In the winter of 1970, a handful of influential American chefs and food writers found themselves in each others' company, supposedly by chance, in the south of France. They included Julia Child (better known, at least to foreign audiences, from the 2009 film
Julie & Julia) and food writer M.F.K. Fisher, and their discussions are said to have changed the way America cooked and ate. Fisher's grandnephew Luke Barr wrote a book about all this titled
Provence 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard and the Reinvention of American Taste, which was published late last year. This September, upmarket tour operator Cox & Kings will be running a nine-day tour of the Cote d'Azur and Provence, accompanied by Barr, who will be providing an "insider's view of the places described in his book". Places to be visited include Nice, Vence, Grasse, Aix-en-Provence and Arles, and there will be plenty of eating and drinking along the way, as well as cooking classes and museum visits. The tour, not including flights to and from France, is priced at a rather less-than-delicious US$9,995 per person. For more details, visit
www.coxandkingsusa.com.
Robert Pearsall, one-time architect to the London Fire Brigade, designed more than a dozen of the British capital's fire stations in the late 19th century. Many of his celebrated Victorian-gothic creations have been decommissioned in recent years, due to government cuts, and one of the more attractive, Manchester Square Fire Station, on Chiltern Street, in Marylebone, sounded its last alarm in 2005. Chiltern Street, which runs parallel to the more famous Baker Street, was dubbed London's "coolest street" by
Conde Nast Traveler last year, and even has its own website (
www.chilternstreetw1.co.uk). So it's perhaps no surprise that its grade two-listed former fire station has just been relaunched as a high-end boutique hotel by American hotelier Andre Balazs, the man behind Chateau Marmont, in Hollywood, and New York's Mercer Hotel, to name but two. With 26 suites, most of them with open fire places and exposed beams, and a restaurant overseen by Michelin-starred chef Nuno Mendes, The Chiltern Firehouse (above right) has a fashionably sketchy website
www.chilternfirehouse.com offering no more than a photo, address and e-mail contact.
The palm-tree-shaped Golden Palm Tree Iconic Resort & Spa (top), on Sepang, about an hour's drive south of Kuala Lumpur, has just been rebranded and reopened by Avani Hotels & Resorts, the sister brand of Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas. First opened in July 2010 by Swiss-Belhotel International, the resort, now known as Avani Sepang Goldcoast Resort, comprises 392 contemporary Polynesian-inspired guest rooms and one-, two- and three-bedroom villas. The resort is close to the Sepang International Circuit, the venue for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix, which takes place from March 28 to 30, and so might be a good choice for anyone heading that way with no accommodation already booked. Opening rates and special offers can be found at
www.avanihotels.com/sepang.
With non-stop, round-trip flights between Hong Kong and Koh Samui on Bangkok Airways, TLX Travel's Koh Samui Luxury Package offers a choice of some of the island's better resorts from HK$8,270 per person (twin share). This price will buy you three nights in a Hideaway Villa at the Six Senses Samui (top), with other options including W Retreat (from HK$9,470), Conrad Koh Samui (HK$13,420) and the Four Seasons Resort (HK$13,830). Travel must be completed by the end of next month and prices include airport transfers and breakfast. In case you get bored with lazing in the sun and the shopping bug bites as hard as the mosquitoes, an "exciting" multi-themed mall called CentralFestival Samui will open at the end of this month, at Chaweng Beach, with 150 local and international fashion brands and a supermarket from which to restock your overpriced minibar. For more details and reservations, visit
www.tlxtravel.com.
