Posts By timeandplace

We periodically huddle with our far-flung personal concierges and ask them to name a fabulous experience trending in their home city. In this installment The Cocktail Edition we investigate world-beating libations and the hot-spots crafting them around the globe. Tipplers unite!

The cat has officially emerged from the bag, and most of the world is savvy to the hippest place in America: Downtown Los Angeles, or #DTLA if you ask Twitter. Every so many decades a perfect storm of architecture, artists, cocktails and history collide to create a euphoric crescendo of culture. And thats exactly whats happening right now in DTLA.

You could, of course, go lie on the beach or pick up 18 holes with the guys all vacation long. You can do that on Maui, sure. But that would be boring, and you arent boring. This is your summer and this is Maui. Heres what youll do instead.

Life was tough for Queen Victoria. During her reign in the late 1800s, vacation was an ordeal. Just to enjoy a little royal R and R at her favorite hotel on the French Riviera, shed have to tow along a staff of 60 to 100 of her peeps. They shipped in her own bed and her own food(!) Things have changed on the French Riviera. You dont have to squeeze into a cramped, noisy hotel. You and your entourage can spread out in a world-class luxury villa where every bed is fabulous. Heres how youll vacation BETTER than royalty in the exclusive, ultra-glam principalities that dot the Cote dAzur:

Spring is that off-the-shoulder number by Olyana Sergeenko, red roses in rack and rows; its the snow-drop daisies of Chanels newest line. Its like Marimekko after months of prison drabs. In the gardens of Versailles, its carpet of anemone tucked between newly greening-up boxwood; its the sun-warmed play of a thousand fountains in a hundred little bouquets lined with fresh clusters of violets.

We huddled with our far-flung personal Concierges and asked them to name a fabulous experience trending in their home city. In this inaugural installment of 5 FABULUXE FINDS, we give you an insiders inside track on culture, cuisine and cocktail trends that are literally #happeningnow.

The French have Hitler and Mussolini to thank for their beloved Cannes film festival. Seriously. In a measure of poetic justice, apres guerre, the Festival de Cannes becomes the center of art film; good film. Everyone whos anyone comes. Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Max Von Sydow and Ingmar Bergman. Its huge and crowded, but also exclusive.

When this Oscar night of nights is over, where do you hang out? For Hollywood insiders, there are a few vintage spots around town where you can chill without being mobbed by fans and press. Classic Hollywood haunts only movers and shake-it, shake-it shakers know about. But even if youre not a star ; even if its not Oscar night YOU can haunt legendary, intimate watering holes and chat up an international film star over craft cocktails.

Herman Melville – not particularly known for his brevity – captures the paradox of Nantucket in his opus, Moby Dick, quite succinctly. He describes this tiny wisp of an island as a mere elbow of sand and yet a real corner of the world. Worldly, yet secluded. Local, yet exclusive. Nearly 150 years later, Melvilles description is still spot on.