french riviera – Ann Street Studio

Perched high a top a hill, the view from Chateau Saint-Martin swoops down over the ancient town of Vence soaring right out to the French Riviera’s magnificent blue waters that seem to melt into the sky. It’s breathtaking and something this luxury hotel showcases as much as possible from hotel room balconies, to sweeping terraces and large picture windows across the dining room, a perfect place to watch the sunset. Walking the manicured grounds you see traces of the estate’s history beginning in 350 AD to its important role for the Knights Templar in 1150 (who folklore claims buried great treasures among the grounds).

It is traditional French glamour from the floral bed linens to the oil paintings and master fireplaces. I felt like a princess, just as when I stayed at the Le Bristol in Paris, another property that is part of the Oetker Collection. Aside from waking up to views of the French Riviera, I loved the property’s incredible gastronomy restaurant, Le Saint-Martin. Though wonderfully modern in technique and delightfully surprising, I appreciate that they still finished the meal with an oh-so-French traditional cheese cart, as if you could forget where you are with views like these….

Above, smelling the roses in Of A Kind shirt dress. Below, Steamline Luggage in Starlet. Continue reading “Chateau Saint-Martin” →

We found paradise. Whisked away from the hustle and bustle of Cannes, we emerged at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. The once private mansion opened as an Antibes hotel in 1870 overlooking the French Riviera like a perfect postcard. It’s the kind of corner you turn where you feel as if they shut the gates behind you, you would never know a world outside anymore…nor care to. The secrets these old walls could tell, the affair between Taylor and Burton, the celebrities and their chaos wax and wane like the tides. You walk the grounds and you feel as if nobody else exists…and if you listen closely in the silence of the garden, you can hear the ocean calling like the distant sound of the late night trumpet from behind the damp walls of a New Orleans party. At the water’s edge sits the magnificent Resturant Eden Roc where we sipped on white wine and enjoyed the view while Leo did press interviews for Gatsby and Sasha Baron Cohen took photographs of his parents on vacation. This day sits in my memory as one of those beautiful days where the sun came out, everyone was smiling, we were young and beautiful and still making our way, the world still had magic and we had more time to create. I read somewhere there is a plaque in the garden that reads “Ce qui sera, c’est ce qui fut”- “what will be, is what was” and this day was perfect.
As the late afternoon set in, the rain returned as did we to Cannes. Kevin and I had a Chopard Cinemagraph shoot scheduled with Cara Delevingne before we all descended on the evening’s activities. That particular night was the Chopard Trophy Party with Colin Firth as guest of honor and a performance by Solange Knowles at the Hotel Martinez before slipping peacefully to bed dreaming about that garden of Eden that has captured my imagination so.

Continue reading “Cannes Diary with Chopard” →