The nicest surprise on my recent European trip was Basel. Although planned primarily as a two day birthday surprise for a friend who was in Basel for the art fair we found that our days quickly filled with some of the most amazing things I have ever seen.
Our pilgrimage to Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp was [...]

Paris’s latest retail love affair is with the absolutely gorgeous Merci. A delightful mini department store that manages to be chic and relaxed al at once. The fashion edit is sensational but its other departments covering furniture, interior design, books and more make it a fully rounded 1500 meter gem. For a quick bite [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
We didn’t do it, but we think we saw who did.
But then again, if you’d been freaked out by a red queen, you might need a quiet puff to calm down too.
We found Alice at Antony, a grand old house in Cornwall that Tim Burton used as a location. After we’d partaken [...]

Finally after many years of working and even living in Milan, I have found a hotel that I would recommend! Antica Locanda is a boutique hotel that has been open since 1926 with 11 rooms that are all different, some with beautiful planted balconies. With buckets of rickety charm and being located in [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
“It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive,” wrote the Scottish novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson in an age before Easyjet and Ryanair. These days, it is, generally, better to arrive, along with one’s luggage, than it is to travel; except when one is touring in a Bentley.
I don’t even like cars, [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
The bargain of Venice is the 7-day Vaporetto ticket at 50 euros - steep to start with, but terrific value if you make a point of chugging up and down the Grand Canal to all the museums (although it would take months to visit them all) and going to as many of [...]

This month I had the opportunity to experience Target’s First Sunday’s at The Brooklyn Museum. I attended the opening of Andy Warhol’s: The Last Decade and as someone who is a sucker for Mr. Warhol, it was quite an evening. My favorite pieces of his career, which can be seen at the museum, [...]

I’ve just arrived home from Slovenia where the swimming was amazing. It seems the Slovenians share with me a similar enthusiasm for hurling oneself into the water. The lakes and rivers are exquisite - I’m tempted to say they’re even more beautiful than what we have back home in New Zealand. What I most appreciated [...]

Photos by Peter Hunt
One of my absolute favourite things to do in Paris is to visit The Museum of Natural History. The museum itself takes little time to view and is worth the visit simply for the main gallery of marching animals. Sensational.
Paris Museum of Natural History, 36 Rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 75005 [...]

Photos by Peter Woodcock
When I see the letters, ‘B&B’, I think cosy chintz, a selection of jams in little pots, maybe a snarly cat curled up in the corner. I do not think modern design done subtly and well, ceilings so high and white that a whole wall beneath can be painted jet black and [...]