Punta Arenas
I am just throwing a little post about Punta Arenas as a tip. Most travellers skip this town to go straight to Puerto Natales, the door to the Torres del Paine National Park. It is a shame because Punta Arenas has this frontier town feeling and looks that is definitely worth a little visit. ...
Puerto Natales
The gateway to Torres del Paine has a pretty good selection of hotels. We picked the Altiplanico because we had a great stay at the original one in San Pedro before. We where not disappointed by the Patagonia brother: nice ecofriendly architecture (with an interesting exterior insulation made with raw earth bricks), and home made feeling...
Pingo Salvaje
..which means « wild horse », is a beautiful estancia in the middle of nowhere: in Patagonia that really means far-far-away!! About 20 min drive from Puerto Natales, the estancia is by lake Sofia. The half-day ride we took brought us along the lake, through streams, up and down steep hills and under eagles and condor’s nests...
Miami Design district
Another much publicised area, but this time a complete flop as far as I am concerned, as the so called design district is just an outlet of the big brands with very little individuality, and it sounds like an excuse to open up one luxury shop behind the other. Even the Moore building with it’s...
Miami Art Deco district
We used to fly to Miami back in the early 90’s when living in NY, to escape the polar cold of Manhattan… back them it was still a bit rough, and South beach was just starting to come back to life, only a handful of hotels were refurbished and there was an melancholic feel to...
The Metropolitan Hotel, Miami, by Paola Navone
We thought of going back to THE Delano, but decided to try another sacred monster of design’s latest venture: a hotel redesigned by Paola Navone sounded like a passport to a blissful stay, and so it was..
NY Design
Searching interesting design shops to check out in NY I found this amazing website: http://bddw.com and it turns out that the shop is even more awesome, unfortunately so are the prices, but that’s quite easily understood, everything here is a one off piece, and it’s pretty clear that a lot of work, thought and expertise goes into...
Brooklyn
The decoration media attention on Brooklyn has been so strong lately, that it has been impossible to escape the curiosity of discovering this new mecca. This how we ended one December sunday morning, crossing under the river to explore Brooklyn flea, just a as we religiously used to do 20 years ago on 6th avenue.....
Hudson Hotel, NY
As a Stark-designed hotel, you can expect some drama within the public space, and that’s really the case starting with the yellow-lit access staircase and the loft-industrialish common-room breakfast lounge with quirky a mix of utilitarian objects like the carts, cosy chesterfields and blazing fire. However, I was much less impressed by the fast-food style...
Jules Cesar hotel, Arles, by Christian Lacroix
Cesar was in great need of some TLC.. it got plenty, and flamboyantly, with a lavish refurbishment by Christian Lacroix.
Palacio Fronteira, Lisboa
A patch of peace just at Lisboa’s edge, it’s a little out of the way, but the mini trip is very worth it.. Time has stopped in this XVIIe century Palace, still the home of the marquis De Fronteira. The italian gardens are absolutely wonderful as are the azulejos and seashell pavilions. The back of...
Lisboa
Second time in 10 years, and made sure we left lots of things unseen, in order to come back soon, loved the place.. The views… The azulejos covered frontages… the cable car… ..celebrating the 40 years of the soft « Carnation Revolution », were Salazar’s « Estado Novo »‘s dictatorship state was put down peacefully by the army and...