POSTCARDS FROM

WITH LOVE

Dispatches from a few of our favourite locals

LAINE GOODMAN

THE FRENCH RIVIERA

The culture writer on gardens, sea views and the French Riviera’s enduring love of art

Some things don’t change. Not only can you get away with more on the French Riviera – as F. Scott Fitzgerald once exulted in a letter to his New York editor – but frivolity is only a part of the picture.

‘Whatever happened seemed to have something to do with art,’ Scott aptly observed back in 1926, and now, almost a century later, the Riviera is roaring to a di erent tune, but still jubilantly celebrating beauty.

One reason to rejoice is the completion of the meticulously restored Villa E-1027 – a white-washed concrete rectangle on stilts, built by designer Eileen Gray. e site is glorious: set back in a tangle of wild greenery and lemon trees, the at-roofed villa jutting out over the rocky shore of Cap Martin is lled with one-o perfect replicas of Gray’s iconic furniture. Visitors can admire the modular ingenuity of swivelling wind shutters, pivoting tables, closets and mirrors, or fall in love with Eileen’s woven rugs and sleek Deco bar (capmoderne. monuments-nationaux.fr). ose who prefer their art of a horticultural variety would be well advised to head to Menton, once a hotspot for sun-chasing royals and wealthy foreigners. Head to the Serre de la Madone, created by Lawrence Johnston, an eclectic mix of fountains, water-lily pools, pergolas and statues of Cupids and Madonnas and Val Rahmeh, whose Belle Époque villa and sumptuous sub-tropical plants and trees were created by Lord Radcli e (menton.fr).

For a change of scene, head for the medieval perched village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where the local arty enclave is abuzz about the latest exhibit of the new CAB Foundation (fondationcab. com), a veritable colour fest of light by artist Ann Veronica Jansen. is former 50-style gallery, redesigned by Charles Zana, features an impressive collection of minimalist and conceptual works as well as modernist furniture from the likes of Jean Prouvé and Charlotte Perriand. Just as in Fitzgerald’s day, this place remains all about beauty.

‘It takes a lot

DAVID DOWNTON

ANDREW BARKER

LONDON

The fashion illustrator and artist-in-residence at Claridge’s on life in London

We judge a city by its architecture and open spaces, its restaurants and museums. Its sense of well-being. But don’t forget its bookshops, bastions of civility in times moving at warp speed. And London remains a bibliophiles’ dream.

A short walk from Claridge’s, the hallowed portals of Heywood Hill (heywoodhill. com). A cheerful blue awning welcomes you to a discreet Georgian town house. A Royal Warrant and a plaque commemorating Nancy Mitford’s wartime tenure as a somewhat dilettante bookseller quietly con rm the shop’s pedigree. Inside, there is a reassuring sense of time passing slowly. e oors are carpeted, a chandelier shimmers, hydrangeas bloom and the books appear to have arranged themselves.

Down on Piccadilly, in the fabulously stylish Maison Assouline (maisonassouline.com), a di erent experience. In what was formerly a banking hall – designed in 1922 by Edward Lutyens – the company’s founders,Martine and Prosper Assouline have created a cultural haven. e books, famous for their design and bold juxtaposition of imagery, glow like jewels (some of them supersized), the curios and antiques intrigue, there’s Jazz and a chic bar, Swans. Upstairs, the fantasy apartment of every ‘Nomad de Luxe.’ Pitch-perfect and timelessly modern, it’s the Assouline’s world; let’s stay a while.

to get Angelenos giddy about a new restaurant’

BEVERLY HILLS

Our LA editor on artistic arrivals, power lunches and the return of the dodo

We Angelenos are creatures of habit. We have our favourite corner booths for power lunches, drive-thru co ee shops, hot yoga classes and discrete beaches away from squawking kids on boogie boards.

So it takes a lot to get us all giddy about a new restaurant — I, for one, refuse to try anything based solely on a YELP rating. en along comes the mighty Mother Wolf (motherwol a. com), a grandiose temple to Roman heritage cuisine in the middle of Hollywood and it has everyone wrestling for a reservation, from network execs and blue chip agents — the big cheeses whose expense accounts make the L.A. scene tick — to Beyoncé and Jay-Z who popped by last month.

Another new hotspot is New York brand Bode’s new gallery-like store on Melrose Avenue which bridges the gap between art and fashion, with its au courant woven garments, in the company of curious museum-worthy objets including a life-size dodo skeleton (bodenewyork. com). And in the wake of Frieze L.A. where e Maybourne Beverly Hills and more speci cally, e Terrace restaurant served as a de facto clubhouse for the great and good of the art world, the good of the art world, the gallery scene is exploding, ‘Pow!’, like a Lichtenstein painting, with outposts from David Zwirner, Pace, Lisson and Sean Kelly set to open in the next 12 months.

Beating them to it was e Hole (theholenyc.com), an 8,000-square foot space whose exhibition ‘New Construction,’ was one of the hot tickets during Frieze. Buckle up. We’re in for a busy summer of hype ahead. M