reflections, the petals of flowers come to life. But this is not the life-giving light of summer, it is the cold light of autumn, the light that cannot warm, cannot give birth to life. This is the farewell light of dying. Leaves are falling, dead grass is covered with a carpet, rustling underfoot. The naked branches of century-old lindens are drawn in a lace pattern against a clear sky. The autumn landscape evokes feelings of sadness, quiet sadness and nostalgia in the viewer. But sadness and nostalgia recede before the extravaganza of Zhukovsky's colors. The artist paints with ringing flowers - azure, yellow, honey-brown, herbal greens. And in the depths of the alley he puts several impetuous strokes of pink color. The imagination of our young spectators, not constrained by the usual frames, turned them into the figures of two girls slowly wandering from home into the depths of the garden ... Figuratively and poetically. But sadness and nostalgia recede before the extravaganza of Zhukovsky's colors. The artist paints with ringing flowers - azure, yellow, honey-brown, herbal greens. And in the depths of the alley he puts several impetuous strokes of pink color. The imagination of our young spectators, not constrained by the usual frames, turned them into the figures of two girls slowly wandering from home into the depths of the garden ... Figuratively and poetically. But sadness and nostalgia recede before the extravaganza of Zhukovsky's colors. The artist paints with ringing flowers - azure, yellow, honey-brown, herbal greens. And in the depths of the alley he puts several impetuous strokes of pink color
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are not in Lettice’s flat. Instead, we have followed Lettice south-west, through the neighbouring borough of Belgravia to the smart London suburb of Pimlico and its rows of cream and white painted Regency terraces. However, Lettice is not standing before one of these, but before a smart red brick Edwardian set of three storey flats on Rochester Row. Looking up, Lettice admires the red and white banding details of the building, macabrely known after the Great War as ‘blood ‘n’ bandages’ stripes. The beautiful façade features bay windows and balconies with ornate Art Nouveau cast iron balustrades. One of them is now the residence of recently arrived American film actress Wanetta Ward.
Approaching the front door Lettice sees the newly minted shiny brass plaque amongst those of the residents with Wanetta’s name emblazoned on it in neat, yet bold, engraved letters. She pushes open the heavy black painted front door with the leadlight windows and walks into the deserted communal foyer and takes the stairs up to flat number four, her louis heels echoing loudly throughout the cavernous space illuminated by a lightwell three floors above. Stopping on the first floor landing before a door painted a uniform black, but without the leadlight, bearing the number four in polished brass, she presses the doorbell.
From deep within the flat the sound of a bell echoes hollowly, implying what Lettice hopes – that the flat is now empty of its previous resident’s possessions. She waits, but when no-one comes to open the door, she presses the doorbell for longer. Once again, the bell echoes mournfully from deep within the flat behind the closed door. Finally, a pair of shuffling footsteps can be heard along with indecipherable muttering and a familiar fruity cough as the latch turns.
“Mrs. Boothby!” Lettice exclaims, coming face-to-face with her charwoman* as the old Cockney woman opens the door to the flat.
“Well, as I live an’ breave!” she exclaims in return with a broad and toothy smile. “If it ain’t Miss Lettice! G’mornin’ mum!” She bobs a curtsey. “You must be ‘ere to see Miss Ward. C’mon in.”
Lettice walks through the door held open by Mrs. Boothby and steps into a well proportioned vestibule devoid of furnishings, but with traces of where furniture and paintings once were by way of tell-tale shadows and outlines on the floor and walls.
“Come this way, mum. She’s just through ‘ere in the drawin’ room.” Mrs. Boothby says, leading the way, her low heeled shoes slapping across the parquetry floors.
“But how is it that you are here, Mrs. Boothby?” Lettice asks in bewilderment.
“Well, you know ‘ow I ‘as me friend Jackie, what cleans for you when I’s sick?” Lettice nods pointlessly to the back of the old woman’s head, but she continues as if sensing it through the rear of her skull. “Well, she got this cleanin’ job to tidy up after the last man up an’ left, and couldn’t do it on ‘er own, so she asked me to ‘elp. So ere I is, and we is just in ‘ere.”
The pair walk through a door into a light filled room devoid of furniture except for an old chair without its cushioned seat and two rather imposing built-in bookshelves either side of an old white plaster fireplace. A second charwoman is busy sweeping up the broken fragments of an old blue and white bowl with her dustpan and broom and depositing them into an old wooden crate that must once have held apples according to the label. The room is silent, but for the sound of sweeping and the clatter of crockery shards, and the sounds echo throughout the empty space. In the world outside Lettice can hear the clatter of horses hooves and the purr of a motor cars from street below. Lettice immediately spots Wanetta’s lucky pink hat covered in silk flowers hanging off the back of the solitary chair and her brass handled walking stick that she uses for affect leaning against it. And there, silhouetted against the light pouring through the bay window overlooking Rochester Row stands the elegant and statuesque figure of Wanetta Ward, the morning highlighting the edges of her hair in auburn.
“S’cuse me mum, I’s gotta get back to me dustin’.” Mrs. Boothby says as she goes over to the fireplace and picks up a feather duster.
“Miss Chetwynd, darling!” Miss Ward exclaims with delight, spinning elegantly around and striding towards Lettice with open arms.
Lettice allows herself somewhat awkwardly to be enveloped by the American’s overly familiar perfumed embrace. Dressed in a smart black suit, Lettice notices the accents of pink that match Wanetta’s lucky hat on the collar of her jacket and the hem of her calf length skirt.
“How do you do Miss Ward.”
“Oh, just tickety-boo**, I think you British say.” Miss Ward enthuses. “Except you’re still calling me Miss Ward, and not Wanetta, like I told you to.” She wags a grey glove clad finger at Lettice.
“I think,” Lettice remarks, carefully choosing her words but speaking firmly. “That would add a certain… overfamiliarity to our professional relationship. I’m sure you’ll agree.”
“Oh you British are such stuffed shirts***,” Miss Ward flaps her arms dismissively at Lettice. “But have it your own way. So,” She spins around, stretching out her arms expansively in a dramatic pose. “What do you think?”
Lettice looks around at the spacious room. “It’s very elegantly proportioned from what I’ve seen so far.”
“So, do you think it will suit a young up-and-coming film star?”
“I take it the screen test went well then, Miss Ward?” Lettice smiles at her hostess.
“Meet Islington Studio’s**** newest actress!” the American woman exclaims with a cocked manicured eyebrow as her painted pink lips curl in a proud smile.
“Congratulations Miss Ward! That’s wonderful news!”
“Thank you, darling. I play my first part next week.”
“Excellent! I shall look forward to hearing more as the weeks go by.”
“You mean?” Miss Ward gasps, clasping her hands in hope. “You’ll take me on?”
“I think so, Miss Ward.” Lettice replies. “It will be quite fun to have a completely clean slate to work with.”
“Oh, you darling, darling girl!” Miss Ward jumps up and down on the balls of her feet in delight.
Mrs. Boothby’s friend Jackie looks up from her floor polishing and discreetly shakes her head at the American woman’s dramatic outburst.
“Miss Ward, tell me about the treatment you were hoping for in here.” Lettice asks, looking around at the old fashioned flocked wallpaper.
Miss Ward starts to stalk around the room. “Now, I want colour, darling! My favourite colour is yellow, so I was thinking yellow vases, lamps, glassware, that sort of stuff.”
“I see,” Lettice listens attentively, nodding. “I can see if my Italian contacts can find some nice Murano glass for you.”
“Excellent! Excellent!” The American claps her painted fingers in delight. Gesticulating energetically around the room to imaginary tables and pedestals she adds, “And remember, I want oriental too!”
“I have an excellent merchant right here in London who imports the most wonderful items from the far east. You might even find you possess a little piece of Shanghai, Miss Ward.”
“Sounds perfect, darling! Now, I was thinking that with these bookcases pulled out, this will make a wonderful wall for vibrantly coloured wallpaper.” She stretches her arms dramatically in two wide arcs, as if representing the daring colour that she envisages in her mind. “Something with a bold pattern.”
“And how does your new landlord feel about you having these bookshelves removed?”
“Oh! Captain Llewellyn? He won’t mind, so long as I smile prettily and bat my eyelashes enough.” the American woman giggles.
“That’s not Captain Wynn Llewellyn, by chance, is it Miss Ward?”
“Why yes darling!” She beams another of her bright smiles. “Do you know him?”
“Yes, Miss Ward. He’s a family friend.”
“Gosh! What a small world!”
“Too right it is!” pipes up Mrs. Boothby from in front of the bookshelves she is busily dusting, whilst carefully eavesdropping on every word in the conversation between the two ladies. “She knows me ‘n all!”
“You do?” Miss Ward gives the old charwoman a doubtful look and then Lettice a questioning one.
“Mrs. Boothby cleans for me every week, Miss Ward.” Lettice elucidates.
The American nods. “Well, a girl like you must know everyone there is to know in London, darling.”
Lettice blushes at the candid remark and looks away, hiding her embarrassment whilst she composes herself. “Well, at least in this case I know your landlord, so there shouldn’t be any trouble with removing the bookshelves. Now, I must say that with such wonderful light in here, I really do think you’ll need some white to offset the bold colours you want.”
“White?” Miss Ward whines. “But I just said I want colour. No white!” She pouts her lips petulantly, which silently Lettice admits gives her a smouldering look which perhaps explains how she succeeded with her screen test. “White is so… so… white, and boring.”
“It won’t be boring the way I use it, Miss Ward, I can assure you.” Lettice wanders over to the fireplace, carefully and politely avoiding the area that Mrs. Boothby’s friend Jackie just polished. Picking up a small white vase sitting on the mantlepiece she continues, “You need something to temper bright colours. If I am to be your interior designer, Miss Ward, you are going to have to trust my judgement.” She turns the vase over in her hands thoughtfully. “I promise you that I won’t lead you astray.”
“Alright,” Miss Ward replies, looking doubtfully at Lettice. “But not too much white.”
“With bold colours and patterns, dark furnishings, some golden yellow elements and white accents as I suggest, your flat will exude elegance and the exoticism of the orient,” Lettice purrs reassuringly, replacing the vase on the mantlepiece. “Just as you desire.”
“Well…”
“Where will you be staying whilst your flat is redecorated, Miss Ward?” Lettice boldly speaks over Miss Ward, swiftly crushing any disagreement.
“At the Metropole***** near the Embankment.”
“Excellent. What I will do is create some sketches for you with my ideas for your interiors and then we can meet at the Metropole for tea, in say a week or so. Then you can see my vision and you may pass your judgement.”
“Very well, darling.” the American woman replies meekly.
“Wonderful!” Lettice smiles happily. “Now, you’d best show me around the rest of the flat so I can envision what it could look like. It’s quite inspiring, you know!”
“Then please, step this way and I’ll show you my future boudoir.” Miss Ward says, suddenly regaining her confidence and sense of drama. Purposefully, she strides towards the drawing room door, indicating for Lettice to follow her with a flourishing wave that is fit for a rising film star with the world at her feet.
As Lettice moves to join her newest client on a tour of the rest of the flat, she stops short and turns back.
“Oh Mrs. Boothby.”
“Yes mum?” the old Cockney woman asks.
“Please don’t dispose of that vase. Just leave it on the mantlepiece if you would.” She points across the room to the vase sitting forlornly. “I have plans for it.” she muses quietly.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Believed to date from British colonial rule in India, and related to the Hindi expression “tickee babu”, meaning something like “everything's alright, sir”, “tickety-boo” means “everything is fine”. It was a common slang phrase that was popular in the 1920s.
***The phrase “stuffed shirt” refers to a person who is pompous, inflexible or conservative.
****Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.
***** Now known as the Corinthia Hotel, the Metropole Hotel is located at the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place in central London on a triangular site between the Thames Embankment and Trafalgar Square. Built in 1883 it functioned as an hotel between 1885 until World War I when, located so close to the Palace of Westminster and Whitehall, it was requisitioned by the government. It reopened after the war with a luxurious new interior and continued to operate until 1936 when the government requisitioned it again whilst they redeveloped buildings at Whitehall Gardens. They kept using it in the lead up to the Second World War. After the war it continued to be used by government departments until 2004. In 2007 it reopened as the luxurious Corinthia Hotel.
Although this may appear to be a real room, this is in fact made up with 1:12 miniatures from my miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The Chippendale dining room chair is a very special piece. Part of a dining setting for six, it came from the Petite Elite Miniature Museum, later rededicated as the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, which ran between 1992 and 2012 on Los Angeles’ bustling Wiltshire Boulevard. One of the chairs still has a sticker under its cushion identifying from which room of which dollhouse it came. The Petite Elite Miniature Museum specialised in exquisite and high end 1:12 miniatures. The chair is taken from a real Chippendale design.
Wanetta’s lucky pink hat covered in silk flowers, which hangs of the back of the chair on the right is made by Miss Amelia’s Miniatures in the Canary Islands. It is an artisan miniature made just like a real hat, right down to a tag in the inside of the crown to show where the back of the hat is! 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. Miss Amelia is an exception to the rule coming from Spain, but like her American counterparts, her millinery creations are superb. Like a real fashion house, all her hats have names. This pink raw silk flower covered hat is called “Lilith”. Wanetta’s walking stick, made of ebonized wood with a real metal knob was made by the Little Green Workshop in England.
In front of the basket is a can of Vim with stylised Art Deco packaging and some Kleeneze floor polish. Vim was a common cleaning agent, used in any Edwardian household. Vim scouring powder was created by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Kleeneze is a homeware company started in Hanham, Bristol. The company's founder, Harry Crook, had emigrated to the United States with his family several years earlier, and whilst there joined Fuller Brush as a sales representative. He returned to Bristol several years later, and started a business making brushes and floor polish which were sold door-to-door by salesmen. Technically Kleeneze didn’t start until 1923, which is two years after this story is set. I couldn’t resist including it, as I doubt I will ever be able to photograph it as a main part of any other tableaux. Thus, I hope you will forgive me for this indulgence.
In the basket is a second can of Vim with slightly older packaging, some Zebo grate polish and a can of Brasso. Zebo (or originally Zebra) Grate Polish was a substance launched in 1890 by Reckitts to polish the grate to a gleam using a mixture that consisted of pure black graphite finely ground, carbon black, a binding agent and a solvent to keep it fluid for application with a cloth or more commonly newspaper. Brasso Metal Polish is a British all-purpose metal cleaning product introduced to market in 1905 by Reckitt and Sons, who also produced Silvo, which was used specifically for cleaning silver, silver plate and EPNS.
The tin buckets, wooden apple box, basket, mop, brush, pan and birchwood broom are all artisan made miniatures that I have acquired in more recent years. Sadly, the broken bowl is a result of an accident, which is unusual for me. When this bowl arrived it was wrapped in a small sealable plastic bag which slipped from my fingers and the blue and white porcelain bowl shattered on my slate kitchen floor where I unpack my parcels! I kept it as a reminder to be careful when unpacking my miniature treasures. Don’t worry, I have a replacement bowl which I am very careful with.
The feather duster on the fireplace mantle I made myself using fledgling feathers (very spring) which I picked up off the lawn one day thinking they would come in handy in my miniatures collection sometime. I bound them with thread to the handle which is made from a fancy ended toothpick!
The little white vase on the mantlepiece is mid Victorian and would once have been part of a doll’s tea service. It is Parian Ware. Parian Ware is a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble. It was developed around 1845 by the Staffordshire pottery manufacturer Mintons, and named after Paros, the Greek island renowned for its fine-textured, white Parian marble, used since antiquity for sculpture. The vase and a matching jug I picked up as part of a job lot at auction some years ago.
The Georgian style fireplace I have had since I was a teenager and is made from moulded plaster.
The flocked wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend who encouraged me to use it as wallpaper for my 1:12 miniature tableaux.
Where 20.000 citizens hide when the Mongols come looking...
The Derinkuyu underground city is an ancient multi-level underground city in the Derinkuyu district in Nevşehir Province, Turkey. Extending to a depth of approximately 60 m (200 feet), it is large enough to have sheltered as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found across Cappadocia.
It was opened to visitors in 1969 and about half of the underground city is currently accessible to tourists.
The underground city at Derinkuyu could be closed from the inside with large stone doors. Each floor could be closed off separately.
The city could accommodate as many as 20,000 people and had all the usual amenities found in other underground complexes across Cappadocia, such as wine and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and chapels. Unique to the Derinkuyu complex and located on the second floor is a spacious room with a barrel vaulted ceiling. It has been reported that this room was used as a religious school and the rooms to the left were studies.
Between the third and fourth levels is a vertical staircase. This passageway leads to a cruciform church on the lowest (fifth) level.
The large 55 m (180 foot) ventilation shaft appears to have been used as a well. The shaft also provided water to both the villagers above and, if the outside world was not accessible, to those in hiding.
--- From Wikipedia
This was how I rolled in early 2012.
I remember the time and place and events very vividly.
Being a traveling tranny is not without it's complications especially when your mode of travel is air. I mean how much can you get in one bag and will my spiked heel puncture my boobs and will those pesky TSA baggage inspectors take a peek inside and make a note of the name on the claim tag and use it to blackmail me in the future. In any event I don't really worry about that stuff I just hope I get their safe and all my visual aids arrive with me.
On this particular night I was in the last training week for my 30th Marathon and I had arrived early and taken a 6 mile run rushed to get a shower and get ready for whatever was to come. I had a great spacious room with a few nice appointments like artificial plants, leather pillows and wine glasses. Believe it or not it was a Hilton Property. Leather pillows? So I got dolled all sensible like, looked at myself in the mirror and was pleased and confident. I made my way out in search of a healthy drive thru and settled on baja fish tacos from Baja Fresh. The girl at the window seemed confused by the name on the AMEX not matching the face in the car. I assured her it was me and my parents named all the girls with boys names including my sister Frank. She handed me food with a smile and I drove back to my spacious room. I really wanted to go out and be seen but it was getting late and I decided to t snap a few pics and call it a night.
Another challenge of being an air traveling transvestite is being prepared. This particular trip I had everything I needed except something to remove my french nails. Having an early morning meeting the option to leave them on was really no option at all. Oh well I guess I'll be seen after all. I had noticed a Walgreens earlier so I made my way to it. Park car, take deep breath, purse on shoulder go inside. I walked in and an older lady asked "can I help you find anything?" (Now I need to stop for a second and explain, I've been out and about many many times dressed as a woman, most times if I just act normal no one seems to notice me If I have to speak well sometimes I can pass sometimes I don't but it takes a lot of concentration and is not second nature for me.) I answered "acetone" "I'm not sure what that is" I answer back "it's for removing fake nails!" "Oh yes" she directed me and we walked together me in flat sandal still 3 heads taller than her. She then said to me "they're so pretty, why do you want to take them off?" I just looked at her and said "you really don't know do you?" "Know What?" "well I'm not a woman" she just stared at me for a while and finally realized what I had said to her. "Oh My God, I would have never known" I wanted to hug her. She was so sweet and complimentary when others may have just been happy to get me out of the store and be done with my perverted foolishness but she thought I was in her words a Doll. It didn't end there, she wanted to show me off to Karen in the Pharmacy a tall leggy brunette. She was bubbly and almost flirtatious and asked If she could take a picture. I told her only if she was in it too. Inez the sweet little lady took our picture together with Karen's phone and I'm sure within seconds of leaving the store my picture was plastered all over Karen's Social Network.
All in all it was a fun evening.
This would be my contribution to throwback Thursday.
When I was a very young child, I had a dream where I was standing in front of an opened two-paneled bay window in a spacious room. I was wearing a white dress, and my arms were outstretched. From my hands, cats and birds and other animals flew from my hands up into the blue sky. Everything was extremely bright, almost blinding. This piece reminds me of that.
Do you have any dreams that have stuck with you since childhood? If you feel comfortable sharing, what were they about? Why do you think you still remember it after all these years? What about it made it so impactful?
Also, sidenote question: Has anyone else been having super vivid dreams lately? I've been having consistently vivid and bizarre dreams since my solar return back in early November. So maybe it's that. But I have also heard a few other people say they are having super intense dreams as of late as well. Something rippling through the collective unconscious, perhaps? Let me know!
Find Me Elsewhere:
I was pleasantly surprised to have a lovely spacious room in the hotel, which was on the first floor. I guess ours was bigger because it was a triple room - JJ's bed was behind me.
I loved the painting on the headboard behind, but I can't find the painter when I google it. Can anyone clarify it for me?
Circumstances resulted in us being upgraded to a very spacious room at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dún Laoghaire, which boasted a view towards the harbour. I felt it was only right to take the opportunity to capture the fine view through the window.
Best viewed LARGE on Black: bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=3624087583&size...
Last summer, we decided to look for a better way to arrive in England after years of landing at Gatwick after an overnight flight with no sleep and taking the Express into crowded, noisy London. I found this garden B&B in the May, 2007, issue of English Garden Magazine. The efficient owner, Frances, arranged to have a taxi driver meet us outside customs/baggage pickup, holding up a sign with our last name. Our flight landed at 6:30 AM, and by 8:00 we were sitting in the breakfast area of Copyhold Hollow resting while Frances fixed us a wonderful breakfast. By 9:00 we were relaxing in our spacious room enjoying a view across the meadows, and by noon, we were refreshed and walking up the lane to nearby Borde Hill Gardens, where we spent the early afternoon and had a very nice light lunch. The whole experience was a luxurious, civilized way to begin our trip, for about the same price as our small, noisy room near Victoria Station on our last night before flying home. The Haywards Heath rail station, with good connections to London, Brighton, and almost everywhere else in Southeast England, was a five minute cab ride away, although we discovered a 40 minute walk to the station through the public golf course that we enjoyed. www.copyholdhollow.co.uk/
Derinkuyu also known as Elengubu, is an ancient multi-level underground city near the modern town of Derinkuyu in Nevşehir Province, Turkey, extending to a depth of approximately 85 metres (280 ft). It is large enough to have sheltered as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found throughout Cappadocia.
The underground city at Derinkuyu could be closed from the inside with large rolling stone doors. Each floor could be closed off separately.
The room with the barrel-vaulted ceiling, possibly a school
The city could accommodate up to 20,000 people and had amenities found in other underground complexes across Cappadocia, such as wine and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and chapels. Unique to the Derinkuyu complex is a spacious room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling located on the second floor. It has been reported that this room was used as a religious school and the rooms to the left were studies.
An abstract like shot of a globe standing in a spacious room. I thought it would be an interesting subject, something I've never photographed before. 😃
The complexe cathédral (“Cathedral compound”) in Le puy-en-Velay is made up of multiple buildings arranged in an indeed complex manner, to which the various remodelings and additions undertaken over the centuries have added another layer of intricacy.
The building which was meant to house the clergeons, or choirboys, was built above the eastern gallery of the canons’ cloister. Within the same wing were the personal lodgings of the Dean of the canons, which also served as an office of sorts for the Dean, as well as reception rooms.
The spacious room I am showing today is out of bounds to the general public. It used to be the main sitting room of the Dean. When he was on duty (as I already mentioned, the canons were secular, not regular, which implies, inter alia, that their continued presence was not requested), he would spent time here, entertain guests, have his meals, do his correspondence and more generally attend to his duties. The chapter of canons of the cathedral was a very powerful body and its Dean was one of the most prominent persons in the city. As most of the other canons, the Dean also had a private residence in town, and probably a more luxurious one.
I was quite happy to be invited to view this room, and even more so with a very knowledgeable guide who made the visit all the more enjoyable with his detailed accounts of how life must have been for the Dean of canons, back in the Middle Ages.
This room was occupied by clerics until the late 1960s. It is, as we say in French, “in its juices”, meaning in the state it was originally, having never been restored, except for the removal of several successive coats of whitewash and paint that had been applied over the centuries, until the Mediæval alfresco painting were exposed again.
A detailed view of the painted motif from the early 1200s.
The Westin Bellevue Hotel Dresden (since has become Bilderberg Bellevue Hotel Dresden) is the best and most elegant hotel that I've ever stayed. And it wasn't expensive when I booked it. My room cost only EUR 84 per night including all fees and taxes.
Very spacious room by European standard, large bed, large bathroom, a proper desk and plenty of space for luggage and souvenir storage :D
xxxxx
Dresden, Germany (formerly East Germany).
Posting a series of images taken within a couple of hours after arriving in Dresden by train from Hamburg in April 2019. This is the Innere Neustadt (Inner Newtown) neighbourhood just a few minutes' walk from the hotel that I stayed.
We picked up our rental car at Charles DeGaulle Airport on a busy Monday morning and headed northwest, away from Paris. In 90 minutes our GPS had led us to this quiet, idyllic place and our spacious room was ready. We were able to get a nice long nap to help get over the jet lag from our overnight flight, and then we enjoyed a superb early dinner at Giverny's Hotel Baudy, home of many Impressionist painters in the late 1800's. Valerie was the perfect hostess (speaking excellent English) and everything about our stay here was first class at a cost much lower than anything we could have found in Paris. We highly recommend it!
"Situated on the hills above Giverny, on the edge of the woods and orchards, La Reserve invites you to stay in one of it’s five rooms, all overlooking the garden.
The Reserve is a charming Bed and Breakfast where Valerie and Francois Jouyet, and sometimes their children, will give you a friendly and generous welcome, over a glass of their homemade cider or a cup of tea.
This long building of 600 square metres, set-down in a clearing of 5 hectares, is an oasis of idyllic calm, preserved from the nearby hustle and bustle of tourists in the Impressionism Museum and Claude Monet’s Gardens.
The breakfasts, served in the large family dining room, are always appreciated : fresh fruit skewers, fresh orange juice, yoghurts and cottage cheese from “La Ferme du Pré” (whose cows graze in La Reserve’s fields), our baker : Aux Ducs de Normandie” for excellent bread and pastries, our home-made jams, without forgetting the delicious and unique “caramel de Pommes” !
The large homely lounge (like in a friend’s house) is the ideal place on your return from visits. Sitting by the stone fireplace, with a good book, and close to the billiard table or piano, you will share happy moments with the other guests.
The bedrooms, all decorated differently, offer refinement, authenticity and comfort. Our bed and breakfast reflects the special charm of the 18th century and our mission is to share with you the gentle and leisurely pace of times gone by."
.....
Nestled among hills just outside of Amman in Wadi Al-Seer is a quaint village filled with ancient stone secrets. Iraq al-Amir, which means “Caves of the Prince” in Arabic, is home to more than 10 caves that have been inhabited by various groups since the Copper Age, as well as the ruins of an Ozymandian castle.
One of these caves is lined with what appears to be seats, fit for a feast or a meeting; another has a more sepulchral appearance, divided by low stone walls into cubicles approximately the length of a supine adult; still another has a high ceiling over what appears to be carved walls, enclosing a spacious room that could have housed several families. While nobody permanently inhabits these caves anymore, shepherds do occasionally keep sheep or donkeys in them. These dark caverns are also home to numerous bats.
Nearby Qasr al-‘Abed (“Palace of the Slave” in Arabic) was built by Hyrcanus, the governor of Ammon in the 2nd century BCE. Some people speculate that “slave” refers to Hyrcanus’s role in public service, which rendered him a “slave to the people.” Others believe that it references his subservience to the king; after all, during that time, what is now Jordan was caught in the power struggle between the Seleucids and Ptolemies.
A description of the cave is recounted in the writing of the 1st-century historian Flavius Josephus, whose book describes a large white castle into which “animals of a prodigious magnitude” were carved. It notes that at one point, the castle was surrounded by canals of water. While traces of the ancient moat are no longer visible to the amateur eye, any visitor to Qasr al-‘Abed can see that the structure is indeed decorated with carvings of lions. Though worn smooth by years of rain and wind, they still stand out prominently from the rest of the castle wall.
Although the fortress was quite severely damaged in the earthquake of 362, it was restored by the 1990s. Surrounded by verdant hills and wildflowers, it’s a popular day trip for locals, who, in late spring and during the summer, often have barbecues nearby.
Mugbil Al-Thukair was likely photographed in his bedchamber at his house in Manama, sitting on a prayer rug with a pious wistful countenance in a dapper embroidered silk Jubbah (open coat) and an ornate Cashmere Ghutra Shawl (headdress) fastened with the obsolete thick Najdi Agal (headband), the distinctive formal attire once worn by wealthy Arab merchants and tribal chieftains in Central Arabia and the northern Arabian Gulf in the early twentieth century as Al-Thukair supposedly was facing a Victorian colonial Anglo-Indian Raj four-poster teak wood bed (palang) surrounded by all the trappings of wealth typifying the lifestyle of a Gulf-rich pearl merchant and his household at the time, such as the open Indian teak wood wardrobe cabinet with an inside mirrored door on the left where a visible Cashmere Ghutra Shawl hangs from an open wardrobe drawer, a Victorian glass-shaded gas lamp in the right corner next to a pendulum clock in the back of a reclining wooden cane chair with its vertically striped cushion and several sitting chairs stacked high with books together with a variety of Persian rugs and carpets strewn across the floor during Jacques Cartier's second extended visit to Bahrain (from the 14th to the 26th of March 1912) the focal point of his Arabian Gulf pearl purchasing trip on Thursday, the 16th of March, 1912.
(Mugbil Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thukair was born in 1844 in the rural town of Unaizah in the Al-Qassim region in northern Najd, Central Arabia as Al-Qassim has always been considered the agricultural heartland of the Arabian Peninsula known since pre-Islamic times as the "Alimental Basket" or granary of Arabia for its abundant agricultural assets into a prestigious erudite family of merchants widespread across Arabia and the Fertile Crescent with a trading history that could be traced back to the early eighteenth century from a young age Al-Thukair was endowed with natural business acumen combined with deep intellectual and literary interests following in the footsteps of generations of his family's enterprising male offspring which drove him first in 1867 at the tender age of 23 to the prosperous port town of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast of Arabia with its bustling market and cosmopolitan outlook the obvious first choice for any ambitious young man from the hinterlands of Arabia mainly Najd in those days where he began to establish himself as a budding young merchant at the same time exploring any potential business opportunities in the port cities and towns of the Near East (Middle East) and those in the neighbouring Indian subcontinent principally in the newly British-founded port city of Bombay (Mumbai), the quickly burgeoning commercial hub on the Arabian Sea, the main western gateway to India and the key gathering place for Arab merchants and their families from Arabia in the subcontinent forming a dynamic expatriate Arab community that would continue to exist from the mid-nineteenth century until India's independence from Britain in 1947 Bombay also provided a good head start for scores of young merchants from the Arabian Peninsula at the time some of whom became well-known household business names across the region most notably Alireza of Jeddah, Alghanim, Al-Kharafi and Alshaya of Kuwait among others, spurring young Al-Thukair to learn Hindi, the pre-oil seafaring age's business lingua franca in the Arabian Peninsula since the majority of Arabia's trade passed through Indian entrepôts and in due course he became proficient in the essential business language, the thriving port city of Basra in southern Iraq was yet another desirable alternative business opportunity for Al-Thukair, a familiar business destination for his family for many decades and a second adopted domicile for several family members as Iraq's only maritime gateway to the rest of the world often visited by him in the early to mid-1870s while en route to Iraq's only port on the Arabian Gulf his ship would stop at Bahrain one of the three major ports of Arabia in the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century (the other two were Aden and Jeddah) allowing him during the few hours interval between passengers and cargo disembarkation and embarkation to wander around the town of Manama the cosmopolitan commercial hub on the main island of the Bahraini archipelago examining closely along the way Manama's ethnically diverse purveyors of bountiful goods from all over the world meanwhile assessing the business possibilities of the Bahraini market especially its booming pearl trade prompting him to dabble in the lucrative commodity with great success as part of his general trading business interests and after spending ten years in the coastal town of Jeddah now as a seasoned well-established general merchant Bahrain beckoned as the centre of the pearl trade in the Arabian Gulf and beyond a pioneering position consolidated by possessing in its northern waters the richest pearl oyster beds in the Gulf renowned worldwide for producing the finest quality pearls for their iridescent lustre, size and variety of colours making it the place of choice for anyone wishing to try his luck in the pearl business back then which was the mainstay of the Arabian Gulf economy prior to the discovery of oil similarly sundry of his Central Arabian Najdi merchant counterparts from the austere Arabian inland such as Algosaibi, Al-Ajaji, Al-Qadi and Al-Bassam were lured to Bahrain by the country's newfound political stability following the accession of the young, astute and literarily inclined Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa (1848-1932) to the throne in 1869 ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity after decades of turmoil and instability as reflected in the renewed confidence and heightened profitability prospects of the Bahraini pearl market driven by increasing international demand particularly in the West for high-quality natural pearls from the Arabian Gulf as rapidly soaring demand propelled pearl prices to unprecedented heights against such a heady backdrop Al-Thukair decided in 1877 at the age of 33 to relocate to Bahrain with his immediate family consisting of his wife and two young sons Abdullatif and Abdulmuhsin, a decision that would change his life forever Bahrain with its lush date palm groves and freshwater springs proved to be more suitable to his agrarian temperament than arid Jeddah though comparable to its vibrant multicultural and multi-ethnic society as it was the closest thing to a second home for the mature aspiring and assiduous merchant after his beloved birthplace of Unaizah within a matter of years after arriving in the small island country he managed to become a leading pearl merchant and a highly esteemed public figure well-known for his philanthropic disposition, honest dealings, impeccable integrity and intellectual prowess so much so that he was dubbed "The Pride of Merchants" by the Bahraini business community he also took on the role of honorary chairman of the Manama business community and the titular head of the Najdi diaspora in Bahrain as a natural progression of his tremendous entrepreneurial successes and admirable character traits due to this exalted social position and the large network of highly influential personages he cultivated throughout the region Al-Thukair became increasingly sought-after as an arbiter of disputes including those of a political nature in Bahrain and elsewhere in the region but among the scattered instances of his arbitration cases in the declassified annual Gulf reports from the British Archives, the following case from the latter stage of his life in Bahrain is one of the most striking examples of his high-level arbitrations when a family of illustrious clerics and judges resorted to his fair arbitration at the request of Ibrahim one of the two younger brothers of Bahrain's highest religious Muslim authority for nearly half a century the eminent cleric and unofficial supreme judge Sheikh Qasim Al Mehza (1847-1941) dubbed the "chief judge" unanimously by adherents of both Sunni and Shiite cross-sectarian Muslim denominations of Bahraini society for his scholarly knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence to intercede between the two younger siblings one of whom Ahmed was a highly respected cleric in his own right the first Bahraini graduate of the Al-Azhar of Cairo in 1887 and ironically their elder brother the highly learned cleric and judge Sheikh Qasim, here is the next slightly edited citation from the British Gulf residency report of 1912 concerning local Bahraini affairs from 1st to 30th September, exact date unspecified (A difference over the ownership of a plot of land and a shop recently arose between Sheikh Qasim Bin Mehza and his two brothers Ahmed and Ibrahim and the two parties were not on speaking terms. At the request of Ibrahim, Sheikh Mugbil and Yusuf Kanoo intervened and succeeded in arranging a comprise) correspondingly he was acting as an unpaid adviser, interlocutor and mediator to some of the Arabian Peninsula's rulers as attested by one of the earliest documented references to Al-Thukair in the British Archives in late 1888 and early 1889 where he was linked to a series of accounts dealing with the recurring violent hostilities between the neighbouring Sheikhdoms of Qatar and Abu Dhabi in which he acted as a go-between on behalf of Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani (r. 1868-1913) the first British-recognised Qatari ruler independent of Bahraini suzerainty and founder of the Al-Thani ruling dynasty to help broker a peaceful settlement between the two parties and other key players in the conflict including the Al Rasheed the then rulers of Arabia's northern region of Ha'il and their Ottoman backers both of whom intervened on behalf of the Qatari side, from early in his middle age Al-Thukair earned recognition as an ethical impartial figure and a reliable confidant to several rulers in the Arabian Gulf as demonstrated in numerous instances in this mini-biography, the following two edited extracts are part of a comprehensive report on the latter stage of the long-drawn fitful hostilities between Qatar and Abu Dhabi covering the period from March 1888 to June 1890 compiled by the British Gulf residency in Bushehr Persia (Iran) on the bloody conflict which involved lengthy correspondence between the British political agent in Bahrain and his superior the political resident in Bushehr where Al-Thukair is frequently mentioned, a conflict that started as a random mid-sea raid by Qatari corsairs on an Abu Dhabi-owned pearl fishing vessel in Qatari waters killing the entire crew presumably around the year 1880 setting off a prolonged and fierce enmity between Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (r. 1855-1909) ruler of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani (r. 1868-1913) ruler of Qatar spiralling into a cycle of uncontrollable atrocious carnage and depredation reprisals manifested in the thrice sacking of the Qatari capital Doha with the final attack claiming the life of Sheikh Qasim's son Ali and multiple raids on the sedentary communities in Abu Dhabi's western region of Al Dhafra and other towns between 1880 and 1892 the first extract is a full-text letter while the second consists of the last two paragraphs of a longer more detailed letter the first of which is as follows (No. 10, dated the 20th January 1889. From-The Residency Agent, Bahrain. To-The Political Resident, Arabian Gulf. After compliments. I beg to send herewith a copy of a letter sent by Qasim Bin Thani (ruler of Qatar) to the Chief (ruler) of Bahrain with a special messenger who has also brought a number of other letters giving welcome tidings to Muhammad Bin Abdulwahab (Al-Faihani), Mugbil (Al-Thukair) and (Abdulrahman) Bin Aidan; and mentioning the number of people who were slain out of the inhabitants of Liwa (the Al Dhafra region is centred on the large Liwa Oasis in Abu Dhabi's westernmost domain); viz., 520 persons; and that they took from them large booty and numerous camels and that Sheikh Qasim returned safely with his army. I hear from reports that Sheikh Qasim lost 8 men killed. Others say 48, others again 110. But as yet there is no correct report as since the arrival of this messenger no one has come from Qatar owing to heavy "shemall" (northern gusty) winds. It is stated that Sheikh Qasim has not yet reached Al-Bidda (Doha). I hear that Isa Bin Ziyab a cousin of Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalifa (Al Nahyan) has arrived in Bahrain from Abu Dhabi and interviewed the Chief (ruler of Bahrain). According to what he says there are not so many people at Liwa and that Sheikh Zayed had not received any report of Sheikh Qasim's proceedings from Qatar to Liwa or any other place. I shall make further reports when I receive any fresh news) the second extract is as follows (No. 52, dated the 28th of March 1889. From-The Residency Agent, Bahrain. To-The Political Resident, Arabian Gulf. I have seen a letter from Qasim (ruler of Qatar) to Mugbil (Al-Thukair) in which the writer says that he is prepared to meet Zayed (ruler of Abu Dhabi) and that he is not afraid of his advance; on the contrary that he will himself march out to attack Zayed in case the latter should not advance against him. In that letter he also wishes Mugbil to believe that Ibn Rasheed (ruler of Ha'il in northern Arabia) will not fail to fulfil his promise. The date of this letter is 17th March. It is apparent that Qasim wrote that letter before the arrival of Nafi (Ibn Rasheed messenger) My own opinion is that if the news about Zayed's advance be true and also that if Qasim be supported by the Turkish soldiers, Zayed's forces will have hard work before them; for Qasim is regardless of expense and the Turkish soldiers are greedy as is known. Their number at Al-Bidda (Doha) is 250) the previous references were among several in this special report to Al-Thukair's top-level intermediation in this particular bloody conflict a small sample of his early political intermediation in regional affairs that would last until he unwillingly left his second adopted homeland Bahrain in mid-1917 but in connection with his frequent interactions with the rulers of the Arabian Peninsula the most significant of those were Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa (r. 1869-1932) of Bahrain, Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani (r. 1868-1913) of Qatar and Abdulaziz Ibn Saud (r. 1902-1953) ruler of Najd and its dependencies who was styled as such from the 13th of January 1902 onwards after the subtle young industrious scion of the House of Saud succeeded in recapturing the ancestral seat of power of his forefathers, the then small town of Riyadh from the bellicose Ottoman-backed Al Rasheed ruling clan of the northern Arabian region of Ha'il in an audacious dawn attack, the future king of what would become the sprawling Kingdom of Saudi Arabia perceptibly in the course of time Al-Thukair became such a revered sage that the ruler of Bahrain Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa asked him to be one of the signatories of a solemn pledge of allegiance deed to his eldest surviving son the 24-year-old newly appointed crown prince and future ruler Sheikh Hamad (r. 1932-1942) on 8th October 1896 following the untimely death of his eldest son and heir apparent Salman near Riyadh in Najd Central Arabia three years earlier on his exhausting and perilous land journey home from the Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca during the formal investiture ceremony for the crown prince an honour reserved for only a select few high-ranking merchants from the highest echelons of the Bahraini business community who were recognised as pillars of society outside the ranks of senior members of the ruling family, tribal chieftains and the clergy amongst whom were Hussain Bin Salman Matar (1817-1911) and Ahmed Bin Muhammed Kanoo (1835-1905) as for Al-Thukair's aforementioned special relationship with Ibn Saud the marriage of his niece Lulwa the daughter of his brother Yahya to Ibn Saud solidified that relationship enabling him to negotiate on behalf of Ibn Saud a favourable agreement with the Ottomans on the withdrawal of their garrison from the Al-Hasa Oasis and its environs in eastern Arabia which would later become part of Saudi Arabia's eastern province as Ibn Saud was poised to take control of the oasis in mid-1914 soon before the outbreak of World War One given that by the year 1890 more than a decade after his arrival in Bahrain Al-Thukair had begun to pursue in earnest his profound and ardent passion for spreading knowledge and learning an indelible lifelong characteristic of his initially by starting a literary salon at his house in Manama similar to that of his friend, the classical poet and intellectual Sheikh Ibrahim bin Muhammad Al Khalifa who was the first cousin of the ruler of Bahrain and to the literary salons of several educated and well-travelled merchants and ruling family members in both Manama and Muharraq, the latter was Bahrain's political capital from 1810 to 1923 however the literary salon of Al-Thukair was rather different from its local counterparts in that it was more educationally oriented than the others by allocating a well-furnished spacious room in his house as a permanent location for the salon equipped with a relatively sizable varied library whose contents were kept in its wall alcoves as it was the antecedent of his most ambitious cultural and educational project ever the "Bahrain Literary Society" twenty-three years later since those literary salons (clubs) collectively played a discernible educational role as they were haunts for the knowledge-hungry local literate young men prior to the establishment of formal education following the end of the First World War furthermore Sheikh Ibrahim requested Al-Thukair to be the principal supplier of Arabic periodicals in Bahrain by making use of his network of regional business agents to acquire popular newspapers and magazines from the Levant and Egypt, therefore he took it upon himself to supply all of the needs for published materials of other literary salons as a courtesy moving in the same vein he also vigorously sponsored the publication of seminal literary and theological works from the Arab Islamic mediaeval heritage along with non-formal charity schooling and public libraries well-stocked with diverse books and respected periodicals largely from the Levant and Egypt (such as Al-Muqtataf, Al-Mu'ayyad, Al-Hilal, Al-Manar and others) in both Bahrain and his birthplace of Unaizah in addition to his educational and cultural dissemination efforts he was acutely sensitive to the daily hardships of ordinary impoverished and marginalised people as evidenced by the next edited excerpt from the 1910 British Gulf residency report (Almas, Negro the Confidential Adviser of Sheikh Isa (ruler of Bahrain) died on 11th January and was replaced by Ali Bin Abdullah (Al-Obaidli) on the advice of Ali Bin Abdullah, Sheikh Isa called upon house owners to produce the sanads (Arabic singular title deed: سند, Romanised English plural: sanads) in virtue of which they held their property on their failing to do so they were evicted and no consideration was paid to the period of possession, Sheikh Mugbil Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thukair protested to Sheikh Isa against this measure as it pressed hardly on the poor the protest had the desired effect and the Sheikh (ruler) promised to refrain from such actions in the future) the abrogation of the ruler's decree in the past incident is the definitive indication of the unflinching deference accorded to Al-Thukair by everyone who came into contact with him from those in power to the ordinary man in the street he was also involved in a wide range of philanthropic activities that were not confined to the conventional charity act of almsgiving since he was a practical man who took a number of practical steps to assuage human suffering in any way he could defying common human prejudices among his various practical philanthropic contributions in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf was the commissioning of a water well next to his house in Manama around the year 1900 akin to the undertakings of prominent fellow local pearl merchants Salman Bin Hussain Matar (1837-1944) and Muhammad Bin Rashid Bin Hindi (1850-1934) of Muharraq who attempted to alleviate some of the freshwater supply predicament that plagued Bahrain's urban dwellers predominantly those of Manama and Muharraq the two main densely populated towns in the small island nation at the turn of the twentieth century where the majority of the population had difficulty securing their daily domestic supply of freshwater owing to the lack of potable drinking water infrastructure in Bahrain and much of the Near East as in other parts of the globe including some of the underdeveloped regions of the Western world in the early part of the twentieth century despite the fact that Bahrain had abundant freshwater resources unlike some of its Arab Gulf neighbours a small example of the central socioeconomic roles that rich mercantile elites played throughout Arab polities in the Arabian Gulf before the discovery of oil and the subsequent establishment of the modern welfare state Al-Thukair also tended to the spiritual needs of the inhabitants of his neighbourhood in Manama at roughly the same time he commissioned the water well he financed the renovation of an old dilapidated bijou Mosque in the vicinity of his house dating back to the late seventeen hundreds placing a nearby shop he owned as a charitable endowment for the Mosque which the locals of the area after him affectionately called Mugbil Mosque even though he was not its original builder he was also instrumental in locally funding the construction of Bahrain's second hospital after the opening of the "American Mission Hospital" in Manama on 26th January 1903 at the request of the British to fulfil their envisaged "Victoria Memorial Hospital" between 1902 and its formal opening on 9th November 1906 to commemorate the late Queen Victoria (defunct since 1948) situated in the Ras Rumman area in Manama south of the British political agency (present-day British Embassy) by rallying other leading merchants to contribute to this vital medical project as Bahrain was in desperate need of a quarantine medical facility to combat the rampant spread of recurring deadly epidemics specifically plague, cholera and typhus as reported in the British Gulf residency report of 1902 this is a slightly edited excerpt from the detailed report dated 23rd August 1902 by J. C. Gaskin, Esq, Assistant Political Agent, Bahrain where Gaskin was delegated by his superiors in the British Indian government the task of securing funds for the proposed hospital locally by taking the pulse of the local mercantile elite through cosying up to rich merchants chief among them Al-Thukair to enlist their financial assistance in building the hospital, stated as follows (I would venture to report that since the receipt of your communication I have spoken on the subject to some of the leading native merchants and from their replies to me I got the impression that they would give liberal donations towards the hospital: and subsequently Haji Mugbil Al-Thukair the leading Bahraini merchant called on me and offered to subscribe R1,000. (One thousand rupees) Haji Mugbil's handsome offer will influence the native merchants who usually follow his lead) in recognition of his role in securing local funding for the hospital British colonial authorities invited Al-Thukair along with other donors to the hospital opening ceremony, the following edited excerpt from the British Gulf residency report for the year 1906-1907 formulated by the British political agent in Bahrain Captain F. B. Prideaux sheds light on the event (on the 9th November 1906 advantage was taken of the presence of the Political Resident (Major P. Z. Cox) in the Arabian Gulf to hold a public meeting for the opening of the Victoria Memorial Charitable Hospital nearly all the contributors to the Rs. 21,000 which the construction had cost were present on the occasion as were also the Chief (ruler) of Bahrain and his sons after the Resident had delivered a short extempore speech, the leading Arab merchant Haji Mugbil Al-Thukair read a reply expressing gratitude to the British Government for their interest in and protection of Bahrain and wishing long life to the Ruler Sheikh Isa Bin Ali) for some the antagonistic stance of Al-Thukair towards the British as expounded in detail further in the text seemed contradictory as he gladly collaborated with them in their efforts to secure funding for the construction of the said hospital in tandem with their other measures to improve public sanitation and hygiene to help curb the spread of virulent diseases in Bahrain's two major towns Manama and Muharraq as he saw his sporadic cooperation with the advanced British in a different light as he would endorse any attempt to better the lives of ordinary Bahrainis even if it meant occasionally cooperating with a foreign colonial power he vehemently opposed in that sense he was a modern practical man, it could not be denied that the least tangible of his philanthropic efforts but perhaps the most life-changing for those affected by it was the hidden assistance he rendered in paying off the debts of struggling insolvent merchants in Bahrain and across the Arabian Gulf with a special priority given to his own debtors who either had their debts temporarily reprieved or cancelled altogether as in this revealing slightly edited citation from the 1913 British Gulf residency report asserting the regional scope of his business interests dated 5th of May 1913 stating as follows (Sheikh Qasim Bin Thani (ruler) of Qatar has asked Yusuf Kanoo to use his influence with Sheikh Mugbil Al-Thukair in bringing about an amiable settlement between the latter and his Qatar debtors who are unable to pay their debts on account of the dullness of the pearl market) second only to Bahrain's preeminent pearl merchant of all time dubbed by the Bahraini people "Father of orphans and protector of widows" for his unequalled altruism and magnanimity Salman Bin Hussain Matar, yet his most important legacy was the founding in mid-1913 of the first officially recognised Literary Society in Bahrain as touched upon earlier located in close proximity to the American Mission Bible Bookshop in Manama on what is now Sheikh Isa Al Kabeer (Isa the Great) Avenue in its own special-purpose premises inaugurated under his patronage and with the full endorsement of the ruler of Bahrain Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa and the moral support of a number of local literary figures and dignitaries led by Bahrain's foremost literary figure in the early twentieth century the acclaimed classical poet Sheikh Ibrahim Bin Muhammad Al Khalifa (1850-1933) in conjunction with Al-Thukair's younger and trusted energetic friend, the influential comprador merchant and shrewd entrepreneur founder and sole owner of Bahrain's first Western-style Bank in 1890 a true man of the world the maverick Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo (1861-1945) this society was not merely an ordinary Literary Society but a modern educational institution in the true sense of the word a wellspring of radiance for the Bahraini people at the time comprising an extensive library, a school for teaching Arabic, English, mathematics and Islamic theology and a lecture hall ably managed by the gifted 33-year-old Al-Azhar graduate educator Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Mana (1882-1965) who would become the first chairman of the Directorate of Knowledge (Ministry of Education) in the newly-established Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the future judge and Grand Mufti (jurisconsult) of Qatar handpicked by Al-Thukair to undertake the onerous task of transforming this institution into a beacon of enlightenment and forward-thinking in a short period of time one of the many cultural contributions of the educated and enlightened Bahraini business elite who were at the vanguard of modernity and progress in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century through their previously mentioned literary salons but also through their lesser-known but no less important financing of numerous free of charge non-formal local schooling initiatives as those were among the earliest semi-modern organised educational institutions to tackle the prevalent illiteracy in Bahrain other than the existing traditional Quranic schools strikingly among the several non-formal schools of the time one stood out as the first female-founded charity school in Bahrain and most likely the entire Gulf established on the island of Muharraq the former capital of Bahrain in 1887 by the noblewoman and philanthropist heiress Sheikha Saida Bint Bishr (1834-1892) who defied all expectations of traditional domestic roles for women in the highly patriarchal society of late-nineteenth-century Bahrain by allocating the revenue of a date palm orchard she owned in Manama as an endowment for the school eponymously named after her nevertheless some of the independent charity schools date back to the early part of the nineteenth century since the earliest recorded charity school in Bahrain was that of Sheikh Isa Bin Rashid in Muharraq in 1829 an eminent cleric of the Island of Muharraq predating the reign of Sheikh Isa by forty years however this proliferation of educational initiatives noticeably in the last third of the nineteenth century was the fruit of the long-lasting stability of Sheikh Isa's reign the role of the Bahraini business elite was not limited to just paving the way for the establishment of modern education but also was directly involved in the development of Western-influenced formal education leading to the opening of the first elementary school for boys in Muharraq in 1919 followed by another for girls in 1928 also in Muharraq with a nine-year gap where some of the senior members of the said elite (such as Matar, Algosaibi, Al-Zayani and Fakhro) served on the first governmental educational regulatory body in the modern history of the country the education supervisory committee (the forerunner of the Ministry of Education) which oversaw the development of the nascent government's educational system chaired by Sheikh Abdullah (1883-1966) the youngest son of the ruler of Bahrain in the honorary position of minister of education, the first and only local state official to hold such a position under British colonial rule in Bahrain this exception was made due to the high status of its occupant considering he was the son of the ruler since the office of a minister was a symbol of sovereignty in an independent sovereign state which was not the case with Bahrain an office he would continue to occupy until his death in 1966 the education committee continued as the main financial backer of education in Bahrain by financing the construction of schools across the country since its formation in 1919 until the mid-1930s when the Bahraini government became financially self-sufficient per to stable oil export revenues lastly allowing the government to replenish its empty coffers and permanently resolving the protracted financial problems that had beset the Bahraini government for decades rendering it a thing of the past simultaneously with the establishment of formal education in 1919 another milestone was the creation of the first partially elected municipal councils in both Manama and Muharraq which were dominated by elected and appointed senior members of the Bahraini business elite who played a crucial role in sponsoring a number of infrastructure projects in the country including the Manama port project in 1919 as in the pre-oil era throughout the Gulf as the 1920s and 1930s saw the gradual emergence of the modern Bahraini bureaucratic centralised state with enhanced good governance replacing the obsolete centuries-old mediaeval fiefdom system an inexorable obstacle to human development in the rapidly industrialised world of the early twentieth century, it would be misleading not to mention the facilitating quintessential role of Britain in bringing those reforms to fruition represented by the four most influential British colonial administrators and officers in the British colonial history of Bahrain whose contributions to the establishment of modern Bahrain could not be ignored or underestimated under any circumstances serving consecutively one after the other starting with the delicate and focal preliminary task of the wily Arabist and orientalist military commander and intelligence officer Captain N. N. E. Bray (1885-1962) as a political agent in Bahrain from November 1918 to June 1919 with clear directives to "seek the amelioration of the internal government by indirect and pacific means and by gaining the confidence and trust of the Sheikh (ruler)" followed by Major H. R. P. Dickson (1881-1959) with a brief yet extremely productive tenure from 1919 to 1920 before serving as a political agent in Kuwait from 1929 to 1936 then succeeded by the demoted from Colonel to Major for his recklessly violent behaviour in post-World War One Iraq, inadvertently responsible for single-handedly igniting the first spark of what would become "The Iraqi revolt against the British" also known as the 1920 Iraqi Revolt or the Great Iraqi Revolution, the disgraced Anglo-Irish Clive Kirkpatrick Daly (1888-1966) and his divisive and controversial tenure in office from 1921 to 1926 and finally Charles D. Belgrave (1894-1969) who served as an administrator and financial adviser to the ruler of Bahrain in the newly created office of "Adviser" intended to eclipse the unpopular position of the political agent which had been stigmatised by its association with Daly's heavy-handed colonial rule, Belgrave's long tenure from 1926 to 1957 is seen by historians as a consolidation of the modernising reforms of his predecessors particularly Daly, whom Belgrave held in high regard; these reforms evidently gained more momentum with the steady flow of oil revenues following the discovery of the essential commodity in 1932 as all four carefully chosen highly competent and hardy tricenarian Arabist officers were assigned by the British Government with specific instructions to introduce all required administrative reforms at their own discretion in line with the broader British regional strategy of placating the growing social discontent among the disenfranchised lower classes by redressing the pressing multigenerational injustices in Bahraini society specifically in the semi-feudal systems of pearl fishing indentured workers and agricultural farmers coordinating their reforms with the financial and moral support of the cooperative Bahraini business elite under such circumstances the first batch of reforms in education, municipal and fiscal sectors was implemented almost immediately after Bray's assisting initiative by Dickson, whereas customs, judiciary, police and land reforms fell to the authoritarian Daly while Belgrave is credited with creating several new government departments including the "Directorate of Religious Endowments" in 1927 his first significant reform after assuming office as a financial adviser to stem the chronic unfettered corruption of some of the local clergy whom the Bahraini government entrusted to administer religious endowments (waqf) without any supervision or legal accountability followed by the slow process of his decades-long vital initiative to establish modern public utility infrastructure and grids for electricity, water and telephone services, a process which began effectively in 1928 and continued until the early 1960s he was also instrumental in securing the concession that led to the discovery of oil in 1932 but his everlasting achievement was the founding of the "Minors Funds Directorate" in 1932 to protect the inheritance rights of orphans and widows, a life-changing cross-sectarian institution in the service of the Bahraini people operating without interruption since its inception, the first governmental institution of its kind in Bahrain and Belgrave's most enduring legacy however Belgrave faced fierce and persistent opposition from deeply conservative reactionary and corrupt elements within the Sunni and Shiite cross-sectarian main religious composition of Bahrain who sought to obfuscate and obstruct the introduction of such a governmental institution as those elements had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, deeming such a move as tantamount to heresy but Belgrave's dedication and perseverance prevailed in the end, sadly for many Bahrainis this remarkable feat of his remains a little-known historical fact the upcoming excerpt is one of numerous recurring instances in Belgrave's diary on this motion from 20th February 1931 until it was ratified on 15th January 1932 by the deputy ruler Sheikh Hamad less than a year before his accession to the throne on 9th December after being put forward for public debate by the government involving the wonted religious and mercantile elites of Bahraini society as alluded to earlier illustrating the great lengths Belgrave went to for the creation of this totally new governmental regulatory body with no precedent at least in Bahrain (Sunday 17th Jan 1932 Called on Yusuf Kanoo in the morning and discussed with him the question of the Proclamation which we are issuing ordering all wills to be registered with the Government and no persons to administer estates without getting permission from Government. It will to a certain extent safeguard the rights of widows and orphans who at present are being robbed wholesale) but the timing of the urgency in implementing the reforms cannot be overlooked as it coincided with the execution on the ground of the 1916 secret Sykes-Picot agreement on dividing the legacy of the vanquished Ottoman Empire between the two main World War One victorious powers, Britain and France giving birth to the ubiquitous British coined term "Middle East" recognising the fact that the Hejaz, the western region of the Arabian Peninsula where the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are located was once under direct Ottoman rule and that the Peninsula as a whole was and is still considered an extension of Iraq and the Levant in addition to achieving sustainable political stability in the Gulf as the advanced western Arabian frontier of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent the jewel in the crown of the British Empire in the final analysis the seemingly avowed altruistic goals of the reforms in Bahrain were part of the colonial "grafting process" reform assimilation policy of Britain through tactfully transplanting British hegemonic ideas into the newly formed Middle East as in other parts of the British Empire in contrast to its fellow draconian and pompous French to ensure the long-term strategic interests of Britain in the aftermath of World War One, thus everything the British undertook was to this end, Al-Thukair was concerned not only with the spread of modern learning and science but also with the introduction of modern technology in the region as he was either the first or second local to own a motor car in Bahrain in 1908 ten years before the supposed official arrival of the first motor vehicle in the country as recorded in the travel diary of international jeweller Jacques Cartier of the iconic Parisian Cartier jewellery house during his second visit to Bahrain in March 1912 among his numerous noble deeds was the utilisation of his high social status as a business doyen, arbiter of disputes and man of letters both locally and regionally in mustering financial and moral support for the Libyan resistance in the wake of the Kingdom of Italy's bloody invasion of Ottoman Libya in October of 1911 and Mussolini's subsequent genocidal fascist settler colonial regime of this vast sparsely populated North African Arab desert nation where Al-Thukair successfully raised twenty thousand rupees in relief aid donations in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf with the valuable collaboration of the motivated cleric and merchant Sheikh Abdulwahab Bin Heji Al-Zayani (1863-1925) who travelled to Lengeh (an Arab coastal town in modern-day Iran) and Dubai as part of a Gulf-wide fundraising campaign for the embattled Libyans of Tripoli to be forwarded after the end of the subscription on the steamship SS. "Patiala" on 8th July 1912 to the Ottoman Red Crescent Society in the Iraqi city of Basra to be sent from there via Egypt to Tripoli, Libya as stated in the following are slightly edited excerpts from the 1912 British Gulf residency report concerning the Turco-Italian war and domestic and regional reactions to it from February and July respectively the first describes Sheikh Abdulwahab Al-Zayani's tireless zeal for collecting donations for the Libyan cause while the second describes Al-Thukair's delivery of those donations, it was clearly a collaborative effort rather than a single individual endeavour however this is not meant to diminish the efforts of Al-Thukair as he was either the driving force behind all of those initiatives or an integral member of the majority of them the first excerpt is as follows (The Arabs of Muharraq incited by an influential Mullah Sheikh Abdulwahab (Al-Zayani) have opened a subscription list for The Red Crescent Society in order to help it in bringing succour to the wounded in Tripoli. So far about Rs. 5,000 have been collected. This sum will be largely increased if the Arabs of Manama, Budaiya and Hidd join in as they have promised to do. The same Mullah is stated to have paid visits to Lengeh and Dubai about a month ago. At Lengeh he succeeded in collecting some 5,000 rupees but met with no success at Dubai where the people were sceptical as to the probability of the money ever reaching its ostensible destination) while the second as with the first shows the British meticulous documentation of the conclusion of the initiative (Sheikh Mugbil Al-Thukair forwarded on the 8th of July per SS. "Patiala" the sum of Rs. 20,000 being the total amount of subscription raised in Bahrain for the Red Crescent Society to Basra for transmission to Tripoli via Egypt) leading to the incensing of the British colonial authorities in Bahrain against him he also played a significant role in the Bahraini relief campaign to provide financial aid to the displaced Muslim refugees of the Balkan war precipitated by the raging Turco-Italian War over Ottoman Libya the "Balkan League" was formed in 1912 under the auspices of the Russians with the aim of putting an end to the Ottoman presence in the Balkans once and for all resulting in the ethnic genocide of nearly one and a half million Balkan Muslims with more than four hundred thousand refugees fleeing to Anatolia as news of the harrowing atrocities reached Bahrain cleric and pearl merchant Sheikh Abdulwahab Bin Heji Al-Zayani referred to earlier one of Bahrain's most revered national figures in the early twentieth century the leader of the first Bahraini independence movement from Britain at the turn of the twentieth century set up a fundraising refugee relief committee with the full backing of the ruler of Bahrain Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa who launched the donation fundraiser with the generous sum of ten thousand rupees appointing Al-Thukair as secretary-treasurer of the committee who rose to the occasion by exerting immense efforts to garner financial aid for the displaced Muslim refugees by exhorting the Bahraini populace to donate to their stranded Muslim brethren through his eloquent oratorical motivational skills, thus by the end of the fundraising the accumulated amount had risen to well over a hundred and four thousand rupees a sizable sum for a tiny country the size of Bahrain in the early twentieth century Sheikh Abdulwahab Bin Heji Al-Zayani and Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo were entrusted by the committee with the task of faithfully delivering the donations to the representative of the Ottoman Governor of Iraq in the Iraqi port city of Basra on 28th December 1912 according to the 1912 report of the British political agency in Bushehr compiled by a number of political agents in the region including Captain D. L. R. Lorimer and Major A. P. Trevor both of whom served in Bahrain the following edited excerpt is part of Major Trevor's section of this thorough report written after he succeeded Lorimer as Political Agent in Bahrain on 1st November 1912 (The subscription raised by the Arabs of Bahrain for the Turkish Red Crescent Society having reached the handsome figure of Rs. 1,04,100 the amount was taken to Basra by SS. "Bahrain" (of the Arab Steamers, Limited) on 28th December by Sheikh Abdulwahab Al-Zayani and Yusuf Kanoo for despatch to the Sultan. Yusuf Kanoo stated that it was their intention to land at Bushehr and send a telegram to the Sultan stating the amount of the sum raised for the Red Crescent Fund and mentioning that it had been subscribed by the Sheikhs and people of Bahrain for the sick and wounded. The object of this telegram of course was to prevent hanky-panky on the part of the Wali (Ottoman Governor) of Basra) it should be pointed out that Sheikh Abdulwahab Al-Zayani was exiled to the Indian port city of Bombay by the British colonial authorities in Bahrain in 1923 along with several of his comrades in the Bahraini independence movement where he died and was laid to rest there in less than two years in 1925 on a similar note an oblique account related to a letter dated 11th April of the same year sent by an anonymous Indian Muslim leader requesting Al-Thukair to organise an unspecified cause relief aid campaign for the Muslims of an unnamed Indian province was included in the 1913 report of the British political agency in Bahrain demonstrating the widely acclaimed reputation he achieved through the efficacy of his fundraising campaigns however by the middle of the Great War Al-Thukair had suffered considerable losses in his pearl business wrought in part by the dire effects of war particularly on the luxury goods market but mainly attributed to British interventions aimed at undermining his business interests primarily in Bahrain as some Bahraini historical researchers concluded as a consequence of his active role in supporting the Libyan resistance movement against Italian colonialism as previously stated, needless to say from the British point of view the uncompromising character of Al-Thukair and his unequivocal stance against Western colonialism in all its forms constituted a threat to British colonial economic hegemony in the region that needed to be addressed decisively by thwarting any attempt to achieve any form of economic independence no matter how insignificant or trivial it might seem as in Al-Thukair's participation as a founding major shareholder with a five percent stake alongside several wealthy pearl merchants from Bahrain and Kuwait together with the rulers of the said countries and those of Qatar and Oman, led and chaired by the regionally famous Kuwaiti pearl merchant Jassim Bin Muhammad Al-Ibrahim (1869-1956) with the leading Bahraini pearl merchant Muhammad Bin Abdulwahab Al-Mishari (1864-1922) in the position of general manager in establishing the first truly regional Arab shareholding firm and the first fully Arab-owned ocean liner shipping company in the Arabian Gulf on 30th April 1911 "The Arab Steamers, Limited" marking a turning point in the modern history of the Gulf by putting up for the first time a medium-sized fleet of Western-built passenger steamships the next edited extract from the 1912 report of the British Gulf residency in the Persian (Iranian) coastal city of Bushehr gives an inkling of the size of the company's fleet (The Arab Steamers, Limited-This company started a service to the Arabian Gulf in July 1911 and during the past year, 18 of their steamers have called at Lengeh outwards from Bombay while 10 steamers called on the return journey from Basra) one must note that the fleet included the passenger and cargo ship "Tynesider" renamed "Faris" in early 1912 on which the Parisian jeweller Jacques Cartier (1884-1941) sailed the same year to India and the Arabian Gulf; the company's board had also named the prior mentioned respected Bahraini banker and merchant Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo as its agent in Bahrain since he was friends with most of the board members incidentally it was Yusuf Kanoo's first shipping agency in 1911, thus starting his shipping agency business which would become the posthumous cornerstone of the eponymous regional multinational Y.B.A. Kanoo conglomerate in the emerging post-Second World War Arabian Gulf oil rental economy, the following excerpt from the 1912 report of the British Gulf residency describes the sense of jubilation and pride of the Bahraini people at the arrival of the first passenger steamship of "The Arab Steamers, Limited" to bear the name Bahrain on its maiden voyage (SS. Bahrain a new acquisition of the Arab company, arrived at Bahrain on 1st March, fully dressed with flags. It was explained that the decoration was in honour of the first visit of the ship to its name-place. The name is a source of great delight to the local Arabs) apart from the legitimate premise of economic independence the real reason for the establishment of this firm was a response to the monopolistic exploitative practises and racially discriminatory colonial policies of the "British India Steam Navigation Company" (B.I.) against non-European passengers in general and Arabs in particular as attested by the exorbitant ticket prices of Arab travellers not to mention the additional cargo charges exacted on Arab-owned goods exacerbating the whole situation by barring affluent Arab first-class passengers from eating in the dining rooms and halls of its ships rightfully regarded as a disparaging and demeaning hierarchical colonial policy that posed an egregious affront to human dignity irrespective of race, colour, ethnicity or creed commonly practised by Western colonial powers of divesting non-white peoples of their humanity in order to legitimise their subjugation, unfortunately the fate of this pioneering highly successful company was tragically sealed unceremoniously in 1915 when it was sold to the "Bombay & Persia Steam Navigation Company" (The Mogul Line) as a direct result of insurmountable British pressure after less than five years of operation a pressure that began by dissuading Gulf Arab rulers from investing in such a venture while the company was still in formation under the usual infantilising colonial mendacious pretenses of catastrophic financial losses and no practical feasibility for themselves and their peoples whether in the near or distant future but their spurious discouraging attempts were in vain with the British-owned (B.I.) resorting to an all-out price war immediately after the start of the company's operations all these flagrantly malicious actions by the British helped stoke the flames of Arab patriotic sentiments to the fullest against them in the Gulf by causing Gulf Arabs and Iraqis to travel almost exclusively on the ships of "The Arab Steamers, Limited" still the company managed to command a substantial sale price total of three-quarters of a million British Indian silver rupees exactly threefold the paid-in capital from just over four years earlier given the geopolitical situation of the Great War adverse international economic conditions, sending the fragile pearl-based mono-cultural economies of the Gulf into a tailspin along with wartime restrictions on sea travel to compound matters further, the British Admiralty requisitioned one of the company's vessels, the passenger and cargo ship SS. "Budrie" formerly the SS. "Golconda" for the war effort where it ended up being scuttled as a blockship at Scapa Flow in northern Scotland on 3rd October 1915 a clear testament to the enormous success that this ill-fated company enjoyed in its short-lived existence, the following excerpt is from a thoroughly detailed report on the trade movement of Oman by Major S. G. Knox the British consul in Muscat, Oman and its de facto ruler dated 13th April 1912 on sea trade and shipping movement in and out of the country, refers to the effect of the launching of "The Arab Steamers, Limited" on freight shipping rates (The British India Company who have got the contract for the carriage of mails from and to India provide one weekly fast mail service up and down and 1 fortnightly coasting slow mail service both ways. The vessels of the Arab Steamers, Limited have also maintained a weekly service. In consequence of the weekly service maintained by the Arab Steamers, the freights to India, etc., were greatly reduced during the year and those for United States of America enhanced) the doomed fate of this company became a cautionary tale for anyone attempting to challenge British colonial economic hegemony in the region with its impact lingering for decades until the defining watershed historical moment of Britain's future role as a global power in the outcome of the 1956 Suez crisis (known as the "tripartite aggression" in the Arab world), laying bare the stark realities of the new bipolar world order and signalling the beginning of the end of British imperial presence in the Middle East incrementally superseded by American influence in all aspects nevertheless on the positive side racial discrimination, unwarranted prices and mistreatment of Arabs and non-Europeans on British passenger ships came to an end as the British realised though belatedly that such discriminatory practises could impinge on their long-term economic interests in the region epitomising British pragmatism at its finest one of the most contributing factors to the British Imperial enterprise's resounding successes over the centuries in comparison to its other European counterparts and finally culminating in the straw that broke the camel's back, Al-Thukair's staunch allegiance to the sworn enemy of Great Britain in the region the Ottoman Turks on the eve of World War One demonstrably embodied itself in his spearheading of a very large Gulf-wide fundraising campaign rivalling or even exceeding his previous ones to raise financial aid for the Ottomans with a special emphasis on enlisting the financial assistance of Arabian Gulf heads of state, leading merchants and clerics, achieving resounding success under the watchful eye of the British colonial authorities in the region confirmed by a concise reference in the British Archives to the recently deceased ruler of Qatar Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani who died on 17th July 1913 in relation to the worrying antagonistic fundraising activities of Al-Thukair the British in anticipation of the looming global conflagration of World War One (as it would be known in the West as the Great War or perhaps more idealistically as "the war to end war" the paradoxical catchphrase created by prolific English author H. G. Wells) as an inevitable conclusion in light of the fraught international situation of the escalating crisis in Europe among the newly allied powers of Britain, France and Russia since the turn of the twentieth century in the face of rising militaristic and economic power of Germany as the leader of the Central Powers alongside the Austro-Hungarians and the beleaguered Ottomans in the same previously referred to 1913 report of the British Gulf residency stated as follows (Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani has sent 25 thousand rupees to Sheikh Mugbil and Yusuf Kanoo here with instructions to send the amount to Basra. It is the subscription of the Qatar people for the Turkish relief) a war of the kind that the ailing Ottoman Empire dubbed "The Sick Man of Europe" in the West would be playing its definitive role in deciding the future of the Middle East after four centuries of imperial dominance just as war-weary Britain would be playing itself forty years later in the face of the growing new American influence in the region in the aftermath of the Second World War though in a peaceful conciliatory mode as should be the norm between close strategic partners ultimately Al-Thukair's relentless and far-reaching fervour on all fronts caught up with him forcing the venerable septuagenarian merchant to reluctantly relinquish his most rewarding and cherished achievement the "Bahrain Literary Society" resulting in its permanent closure in 1917 due to the unfortunate fact that he was the sole benefactor of this progressive institution having spared no expense on his beloved creation during its fruitful albeit brief existence followed soon thereafter by the selling of nearly all of his assets in Bahrain starting in early 1917 with virtually all his properties in Manama including his commercial buildings and four houses to his friend and equal in character and exalted social stature the prominent pearl merchant Salman Bin Hussain Matar (1837-1944) and ending with his most prized possession his huge date palm orchard named "Tinar" on the outskirts of Manama near the historic Al-Khamis Mosque which he sold to his fellow countryman and successor in heading the Najdi community of Bahrain and Ibn Saud's local representative the notable pearl merchant Abdulaziz Bin Hassan Algosaibi (1876-1953) shortly before his final departure to his birthplace Unaizah where he would die six years later in 1923 at the age of 79 this is undoubtedly the clearest manifestation of his unwavering loyalty to his Central Arabian Najdi roots in spite of making Bahrain his home in every sense for forty years however some of his descendants chose to remain in Bahrain namely his Bahraini-born youngest son Abdulrahman who spent the best part of his life moving back and forth between Bahrain and the birthplace of his ancestors Unaizah and whose descendants still live in Bahrain remarkably those last few years of his life were not spent idly on the contrary notwithstanding his financial woes Al-Thukair rose above it all by erecting a charity school complex with free lodging for teachers in his beloved hometown of Unaizah he also funded the publication of two classical Islamic theological works to be distributed gratuitously among its literate residents as a last token of gratitude to the place that played a pivotal role in shaping his formative years the ultimate proof of his noble unfaltering and magnanimous nature in the face of overwhelming vicissitudes of fortune in other words for Al-Thukair moral agency and altruism took precedence over expediency, personal gain and selfish interest this idealised narrative might be viewed by some with incredulity however the veracity of the preceding lofty portrait of Al-Thukair was corroborated by an independent foreign source free of any cultural affiliation to the region found in the travel diary of the young French jeweller Jacques Cartier who painted a more poignant portrait of him than even some of his local and regional contemporaries devoid of duplicity and guile (such values and principles as some commentators suggested were detrimental to Al-Thukair's business activities of course from a pragmatic and unscrupulous perspective) as expected at the death announcement of Al-Thukair at dawn on the 13th of May 1923 in his then small sleepy rural hometown of Unaizah thousands of mourners of all genders and walks of life thronged to join the sombre funeral procession of one of Unaizah's most illustrious natives while paying their respects to the family of this pious and benevolent man the least honour they could afford for someone who gave so much to his people as word of his passing spread beyond Unaizah, cables and letters of condolence started to pour in from regional potentates, political leaders, notables and leading merchants from around the Arabian Peninsula he was also mourned and deservedly eulogised in Iraqi, Levantine and Egyptian journals and periodicals by clerics, writers and intellectuals from the Gulf to Iraq and all the way to Egypt some of whom were personal friends such as the loyal Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Mana (1882-1965) the published author, judge and future Grand Mufti of Qatar and at one time the semi-adopted son and business assistant of Al-Thukair who wrote a heart-wrenching eloquently effusive obituary for Al-Thukair titled "The Death of a Great Man and Famous Philanthropist" in the respected Egyptian Magazine Al-Manar on 9th June 1923 less than a month after his death the unique closeness of Al-Mana to Al-Thukair in all respects including their shared birthplace meant he was a key link between Al-Thukair and all of his friends in the region another personal friend was Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Khonji (1880-1967) the esteemed Bahraini multi-talented cleric, poet, writer, intellectual, historian, administrator and educator the second Bahraini to graduate from the reputable Al-Azhar Islamic University of Cairo, Egypt in 1902 a worthy member of the 1919 prestigious education supervisory committee and a regular patron of the "Bahrain Literary Society" the brainchild of Al-Thukair before and after its official inauguration in 1913 a prolific correspondent with Sheikh Muhammad Rasheed Rida the owner of Al-Manar Magazine in Cairo who also happened to be an epistolary friend of Al-Thukair as noted further down in the text curiously enough Khonji's upcoming literal translated description of Al-Thukair was the least ornate of his contemporaries written in a plain stoic and sparse style displaying the typical ascetic attributes of his writings (Mugbil was a well-educated big merchant who had correspondence through his business agents in India, East Africa, Arab countries and Europe may God Almighty rest his soul) Al-Thukair also formed abiding epistolary friendships throughout his adult life which began as a means to quench his lifelong thirst for intellectual knowledge by forming long-standing literary correspondents that evolved into genuine epistolary friendships as in the case of Mahmud Shukri Al-Alusi (1856-1924) the revered multidiscipline Iraqi Islamic thinker, linguist, historian and reformer editor-in-chief of the first Iraqi periodical the renowned weekly newspaper Al-Zawra'a and once professor and mentor to Al-Mana during his student days in Baghdad however there is strong evidence that the friendship of Al-Alusi and Al-Thukair was not solely epistolary as it was perfectly possible for both gentlemen to meet several times during Al-Thukair's numerous business trips to Iraq particularly in the 1890s there was also occasional specific correspondence between the two concerning the latter's generous and varied assistance to Al-Alusi including the forwarding of several batches of books each containing hundreds of copies of a newly printed first edition of an Islamic theological work by Al-Alusi printed and shipped to Iraq from India one batch at a time at Al-Thukair's expense in addition to financial assistance this was the main topic of a series of letters between the two parties dating back to the year 1893 but for the sake of historical accuracy some of the batches in question were consigned by the ruler of Qatar Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani to be delivered to Al-Alusi by Al-Thukair a trusted friend of the ruler as was the case with other Arabian Gulf rulers mentioned earlier the other distinguished epistolary friend of his was Sheikh Muhammad Rasheed Rida (1865-1935) the eminent Levantine-Egyptian Islamic theologian reformer, Quranic exegete, author and journalist founder and owner of Al-Manar Magazine in Cairo, Egypt to whom he regularly wrote seeking his scholarly counsel on Islamic jurisprudence issues who was alerted to the demise of Al-Thukair by their mutual friend Al-Mana, eliciting a brief yet meaningful obituary by Rida in his own Al-Manar Magazine; the following text is a literal translation of the obituary (we beseech thee Almighty God to bless the life of our mourning brother the just judge of Qatar and to bestow his mercy and blessings upon our departed brother and to unite us with him {In an Assembly of Truth, in the Presence of a Sovereign Omnipotent} (The Moon Surah (chapter) "verse 55" Quran) and to mitigate the grief of his family and offspring and to guide them in following his righteous path) the first impression of this final example of his lasting correspondence is that it was arguably the only one of his consequential epistolary friendships that remained exclusively epistolary since there is no record of any meeting between Al-Thukair and Rida that had ever occurred since their first correspondence at the end of the nineteenth century until the death of Al-Thukair a premise reinforced by an excessive degree of formality and reserved mutual respect a constant feature mirrored in their writings for each other over the years these are the most noteworthy examples to name a few of the monumental veneration that Al-Thukair received upon his death, an explicit attestation of the high standing that he enjoyed at all levels)
Cette salles par son nom rappelle le souvenir du plus célèbre souverain du Moyen-Âge : Louis IX, dit Saint Louis. C’est en effet dans la deuxième salle logée dans l’épaisseur de la vieille muraille du donjon qu’était installée, depuis le Moyen-Âge, la chambre du Roi. Lorsque la chambre changea d’emplacement au XVIIème s, cette salle fut rétrogradée au rang d’antichambre, c’est-à-dire de pièce dégagée et spacieuse, garnie de banquettes, où l’on attend d’être introduit auprès du souverain. De l’autre côté de l’arcade, la figure équestre en marbre du roi Henri IV par Mathieu Jacquet, vestige d’une monumentale cheminée de la fin du XVIème s, fut installée à l’entrée de l’appartement du roi sur la demande de Louis-Philippe, qui rendait ainsi hommage à son ancêtre, « le plus aimé des rois ».
The name of this room recalls the memory of the most famous sovereign of the Middle Ages: Louis IX, known as Saint Louis. It is in fact in the second room in the thickness of the old wall of the dungeon that the King's chamber was installed, since the Middle Ages. When the chamber was moved to a new location in the 17th century, this room was demoted to the rank of an antechamber, i.e. an open and spacious room with benches, where one waits to be introduced to the sovereign. On the other side of the archway, the marble equestrian figure of King Henry IV by Mathieu Jacquet, a remnant of a monumental fireplace from the late 16th century, was installed at the entrance to the king's flat at the request of Louis-Philippe, who thus paid tribute to his ancestor, "the most beloved of kings".
From 1856 on this spacious room was used as Empress Elisabeth’s bed chamber. As there was no fireplace, there used to be a large ‘column-shaped’ majolica stove to heat the room. The neoclassical decoration on the ceiling vault is from the Napoleonic period and was completed around 1810. The geometrical panels, possibly by Giuseppe Borsato, are interspersed with frescoed figures by Giovanni Bevilacqua in pleasant soft colours (Venus and Peristera with Cupid, Venus before Jupiter, The Toilet of Venus, Judgement of Paris). The lavish neo-Baroque hangings in blue and light gold were added in 1854, when renovation was carried out. Once again, the original is preserved under the one you can see, which is an accurate reproduction (Rubelli – Venice). Although no longer present, we know that the empress’ bed was in the rococo style, surrounded by curtains hanging from a metal baldachin; today an outstanding piece of historical furniture commemorates the function of this room: the pure imperial style bed of Napoleon’s step-son, Eugene Beauharnais (his initials can be seen on it), viceroy of the short-lived Kingdom of Italy founded by Bonaparte between 1806 and 1814. This dormeuse is one of the few pieces of furniture from the Napoleonic period to have remained in the palace. The other pieces in the room are from the same period and in the same style. The neoclassical gilded bronze chandelier is of great elegance.
Visita il Museo Correr
© yohanes.budiyanto, 2014
PRELUDE
The 1st of August, 2014 was such an historic day as the world finally welcomed the birth of the first in line to the Parisian throne after a painstaking and extraordinary "labor" process that took four years in creation, and almost a decade in the making. I was not talking about a French rival to baby George, but instead a newborn that has sent shivers down the spines of Paris' oldest and current Kings and Grand Dames from the day it was conceived. Yes, I was referring to The Peninsula Paris, the youngest sister to the legendary Peninsula Hong Kong (circa 1928).
Ever since the project was announced to the public four years ago, it has been on my top list of the most eagerly awaited hotel openings of the decade. So when the hotel announced 1st of August as an opening date back in March, I immediately issued my First Class return tickets to the City of Light, risking the usual opening delay. A man of his word, Peninsula Paris finally opened as scheduled.
HISTORY
The Peninsula brand needs no introduction, as it is synonymous with quality, technology, innovation, craftsmanship and sophistication, -much like a slogan for French top brands and their savoir faire. Despite having only 10 current properties worldwide in its portfolio (Paris is its tenth), each Peninsula hotel is a market leader in each respective cities, and consistently tops the chart in many bonafide travel publications and reigns supreme as the world's best, especially elder sisters in Hong Kong and Bangkok. The Peninsula model is different from other rival hotel groups, which usually expand aggressively through both franchise and managed models worldwide. Instead, the Peninsula focuses on acquiring majority to sole ownership on all its properties to ensure control on quality (Hong Kong, New York, Chicago and Tokyo are 100% owned; Bangkok, Beijing and Manila are over 75%; Shanghai is 50%, while Beverly Hills and Paris are the only two with only 20% ownership).
The history of the Peninsula Paris could be traced back to a modest villa aptly called Hotel Basilevski on the plot of land at 19 Avenue Kleber back in 1864, -named after its Russian diplomat owner, Alexander Petrovich Basilevski, which caught the attention of hotelier Leonard Tauber for his prospective hotel project. The Versailles-styled property was partly a museum housing Basilevski's vast and impressive collection of 19th century medieval and Renaissance art, which eventually was acquired by Alexander III, -a Russian Tsar, at the sums of six millions francs. These collections were later transported to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and formed the base collection for the newly established Department of Medieval and Renaissance Art. After Basilevski sold the villa and moved to a more palatial residence at Avenue du Trocadero, the property was then acquired and rebranded the Palais de Castille as the residence of the exiled Queen Isabella II of Spain in 1868, who seeked refuge and continued to live there until 1904. Upon her death, the property was later demolished in 1906 to make way for the Majestic hotel, which finally opened in 1908 with much satisfaction of Leonard Tauber, who has eyed the premise from the very beginning.
The Majestic Hotel was exquisitely designed in the Beaux-Art style as a grand hotel by prominent architect of that time, Armand Sibien. Together with The Ritz (circa 1898), the two became the most preferred places to stay and entertain in Paris of the time. The Majestic has attracted the well-heeled crowd, and hosted many high profile events, most notably for a particular dinner hosted by rich British couple Sydney and Violet Schiff on 18 May 1922 as the after party of Igor Stravinsky's 'Le Renard' ballet premiere, and the hotel becomes an instant legend. The guests list were impressive: Igor Stravinsky himself, Pablo Picasso, Sergei Diaghilev, and two of the 20th century most legendary writers: James Joyce and Marcel Proust, who met for the first and only time before Proust's death six months later. Since then, the Majestic continued to draw high profile guests, including George Gershwin on 25 March 1928, where he composed "An American in Paris" during the stay.
If the walls could talk, the Majestic has plenty of stories to tell. It was once converted into a hospital during the infamy in 1914, and the British took residency at the hotel during the Paris Peace Conference back in 1919. The hotel was then acquired by the French State in 1936 as the offices of the Ministry of Defence; and later had a stint as the German Military High Command in France between October 1940 to July 1944 during the World War II. Post war, it then became the temporary home for UNESCO from 16 September 1946 until 1958. More than a decade after, the Paris Peace talks was opened by Henry Kissinger in one of its spectacular Ballrooms in 1969 with the Northern Vietnamese. Four years later, the Paris Peace Accord was finally signed at the oak paneled-room next to the Ballroom on 27 January 1973, which ended the Vietnam War. This triumphant event has also led to another victorious event when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
The hotel continued to serve as the International Conference Center of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs until it was up for sale by the government in 2008 as part of the cost cutting program to the Qatari Diar, -which later transferred its ownership to Katara Hospitality, for a staggering USD 460 million. An excess of USD 600 million was further spent on the massive rebuilding and refurbishment not only to restore the hotel to its former glory, but also to transform it into a Peninsula with the highest standard.
The epic restoration work was led by prominent French architect, Richard Martinet, who has also previously work with the restoration of Prince Roland Bonaparte's former mansion into the Shangri-La Paris and also the Four Seasons George V; and involved teams of France's leading craftsmen; heritage designers and organisations; stonemasons from historic monument specialist; master glass crafters; crystal manufacturer; wood, moulding and gilder restoration experts, -many of whom are third generation, and have carried out high profile projects such as the Palace of Versailles, Louvre Museum, the dome of Les Invalides, the Grand and Petit Palais, and even the flame of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The result is truly breathtaking, and it was certainly money well spent to revive and recreate one of the nation's most treasured landmark. One of my favorite places within the hotel is the Main Lobby at Avenue des Portugais where the grand hall is adorned with a spectacular chandelier installation comprising 800 pieces of glass leaves inspired by the plane trees along Avenue Kleber. The work of Spain's most influential artist since Gaudi, Xavier Corbero, could also be found nearby in the form of a beautiful sculpture called Moon River.
Katara Hospitality owns 80% of The Peninsula Paris, and already has a spectacular portfolio ownership consisting some of the world's finest hotels, including The Raffles Singapore, Le Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris, Ritz-Carlton Doha, Schweizerhof Bern, and most recently, 5 of the InterContinental Hotel's European flagships, including Amstel in Amsterdam, Carlton in Cannes, De la Ville in Rome, Madrid and Frankfurt. It is interesting to note that Adrian Zecha, founder of the extraordinary Amanresorts chain is a member of the Board of Directors at Katara since September 2011, lending his immense hospitality expertise to the group.
At over USD 1 billion cost, the Pen Paris project is easily the most expensive to ever being built, considering it has only 200 rooms over 6 storeys. As a comparison, the cost of building the 101 storey, 494m high Shanghai World Financial Center (where the Park Hyatt Shanghai resides) is USD 1.2 billion; whereas Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building on earth at 163 storey and 828m, costed a 'modest' USD 1.5 billion to build. The numbers are truly mind boggling, and The Peninsula Paris is truly an extraordinary project. It might took the Majestic Hotel two years to build; but it took four years just to restore and reincarnate it into a Peninsula.
HOTEL OPENING
On a pleasant afternoon of 1 August 2014, the hotel finally opened its door to a crowd of distinguished guests, international journalists, first hotel guests and local crowds who partake to witness the inauguration and rebirth of a Parisian legend and grande dame (Many A-list celebrities and even Head of State flocked to the hotel to witness its sheer beauty). It was an historic day not just for Paris, but also for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group as it marks their arrival in Europe with its first ever Peninsula, while the second is already on the pipeline with the future opening of The Peninsula London, located just behind The Lanesborough at Knightsbridge.
The eagerly-awaited opening ceremony was attended by the Chairman of Katara Hospitality, His Excellency Sheikh Nawaf Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani; CEO of Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Limited (HSH), Clement Kwok; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius; General Manager of the Peninsula Paris, Nicolas Béliard; and the event kicked off with an opening speech by the famous French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, the Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad, Madame Fleur Pellerin, who clearly stole the show with her public persona. A ribbon cutting and spectacular lion dance show concluded the event, which drew quite a spectacle on Avenue des Portugais as it brought a unique display of Asian heritage to the heart of cosmopolitan Paris.
LOCATION
The Peninsula Paris stands majestically at the tree-lined Avenue Kléber, just off the Arc de Triomphe. Personally, this is an ideal location in Paris as it is a stone's throw away from all the happenings at the Champs-Élysées, but is set away from its hustle and bustle, which is constantly a tourist trap day and night. Once you walk pass the leafy Avenue Kléber, the atmosphere is very different: peaceful and safe. The Kléber Metro station is just a few steps away from the hotel, providing guests a convenient access to further parts of town.
Champs-Élysées is the center of Parisian universe, and it is just a short and pleasant stroll away from the hotel, where some of the city's most legendary commercial and cultural institutions reside. For a start, Drugstore Publicis at the corner by the roundabout has been a legendary hang-out since the 1960s, and is my ultimate favourite place in town. The Post Modern edifice by architect Michele Saee (renovated in 2004) houses almost everything: a Cinema; side walk Brasserie & Steak House; Newsagency; Bookshop (you can find Travel publications and even the Michelin Guide); upscale Gift shop and Beauty corner (even Acqua di Parma is on sale here); Pharmacy (whose pharmacist thankfully speaks English and gladly advises you on your symptoms); upscale deli (stocking pretty much everything from Foie gras burger on the counter, to fine wines & cigar cellar; to Pierre Herme & Pierre Marcolini chocolates; Dalloyau bakery; Marriage Freres tea; and even the Petrossian Caviar!). Best of all, it features a 2 Michelin star L'atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile on its basement; and the store is even opened on Sunday until 2am. It is a one stop shopping, eating and entertainment, showcasing the best of France.
Further down the road, Maison Louis Vuitton stands majestically on its own entire 7 storey building, which was opened in 2005 as one of the biggest flagship stores in the world, covering a total area of 1,800m2. Designed by Eric Carlson and Peter Marino, the entire store is an architectural marvel and the temple of luxury, elegance and sophistication. This is one of the very few stores to open in Sunday as the French Labour Unions prohibits commercial stores to open on Sunday, unless if it involves cultural, recreational and sporting aspect. Initially, Maison LV was ordered by the court to close on Sunday, but LVMH finally wins an appeal in 2007 on the grounds of cultural experience; and the store has continued to draw endless queue on Sunday.
A block away from Maison LV is the legendary Parisian Tea Room of Ladurée, which was founded in 1862 by Louis Ernest Ladurée on its original store at 16 Rue Royal as a bakery. The Champs-Élysées store was opened in 1997 and has since attracted an endless queue of tourists and locals who wish to savour its legendary Macarons and pastries. The Ladurée phenomenon and popularity could only be rivaled by fellow Frenchmen Pierre Hermé, who has also attracted a cult of loyal fans worldwide. It may not have a flagship store at Champs-Élysées, but one could easily stop by Drugstore Publicis for a quick purchase to ease the craving.
For those looking for upscale boutiques, Avenue Montaigne located just nearby on a perpendicular, and features the flagship presence of the world's finest luxury fashion labels: Armani, Bottega Veneta, Valention, Prada, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Fendi and Salvatore Ferragamo to name a few. For the ultimate in shopping extravaganza, head down to Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré where all money will (hopefully) be well spent.
Champs-Élysées is the most famous and expensive boulevard in the world, yet it has everything for everyone; and myriad of crowds flocking its grand boulevards for a pleasant stroll. It has no shortage of luxury stores, but it also offers mainstream stores for the general public, from Levi's to Zara and Lacoste; to McDonalds and Starbucks; and FNAC store (French answer to HMV).
In terms of fine dining experience, the areas around Champs-Élysées has plenty to offer. I have mentioned about the 2 Michelin L'atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile at the Drugstore Publicis, which was excellent. Robuchon never disappoints as it consistently serves amazing French cuisine amidst its signature red and black interior everywhere I visited, including Tokyo (3 Michelin), Hong Kong (3 Michelin), Paris (2 Michelin) and Taipei.
During my stay, I also managed to sample the finest cuisine from the kitchens of two, 3-Michelin Paris institutions: Pierre Gagnaire at Rue Balzac, just off Champs-Élysées; and Epicure at Le Bristol by Chef Eric Frechon on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, which was undoubtedly the best and most memorable dining experiences I have ever had in Paris to date. It is certainly the gastronomic highlight of this trip.
Other 3 Michelin establishment, such as Ledoyen is also located nearby at an 18th century pavilion by the Gardens of Champs-Élysées by newly appointed famous French Chef Yannick Alléno, who previously also resided at the Le Meurice with 3 Michelin, until Alain Ducasse took over last year during the Plaza Athénée closure for expansion.
August is a time of misery for international visitors to Paris as most fine dining restaurants are closed for the summer holiday. When choices are limited, foodies could rely on Epicure and Robuchon, which are opened all year round; and also the 2 Michelin star Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V. Although its food could not compete with Robuchon, Epicure and Gagnaire, guests could still enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
ROOMS:
On my visit to Paris last year, I was not too impressed with my stay at the Four Seasons George V, as everything seemed to be pretty basic: the room design; the in-room tech and amenities; and even the much lauded service. It simply does not justify the hefty price tag. The only thing stood out there were the ostentatious designer floral display at the lobby, which reportedly absorbed a six digit figure budget annually. When I saw them at the first time, this was what came to mind: guests are paying for these excessive flowers, whether you like it or not.
Fortunately, the Peninsula Paris skips all this expensive gimmick, and instead spends a fortune for guests to enjoy: advance room technology; a host of complimentary essential amenities, including internet access, non-alcoholic minibar, and even long distance phone calls. In fact, every single items inside the room has been well thought and designed for guest's ultimate comfort.
Ever since The Peninsula Bangkok opened in 1998 to much success, the group has used it as a template for its signature rooms for future sister hotels, which consists of an open plan, ultra-wide spacious room equivalent to a 2 bays suite, with 5-fixtures bathroom, and a separate Dressing Room, which soon becomes a Peninsula signature.
The Peninsula Tokyo followed this template when it opened in 2007 to rave reviews; and it was soon adopted as a model for Peninsula Shanghai, which later opened in 2009 as the flagship property in Mainland China. This layout is also being applied at The Peninsula Paris, albeit for its Suites categories, i.e. Junior Suite, which measure at an astonishing 50 - 60m2. The entry level Superior and Deluxe Rooms lack the signature layout with smaller size at 35 - 45m2, but they are already spacious for a Parisian standard; and each is equipped with Peninsula's signature technology.
Technology is indeed at the core of the Peninsula DNA, and no expense is spared in creating the world's most advance in-room technology. When other hotels try to cut costs and budgets on in-room technology with lame excuses, the Peninsula actually spends a fortune to innovate and set a new benchmark. In fact, it is probably the only hotel group to have its own Technology laboratory at a secret location deep inside Aberdeen, Hong Kong, where in-room tech is being developed and tested. It was here where innovative devices, such as the outside temperature indicator; my favourite Spa Button by the bathtub; or even the portable nail dryer for the ladies are invented. The Peninsula took the world by storm when it introduced the Samsung Galaxy tablet device at the Peninsula Hong Kong in 2012, which is programmed in 11 languages and virtually controls the entire room, including the lights, temperature, curtains, TV, radio, valet calls and Do Not Disturb sign. It even features touch screen Room Service Menu, hotel information, city guide, and a function to request room service and housekeeping items, thus creating an entirely paperless environment.
All these technological marvel are also being replicated at the Peninsula Paris, together with other 'standard' features, such as Nespresso Coffee Machine; flat-screen 3D LED television; LED touch screen wall panels; an iPod/iPad docking station; memory card reader; 4-in1 fax/scanner/printer/photocopier machine; DVD player; complimentary in-house HD movies; complimentary internet access and long distance calls through the VOIP platform. Even the room's exterior Parisian-styled canopy is electronically operated. All these technological offerings is so extremely complex, that it resulted in 2.5 km worth of cabling in each room alone.
Bathroom at the Junior Suite also features Peninsula's signature layout: a stand alone bathtub as the focal point, flanked by twin vanities and separate shower and WC compartments amidst acres of white marble. Probably the first in Paris, it features a Japanese Toilet complete with basic control panel, and a manual handheld bidet sprayer.
When all these add up to the stay, it actually brings a very good value to the otherwise high room rates. Better yet, the non-alcoholic Minibar is also complimentary, which is a first for a Peninsula hotel. The Four Seasons George V may choose to keep looking back to its antiquity past and annihilate most technological offerings to its most basic form, but the Pen always looks forward to the future and brings the utter convenience, all at your finger tip. The Peninsula rooms are undoubtedly the best designed, best equipped and most high-tech in the entire universe.
ROOM TO BOOK:
The 50 - 60m2 Junior Suite facing leafy Avenue Kléber is the best room type to book as it is an open-plan suite with Peninsula's signature bathroom and dressing room; and the ones located on the Premiere étage (first floor) have high ceilings and small balcony overlooking Kleber Terrace's iconic glass canopy. Personally, rooms facing the back street at Rue La Pérouse are the least preferred, but its top level rooms inside the Mansart Roof on level 5 have juliet windows that allow glimpse of the tip of Eiffel Tower despite being smaller in size due to its attic configuration. Superior Rooms also lack the signature Peninsula 5 fixtures bathroom configuration, so for the ultimate bathing experience, make sure to book at least from the Deluxe category.
If money is no object, book one of the five piece-de-resistance suites with their own private rooftop terrace and gardens on the top floor, which allow 360 degree panoramic views of Paris. Otherwise, the mid-tier Deluxe Suite is already a great choice with corner location, multiple windows and 85m2 of pure luxury.
DINING:
Looking back at the hotel's illustrious past, the Peninsula offers some of the most unique and memorable dining experiences in Paris, steep in history.
The area that once housed Igor Stravinksy's after party where James Joyce met Marcel Proust for the first time is now the hotel's Cantonese Restaurant, aptly called LiLi; and is led by Chef Chi Keung Tang, formerly of Peninsula Tokyo's One Michelin starred Hei Fung Terrace. Lili was actually modeled after Peninsula Shanghai's Yi Long Court, but the design here blends Chinese elements with Art Nouveau style that flourished in the late 1920s. It also boasts a world first: a spectacular 3x3.3m fiber optic installation at the entrance of the restaurant, depicting the imaginary portrait of LiLi herself. The Cantonese menu was surprisingly rather simple and basic, and features a selection of popular dim sum dishes. The best and most memorable Chinese restaurants I have ever experienced are actually those who masterfully fuse Chinese tradition with French ingredients: Jin Sha at the Four Seasons Hangzhou at Westlake; 2 Michelin Tin Lung Heen at Level 102 of the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong; Jiang at Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou by Chef Fei; and Ya Ge at Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Ironically, the world's only 3 Michelin star Chinese restaurant, Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons Hong Kong failed to impress me.
The former Ballroom area where Henry Kissinger started the Paris Peace talks with the Vietnamese has now been transformed as The Lobby, which is a signature of every Peninsula hotels where the afternoon tea ritual takes place daily. The spectacular room with intricate details and crystal chandeliers has been meticulously restored, and is an ideal place to meet, see and be seen. Breakfast is served daily here, and guests could choose to have it either inside or outside at the adjoining al fresco La Terrasse Kléber, which connects all the F&B outlets on the ground floor, including Lili. Guests could choose from a Chinese set breakfast, which includes dim sum, fried vermicelli, and porridge with beef slices; or the Parisian set, which includes gourmet items such as Egg Benedict with generous slices of Jamon Iberico on top. The afternoon tea ritual is expected to be very popular as renowned Chef Pattissier Julien Alvarez, -who claimed the World Pastry Champion in 2009; and also the Spanish World Chocolate Master in 2007 at the tender age of 23, is at the helm; and the venue quickly booked out from the opening day.
Next to the Lobby is a small, intimate bar covered in exquisite oak panelling where Henry Kissinger signed the Paris Peace Accord back in 1973 that ended the Vietnam War. Kissinger politely declined the offer to have the Bar named after him, and instead it is simply called Le Bar Kléber.
On the top floor of the hotel lies the signature restaurant L'Oiseau Blanc, which is named after the French biplane that disappeared in 1927 in an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York. A 75% replica of the plane has even been installed outside the main entrance of the restaurant with the Eiffel Tower on its background. The restaurant is divided into 3 distinct areas: a spectacular glass enclosed main dining room; a large outdoor terrace that runs the entire length of the hotel's roof; and an adjoining lively bar, all with breathtaking uninterrupted views of Paris' most identifiable landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur at the highest point of the city at Montmartre.
L'Oiseau Blanc is led by Chef Sidney Redel, a former protégé of Pierre Gagnaire, and serves contemporary French cuisine focussing on 'terroir' menu of locally sourced seasonal ingredients from the region. During my stay, tomato was the seasonal ingredients, and Chef Redel created four courses incorporating tomato, even on dessert. While the food was of high quality, personally the menu still needs fine tuning, considering the sort of clientele the Pen is aiming for: the ultra rich (Chinese), who usually seek top establishments with luxury ingredients, such as caviar, black truffle, foie gras, blue lobster, Jamon Iberico, Wagyu beef, Kurobuta pork and Challans chicken.
LEISURE:
The Peninsula Paris features one of the best health and recreational facilities in the city, housed within the basement of the hotel, and covers an expansive area of 1,800m2. For a comparison, rival Mandarin Oriental Spa covers a total area of only 900m2 over two floors. The Peninsula Spa is undoubtedly one of the nicest urban spa that I have been to, it easily beats the Spa at the Four Seasons George V. The pool is also one of the city's largest at 22m long, -compared to both the Shangri-La and Mandarin Oriental at 15m; the George V at only 9m, which is more like a bigger jacuzzi. The only two other pools better than the Peninsula is the one designed by Phillippe Starck at the Le Royal Monceau at 28m; and the spectacular grand pool at the Ritz.
There is the usual 24 hours gym within two fitness spaces equipped with Technogym machines and free weights; and the locker rooms features steam, sauna, and experience shower room. There is a total of 8 treatment rooms within the Spa area, and the highlight is certainly the Relaxation Room, which is equipped with amazing day beds with specially placed deep cushions. The best part? the beds are electronically operated, much like a first class seat on a plane.
X-FACTOR:
The Peninsula signature technology; The Spa Button in the bathroom; VOIP technology for complimentary long distance calls; The top suites (Historic, Katara and Peninsula Suites); Xavier Corbero's Moon River sculpture at the Lobby; Lili; The Lobby and Bar where Henry Kissinger signed Paris Peace Accord; L'Oiseau Blanc Restaurant; The 1,800m2 Peninsula Spa; and the 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II.
SERVICE:
There are a total of 600 staffs for just 200 rooms, so the service level is expected to be high; but it is perhaps unfair to judge the service during the opening weeks when all staffs were not at their best due to the intense preparation leading to the opening event. Furthermore, teething problems are expected for a newly opened hotel as great hotels are not born overnight, but takes a good few years of refinement.
Nonetheless, I was actually quite impressed with the level of service during the whole stay, as the majority of the staffs showed great attitude and much enthusiasm, which is a testament of great intense training. As one of the first guests arriving on the opening day, check-in was truly delightful and memorable as a battalion of staffs of different ranks welcomed and wished the most pleasant stay. The mood could not have been more festive as moments later, the hotel was finally inaugurated.
I was also particularly impressed with the service at both LiLi and The Lobby where staffs performed at an exceptional level like a veteran. There are two distinct qualities that made a lot of difference during the stay: humility and friendliness, which is quite a challenge to find, not only in Paris and the entire Europe, but even in Asian cities, such as Hong Kong. It is like finding needles in a haystack. A genuine smile seems to be a rare commodity these days, so I was happy to see plenty of smiles at the Peninsula Paris during the stay, from the signature Peninsula Pageboys to waiters, Maître d, receptionists and even to Managers and Directors. In fact, there were more smiles in Paris than Hong Kong.
When I woken up too early for breakfast one day, the restaurant was just about to open; and there were hardly anyone. I realized that even the birds were probably still asleep, but I was extremely delighted to see how fresh looking and energetic the staffs were at the dining room. There was a lot of genuine smile that warmed the rather chilly morning; and it was a great start to the day. One of the staffs I met during the stay even candidly explained how they were happy just to be at work, and it does not feel like working at all, which was clearly shown in their passion and enthusiasm.
That said, the Shangri-La Paris by far is still my top pick for best service as it is more personalized and refined due to its more intimate scale. The Shangri-La Paris experience is also unique as guests are welcomed to a sit down registration by the historic lounge off the Lobby upon arrival, and choice of drinks are offered, before being escorted to the room for in-room check-in. Guests also receive a Pre-Arrival Form in advance, so the hotel could anticipate and best accommodate their needs. During the stay, I was also addressed by my last name everywhere within the hotel, so it was highly personalized. I did receive similar treatment at The Peninsula Paris, -albeit in a lesser extent due to its size; and even the housekeeping greeted me by my last name. Every requests, from room service to mineral water were all handled efficiently at a timely manner. At times, service could be rather slow at the restaurants (well, it happens almost everywhere in Paris), but this is part of the Parisian lifestyle where nothing is hurried; and bringing bills/checks upfront is considered rude. I did request the food servings to be expedited during a lunch at LiLi on the last day due to the time constraint; and the staffs managed to succeed the task not only ahead of the time limit, but also it never felt hurried all along. Everything ran as smooth as silk.
VERDICT:
It was a personal satisfaction to witness the history in the making during the opening day on 1 August 2014, as the Peninsula Paris is my most eagerly awaited hotel opening of the decade. It was also historic, as it was a first in my travel to dedicate a trip solely for a particular hotel in a particular city (in this case Paris, some 11,578km away from home), without staying at other fine hotels. It was money well spent, and a trip worth taking as it was an amazing stay; and certainly a lifetime experience.
The Peninsula Paris could not have arrived at a better time, as two of the most established Parisian grande dames (Ritz and de Crillon) are still closed for a complete renovation, and will only be revealed in 2015; so there is plenty of time to adapt, grow and hone its skills. But with such pedigree, quality and illustrious history, the Pen really has nothing to be worried about. The Four Seasons George V seems to have a cult of highly obsessed fans (esp. travel agents) worldwide, but personally (and objectively), it is no match to the Peninsula. Based on physical product alone, the Pen wins in every aspect as everything has been meticulously designed with the focus on guest comfort and convenience. In terms of technology, the Pen literally has no rival anywhere on the planet, except from the obvious sibling rivalry.
The only thing that the Pen still needs to work on is its signature restaurants as all its rival hotels have at least 2 Michelin star restaurants (L'abeille at the Shangri-La; Sur Mesure at the Mandarin Oriental; and 3 Michelin at Epicure, Le Bristol; Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V and Alain Ducasse at Le Meurice). L'Oiseau Blanc design is truly breathtaking and would certainly be the most popular gastronomic destination in Paris, but at the moment, the food still needs some works.
There were the expected teething problems and some inconsistencies with the service; but with years of refinement, The Peninsula Paris will no doubt ascend the throne. Personally, the Shangri-La Paris is currently the real competitor, together with the upcoming Ritz and de Crillon when they open next year, especially when Rosewood has taken over Crillon management and Karl Lagerfeld is working on its top suites. The two, however, may still need to revisit the drawing boards and put more effort on the guestrooms if they ever want to compete; because at the moment, The Peninsula Paris is simply unrivaled.
UPDATE 2016:
*I have always been very spot-on with my predictions. After only two years since its opening, The Peninsula Paris has been awarded the much coveted Palace status. In fact, it is the only hotel in Paris to receive such distinction in 2016. Congratulations, it is very much deserving*
PERSONAL RATING:
1. Room: 100
2. Bathroom: 100
3. Bed: 100
4. Service: 90
5. In-room Tech: 100
6. In-room Amenities: 100
7. Architecture & Design: 100
8. Food: 80
9. View: 80
10. Pool: 95
11. Wellness: 95
12. Location: 95
13. Value: 100
Overall: 95.00
Compare with other Parisian hotels (all with Palace status) that I have stayed previously:
SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, PARIS: 95.00
PARK HYATT PARIS-VENDOME: 90.00
My #1 ALL TIME FAVORITE HOTEL
LANDMARK MANDARIN ORIENTAL, HONG KONG: 95.38
THE PENINSULA, PARIS
19, Avenue Kléber, Paris
Awarded Palace Status in 2016
General Manager: Nicolas Béliard
Hotel Manager: Vincent Pimont
Executive Chef: Jean-Edern Hurstel
Head Chef (Lili): Chi Keung Tang
Head Chef (L'oiseau Blanc): Sidney Redel
Head Chef (The Lobby): Laurent Poitevin
Chef Patissier: Julien Alvarez
Architect (original Majestic Hotel, circa 1908): Armand Sibien
Architect (renovation & restoration, 2010-2014): Richard Martinet
Interior Designer: Henry Leung of Chhada Siembieda & Associates
Landscape Designer: D. Paysage
Art Curator: Sabrina Fung
Art Restorer: Cinzia Pasquali
Artist (Courtyard installation): Ben Jakober & Yannick Vu
Crystal work: Baccarat
Designer (Lili fiber optic installation): Clementine Chambon & Francoise Mamert
Designer (Chinaware): Catherine Bergen
Gilder Specialist & Restorer: Ateliers Gohard
Glass Crafter (Lobby Installation): Lasvit Glass Studio
Master Glass Crafters: Duchemin
Master Sculptor (Lobby): Xavier Corbero
Metalwork: Remy Garnier
Plaster & Moulding Expert: Stuc et Staff
Silverware: Christofle
Silk & Trimmings: Declercq Passementiers
Wood Restoration Expert: Atelier Fancelli
Hotel Opening Date: 01 August 2014
Notable owners: Katara Hospitality; Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group (HSH)
Total Rooms & Suites: 200 (including 35m2 Superior, 45m2 Deluxe, 50m2 Grand Deluxe, 55m2 Premier and 60m2 Grand Premier Rooms)
Total Suites: 34 Suites (including 70m2 Superior, 85m2 Deluxe and 100m2 Premier
Top Suites: Historic Suite, Katara Suite, and The Peninsula Suite
Bathroom Amenities: Oscar de la Renta
Restaurants: The Lobby (All day dining & Afternoon tea), LiLi (Cantonese), L'Oiseau Blanc (French), La Terrasse Kléber
Bars and Lounges: Le Bar Kléber; Kléber Lounge; Cigar Lounge; and L'Oiseau Blanc Bar
Meeting & Banquets: Salon de l'Étoile for up to 100 guests, and 3 smaller Function Rooms
Health & Leisure: 24 hours gym & 1,800m2 Peninsula Spa with 22m indoor swimming pool and jacuzzis; Steam & Sauna, Relaxation Room, and 8 treatment rooms
Transport: chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce Extended Wheel Base Phantom; a 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II; 2 MINI Cooper S Clubman; and a fleet of 10 BMW 7 Series
Complimentary facilities: Non-alcoholic Minibar; Wired and Wireless Internet; VOIP long distance calls; HD Movies; Daily fruit Basket; International Newspaper; Chauffeured MINI Cooper S Clubman for Suites guests; and Chauffeured Rolls Royce for top Suites
paris.peninsula.com
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however, we are not at Cavendish Mews. We are not even in London. Instead, we are north of the capital, in the quiet little Essex farming village of Belchamp St Paul*. Lettice met the world famous British concert pianist, Sylvia Fordyce at a private audience after a performance at the Royal Albert Hall**. Sylvia is the long-time friend of Lettice’s fiancée, Sir John Nettleford-Hughes and his widowed sister Clementine (known preferably now by the more cosmopolitan Clemance) Pontefract, the latter of whom Sylvia has known since they were both eighteen. Lettice, Sir John and Clemance were invited to join Sylvia in her dressing room after her Schumann and Brahms concert. After a brief chat with Sir John (whom she refers to as Nettie, using the nickname only his closest friends use) and Clemance, Sylvia had her personal secretary, Atlanta, show them out so that she could discuss “business” with Lettice. Anxious that like so many others, Sylvia would try to talk Lettice out of marrying Sir John, who is old enough to be her father and known for his dalliances with pretty chorus girls of Lettice’s age and younger, Lettice was surprised when Sylvia admitted that when she said that she wanted to discuss business, that was what she genuinely meant. Sylvia owns a small country property just outside of Belchamp St Paul on which she had a secluded little house she calls ‘The Nest’ built not so long ago: a house she had decorated by society interior designer Syrie Maugham***. However, unhappy with Mrs. Maugham’s passion for shades of white, Sylvia wanted Lettice to inject some colour into her drawing room by painting a feature wall for her. Thus, she invited Lettice to motor up to Essex with her for an overnight stay at the conclusion of her concert series at The Hall to see the room for herself, and perhaps get some ideas as to what and how she might paint it. Lettice agreed to Sylvia’s commission, and originally had the idea of painting flowers on the wall, reflecting the newly planted cottage garden outside the large drawing room windows of ‘The Nest’. However, after hearing the story of Sylvia’s life – a sad story throughout which, up until more recent years, she had felt like a bird trapped in a cage, Lettice has opted to paint the wall with stylised feathers, expressing the freedom to fly and soar that Sylvia’s later life has given her the ability to do.
Thrilled with her new feature wall, Sylvia is throwing an intimate weekend house party to which she has invited Lettice and Sir John, Lettice’s oldest childhood chum, Gerald Bruton, whom she met up in London by lucky happenstance when paying Lettice’s bill, Gerald’s young and fey homosexual partner, Cyril, who is an oboist, and a smattering of other musically inclined guests. Lastly, Sylvia has also invited the West End theatre actress Paul Young, the current paramour of Sir John. So, this evening we find ourselves in the drawing room of ‘The Nest’, which has been restored to rights with Sylvia’s elegant furnishings and collection of blue and white porcelain on display against the backdrop of Lettice’s hand painted feather covered feature wall. Designed in the prevailingly fashionable Arts and Crafts country style, the spacious room dominated by Sylvia’s walnut grand piano, is illuminated by the soft golden glow of lamps, and the guests stand around in small clutches.
The gentlemen present are smartly turned out in stiff black tie, or in the case of Gerald, the more modern, modish and daring tuxedo, a style influenced by the more relaxed American culture from across the Atlantic. The ladies on the other hand are in a range of beautifully coloured beaded evening dresses. Our hostess’s black dyed sharp bob sits neatly about her angular face. She wears no earrings or necklace, and her skin is caked with its customary thick layer of white makeup, her red painted lips the only colour afforded her face. Wearing her usual large aquamarine and diamond cluster ring on her left middle finger on her elegant pianist’s hands, tonight Sylvia has dressed unusually in something other than black or white and is wrapped in a column of sparkling, bead encrusted gold lamé. Sylvia’s sharp appearance is in total contrast to Lettice who stands at her side, arrayed in one of Gerald’s new creations for her: a gown of silverly powder blue tule that wafts around her like a cloud when she moves, accessorised with a beaded belt and pearls cascading down her front. Her blonde hair is Marcelled**** into soft waves around her lightly painted face.
The guests applaud as Cyril finishes playing a piece of music he knows by heart on his oboe as a party piece.
“Oh Gerald, darling!” Sylvia purrs. “Your Cyril is an accomplished oboist, as well as a charming character. I can see how easily he must have charmed his way into your heart.”
“If music be the fruit of love,” Gerald replies wistfully, looking dew eyed at his lover as he basks in the adulation of the other guests at Sylvia’s intimate gathering. “Play on.”
“Shakespeare!” Sylvia exclaims. “A classical education then, Gerald darling.”
“Thanks to Lettice’s father, Miss Fordyce.” Gerald nods and smiles gratefully towards Lettice, who stands opposite him at Sylvia’s left.
“Oh, Sylvia, please, Gerald darling!” Sylvia insists. She smiles before drawing deeply on her Craven “A”***** through her amber and gold holder, making the butt glow and the paper crackle. “We’re all friends here.” She blows out a plume of silvery grey smoke elegantly.
“Sylvia.” Gerald confirms.
“So how is our lovely Lettice’s father connected to your classical education, then?” Sylvia goes on, glancing between her two companions.
“Well, Gerald and I are the same age, Sylvia, and being neighbours to the Brutons, Gerald spent a lot of time at Glynes with me, just the same as the children of the Tyrwhitt family on the estate neighbouring ours on the other side. It was like we were all extensions of one another’s families, really: always in and out of one another’s houses and gardens.”
‘And my father,” Gerald continues with a slight air of bitterness. “Well, he was only ever really interested in lavishing money on my older brother, Roland, as his heir, but Viscount Wrexham saw something in me that he felt was worth nurturing from an academic perspective.”
“As he did in me, Sylvia.” Lettice adds. “My father believes in a good education for women as well as men, to equip them for a life beyond the drawing room, the likes of which my mother would happily have me bound to: embroidery and idly chit-chat about county affairs.”
“A very forward thinking man.” Sylvia muses with a curt nod. “I approve wholeheartedly.”
“So, because Gerald and I are the same age, my father asked Gerald’s father if he would mind if Gerald were to join me in the Glynes schoolroom for classes.”
“And since my father had no desire to spend money on my education, and Viscount Wexham was paying for the tutelage, he agreed.” Gerald concludes.
“Well, jolly good show, Viscount Wrexham!” Sylvia says, exhaling another cloud of roiling smoke after drawing on her cigarette and giving Gerald’s left forearm a gentle squeeze of comfort with her right hand. “He did well, seeing you as a prodigy, Gerald darling. And now, here you are, an up-and-coming couturier with a beautiful and talented lover.” She nods at Cyril across the room.
Gerald blushes red with a mixture of embarrassment at Sylvia’s compliment, and her acknowledgement of his lover. “I say,” he says. “It really is most kind of you to have Cyril and I here, together, for the weekend, Miss Fordi… err… Sylvia.”
“Oh, it’s my pleasure, Gerald darling.” Sylvia assures him. “Besides, this weekend treat doesn’t come for free.” Her dark eyes widen and sparkle in the light cast by the lamps around the room. “I’m not that altruistic. I will hold you to your promise of a pair of beach pyjamas******. I want nothing more than to scandalise and shock people when I sit on the beach at Blackpool, or parade down the pier!”
“Oh Sylvia!” Lettice laughs.
“What?” Sylvia asks, feigning innocence.
“You are incorrigible!”
“It will help keep my name in the papers, and people coming to my concerts. Heaven save me from the boredom of middle-aged mediocrity.”
“I promise I will make them for you, Mi… Sylvia.” Gerald replies. “In Nile green******* satin with black piping. It’s the least I can do for you being so… ahem!” He clears his throat awkwardly. “Understanding of Cyril’s and my...”
“Arrangement?” Sylvia prompts.
“Ahem!” Gerald clears his throat again. “Err… yes.”
Sylvia smiles sadly. “I know we don’t know each other well yet, my dear Gerald, but I do hope we will. Please take it on good authority from me, that I have known many inverts******** in my life.” She draws on her cigarette thoughtfully. “The moment you walked into Lettice’s drawing room the day she and I were settling my account for this wonderful feature wall,” She turns and glances at Lettice who blushes at Sylvia’s compliment directed towards her, then turns her attention back to Gerald. “I knew who you were from the articles I have perused about your rising star in the fashion magazines I read. Now, please pardon me for being so direct, but I knew what you were the moment you moved towards us and opened your pretty mouth, and those things are not to be found on the glossy pages of magazines, you’ll be pleased to know.”
“Oh dear!” Gerald gasps. “Is it really that… am I…” He stammers. “Is it really that obvious? I do try and keep my… my true self… well concealed.”
“Not at all, Gerald darling!” Sylvia reassures him. Cyril on the other hand,” She raises her expertly plucked and shaped eyebrows into two deep arches. “Well, he’s easily pinned, being more fey and obvious than you, my dear. However, there is no need for any awkwardness or embarrassment here, Gerald darling.” Sylvia squeezes his arm comfortingly again. “I just told you that I’ve known men like you for many years. When you are exposed to such acquaintances and friendships, it give one a sixth sense, as it were. And,” She drags the last of her cigarette before stumping the but out in the ashtray of the chrome smoker’s stand in front of her, blowing out more acrid smoke as she does. “As I said, we are all friends here. Your secret is perfectly safe with me,” She pauses for a heartbeat. “As is, Nettie’s.”
Sylvia nods across at Sir John who stands, talking with Cyril animatedly about music, along with striking Hungarian violinist sisters, Jelly d'Aranyi********* and Adila Fachiri**********. The young West End actress, Paula Young hangs on Sir John’s arm. Cyril glances up too and catches Gerald’s eye, indicating with a gentle narrowing of his own bright blue eyes that he wants his lover to join him.
“I think I had better go and rescue Cyril from such musically elite company before it goes to his head,” Gerald says, making his excuses. “Or he shall be insufferable for weeks to come.”
As Gerald joins the small clutch, slipping in beside Cyril and lovingly wrapping his arms around his lover’s waist and resting his head comfortably on his shoulder, Lettice remarks with a deep sigh, “How content he looks.”
“Does Gerald not often look content, Lettice darling?” Sylvia asks as she fishes in her packet for another cigarette before screwing it into her holder.
“Gerald is my oldest and best chum, Sylvia darling.” Lettice takes a sip of her Parisian*********** cocktail from the wide lip of her Marie Antoinette glass************. “I’ve known him all my life, and I can confirm with my hand firmly placed over my heart that I have seen him more unhappy than happy over those years. It was only after he met Cyril, that he finally seems content in life.”
“Well,” Sylvia lights her cigarette with her silver table lighter, exhaling another billow of acrid smoke. “We all deserve some happiness in life, don’t we?”
“It seems to me, Sylvia, that after what you disclosed to me about your life, you haven’t exactly been blessed with a great deal of happiness romantically.” Lettice opines. “And pardon me for saying this, but there seems to be a noticeable absence from this evening’s little soirée of a certain gentleman from Chippenham*************.”
“Gentleman! Ha!” Sylvia snorts derisively, sending smoke plumes from both her nostrils like an angry bull. “My little soirée tonight, is no place for the Lieutenant-Colonel to be attending, Lettice darling!”
“Well, why not, Sylvia darling?”
The older woman chuckles bitterly. “For someone with a wise and shrewd head for business, you can be so naïve sometimes, Lettice darling.” She shakes her head.
Lettice blushes at Sylvia’s rebuke but remains silently sipping her drink.
“I told you the first time I brought you to ‘The Nest’, the Lieutenant-Colonel is married, a brute and a boor: which is why I’m attracted to him.” She takes up her own cocktail glass and drains in in three large gulps, arching her neck upwards and screwing her eyes up as she does. Placing the empty vessel back on the surface of the black japanned coffee table she goes on. “And those are the exact same reasons why he shouldn’t be here. Our distinguished and enlightened company,” she wafts her hand around the room at her guests happily chattering away. “Would only take offence after he managed to insult every single one of them with his thoughtless remarks, assuming they had not already fled to the sanctity of their rooms, crying off about a feigned headache, in an effort to escape the boredom of his dull small talk. No, he and Mrs. Lieutenant-Colonel will be cosily tucked up together in their own Chippenham drawing room tonight, completely and utterly bored and disaffected in one another’s company, whilst I enjoy the pleasures of the scintillating company I have gathered here tonight, yourself included Lettice my darling, to christen and celebrate your feature wall – which is how it should be.”
“I’m so pleased you like the feature wall, Sylvia darling.” Lettice enthuses, steering the conversation away from awkward and dangerous ground to something safer. “As I said to you at Cavendish Mews, I really wasn’t sure about it, but now, with all the furnishings restored in here, I can see my vision was right.”
“Of course it was, Lettice darling!” Sylvia replies through gritted teeth as she holds her cigarette holder in her mouth whilst she fixes herself another cocktail. “I needed someone with vision, and someone for whom white was not the only colour she was happy to use.”
Sylvia busies herself, bending over the coffee table, making a boulevardier************** for herself, combining bourbon, bitter Campari and red vermouth over ice. Standing back up again with a groan from having stretched her back awkwardly, she goes on, “Anyway, stop being naughty, Lettice darling, trying to change the subject. We were talking about relationships and contentedness.”
“Well yes,” Lettice says with an awkward intake of breath. “As I was saying, Gerald seems very content with Cyril.”
However, not to be dissuaded, Sylvia cuts Lettice off. “And you, Lettice darling?”
“Me?”
“You! Are you content?” Sylvia asks as she looks meaningfully over at Sir John with Paula Young still hanging off his arm as he chuckles at something witty that Jelly d'Aranyi has just said.
Lettice follows Sylvia’s gaze.
Paula looks beautiful with her dark hair bobbed and slicked down fashionably in an Eaton crop***************, her pale, almost flawless skin, highlighted by her dark, kohl**************** lined eyes and a streak of bright red gloss across her lips. She clings to Sir John in an almost predatory fashion as she occasionally glances up at her hostess flanked by Lettice, her gaze growing hostile as Lettice catches her eye.
“Oh that?” Lettice remarks with a half-hearted a laissez-faire attitude. “Oh, I knew about her even before I agreed to marry John.” She sighs heavily. “Of course, Mater and Pater don’t know. John’s very discreet.”
“Are you sure of that, Lettice darling?” Sylvia eyes her companion over the top of her glass. “You did tell me that neither of your parents seem overly enthused about your engagement to our Nettie.”
“Oh yes!” Lettice assures Sylvia, shaking her head as if trying to rid herself of an irritating insect buzzing around her. “I’m sure they don’t. They’d never allow me to marry a man whom they knew was a philanderer.”
“Well, a gentle word of warning, Lettice darling. Nettie is his own worst enemy when it comes to women. He may be discreet, but he’s not as discreet as he should be sometimes, especially when the infatuation is new, and goodness knows, Paula’s not at the best of times.” Sylvia cautions. “So just make sure they don’t find out, lest your engagement all comes to naught.”
“Well,” Lettice says, taking another sip of her Parisian. “John tells me he’s tiring of Paula anyway as she is getting too clingy and demanding for his liking.” It is her turn to snort derisively. “Just look at how she tightens her grip on him, every time she and I catch one another’s eyes.” She sighs, betraying her true concerns about Paula to her hostess. “I’m hardly a threat to her.”
Sylvia considers her younger companion thoughtfully for a moment, taking the measure of her not so steely gaze as she looks across Sylvia’s drawing room to the clutch of guests standing in a circle. “You do know that there will be others after she’s gone, don’t you Lettice?”
“Of course I know, Sylvia. John was very disclosing when he proposed to me. He made things perfectly clear. I know the lay of the land. It’s why I agreed to her coming to your little weekend soirée.”
“So he did ask you, then?”
“Oh yes, he did.” Lettice replies rather flatly.
“That’s good,” Sylvia lets out a pent-up sigh of relief. “Because when Nettie asked me if he could invite her here for the weekend since Clemance cried off with a bad head cold, I said that if he was being truly honest with you, he had to ask your permission first. I have no issue with bed hopping, as you know, Lettice darling, but not at the expense of, the happiness of, or the comfort of any of my guests.”
“You are the consummate hostess, Sylvia darling.” Lettice responds as she sips her drink again. “You think of everything.”
“I didn’t do wrong by agreeing to Paula coming, did I Lettice darling?” Sylvia asks cautiously, concern think in her voice. “I mean, I do want us to be friends, especially if you are going to marry Nettie. You are still going to become Lady Nettleford-Hughes, aren’t you?”
“Yes, of course I am Sylvia.” Lettice turns and reaches out a hand to her hostess, smiling reassuringly as she does. When Sylvia takes it in her own thin and elegant white hand, Lettice goes on. “And we are friends already, no matter what I may or may not have decided. You said yourself, more than once, that we have certain things in common, and I’m inclined to agree with you. Anyway, going back to John and his request, could I have refused him any more than you could? John has told me outright that he despises jealousy, and if I really am going to make this marriage to him work, I have to be accepting of Paula and whomever follows in her footsteps, and most importantly, I cannot be a jealous wife.”
“Can you be content with that, Lettice darling?” Sylvia asks carefully.
Lettice is about to answer her when Adila Fachiri suddenly breaks from the circle of chatting guests and scurries up to her hostess, her dark eyes illuminated with excitement. “Sylvia! Sylvia darling!” she says in her heavily smoky and dark Hungarian accented voice. “You simply must come. Come with me now!” She reaches out her hands and takes Sylvia’s glass and lit cigarette from her, discarding them on the table.
“Adila, what on earth?” Sylvia asks in surprise.
“Our clever little oboist has had the most wonderful idea! You, he, Jelly and I are going to perform a quartet for our less musically gifted guests!” Adila laughs gaily. “Please excuse us, Miss Chetwynd. Come, Sylvia! Come along!”
And without further ado, Adila drags Sylvia away from Lettice’s side.
Lettice watches as Sylvia is cajoled, without too much difficulty, to her place at the grand piano whilst Jelly fetches hers and Adila’s violins. Sir John turns around and catches Lettice’s eye, waving at her with his right hand in which he holds his own half-drunk cocktail, gesticulating for her to join he and Paula. She releases her own pent-up sigh as she wonders how her marriage is going to be. Sylvia’s unanswered question dances through her head as she watches Paula’s arm wind around Sir John’s waist rather like a serpent. Can Lettice really be content with this marriage to Sir John? He has been very disclosing and open with her about his philandering. He hasn’t promised her love, but has offered her security and the ability to have more independence than most married women of her class. There are pros and cons to the bargain she has made. However, the question Lettice is asking herself more and more is, do the pros outweigh the cons?
“Shall I be tempted by the Devil thus?” she quietly asks herself, quoting Shakespeare’s Richard III.
*Belchamp St Paul is a village and civil parish in the Braintree district of Essex, England. The village is five miles west of Sudbury, Suffolk, and 23 miles northeast of the county town, Chelmsford.
**The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington in London, built in the style of an ancient amphitheatre. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the BBC Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941.
***Syrie Maugham was a leading British interior decorator of the 1920s and 1930s and best known for popularizing rooms decorated entirely in shades of white. She was the wife of English playwright and novelist William Somerset Maugham.
****Marcelling is a hair styling technique in which hot curling tongs are used to induce a curl into the hair. Its appearance was similar to that of a finger wave but it is created using a different method. Marcelled hair was a popular style for women's hair in the 1920s, often in conjunction with a bob cut. For those women who had longer hair, it was common to tie the hair at the nape of the neck and pin it above the ear with a stylish hair pin or flower.
*****Craven A (stylized as Craven "A") is a British brand of cigarettes, currently manufactured by British American Tobacco. Originally founded and produced by the Carreras Tobacco Company in 1921 until merging with Rothmans International in 1972, who then produced the brand until Rothmans was acquired by British American Tobacco in 1999. The cigarette brand is named after the third Earl of Craven, after the "Craven Mixture", a tobacco blend formulated for the 3rd Earl in the 1860s by tobacconist Don José Joaquin Carreras.
******Beach Pyjamas, made of silk, linen, or cotton, often in bright, cubist-inspired prints, were the height of summer and resort fashion in the 1920s and 1930s. They were worn from the afternoon to the evening as a fashionable summer style. They generally consisted of wide-legged trousers and a jacket of matching fabric.
*******Nile green is defined as a “pale bluish-green colour” and was very popular in the 1920s, fashionably named so for the Tut-Mania that took the world by storm after Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.
********Sexual inversion is a theory of homosexuality popular primarily in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. Sexual inversion was believed to be an inborn reversal of gender traits: male inverts were, to a greater or lesser degree, inclined to traditionally female pursuits and dress and vice versa.
*********Jelly d'Aranyi, fully Jelly Aranyi de Hunyadvár was a Hungarian violinist who made her home in London. She was born in Budapest, the great-niece of Joseph Joachim and sister of the violinist Adila Fachiri, with whom she often played duets. She was an excellent interpreter of Classical, Romantic and modern music. After d'Aranyi had, at his request, played "gypsy" violin music to him one evening, Maurice Ravel dedicated his popular violin-and-piano composition Tzigane to her. Again at his request, she gave the first British performance of the Sonata for Violin and Cello in 1922. Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Concerto Accademico to her. Gustav Holst's Double Concerto for Two Violins was written for Jelly and Adila.
**********Adila Fachiri. Adila Fachiri was a Hungarian violinist who had an international career but made her home in England. She was the sister of the violinist Jelly d'Arányi, with whom she often played duets. She first went to England in 1909, and in 1915, she married Alexander Fachiri, an English barrister living in London. By 1924, she had played in public in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands, as well as appearing regularly at London concerts. One of her preferred accompanists was the pianist Julie Lasdun, mother of architect Denys Lasdun.
***********The Parisian cocktail dates from the 1920s and consists of one third French Vermouth, one third Crème de Cassis and one third gin, shaken well and strained into wide cocktail glass. It falls into a category of drinks that often feature French ingredients or have Parisian connections. Several notable cocktails have gained recognition for their ties to Paris or French culture.
************A "Marie Antoinette glass" typically refers to a champagne coupe, a shallow, bowl-shaped glass with a short stem. While the shape has been linked to Marie Antoinette's breast in popular culture, historical records debunk this claim. The coupe was popular during Marie Antoinette's reign due to the sweeter champagne produced at the time, and its shape was also favoured for its ability to dip cakes in the beverage.
*************Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies thirteen miles north-east of Bath, eighty-six miles west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
**************The boulevardier cocktail is an alcoholic drink composed of whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Campari. It originated as an obscure cocktail in 1920s Paris, and was largely forgotten for eighty years, before being rediscovered in the late 2000s as part of the craft cocktail movement, rapidly rising in popularity in the 2010s as a variant of the negroni, and becoming an IBA official cocktail in 2020.
***************The Eton crop is a very short, slicked-down hairstyle for women, often seen as a masculine-leaning style. It was popularized in the 1920s and 30s and was worn by figures like Josephine Baker. The Eton crop emphasizes the shape of the head and focuses attention on the face.
***************Kohl is a cosmetic product, specifically an eyeliner, traditionally made from crushed stibnite (antimony sulfide). Modern formulations often include galena (lead sulfide) or other pigments like charcoal. Kohl is known for its ability to darken the edges of the eyelids, creating a striking, eye-enhancing effect. Kohl has a long history, with ancient Egyptians using it to define their eyes and protect them from the sun and dust, however there was a resurgence in its use in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s, kohl eyeliner was a popular makeup trend, particularly among women embracing the "flapper" aesthetic. It was used to create a dramatic, "smoky eye" look by smudging it onto the lash line and even the inner and outer corners of the eyes. This contrasted with the more demure, natural looks favoured in the pre-war era.
This 1920s upper-class drawing room is different to what you may think at first glance, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures, including pieces from my teenage years.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The wonderful hand painted wall behind the fireplace is the work of artis Emma Jennings www.emmajennings.com.au/artgallery who is inspired by the natural surrounds of her home in the Dandenong Ranges to the East of Melbourne. The panel is a limited edition print of her work, and was given to me, with Emma’s permission, to use as a wallpaper in one of my miniature tableaus.
Sylvia’s roomy Art Deco cream satin armchairs are made by Jai Yi Miniatures who specialise in high end miniature furniture. The black japanned coffee table and round occasional table with their gilded patterns are vintage pieces I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The chrome Art Deco smoker’s stand is a Shackman miniature from the 1970s and is quite rare. I bought it from a dealer in America via E-Bay.
The three toned marble fireplace is genuinely made from marble and is remarkably heavy for its size. It, the two brass fire dogs and filagree fireplace fender come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop, as do the two blue and white vases and the two blue and white gilt ginger jars on the mantle. Also on the mantle stands a little green and gold Art Deco clock, which is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by Hall’s Miniature Clocks, supplied through Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniatures in England.
The two large blue and white urns flanking the fireplace are Eighteenth Century Chinese jars that I bought as part of a large job lot of small oriental pieces of porcelain, pottery and glass from an auction house many years ago.
The bottle of Gordon’s Dry Gin, the bottles of Cinzano, Campari and Martini are also 1:12 artisan miniatures, made of real glass, and came from a specialist stockist in Sydney. The soda syphon and gilt ice bucket with silver tongs sticking out of it were made by M.W. Reutter Porzellanfabrik in Germany, who specialise in making high quality porcelain miniatures. The packet of Craven “A” cigarettes and the Swan Vestas matchbox beneath it were made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, with extreme attention paid to the packaging. The wine glasses and water carafe I have had since I was a teenager. I bought them from a high street stockist that specialised in dolls’ houses and doll house miniatures. Each glass is hand blown using real glass. The cigarette lighter is made of sterling silver and was made by the Little Green Workshop in England who specialise in high end, high quality miniatures. The Swan Vesta’s matches sitting in the holder on the smoker’s stand also come from Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures.
The painting above the mantlepiece is a 1:12 artisan piece made by Amber’s Miniatures in the United States.
The blue and white carpet interwoven with gold I acquired through an online stockist of 1;12 miniatures on E-Bay.
The Westin Bellevue Hotel Dresden (since has become Bilderberg Bellevue Hotel Dresden) is the best and most elegant hotel that I've ever stayed. And it wasn't expensive when I booked it. My room cost only EUR 84 per night including all fees and taxes.
Very spacious room by European standard, large bed, large bathroom, a proper desk and plenty of space for luggage and souvenir storage :D
1 1/2 Room Furnished Efficiencies
Extra spacious room completely furnished and decorated as separate bedroom and living room...Dining Service for five... will accommodate from 2 to 5 persons. Private tile baths and shower...TV - Hi-Fi...Air Conditioned.
1968 Bill Bard Associates
Koppel Card
111826
CAPA-007885
The Westin Bellevue Hotel Dresden (since has become Bilderberg Bellevue Hotel Dresden) is the best and most elegant hotel that I've ever stayed. And it wasn't expensive when I booked it. My room cost only EUR 84 per night including all fees and taxes.
Very spacious room by European standard, large bed, large bathroom, a proper desk and plenty of space for luggage and souvenir storage :D
© yohanes.budiyanto, 2014
PRELUDE
The 1st of August, 2014 was such an historic day as the world finally welcomed the birth of the first in line to the Parisian throne after a painstaking and extraordinary "labor" process that took four years in creation, and almost a decade in the making. I was not talking about a French rival to baby George, but instead a newborn that has sent shivers down the spines of Paris' oldest and current Kings and Grand Dames from the day it was conceived. Yes, I was referring to The Peninsula Paris, the youngest sister to the legendary Peninsula Hong Kong (circa 1928).
Ever since the project was announced to the public four years ago, it has been on my top list of the most eagerly awaited hotel openings of the decade. So when the hotel announced 1st of August as an opening date back in March, I immediately issued my First Class return tickets to the City of Light, risking the usual opening delay. A man of his word, Peninsula Paris finally opened as scheduled.
HISTORY
The Peninsula brand needs no introduction, as it is synonymous with quality, technology, innovation, craftsmanship and sophistication, -much like a slogan for French top brands and their savoir faire. Despite having only 10 current properties worldwide in its portfolio (Paris is its tenth), each Peninsula hotel is a market leader in each respective cities, and consistently tops the chart in many bonafide travel publications and reigns supreme as the world's best, especially elder sisters in Hong Kong and Bangkok. The Peninsula model is different from other rival hotel groups, which usually expand aggressively through both franchise and managed models worldwide. Instead, the Peninsula focuses on acquiring majority to sole ownership on all its properties to ensure control on quality (Hong Kong, New York, Chicago and Tokyo are 100% owned; Bangkok, Beijing and Manila are over 75%; Shanghai is 50%, while Beverly Hills and Paris are the only two with only 20% ownership).
The history of the Peninsula Paris could be traced back to a modest villa aptly called Hotel Basilevski on the plot of land at 19 Avenue Kleber back in 1864, -named after its Russian diplomat owner, Alexander Petrovich Basilevski, which caught the attention of hotelier Leonard Tauber for his prospective hotel project. The Versailles-styled property was partly a museum housing Basilevski's vast and impressive collection of 19th century medieval and Renaissance art, which eventually was acquired by Alexander III, -a Russian Tsar, at the sums of six millions francs. These collections were later transported to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and formed the base collection for the newly established Department of Medieval and Renaissance Art. After Basilevski sold the villa and moved to a more palatial residence at Avenue du Trocadero, the property was then acquired and rebranded the Palais de Castille as the residence of the exiled Queen Isabella II of Spain in 1868, who seeked refuge and continued to live there until 1904. Upon her death, the property was later demolished in 1906 to make way for the Majestic hotel, which finally opened in 1908 with much satisfaction of Leonard Tauber, who has eyed the premise from the very beginning.
The Majestic Hotel was exquisitely designed in the Beaux-Art style as a grand hotel by prominent architect of that time, Armand Sibien. Together with The Ritz (circa 1898), the two became the most preferred places to stay and entertain in Paris of the time. The Majestic has attracted the well-heeled crowd, and hosted many high profile events, most notably for a particular dinner hosted by rich British couple Sydney and Violet Schiff on 18 May 1922 as the after party of Igor Stravinsky's 'Le Renard' ballet premiere, and the hotel becomes an instant legend. The guests list were impressive: Igor Stravinsky himself, Pablo Picasso, Sergei Diaghilev, and two of the 20th century most legendary writers: James Joyce and Marcel Proust, who met for the first and only time before Proust's death six months later. Since then, the Majestic continued to draw high profile guests, including George Gershwin on 25 March 1928, where he composed "An American in Paris" during the stay.
If the walls could talk, the Majestic has plenty of stories to tell. It was once converted into a hospital during the infamy in 1914, and the British took residency at the hotel during the Paris Peace Conference back in 1919. The hotel was then acquired by the French State in 1936 as the offices of the Ministry of Defence; and later had a stint as the German Military High Command in France between October 1940 to July 1944 during the World War II. Post war, it then became the temporary home for UNESCO from 16 September 1946 until 1958. More than a decade after, the Paris Peace talks was opened by Henry Kissinger in one of its spectacular Ballrooms in 1969 with the Northern Vietnamese. Four years later, the Paris Peace Accord was finally signed at the oak paneled-room next to the Ballroom on 27 January 1973, which ended the Vietnam War. This triumphant event has also led to another victorious event when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
The hotel continued to serve as the International Conference Center of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs until it was up for sale by the government in 2008 as part of the cost cutting program to the Qatari Diar, -which later transferred its ownership to Katara Hospitality, for a staggering USD 460 million. An excess of USD 600 million was further spent on the massive rebuilding and refurbishment not only to restore the hotel to its former glory, but also to transform it into a Peninsula with the highest standard.
The epic restoration work was led by prominent French architect, Richard Martinet, who has also previously work with the restoration of Prince Roland Bonaparte's former mansion into the Shangri-La Paris and also the Four Seasons George V; and involved teams of France's leading craftsmen; heritage designers and organisations; stonemasons from historic monument specialist; master glass crafters; crystal manufacturer; wood, moulding and gilder restoration experts, -many of whom are third generation, and have carried out high profile projects such as the Palace of Versailles, Louvre Museum, the dome of Les Invalides, the Grand and Petit Palais, and even the flame of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The result is truly breathtaking, and it was certainly money well spent to revive and recreate one of the nation's most treasured landmark. One of my favorite places within the hotel is the Main Lobby at Avenue des Portugais where the grand hall is adorned with a spectacular chandelier installation comprising 800 pieces of glass leaves inspired by the plane trees along Avenue Kleber. The work of Spain's most influential artist since Gaudi, Xavier Corbero, could also be found nearby in the form of a beautiful sculpture called Moon River.
Katara Hospitality owns 80% of The Peninsula Paris, and already has a spectacular portfolio ownership consisting some of the world's finest hotels, including The Raffles Singapore, Le Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris, Ritz-Carlton Doha, Schweizerhof Bern, and most recently, 5 of the InterContinental Hotel's European flagships, including Amstel in Amsterdam, Carlton in Cannes, De la Ville in Rome, Madrid and Frankfurt. It is interesting to note that Adrian Zecha, founder of the extraordinary Amanresorts chain is a member of the Board of Directors at Katara since September 2011, lending his immense hospitality expertise to the group.
At over USD 1 billion cost, the Pen Paris project is easily the most expensive to ever being built, considering it has only 200 rooms over 6 storeys. As a comparison, the cost of building the 101 storey, 494m high Shanghai World Financial Center (where the Park Hyatt Shanghai resides) is USD 1.2 billion; whereas Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building on earth at 163 storey and 828m, costed a 'modest' USD 1.5 billion to build. The numbers are truly mind boggling, and The Peninsula Paris is truly an extraordinary project. It might took the Majestic Hotel two years to build; but it took four years just to restore and reincarnate it into a Peninsula.
HOTEL OPENING
On a pleasant afternoon of 1 August 2014, the hotel finally opened its door to a crowd of distinguished guests, international journalists, first hotel guests and local crowds who partake to witness the inauguration and rebirth of a Parisian legend and grande dame (Many A-list celebrities and even Head of State flocked to the hotel to witness its sheer beauty). It was an historic day not just for Paris, but also for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group as it marks their arrival in Europe with its first ever Peninsula, while the second is already on the pipeline with the future opening of The Peninsula London, located just behind The Lanesborough at Knightsbridge.
The eagerly-awaited opening ceremony was attended by the Chairman of Katara Hospitality, His Excellency Sheikh Nawaf Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani; CEO of Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Limited (HSH), Clement Kwok; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius; General Manager of the Peninsula Paris, Nicolas Béliard; and the event kicked off with an opening speech by the famous French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, the Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad, Madame Fleur Pellerin, who clearly stole the show with her public persona. A ribbon cutting and spectacular lion dance show concluded the event, which drew quite a spectacle on Avenue des Portugais as it brought a unique display of Asian heritage to the heart of cosmopolitan Paris.
LOCATION
The Peninsula Paris stands majestically at the tree-lined Avenue Kléber, just off the Arc de Triomphe. Personally, this is an ideal location in Paris as it is a stone's throw away from all the happenings at the Champs-Élysées, but is set away from its hustle and bustle, which is constantly a tourist trap day and night. Once you walk pass the leafy Avenue Kléber, the atmosphere is very different: peaceful and safe. The Kléber Metro station is just a few steps away from the hotel, providing guests a convenient access to further parts of town.
Champs-Élysées is the center of Parisian universe, and it is just a short and pleasant stroll away from the hotel, where some of the city's most legendary commercial and cultural institutions reside. For a start, Drugstore Publicis at the corner by the roundabout has been a legendary hang-out since the 1960s, and is my ultimate favourite place in town. The Post Modern edifice by architect Michele Saee (renovated in 2004) houses almost everything: a Cinema; side walk Brasserie & Steak House; Newsagency; Bookshop (you can find Travel publications and even the Michelin Guide); upscale Gift shop and Beauty corner (even Acqua di Parma is on sale here); Pharmacy (whose pharmacist thankfully speaks English and gladly advises you on your symptoms); upscale deli (stocking pretty much everything from Foie gras burger on the counter, to fine wines & cigar cellar; to Pierre Herme & Pierre Marcolini chocolates; Dalloyau bakery; Marriage Freres tea; and even the Petrossian Caviar!). Best of all, it features a 2 Michelin star L'atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile on its basement; and the store is even opened on Sunday until 2am. It is a one stop shopping, eating and entertainment, showcasing the best of France.
Further down the road, Maison Louis Vuitton stands majestically on its own entire 7 storey building, which was opened in 2005 as one of the biggest flagship stores in the world, covering a total area of 1,800m2. Designed by Eric Carlson and Peter Marino, the entire store is an architectural marvel and the temple of luxury, elegance and sophistication. This is one of the very few stores to open in Sunday as the French Labour Unions prohibits commercial stores to open on Sunday, unless if it involves cultural, recreational and sporting aspect. Initially, Maison LV was ordered by the court to close on Sunday, but LVMH finally wins an appeal in 2007 on the grounds of cultural experience; and the store has continued to draw endless queue on Sunday.
A block away from Maison LV is the legendary Parisian Tea Room of Ladurée, which was founded in 1862 by Louis Ernest Ladurée on its original store at 16 Rue Royal as a bakery. The Champs-Élysées store was opened in 1997 and has since attracted an endless queue of tourists and locals who wish to savour its legendary Macarons and pastries. The Ladurée phenomenon and popularity could only be rivaled by fellow Frenchmen Pierre Hermé, who has also attracted a cult of loyal fans worldwide. It may not have a flagship store at Champs-Élysées, but one could easily stop by Drugstore Publicis for a quick purchase to ease the craving.
For those looking for upscale boutiques, Avenue Montaigne located just nearby on a perpendicular, and features the flagship presence of the world's finest luxury fashion labels: Armani, Bottega Veneta, Valention, Prada, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Fendi and Salvatore Ferragamo to name a few. For the ultimate in shopping extravaganza, head down to Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré where all money will (hopefully) be well spent.
Champs-Élysées is the most famous and expensive boulevard in the world, yet it has everything for everyone; and myriad of crowds flocking its grand boulevards for a pleasant stroll. It has no shortage of luxury stores, but it also offers mainstream stores for the general public, from Levi's to Zara and Lacoste; to McDonalds and Starbucks; and FNAC store (French answer to HMV).
In terms of fine dining experience, the areas around Champs-Élysées has plenty to offer. I have mentioned about the 2 Michelin L'atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile at the Drugstore Publicis, which was excellent. Robuchon never disappoints as it consistently serves amazing French cuisine amidst its signature red and black interior everywhere I visited, including Tokyo (3 Michelin), Hong Kong (3 Michelin), Paris (2 Michelin) and Taipei.
During my stay, I also managed to sample the finest cuisine from the kitchens of two, 3-Michelin Paris institutions: Pierre Gagnaire at Rue Balzac, just off Champs-Élysées; and Epicure at Le Bristol by Chef Eric Frechon on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, which was undoubtedly the best and most memorable dining experiences I have ever had in Paris to date. It is certainly the gastronomic highlight of this trip.
Other 3 Michelin establishment, such as Ledoyen is also located nearby at an 18th century pavilion by the Gardens of Champs-Élysées by newly appointed famous French Chef Yannick Alléno, who previously also resided at the Le Meurice with 3 Michelin, until Alain Ducasse took over last year during the Plaza Athénée closure for expansion.
August is a time of misery for international visitors to Paris as most fine dining restaurants are closed for the summer holiday. When choices are limited, foodies could rely on Epicure and Robuchon, which are opened all year round; and also the 2 Michelin star Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V. Although its food could not compete with Robuchon, Epicure and Gagnaire, guests could still enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
ROOMS:
On my visit to Paris last year, I was not too impressed with my stay at the Four Seasons George V, as everything seemed to be pretty basic: the room design; the in-room tech and amenities; and even the much lauded service. It simply does not justify the hefty price tag. The only thing stood out there were the ostentatious designer floral display at the lobby, which reportedly absorbed a six digit figure budget annually. When I saw them at the first time, this was what came to mind: guests are paying for these excessive flowers, whether you like it or not.
Fortunately, the Peninsula Paris skips all this expensive gimmick, and instead spends a fortune for guests to enjoy: advance room technology; a host of complimentary essential amenities, including internet access, non-alcoholic minibar, and even long distance phone calls. In fact, every single items inside the room has been well thought and designed for guest's ultimate comfort.
Ever since The Peninsula Bangkok opened in 1998 to much success, the group has used it as a template for its signature rooms for future sister hotels, which consists of an open plan, ultra-wide spacious room equivalent to a 2 bays suite, with 5-fixtures bathroom, and a separate Dressing Room, which soon becomes a Peninsula signature.
The Peninsula Tokyo followed this template when it opened in 2007 to rave reviews; and it was soon adopted as a model for Peninsula Shanghai, which later opened in 2009 as the flagship property in Mainland China. This layout is also being applied at The Peninsula Paris, albeit for its Suites categories, i.e. Junior Suite, which measure at an astonishing 50 - 60m2. The entry level Superior and Deluxe Rooms lack the signature layout with smaller size at 35 - 45m2, but they are already spacious for a Parisian standard; and each is equipped with Peninsula's signature technology.
Technology is indeed at the core of the Peninsula DNA, and no expense is spared in creating the world's most advance in-room technology. When other hotels try to cut costs and budgets on in-room technology with lame excuses, the Peninsula actually spends a fortune to innovate and set a new benchmark. In fact, it is probably the only hotel group to have its own Technology laboratory at a secret location deep inside Aberdeen, Hong Kong, where in-room tech is being developed and tested. It was here where innovative devices, such as the outside temperature indicator; my favourite Spa Button by the bathtub; or even the portable nail dryer for the ladies are invented. The Peninsula took the world by storm when it introduced the Samsung Galaxy tablet device at the Peninsula Hong Kong in 2012, which is programmed in 11 languages and virtually controls the entire room, including the lights, temperature, curtains, TV, radio, valet calls and Do Not Disturb sign. It even features touch screen Room Service Menu, hotel information, city guide, and a function to request room service and housekeeping items, thus creating an entirely paperless environment.
All these technological marvel are also being replicated at the Peninsula Paris, together with other 'standard' features, such as Nespresso Coffee Machine; flat-screen 3D LED television; LED touch screen wall panels; an iPod/iPad docking station; memory card reader; 4-in1 fax/scanner/printer/photocopier machine; DVD player; complimentary in-house HD movies; complimentary internet access and long distance calls through the VOIP platform. Even the room's exterior Parisian-styled canopy is electronically operated. All these technological offerings is so extremely complex, that it resulted in 2.5 km worth of cabling in each room alone.
Bathroom at the Junior Suite also features Peninsula's signature layout: a stand alone bathtub as the focal point, flanked by twin vanities and separate shower and WC compartments amidst acres of white marble. Probably the first in Paris, it features a Japanese Toilet complete with basic control panel, and a manual handheld bidet sprayer.
When all these add up to the stay, it actually brings a very good value to the otherwise high room rates. Better yet, the non-alcoholic Minibar is also complimentary, which is a first for a Peninsula hotel. The Four Seasons George V may choose to keep looking back to its antiquity past and annihilate most technological offerings to its most basic form, but the Pen always looks forward to the future and brings the utter convenience, all at your finger tip. The Peninsula rooms are undoubtedly the best designed, best equipped and most high-tech in the entire universe.
ROOM TO BOOK:
The 50 - 60m2 Junior Suite facing leafy Avenue Kléber is the best room type to book as it is an open-plan suite with Peninsula's signature bathroom and dressing room; and the ones located on the Premiere étage (first floor) have high ceilings and small balcony overlooking Kleber Terrace's iconic glass canopy. Personally, rooms facing the back street at Rue La Pérouse are the least preferred, but its top level rooms inside the Mansart Roof on level 5 have juliet windows that allow glimpse of the tip of Eiffel Tower despite being smaller in size due to its attic configuration. Superior Rooms also lack the signature Peninsula 5 fixtures bathroom configuration, so for the ultimate bathing experience, make sure to book at least from the Deluxe category.
If money is no object, book one of the five piece-de-resistance suites with their own private rooftop terrace and gardens on the top floor, which allow 360 degree panoramic views of Paris. Otherwise, the mid-tier Deluxe Suite is already a great choice with corner location, multiple windows and 85m2 of pure luxury.
DINING:
Looking back at the hotel's illustrious past, the Peninsula offers some of the most unique and memorable dining experiences in Paris, steep in history.
The area that once housed Igor Stravinksy's after party where James Joyce met Marcel Proust for the first time is now the hotel's Cantonese Restaurant, aptly called LiLi; and is led by Chef Chi Keung Tang, formerly of Peninsula Tokyo's One Michelin starred Hei Fung Terrace. Lili was actually modeled after Peninsula Shanghai's Yi Long Court, but the design here blends Chinese elements with Art Nouveau style that flourished in the late 1920s. It also boasts a world first: a spectacular 3x3.3m fiber optic installation at the entrance of the restaurant, depicting the imaginary portrait of LiLi herself. The Cantonese menu was surprisingly rather simple and basic, and features a selection of popular dim sum dishes. The best and most memorable Chinese restaurants I have ever experienced are actually those who masterfully fuse Chinese tradition with French ingredients: Jin Sha at the Four Seasons Hangzhou at Westlake; 2 Michelin Tin Lung Heen at Level 102 of the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong; Jiang at Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou by Chef Fei; and Ya Ge at Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Ironically, the world's only 3 Michelin star Chinese restaurant, Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons Hong Kong failed to impress me.
The former Ballroom area where Henry Kissinger started the Paris Peace talks with the Vietnamese has now been transformed as The Lobby, which is a signature of every Peninsula hotels where the afternoon tea ritual takes place daily. The spectacular room with intricate details and crystal chandeliers has been meticulously restored, and is an ideal place to meet, see and be seen. Breakfast is served daily here, and guests could choose to have it either inside or outside at the adjoining al fresco La Terrasse Kléber, which connects all the F&B outlets on the ground floor, including Lili. Guests could choose from a Chinese set breakfast, which includes dim sum, fried vermicelli, and porridge with beef slices; or the Parisian set, which includes gourmet items such as Egg Benedict with generous slices of Jamon Iberico on top. The afternoon tea ritual is expected to be very popular as renowned Chef Pattissier Julien Alvarez, -who claimed the World Pastry Champion in 2009; and also the Spanish World Chocolate Master in 2007 at the tender age of 23, is at the helm; and the venue quickly booked out from the opening day.
Next to the Lobby is a small, intimate bar covered in exquisite oak panelling where Henry Kissinger signed the Paris Peace Accord back in 1973 that ended the Vietnam War. Kissinger politely declined the offer to have the Bar named after him, and instead it is simply called Le Bar Kléber.
On the top floor of the hotel lies the signature restaurant L'Oiseau Blanc, which is named after the French biplane that disappeared in 1927 in an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York. A 75% replica of the plane has even been installed outside the main entrance of the restaurant with the Eiffel Tower on its background. The restaurant is divided into 3 distinct areas: a spectacular glass enclosed main dining room; a large outdoor terrace that runs the entire length of the hotel's roof; and an adjoining lively bar, all with breathtaking uninterrupted views of Paris' most identifiable landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur at the highest point of the city at Montmartre.
L'Oiseau Blanc is led by Chef Sidney Redel, a former protégé of Pierre Gagnaire, and serves contemporary French cuisine focussing on 'terroir' menu of locally sourced seasonal ingredients from the region. During my stay, tomato was the seasonal ingredients, and Chef Redel created four courses incorporating tomato, even on dessert. While the food was of high quality, personally the menu still needs fine tuning, considering the sort of clientele the Pen is aiming for: the ultra rich (Chinese), who usually seek top establishments with luxury ingredients, such as caviar, black truffle, foie gras, blue lobster, Jamon Iberico, Wagyu beef, Kurobuta pork and Challans chicken.
LEISURE:
The Peninsula Paris features one of the best health and recreational facilities in the city, housed within the basement of the hotel, and covers an expansive area of 1,800m2. For a comparison, rival Mandarin Oriental Spa covers a total area of only 900m2 over two floors. The Peninsula Spa is undoubtedly one of the nicest urban spa that I have been to, it easily beats the Spa at the Four Seasons George V. The pool is also one of the city's largest at 22m long, -compared to both the Shangri-La and Mandarin Oriental at 15m; the George V at only 9m, which is more like a bigger jacuzzi. The only two other pools better than the Peninsula is the one designed by Phillippe Starck at the Le Royal Monceau at 28m; and the spectacular grand pool at the Ritz.
There is the usual 24 hours gym within two fitness spaces equipped with Technogym machines and free weights; and the locker rooms features steam, sauna, and experience shower room. There is a total of 8 treatment rooms within the Spa area, and the highlight is certainly the Relaxation Room, which is equipped with amazing day beds with specially placed deep cushions. The best part? the beds are electronically operated, much like a first class seat on a plane.
X-FACTOR:
The Peninsula signature technology; The Spa Button in the bathroom; VOIP technology for complimentary long distance calls; The top suites (Historic, Katara and Peninsula Suites); Xavier Corbero's Moon River sculpture at the Lobby; Lili; The Lobby and Bar where Henry Kissinger signed Paris Peace Accord; L'Oiseau Blanc Restaurant; The 1,800m2 Peninsula Spa; and the 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II.
SERVICE:
There are a total of 600 staffs for just 200 rooms, so the service level is expected to be high; but it is perhaps unfair to judge the service during the opening weeks when all staffs were not at their best due to the intense preparation leading to the opening event. Furthermore, teething problems are expected for a newly opened hotel as great hotels are not born overnight, but takes a good few years of refinement.
Nonetheless, I was actually quite impressed with the level of service during the whole stay, as the majority of the staffs showed great attitude and much enthusiasm, which is a testament of great intense training. As one of the first guests arriving on the opening day, check-in was truly delightful and memorable as a battalion of staffs of different ranks welcomed and wished the most pleasant stay. The mood could not have been more festive as moments later, the hotel was finally inaugurated.
I was also particularly impressed with the service at both LiLi and The Lobby where staffs performed at an exceptional level like a veteran. There are two distinct qualities that made a lot of difference during the stay: humility and friendliness, which is quite a challenge to find, not only in Paris and the entire Europe, but even in Asian cities, such as Hong Kong. It is like finding needles in a haystack. A genuine smile seems to be a rare commodity these days, so I was happy to see plenty of smiles at the Peninsula Paris during the stay, from the signature Peninsula Pageboys to waiters, Maître d, receptionists and even to Managers and Directors. In fact, there were more smiles in Paris than Hong Kong.
When I woken up too early for breakfast one day, the restaurant was just about to open; and there were hardly anyone. I realized that even the birds were probably still asleep, but I was extremely delighted to see how fresh looking and energetic the staffs were at the dining room. There was a lot of genuine smile that warmed the rather chilly morning; and it was a great start to the day. One of the staffs I met during the stay even candidly explained how they were happy just to be at work, and it does not feel like working at all, which was clearly shown in their passion and enthusiasm.
That said, the Shangri-La Paris by far is still my top pick for best service as it is more personalized and refined due to its more intimate scale. The Shangri-La Paris experience is also unique as guests are welcomed to a sit down registration by the historic lounge off the Lobby upon arrival, and choice of drinks are offered, before being escorted to the room for in-room check-in. Guests also receive a Pre-Arrival Form in advance, so the hotel could anticipate and best accommodate their needs. During the stay, I was also addressed by my last name everywhere within the hotel, so it was highly personalized. I did receive similar treatment at The Peninsula Paris, -albeit in a lesser extent due to its size; and even the housekeeping greeted me by my last name. Every requests, from room service to mineral water were all handled efficiently at a timely manner. At times, service could be rather slow at the restaurants (well, it happens almost everywhere in Paris), but this is part of the Parisian lifestyle where nothing is hurried; and bringing bills/checks upfront is considered rude. I did request the food servings to be expedited during a lunch at LiLi on the last day due to the time constraint; and the staffs managed to succeed the task not only ahead of the time limit, but also it never felt hurried all along. Everything ran as smooth as silk.
VERDICT:
It was a personal satisfaction to witness the history in the making during the opening day on 1 August 2014, as the Peninsula Paris is my most eagerly awaited hotel opening of the decade. It was also historic, as it was a first in my travel to dedicate a trip solely for a particular hotel in a particular city (in this case Paris, some 11,578km away from home), without staying at other fine hotels. It was money well spent, and a trip worth taking as it was an amazing stay; and certainly a lifetime experience.
The Peninsula Paris could not have arrived at a better time, as two of the most established Parisian grande dames (Ritz and de Crillon) are still closed for a complete renovation, and will only be revealed in 2015; so there is plenty of time to adapt, grow and hone its skills. But with such pedigree, quality and illustrious history, the Pen really has nothing to be worried about. The Four Seasons George V seems to have a cult of highly obsessed fans (esp. travel agents) worldwide, but personally (and objectively), it is no match to the Peninsula. Based on physical product alone, the Pen wins in every aspect as everything has been meticulously designed with the focus on guest comfort and convenience. In terms of technology, the Pen literally has no rival anywhere on the planet, except from the obvious sibling rivalry.
The only thing that the Pen still needs to work on is its signature restaurants as all its rival hotels have at least 2 Michelin star restaurants (L'abeille at the Shangri-La; Sur Mesure at the Mandarin Oriental; and 3 Michelin at Epicure, Le Bristol; Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V and Alain Ducasse at Le Meurice). L'Oiseau Blanc design is truly breathtaking and would certainly be the most popular gastronomic destination in Paris, but at the moment, the food still needs some works.
There were the expected teething problems and some inconsistencies with the service; but with years of refinement, The Peninsula Paris will no doubt ascend the throne. Personally, the Shangri-La Paris is currently the real competitor, together with the upcoming Ritz and de Crillon when they open next year, especially when Rosewood has taken over Crillon management and Karl Lagerfeld is working on its top suites. The two, however, may still need to revisit the drawing boards and put more effort on the guestrooms if they ever want to compete; because at the moment, The Peninsula Paris is simply unrivaled.
UPDATE 2016:
*I have always been very spot-on with my predictions. After only two years since its opening, The Peninsula Paris has been awarded the much coveted Palace status. In fact, it is the only hotel in Paris to receive such distinction in 2016. Congratulations, it is very much deserving*
PERSONAL RATING:
1. Room: 100
2. Bathroom: 100
3. Bed: 100
4. Service: 90
5. In-room Tech: 100
6. In-room Amenities: 100
7. Architecture & Design: 100
8. Food: 80
9. View: 80
10. Pool: 95
11. Wellness: 95
12. Location: 95
13. Value: 100
Overall: 95.00
Compare with other Parisian hotels (all with Palace status) that I have stayed previously:
SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, PARIS: 95.00
PARK HYATT PARIS-VENDOME: 90.00
My #1 ALL TIME FAVORITE HOTEL
LANDMARK MANDARIN ORIENTAL, HONG KONG: 95.38
THE PENINSULA, PARIS
19, Avenue Kléber, Paris
Awarded Palace Status in 2016
General Manager: Nicolas Béliard
Hotel Manager: Vincent Pimont
Executive Chef: Jean-Edern Hurstel
Head Chef (Lili): Chi Keung Tang
Head Chef (L'oiseau Blanc): Sidney Redel
Head Chef (The Lobby): Laurent Poitevin
Chef Patissier: Julien Alvarez
Architect (original Majestic Hotel, circa 1908): Armand Sibien
Architect (renovation & restoration, 2010-2014): Richard Martinet
Interior Designer: Henry Leung of Chhada Siembieda & Associates
Landscape Designer: D. Paysage
Art Curator: Sabrina Fung
Art Restorer: Cinzia Pasquali
Artist (Courtyard installation): Ben Jakober & Yannick Vu
Crystal work: Baccarat
Designer (Lili fiber optic installation): Clementine Chambon & Francoise Mamert
Designer (Chinaware): Catherine Bergen
Gilder Specialist & Restorer: Ateliers Gohard
Glass Crafter (Lobby Installation): Lasvit Glass Studio
Master Glass Crafters: Duchemin
Master Sculptor (Lobby): Xavier Corbero
Metalwork: Remy Garnier
Plaster & Moulding Expert: Stuc et Staff
Silverware: Christofle
Silk & Trimmings: Declercq Passementiers
Wood Restoration Expert: Atelier Fancelli
Hotel Opening Date: 01 August 2014
Notable owners: Katara Hospitality; Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group (HSH)
Total Rooms & Suites: 200 (including 35m2 Superior, 45m2 Deluxe, 50m2 Grand Deluxe, 55m2 Premier and 60m2 Grand Premier Rooms)
Total Suites: 34 Suites (including 70m2 Superior, 85m2 Deluxe and 100m2 Premier
Top Suites: Historic Suite, Katara Suite, and The Peninsula Suite
Bathroom Amenities: Oscar de la Renta
Restaurants: The Lobby (All day dining & Afternoon tea), LiLi (Cantonese), L'Oiseau Blanc (French), La Terrasse Kléber
Bars and Lounges: Le Bar Kléber; Kléber Lounge; Cigar Lounge; and L'Oiseau Blanc Bar
Meeting & Banquets: Salon de l'Étoile for up to 100 guests, and 3 smaller Function Rooms
Health & Leisure: 24 hours gym & 1,800m2 Peninsula Spa with 22m indoor swimming pool and jacuzzis; Steam & Sauna, Relaxation Room, and 8 treatment rooms
Transport: chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce Extended Wheel Base Phantom; a 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II; 2 MINI Cooper S Clubman; and a fleet of 10 BMW 7 Series
Complimentary facilities: Non-alcoholic Minibar; Wired and Wireless Internet; VOIP long distance calls; HD Movies; Daily fruit Basket; International Newspaper; Chauffeured MINI Cooper S Clubman for Suites guests; and Chauffeured Rolls Royce for top Suites
paris.peninsula.com
The complexe cathédral (“Cathedral compound”) in Le puy-en-Velay is made up of multiple buildings arranged in an indeed complex manner, to which the various remodelings and additions undertaken over the centuries have added another layer of intricacy.
The building which was meant to house the clergeons, or choirboys, was built above the eastern gallery of the canons’ cloister. Within the same wing were the personal lodgings of the Dean of the canons, which also served as an office of sorts for the Dean, as well as reception rooms.
The spacious room I am showing today is out of bounds to the general public. It used to be the main sitting room of the Dean. When he was on duty (as I already mentioned, the canons were secular, not regular, which implies, inter alia, that their continued presence was not requested), he would spent time here, entertain guests, have his meals, do his correspondence and more generally attend to his duties. The chapter of canons of the cathedral was a very powerful body and its Dean was one of the most prominent persons in the city. As most of the other canons, the Dean also had a private residence in town, and probably a more luxurious one.
I was quite happy to be invited to view this room, and even more so with a very knowledgeable guide who made the visit all the more enjoyable with his detailed accounts of how life must have been for the Dean of canons, back in the Middle Ages.
This room was occupied by clerics until the late 1960s. It is, as we say in French, “in its juices”, meaning in the state it was originally, having never been restored, except for the removal of several successive coats of whitewash and paint that had been applied over the centuries, until the Mediæval alfresco painting were exposed again.
One last, frontal photograph of that remarkably shaped and decorated fireplace. Remember that this is late 1100s, maybe early 1200s, and for that period, it is a very elaborate design, more Renaissance than Mediæval.
no rules, no limitations, no boundaries it's like an art
© All Rights Reserved by ajpscs
Single Raw File Exposure tone mapped in PHOTOMATIX-Details Enhancer and post-processed in Photoshop CS2
Sentō (銭湯)
... is a type of Japanese communal bath house where customers pay for entrance. Traditionally these bath houses have been quite utilitarian, with one large room separating the sexes by a tall barrier, and on both sides, usually a minimum of lined up faucets and a single large bath for the already washed bathers to sit in among others. Since the second half of the 20th century, these communal bath houses have been decreasing in numbers as more and more Japanese residences now have baths.
Some Japanese find social importance in going to public baths, out of the theory that physical proximity/intimacy brings emotional intimacy, which is termed skinship in Japanese. Others go to a sentō because they live in a small housing facility without a private bath or to enjoy bathing in a spacious room and to relax in saunas or jet baths that often accompany new or renovated sentōs.
The Rimrock Motor Inn offers complete facilities in the bustling and rapidly-developing Four Corners area. 102 spacious room; the swinging Quarry Lounge; complete dining and banquet facilities. Member of the Best Western Motels.
Photos by Dick Kent
CAPA-021745
© yohanes.budiyanto, 2014
PRELUDE
The 1st of August, 2014 was such an historic day as the world finally welcomed the birth of the first in line to the Parisian throne after a painstaking and extraordinary "labor" process that took four years in creation, and almost a decade in the making. I was not talking about a French rival to baby George, but instead a newborn that has sent shivers down the spines of Paris' oldest and current Kings and Grand Dames from the day it was conceived. Yes, I was referring to The Peninsula Paris, the youngest sister to the legendary Peninsula Hong Kong (circa 1928).
Ever since the project was announced to the public four years ago, it has been on my top list of the most eagerly awaited hotel openings of the decade. So when the hotel announced 1st of August as an opening date back in March, I immediately issued my First Class return tickets to the City of Light, risking the usual opening delay. A man of his word, Peninsula Paris finally opened as scheduled.
HISTORY
The Peninsula brand needs no introduction, as it is synonymous with quality, technology, innovation, craftsmanship and sophistication, -much like a slogan for French top brands and their savoir faire. Despite having only 10 current properties worldwide in its portfolio (Paris is its tenth), each Peninsula hotel is a market leader in each respective cities, and consistently tops the chart in many bonafide travel publications and reigns supreme as the world's best, especially elder sisters in Hong Kong and Bangkok. The Peninsula model is different from other rival hotel groups, which usually expand aggressively through both franchise and managed models worldwide. Instead, the Peninsula focuses on acquiring majority to sole ownership on all its properties to ensure control on quality (Hong Kong, New York, Chicago and Tokyo are 100% owned; Bangkok, Beijing and Manila are over 75%; Shanghai is 50%, while Beverly Hills and Paris are the only two with only 20% ownership).
The history of the Peninsula Paris could be traced back to a modest villa aptly called Hotel Basilevski on the plot of land at 19 Avenue Kleber back in 1864, -named after its Russian diplomat owner, Alexander Petrovich Basilevski, which caught the attention of hotelier Leonard Tauber for his prospective hotel project. The Versailles-styled property was partly a museum housing Basilevski's vast and impressive collection of 19th century medieval and Renaissance art, which eventually was acquired by Alexander III, -a Russian Tsar, at the sums of six millions francs. These collections were later transported to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and formed the base collection for the newly established Department of Medieval and Renaissance Art. After Basilevski sold the villa and moved to a more palatial residence at Avenue du Trocadero, the property was then acquired and rebranded the Palais de Castille as the residence of the exiled Queen Isabella II of Spain in 1868, who seeked refuge and continued to live there until 1904. Upon her death, the property was later demolished in 1906 to make way for the Majestic hotel, which finally opened in 1908 with much satisfaction of Leonard Tauber, who has eyed the premise from the very beginning.
The Majestic Hotel was exquisitely designed in the Beaux-Art style as a grand hotel by prominent architect of that time, Armand Sibien. Together with The Ritz (circa 1898), the two became the most preferred places to stay and entertain in Paris of the time. The Majestic has attracted the well-heeled crowd, and hosted many high profile events, most notably for a particular dinner hosted by rich British couple Sydney and Violet Schiff on 18 May 1922 as the after party of Igor Stravinsky's 'Le Renard' ballet premiere, and the hotel becomes an instant legend. The guests list were impressive: Igor Stravinsky himself, Pablo Picasso, Sergei Diaghilev, and two of the 20th century most legendary writers: James Joyce and Marcel Proust, who met for the first and only time before Proust's death six months later. Since then, the Majestic continued to draw high profile guests, including George Gershwin on 25 March 1928, where he composed "An American in Paris" during the stay.
If the walls could talk, the Majestic has plenty of stories to tell. It was once converted into a hospital during the infamy in 1914, and the British took residency at the hotel during the Paris Peace Conference back in 1919. The hotel was then acquired by the French State in 1936 as the offices of the Ministry of Defence; and later had a stint as the German Military High Command in France between October 1940 to July 1944 during the World War II. Post war, it then became the temporary home for UNESCO from 16 September 1946 until 1958. More than a decade after, the Paris Peace talks was opened by Henry Kissinger in one of its spectacular Ballrooms in 1969 with the Northern Vietnamese. Four years later, the Paris Peace Accord was finally signed at the oak paneled-room next to the Ballroom on 27 January 1973, which ended the Vietnam War. This triumphant event has also led to another victorious event when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
The hotel continued to serve as the International Conference Center of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs until it was up for sale by the government in 2008 as part of the cost cutting program to the Qatari Diar, -which later transferred its ownership to Katara Hospitality, for a staggering USD 460 million. An excess of USD 600 million was further spent on the massive rebuilding and refurbishment not only to restore the hotel to its former glory, but also to transform it into a Peninsula with the highest standard.
The epic restoration work was led by prominent French architect, Richard Martinet, who has also previously work with the restoration of Prince Roland Bonaparte's former mansion into the Shangri-La Paris and also the Four Seasons George V; and involved teams of France's leading craftsmen; heritage designers and organisations; stonemasons from historic monument specialist; master glass crafters; crystal manufacturer; wood, moulding and gilder restoration experts, -many of whom are third generation, and have carried out high profile projects such as the Palace of Versailles, Louvre Museum, the dome of Les Invalides, the Grand and Petit Palais, and even the flame of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The result is truly breathtaking, and it was certainly money well spent to revive and recreate one of the nation's most treasured landmark. One of my favorite places within the hotel is the Main Lobby at Avenue des Portugais where the grand hall is adorned with a spectacular chandelier installation comprising 800 pieces of glass leaves inspired by the plane trees along Avenue Kleber. The work of Spain's most influential artist since Gaudi, Xavier Corbero, could also be found nearby in the form of a beautiful sculpture called Moon River.
Katara Hospitality owns 80% of The Peninsula Paris, and already has a spectacular portfolio ownership consisting some of the world's finest hotels, including The Raffles Singapore, Le Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris, Ritz-Carlton Doha, Schweizerhof Bern, and most recently, 5 of the InterContinental Hotel's European flagships, including Amstel in Amsterdam, Carlton in Cannes, De la Ville in Rome, Madrid and Frankfurt. It is interesting to note that Adrian Zecha, founder of the extraordinary Amanresorts chain is a member of the Board of Directors at Katara since September 2011, lending his immense hospitality expertise to the group.
At over USD 1 billion cost, the Pen Paris project is easily the most expensive to ever being built, considering it has only 200 rooms over 6 storeys. As a comparison, the cost of building the 101 storey, 494m high Shanghai World Financial Center (where the Park Hyatt Shanghai resides) is USD 1.2 billion; whereas Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building on earth at 163 storey and 828m, costed a 'modest' USD 1.5 billion to build. The numbers are truly mind boggling, and The Peninsula Paris is truly an extraordinary project. It might took the Majestic Hotel two years to build; but it took four years just to restore and reincarnate it into a Peninsula.
HOTEL OPENING
On a pleasant afternoon of 1 August 2014, the hotel finally opened its door to a crowd of distinguished guests, international journalists, first hotel guests and local crowds who partake to witness the inauguration and rebirth of a Parisian legend and grande dame (Many A-list celebrities and even Head of State flocked to the hotel to witness its sheer beauty). It was an historic day not just for Paris, but also for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group as it marks their arrival in Europe with its first ever Peninsula, while the second is already on the pipeline with the future opening of The Peninsula London, located just behind The Lanesborough at Knightsbridge.
The eagerly-awaited opening ceremony was attended by the Chairman of Katara Hospitality, His Excellency Sheikh Nawaf Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani; CEO of Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Limited (HSH), Clement Kwok; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius; General Manager of the Peninsula Paris, Nicolas Béliard; and the event kicked off with an opening speech by the famous French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, the Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad, Madame Fleur Pellerin, who clearly stole the show with her public persona. A ribbon cutting and spectacular lion dance show concluded the event, which drew quite a spectacle on Avenue des Portugais as it brought a unique display of Asian heritage to the heart of cosmopolitan Paris.
LOCATION
The Peninsula Paris stands majestically at the tree-lined Avenue Kléber, just off the Arc de Triomphe. Personally, this is an ideal location in Paris as it is a stone's throw away from all the happenings at the Champs-Élysées, but is set away from its hustle and bustle, which is constantly a tourist trap day and night. Once you walk pass the leafy Avenue Kléber, the atmosphere is very different: peaceful and safe. The Kléber Metro station is just a few steps away from the hotel, providing guests a convenient access to further parts of town.
Champs-Élysées is the center of Parisian universe, and it is just a short and pleasant stroll away from the hotel, where some of the city's most legendary commercial and cultural institutions reside. For a start, Drugstore Publicis at the corner by the roundabout has been a legendary hang-out since the 1960s, and is my ultimate favourite place in town. The Post Modern edifice by architect Michele Saee (renovated in 2004) houses almost everything: a Cinema; side walk Brasserie & Steak House; Newsagency; Bookshop (you can find Travel publications and even the Michelin Guide); upscale Gift shop and Beauty corner (even Acqua di Parma is on sale here); Pharmacy (whose pharmacist thankfully speaks English and gladly advises you on your symptoms); upscale deli (stocking pretty much everything from Foie gras burger on the counter, to fine wines & cigar cellar; to Pierre Herme & Pierre Marcolini chocolates; Dalloyau bakery; Marriage Freres tea; and even the Petrossian Caviar!). Best of all, it features a 2 Michelin star L'atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile on its basement; and the store is even opened on Sunday until 2am. It is a one stop shopping, eating and entertainment, showcasing the best of France.
Further down the road, Maison Louis Vuitton stands majestically on its own entire 7 storey building, which was opened in 2005 as one of the biggest flagship stores in the world, covering a total area of 1,800m2. Designed by Eric Carlson and Peter Marino, the entire store is an architectural marvel and the temple of luxury, elegance and sophistication. This is one of the very few stores to open in Sunday as the French Labour Unions prohibits commercial stores to open on Sunday, unless if it involves cultural, recreational and sporting aspect. Initially, Maison LV was ordered by the court to close on Sunday, but LVMH finally wins an appeal in 2007 on the grounds of cultural experience; and the store has continued to draw endless queue on Sunday.
A block away from Maison LV is the legendary Parisian Tea Room of Ladurée, which was founded in 1862 by Louis Ernest Ladurée on its original store at 16 Rue Royal as a bakery. The Champs-Élysées store was opened in 1997 and has since attracted an endless queue of tourists and locals who wish to savour its legendary Macarons and pastries. The Ladurée phenomenon and popularity could only be rivaled by fellow Frenchmen Pierre Hermé, who has also attracted a cult of loyal fans worldwide. It may not have a flagship store at Champs-Élysées, but one could easily stop by Drugstore Publicis for a quick purchase to ease the craving.
For those looking for upscale boutiques, Avenue Montaigne located just nearby on a perpendicular, and features the flagship presence of the world's finest luxury fashion labels: Armani, Bottega Veneta, Valention, Prada, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Fendi and Salvatore Ferragamo to name a few. For the ultimate in shopping extravaganza, head down to Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré where all money will (hopefully) be well spent.
Champs-Élysées is the most famous and expensive boulevard in the world, yet it has everything for everyone; and myriad of crowds flocking its grand boulevards for a pleasant stroll. It has no shortage of luxury stores, but it also offers mainstream stores for the general public, from Levi's to Zara and Lacoste; to McDonalds and Starbucks; and FNAC store (French answer to HMV).
In terms of fine dining experience, the areas around Champs-Élysées has plenty to offer. I have mentioned about the 2 Michelin L'atelier de Joel Robuchon Etoile at the Drugstore Publicis, which was excellent. Robuchon never disappoints as it consistently serves amazing French cuisine amidst its signature red and black interior everywhere I visited, including Tokyo (3 Michelin), Hong Kong (3 Michelin), Paris (2 Michelin) and Taipei.
During my stay, I also managed to sample the finest cuisine from the kitchens of two, 3-Michelin Paris institutions: Pierre Gagnaire at Rue Balzac, just off Champs-Élysées; and Epicure at Le Bristol by Chef Eric Frechon on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, which was undoubtedly the best and most memorable dining experiences I have ever had in Paris to date. It is certainly the gastronomic highlight of this trip.
Other 3 Michelin establishment, such as Ledoyen is also located nearby at an 18th century pavilion by the Gardens of Champs-Élysées by newly appointed famous French Chef Yannick Alléno, who previously also resided at the Le Meurice with 3 Michelin, until Alain Ducasse took over last year during the Plaza Athénée closure for expansion.
August is a time of misery for international visitors to Paris as most fine dining restaurants are closed for the summer holiday. When choices are limited, foodies could rely on Epicure and Robuchon, which are opened all year round; and also the 2 Michelin star Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V. Although its food could not compete with Robuchon, Epicure and Gagnaire, guests could still enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
ROOMS:
On my visit to Paris last year, I was not too impressed with my stay at the Four Seasons George V, as everything seemed to be pretty basic: the room design; the in-room tech and amenities; and even the much lauded service. It simply does not justify the hefty price tag. The only thing stood out there were the ostentatious designer floral display at the lobby, which reportedly absorbed a six digit figure budget annually. When I saw them at the first time, this was what came to mind: guests are paying for these excessive flowers, whether you like it or not.
Fortunately, the Peninsula Paris skips all this expensive gimmick, and instead spends a fortune for guests to enjoy: advance room technology; a host of complimentary essential amenities, including internet access, non-alcoholic minibar, and even long distance phone calls. In fact, every single items inside the room has been well thought and designed for guest's ultimate comfort.
Ever since The Peninsula Bangkok opened in 1998 to much success, the group has used it as a template for its signature rooms for future sister hotels, which consists of an open plan, ultra-wide spacious room equivalent to a 2 bays suite, with 5-fixtures bathroom, and a separate Dressing Room, which soon becomes a Peninsula signature.
The Peninsula Tokyo followed this template when it opened in 2007 to rave reviews; and it was soon adopted as a model for Peninsula Shanghai, which later opened in 2009 as the flagship property in Mainland China. This layout is also being applied at The Peninsula Paris, albeit for its Suites categories, i.e. Junior Suite, which measure at an astonishing 50 - 60m2. The entry level Superior and Deluxe Rooms lack the signature layout with smaller size at 35 - 45m2, but they are already spacious for a Parisian standard; and each is equipped with Peninsula's signature technology.
Technology is indeed at the core of the Peninsula DNA, and no expense is spared in creating the world's most advance in-room technology. When other hotels try to cut costs and budgets on in-room technology with lame excuses, the Peninsula actually spends a fortune to innovate and set a new benchmark. In fact, it is probably the only hotel group to have its own Technology laboratory at a secret location deep inside Aberdeen, Hong Kong, where in-room tech is being developed and tested. It was here where innovative devices, such as the outside temperature indicator; my favourite Spa Button by the bathtub; or even the portable nail dryer for the ladies are invented. The Peninsula took the world by storm when it introduced the Samsung Galaxy tablet device at the Peninsula Hong Kong in 2012, which is programmed in 11 languages and virtually controls the entire room, including the lights, temperature, curtains, TV, radio, valet calls and Do Not Disturb sign. It even features touch screen Room Service Menu, hotel information, city guide, and a function to request room service and housekeeping items, thus creating an entirely paperless environment.
All these technological marvel are also being replicated at the Peninsula Paris, together with other 'standard' features, such as Nespresso Coffee Machine; flat-screen 3D LED television; LED touch screen wall panels; an iPod/iPad docking station; memory card reader; 4-in1 fax/scanner/printer/photocopier machine; DVD player; complimentary in-house HD movies; complimentary internet access and long distance calls through the VOIP platform. Even the room's exterior Parisian-styled canopy is electronically operated. All these technological offerings is so extremely complex, that it resulted in 2.5 km worth of cabling in each room alone.
Bathroom at the Junior Suite also features Peninsula's signature layout: a stand alone bathtub as the focal point, flanked by twin vanities and separate shower and WC compartments amidst acres of white marble. Probably the first in Paris, it features a Japanese Toilet complete with basic control panel, and a manual handheld bidet sprayer.
When all these add up to the stay, it actually brings a very good value to the otherwise high room rates. Better yet, the non-alcoholic Minibar is also complimentary, which is a first for a Peninsula hotel. The Four Seasons George V may choose to keep looking back to its antiquity past and annihilate most technological offerings to its most basic form, but the Pen always looks forward to the future and brings the utter convenience, all at your finger tip. The Peninsula rooms are undoubtedly the best designed, best equipped and most high-tech in the entire universe.
ROOM TO BOOK:
The 50 - 60m2 Junior Suite facing leafy Avenue Kléber is the best room type to book as it is an open-plan suite with Peninsula's signature bathroom and dressing room; and the ones located on the Premiere étage (first floor) have high ceilings and small balcony overlooking Kleber Terrace's iconic glass canopy. Personally, rooms facing the back street at Rue La Pérouse are the least preferred, but its top level rooms inside the Mansart Roof on level 5 have juliet windows that allow glimpse of the tip of Eiffel Tower despite being smaller in size due to its attic configuration. Superior Rooms also lack the signature Peninsula 5 fixtures bathroom configuration, so for the ultimate bathing experience, make sure to book at least from the Deluxe category.
If money is no object, book one of the five piece-de-resistance suites with their own private rooftop terrace and gardens on the top floor, which allow 360 degree panoramic views of Paris. Otherwise, the mid-tier Deluxe Suite is already a great choice with corner location, multiple windows and 85m2 of pure luxury.
DINING:
Looking back at the hotel's illustrious past, the Peninsula offers some of the most unique and memorable dining experiences in Paris, steep in history.
The area that once housed Igor Stravinksy's after party where James Joyce met Marcel Proust for the first time is now the hotel's Cantonese Restaurant, aptly called LiLi; and is led by Chef Chi Keung Tang, formerly of Peninsula Tokyo's One Michelin starred Hei Fung Terrace. Lili was actually modeled after Peninsula Shanghai's Yi Long Court, but the design here blends Chinese elements with Art Nouveau style that flourished in the late 1920s. It also boasts a world first: a spectacular 3x3.3m fiber optic installation at the entrance of the restaurant, depicting the imaginary portrait of LiLi herself. The Cantonese menu was surprisingly rather simple and basic, and features a selection of popular dim sum dishes. The best and most memorable Chinese restaurants I have ever experienced are actually those who masterfully fuse Chinese tradition with French ingredients: Jin Sha at the Four Seasons Hangzhou at Westlake; 2 Michelin Tin Lung Heen at Level 102 of the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong; Jiang at Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou by Chef Fei; and Ya Ge at Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Ironically, the world's only 3 Michelin star Chinese restaurant, Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons Hong Kong failed to impress me.
The former Ballroom area where Henry Kissinger started the Paris Peace talks with the Vietnamese has now been transformed as The Lobby, which is a signature of every Peninsula hotels where the afternoon tea ritual takes place daily. The spectacular room with intricate details and crystal chandeliers has been meticulously restored, and is an ideal place to meet, see and be seen. Breakfast is served daily here, and guests could choose to have it either inside or outside at the adjoining al fresco La Terrasse Kléber, which connects all the F&B outlets on the ground floor, including Lili. Guests could choose from a Chinese set breakfast, which includes dim sum, fried vermicelli, and porridge with beef slices; or the Parisian set, which includes gourmet items such as Egg Benedict with generous slices of Jamon Iberico on top. The afternoon tea ritual is expected to be very popular as renowned Chef Pattissier Julien Alvarez, -who claimed the World Pastry Champion in 2009; and also the Spanish World Chocolate Master in 2007 at the tender age of 23, is at the helm; and the venue quickly booked out from the opening day.
Next to the Lobby is a small, intimate bar covered in exquisite oak panelling where Henry Kissinger signed the Paris Peace Accord back in 1973 that ended the Vietnam War. Kissinger politely declined the offer to have the Bar named after him, and instead it is simply called Le Bar Kléber.
On the top floor of the hotel lies the signature restaurant L'Oiseau Blanc, which is named after the French biplane that disappeared in 1927 in an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York. A 75% replica of the plane has even been installed outside the main entrance of the restaurant with the Eiffel Tower on its background. The restaurant is divided into 3 distinct areas: a spectacular glass enclosed main dining room; a large outdoor terrace that runs the entire length of the hotel's roof; and an adjoining lively bar, all with breathtaking uninterrupted views of Paris' most identifiable landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur at the highest point of the city at Montmartre.
L'Oiseau Blanc is led by Chef Sidney Redel, a former protégé of Pierre Gagnaire, and serves contemporary French cuisine focussing on 'terroir' menu of locally sourced seasonal ingredients from the region. During my stay, tomato was the seasonal ingredients, and Chef Redel created four courses incorporating tomato, even on dessert. While the food was of high quality, personally the menu still needs fine tuning, considering the sort of clientele the Pen is aiming for: the ultra rich (Chinese), who usually seek top establishments with luxury ingredients, such as caviar, black truffle, foie gras, blue lobster, Jamon Iberico, Wagyu beef, Kurobuta pork and Challans chicken.
LEISURE:
The Peninsula Paris features one of the best health and recreational facilities in the city, housed within the basement of the hotel, and covers an expansive area of 1,800m2. For a comparison, rival Mandarin Oriental Spa covers a total area of only 900m2 over two floors. The Peninsula Spa is undoubtedly one of the nicest urban spa that I have been to, it easily beats the Spa at the Four Seasons George V. The pool is also one of the city's largest at 22m long, -compared to both the Shangri-La and Mandarin Oriental at 15m; the George V at only 9m, which is more like a bigger jacuzzi. The only two other pools better than the Peninsula is the one designed by Phillippe Starck at the Le Royal Monceau at 28m; and the spectacular grand pool at the Ritz.
There is the usual 24 hours gym within two fitness spaces equipped with Technogym machines and free weights; and the locker rooms features steam, sauna, and experience shower room. There is a total of 8 treatment rooms within the Spa area, and the highlight is certainly the Relaxation Room, which is equipped with amazing day beds with specially placed deep cushions. The best part? the beds are electronically operated, much like a first class seat on a plane.
X-FACTOR:
The Peninsula signature technology; The Spa Button in the bathroom; VOIP technology for complimentary long distance calls; The top suites (Historic, Katara and Peninsula Suites); Xavier Corbero's Moon River sculpture at the Lobby; Lili; The Lobby and Bar where Henry Kissinger signed Paris Peace Accord; L'Oiseau Blanc Restaurant; The 1,800m2 Peninsula Spa; and the 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II.
SERVICE:
There are a total of 600 staffs for just 200 rooms, so the service level is expected to be high; but it is perhaps unfair to judge the service during the opening weeks when all staffs were not at their best due to the intense preparation leading to the opening event. Furthermore, teething problems are expected for a newly opened hotel as great hotels are not born overnight, but takes a good few years of refinement.
Nonetheless, I was actually quite impressed with the level of service during the whole stay, as the majority of the staffs showed great attitude and much enthusiasm, which is a testament of great intense training. As one of the first guests arriving on the opening day, check-in was truly delightful and memorable as a battalion of staffs of different ranks welcomed and wished the most pleasant stay. The mood could not have been more festive as moments later, the hotel was finally inaugurated.
I was also particularly impressed with the service at both LiLi and The Lobby where staffs performed at an exceptional level like a veteran. There are two distinct qualities that made a lot of difference during the stay: humility and friendliness, which is quite a challenge to find, not only in Paris and the entire Europe, but even in Asian cities, such as Hong Kong. It is like finding needles in a haystack. A genuine smile seems to be a rare commodity these days, so I was happy to see plenty of smiles at the Peninsula Paris during the stay, from the signature Peninsula Pageboys to waiters, Maître d, receptionists and even to Managers and Directors. In fact, there were more smiles in Paris than Hong Kong.
When I woken up too early for breakfast one day, the restaurant was just about to open; and there were hardly anyone. I realized that even the birds were probably still asleep, but I was extremely delighted to see how fresh looking and energetic the staffs were at the dining room. There was a lot of genuine smile that warmed the rather chilly morning; and it was a great start to the day. One of the staffs I met during the stay even candidly explained how they were happy just to be at work, and it does not feel like working at all, which was clearly shown in their passion and enthusiasm.
That said, the Shangri-La Paris by far is still my top pick for best service as it is more personalized and refined due to its more intimate scale. The Shangri-La Paris experience is also unique as guests are welcomed to a sit down registration by the historic lounge off the Lobby upon arrival, and choice of drinks are offered, before being escorted to the room for in-room check-in. Guests also receive a Pre-Arrival Form in advance, so the hotel could anticipate and best accommodate their needs. During the stay, I was also addressed by my last name everywhere within the hotel, so it was highly personalized. I did receive similar treatment at The Peninsula Paris, -albeit in a lesser extent due to its size; and even the housekeeping greeted me by my last name. Every requests, from room service to mineral water were all handled efficiently at a timely manner. At times, service could be rather slow at the restaurants (well, it happens almost everywhere in Paris), but this is part of the Parisian lifestyle where nothing is hurried; and bringing bills/checks upfront is considered rude. I did request the food servings to be expedited during a lunch at LiLi on the last day due to the time constraint; and the staffs managed to succeed the task not only ahead of the time limit, but also it never felt hurried all along. Everything ran as smooth as silk.
VERDICT:
It was a personal satisfaction to witness the history in the making during the opening day on 1 August 2014, as the Peninsula Paris is my most eagerly awaited hotel opening of the decade. It was also historic, as it was a first in my travel to dedicate a trip solely for a particular hotel in a particular city (in this case Paris, some 11,578km away from home), without staying at other fine hotels. It was money well spent, and a trip worth taking as it was an amazing stay; and certainly a lifetime experience.
The Peninsula Paris could not have arrived at a better time, as two of the most established Parisian grande dames (Ritz and de Crillon) are still closed for a complete renovation, and will only be revealed in 2015; so there is plenty of time to adapt, grow and hone its skills. But with such pedigree, quality and illustrious history, the Pen really has nothing to be worried about. The Four Seasons George V seems to have a cult of highly obsessed fans (esp. travel agents) worldwide, but personally (and objectively), it is no match to the Peninsula. Based on physical product alone, the Pen wins in every aspect as everything has been meticulously designed with the focus on guest comfort and convenience. In terms of technology, the Pen literally has no rival anywhere on the planet, except from the obvious sibling rivalry.
The only thing that the Pen still needs to work on is its signature restaurants as all its rival hotels have at least 2 Michelin star restaurants (L'abeille at the Shangri-La; Sur Mesure at the Mandarin Oriental; and 3 Michelin at Epicure, Le Bristol; Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V and Alain Ducasse at Le Meurice). L'Oiseau Blanc design is truly breathtaking and would certainly be the most popular gastronomic destination in Paris, but at the moment, the food still needs some works.
There were the expected teething problems and some inconsistencies with the service; but with years of refinement, The Peninsula Paris will no doubt ascend the throne. Personally, the Shangri-La Paris is currently the real competitor, together with the upcoming Ritz and de Crillon when they open next year, especially when Rosewood has taken over Crillon management and Karl Lagerfeld is working on its top suites. The two, however, may still need to revisit the drawing boards and put more effort on the guestrooms if they ever want to compete; because at the moment, The Peninsula Paris is simply unrivaled.
UPDATE 2016:
*I have always been very spot-on with my predictions. After only two years since its opening, The Peninsula Paris has been awarded the much coveted Palace status. In fact, it is the only hotel in Paris to receive such distinction in 2016. Congratulations, it is very much deserving*
PERSONAL RATING:
1. Room: 100
2. Bathroom: 100
3. Bed: 100
4. Service: 90
5. In-room Tech: 100
6. In-room Amenities: 100
7. Architecture & Design: 100
8. Food: 80
9. View: 80
10. Pool: 95
11. Wellness: 95
12. Location: 95
13. Value: 100
Overall: 95.00
Compare with other Parisian hotels (all with Palace status) that I have stayed previously:
SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, PARIS: 95.00
PARK HYATT PARIS-VENDOME: 90.00
My #1 ALL TIME FAVORITE HOTEL
LANDMARK MANDARIN ORIENTAL, HONG KONG: 95.38
THE PENINSULA, PARIS
19, Avenue Kléber, Paris
Awarded Palace Status in 2016
General Manager: Nicolas Béliard
Hotel Manager: Vincent Pimont
Executive Chef: Jean-Edern Hurstel
Head Chef (Lili): Chi Keung Tang
Head Chef (L'oiseau Blanc): Sidney Redel
Head Chef (The Lobby): Laurent Poitevin
Chef Patissier: Julien Alvarez
Architect (original Majestic Hotel, circa 1908): Armand Sibien
Architect (renovation & restoration, 2010-2014): Richard Martinet
Interior Designer: Henry Leung of Chhada Siembieda & Associates
Landscape Designer: D. Paysage
Art Curator: Sabrina Fung
Art Restorer: Cinzia Pasquali
Artist (Courtyard installation): Ben Jakober & Yannick Vu
Crystal work: Baccarat
Designer (Lili fiber optic installation): Clementine Chambon & Francoise Mamert
Designer (Chinaware): Catherine Bergen
Gilder Specialist & Restorer: Ateliers Gohard
Glass Crafter (Lobby Installation): Lasvit Glass Studio
Master Glass Crafters: Duchemin
Master Sculptor (Lobby): Xavier Corbero
Metalwork: Remy Garnier
Plaster & Moulding Expert: Stuc et Staff
Silverware: Christofle
Silk & Trimmings: Declercq Passementiers
Wood Restoration Expert: Atelier Fancelli
Hotel Opening Date: 01 August 2014
Notable owners: Katara Hospitality; Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group (HSH)
Total Rooms & Suites: 200 (including 35m2 Superior, 45m2 Deluxe, 50m2 Grand Deluxe, 55m2 Premier and 60m2 Grand Premier Rooms)
Total Suites: 34 Suites (including 70m2 Superior, 85m2 Deluxe and 100m2 Premier
Top Suites: Historic Suite, Katara Suite, and The Peninsula Suite
Bathroom Amenities: Oscar de la Renta
Restaurants: The Lobby (All day dining & Afternoon tea), LiLi (Cantonese), L'Oiseau Blanc (French), La Terrasse Kléber
Bars and Lounges: Le Bar Kléber; Kléber Lounge; Cigar Lounge; and L'Oiseau Blanc Bar
Meeting & Banquets: Salon de l'Étoile for up to 100 guests, and 3 smaller Function Rooms
Health & Leisure: 24 hours gym & 1,800m2 Peninsula Spa with 22m indoor swimming pool and jacuzzis; Steam & Sauna, Relaxation Room, and 8 treatment rooms
Transport: chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce Extended Wheel Base Phantom; a 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II; 2 MINI Cooper S Clubman; and a fleet of 10 BMW 7 Series
Complimentary facilities: Non-alcoholic Minibar; Wired and Wireless Internet; VOIP long distance calls; HD Movies; Daily fruit Basket; International Newspaper; Chauffeured MINI Cooper S Clubman for Suites guests; and Chauffeured Rolls Royce for top Suites
paris.peninsula.com
most popular hotels in maldives – you must know the island maldives right? maldives island is one of the beautiful island. if you want to plan a getaway to the island maldives, here I will give some recommendations are popular on the island maldives.
Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu
Luxurious stays await in tropical-style villas located by the crystal-clear waters of a private island paradise. Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu features 5 dining options and 5-star spa and fitness facilities.
Opening out to stunning views of the ocean or surrounding greenery, air conditioned villas are equipped with fine wood and cane furnishings. They feature private terraces with outdoor seating and free Wi-Fi.
Head into the sparkling waters for a range of water sports Including canoeing and diving. Alternatively, Indulge with soothing massages at Coco Spa.
Mirihi Island Resort
Named after a local flower, the tropical Mirihi Island Resort offers beachfront or water villas with free Wi-Fi in Maldives’ South Ari Atoll. It has 3 dining options and clear waters with beautiful coral reefs.
Rooms at Mirihi Resort feature polished hardwood floors and spacious outdoor seating. Overlooking the beach or sea, each comes equipped with a CD player, tea / coffee making facilities and lounge chairs.
Mirihi Island Resort is 85.3 km from Male International Airport. Via seaplane, it is a 30 minute ride from the airport to the resort.
JA Manafaru
On the northern-most Haa Alif private island, JA Manafaru features a luxurious beach and over-water villas with private outdoor pools and free Wi-Fi. An on-site PADI dive center, 3 additional outdoor pools and pampering spa treatments are available. The property is spread over 35 acres of peaceful white sandy beach, and is accessible by either a domestic flight or sea plane transportation from Male.
Spacious and air-conditioned, all villas come with a flat-screen TV, Nespresso machine and a pillow menu. The over-water villas enjoy panoramic views of the Indian Ocean. Private bathrooms come with a relaxing rain shower head, and some have a spa bathtub.
Kandolhu Island
In Male in the Maldives, Kandolhu Island features 4 Restaurants and free Wi-Fi. All rooms are air-conditioned and offer wonderful ocean views.
Your spacious room at Kandolhu Island features a flat-screen TV, an iPod dock and a DVD player. Every room includes a king bed and a minibar. Your private bathroom includes a shower, bathtub and hairdryer.
Soneva Fushi Resort
Soneva Fushi offers private villas up to 395m² in size on island of Kunfunadhoo in Baa Atoll, the latest UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. It is a 30-minutes seaplane transfer from Male International Airport.
At this eco friendly resort, all the villas and rooms are extraordinarily spacious and enjoy direct private access to the beach. Most include bathrooms that are built within a large private garden setting with outdoor showers and separate bathtubs.
whether you will go to the island maldives? you definitely need a place to stay, right? I hope that I gave above recommendations can help you to vacation maldives.
by New Hotel Travel in ift.tt/1sLL6zY