A very luxurious time capsule

Moving on swiftly from Lugano to Madrid, the sunshine has followed us during our entire two weeks of spring vacation. Just as we were getting used to opening the shutters onto blue skies and sunlight, today the heavens opened up and it was the perfect excuse to hit the museum.

Thanks to Louis Vuitton's Time Capsule we spent a morning of imaginative time travel through a visual journey while enjoying the artisan craftsmanship and heritage of the brand.

We toured the exhibition with Pablo our charming guide who explained how the Time Capsule demonstrated ways in which Louis Vuitton had anticipated the needs and desires of a changing world over 160 years. As advances in transport continue to accelerate our movement around the world, so does Louis Vuitton address new challenges faced by travellers with imaginative and ingenious creations.

Travelling from the House’s beginnings in 1854 to the present day, the story was told using rare and celebrated objects selected from the Louis Vuitton archive.

Time Capsule: a visual timeline of landmark moments in the Louis Vuitton story.

Magic Malle, symbol of the House, the trunk is where it all began.

Monsieur Louis Vuitton and his crew.

Elegance in Motion, showing how Louis Vuitton has enabled its clients to travel in style... 

... today as well as 100 years ago.

Journeys around the World, revealing how Louis Vuitton met the demands of new forms of transport.

Before the weight of your luggage mattered

The Keys to the Codes, those distinctive design features that can be traced back to Louis Vuitton’s very first trunks.

Icons of the House, a selection of Louis Vuitton’s most memorable and emblematic creations.

Picnicking in style!

A 150 piece beauty case

A portable flower vase produced after the First World War

Detail of a Spanish custom-made abanico (fan)

Custom-made showcase for a local beer brewer

Remember the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa?

The luxury brand managed to wrangle three of the greatest soccer players of all time (Pelé of Brazil, Diego Maradona of Argentina and France's Zinedine Zidane) for its Core Values campaign...

just in time to capitalise on the mania 

Rare Louis Vuitton x Supreme Boite Skateboard Trunk Monogram Red retails for $57'000.-

An absolute must for Paris shopping: parapluie avec sac-à-dos!

Back in 1996, LV commissioned several artists to celebrate the centennial of the Monogram Canvas. This rucksack was created by Spanish designer, Sybilla.

The question is: who will open the Time Capsule when the time has come?

A very local street food festival

We couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate Caslano's Food Festival. The sun was finally shining and the only testimony of the recent cold spell were the snow-tipped mountains in the background.

Over 45 restaurateurs and producers based in Ticino gathered to offer their delicious gastronomic specialties. The festival - only 9km from Lugano - brought together more than 15,000 people, quite a feat for the Ticino!

The Streetfood Village comprised a welcoming gastronomic square along the lakeshore of Caslano (population: 4,373) allowing the degustation of many different gastronomic specialties in a summer vacation setting!

Within a few square meters, we embarked on a culinary journey that invited us to discover specialties from Ticino and beyond. And if that weren't enough we continued to explore the village of Caslano, designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Reggae music was blaring from the loudspeakers, prams being pushed passed crowds of young and old; all had ventured out to enjoy the spring and let themselves be carried away to some faraway place with exotic smells and foreign tastes albeit the producers claiming it is all home grown.

From Colombia to Thailand, from hamburgers to risotto, mojito to beer it was a true festival.

View from Caslano beach

My absolute favourite beach in Lugano

Villa Mainini: magnificent historical property by the lake for sale!

Only 8 mio Swiss Francs!!!

The view from Villa Mainini

Back to reality: home-made and groovy...

This VW bus won best truck-transformation in my book.

Venezuelan Arepas with ginger-flavoured proscecco and I am one happy camper.

The sunny side of Lugano

Lugano is the best spot to enjoy palm trees sprawling luxuriously along the shores of Lake Ceresio and its charm gets me every time. Let's face it: I'm here to relax, so I'll just grab a gelato and wind my way through the lakeside promenade. Come join me...

Parco Ciani, a lush park filled with modern art and exotic trees from around the world. 

Its water gate evokes the 19th century, when this was the private domain of aristocrats. 

The flower beds are organized to show off maximum color all year long

The Parco Ciani is Lugano’s green pearl and covers a surface of 63,000 square meters. 

The park is frequented by locals and tourists alike who admire the colorful flowers as well as rare, majestic and exotic species of trees.

Enjoying the moment with a "gelato" that fits the scenery.

Thinking about a boat ride around the lake as a welcome change to the Bateaux Mouches!

Actually, a "pedalo" ride is just the ticket for a hot, sunny afternoon.

Spot the "pedalo" with us foot peddling at full speed.

Lugano's emblem: Monte Bré. 

They say that the Monte Brè area above Lugano is Switzerland's sunniest.

A well-deserved rest... that bench has my name written all over it!

Cherry blossom cocktails

When the Peninsula Hotel requests your company to launch the Sakura season there is only one option... you cancel everything else and inform your hubby that he is accompanying you to visit your old neighbour. I do miss it when in early October the Peninsula Hotel in Paris turns pink in honour of breast cancer month and its light reflected a slight rosy hue throughout my living room and kitchen.

Sakura has become very popular in Paris this spring. No day goes by without spotting photos of the Eiffel Tower framed with cherry blossoms on social media. It has become a commercial incentive. I do admit I'd much rather do a pink Sakura season than a scary Halloween one. 

Back to my cocktail... and a cocktail worth mentioning it was! The Japanese bartender had been invited all the way from the Peninsula Tokyo to showcase his fabulous skills. He mixed his specialty and handed me his Cherry blossom cocktail to taste. The pink, gin-based, sweet cocktail was an instant hit.

While waiting for my second Cherry blossom cocktail to be mixed, hubby informed me that we had won the raffle prize and were needed in the next-door room for photos. Yeah right, there was no way I was giving up my cocktail but as I turned around to him with a big smile I realized he was not kidding. Nevertheless, I was not letting go of my spot in the queue (might I be more Parisian than I realized?) and with cocktail in hand we had our picture taken as the proud new owners of an exquisite piece of Japanese calligraphy that had been painted before our eyes earlier that evening.

"When the cherry blossoms are even more beautiful than embroidery that is happiness" I have been told is the meaning of the delicate piece of art that will find its place next to the Arabic character symbolizing happiness in our apartment... but before... just let me enjoy one more Cherry blossom cocktail.

The Peninsula hallway is picture perfect

Dress Code: a touch of Pink

The Tokyo Peninsula bartender

Cherry blossom cocktails are his secret weapon

Japanese calligraphy ceremony

An enchanted exotic unforgettable evening: Osoreirimasu (おそれいります) 

Putting on the Ritz

The Ritz Paris reopened its grand doors two years ago after a whopping four-year renovation, and it's now decided to sell off 10,000 pieces of furniture and objets d'art that no longer suit its shiny new decor.

The hotel has enlisted the help of auction house Artcurial to host an exhibition, The Ritz Universe, which of course I could not miss. With hubby by my side we took our lunch hour to browse through the various lots up for grabs.

Curated by Vincent Darré, the self-proclaimed Dandy, individually selected each piece from the Ritz’s archives, actively entering into the aura of mythologisation that the hotel exudes. ‘I let my imagination run free with this project,’ says Darré, ‘I conceived of it like one would a film.’ While his principal inspiration is ‘the way Paris would have been perceived from the other side of the Atlantic by Americans during the 1950s’, Darré has also produced a series of watercolour illustrations of each lot, as well as various hand-painted wallpapers which provide thematic Cocteau-esque backdrops to each suite of the exhibition.

We swooned over one highlight after another as we walked from room to room but the first bathtub ever installed at the Ritz Paris must have taken the prize as most extraordinary object on auction with an estimate of between $1,900 and $3,000.

Items from the Windsor Suite – where the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson holed up – are also up for grabs, though they’re likely replica, and guide prices start from just $50 for some lots. A gilded bed on which Audrey Hepburn lounged in the film Love in the Afternoon, and a bedboard and lacquered bedside tables from the Coco Chanel Suite got my imagination going.

So let me just relax on crescent-shaped ochre velvet bar sofas from the Ritz bar pretending to be Coco Chanel and drift off into la-la-land as all this luxury is making me feel slightly light-headed!