How Paris’s Dining, Hotel and Art Scene Got Their Groove Back — Just in Time for the Olympics
The French capital’s cultural life was already on the upswing. Mix in a major global sporting event, and it’s now ready to go toe to toe with any city in the world.
Related articles
Host cities of modern-day Olympic Games have gotten into the competitive spirit by trying to stage the most spellbinding, over-the-top opening ceremony on record. Beijing enlisted 2008 drummers. London featured James Bond escorting Queen Elizabeth II. All Rio needed to wow the crowd was Gisele, who turned the stadium into her personal catwalk, strutting the length of the field solo. But only Paris could make the unprecedented gamble that the city itself is spectacular enough to be the star of the show.
If all goes according to plan when the Summer Olympics alight in Paris this July, the opening ceremony will play out like a Hollywood epic: timed to coincide with the sinking of the sun, an open-air flotilla of boats will ferry the athlete delegations on the Seine, sailing toward the sunset as hundreds of thousands of spectators cheer from either side of the river’s banks and the bridges above, all bathed in the amber afterglow.
Nico Therin
It will mark the first time the ceremony will be held outside a stadium, let alone on a waterway. So too many of the events themselves, instead of being mounted in mostly generic stadiums on the outskirts of the city, will take place in the heart of Paris, reframing the French capital in a way that locals and visitors alike have never experienced—and that’s sure to dial up the promise of pageantry and emotion.
The Eiffel Tower’s latticed silhouette will serve as the backdrop for beach volleyball at Champs de Mars. Place de la Concorde, where more than a thousand people (including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) had their heads lopped off during the French Revolution, will be the site of newly admitted Olympic sports such as skateboarding and breakdancing. And though Olympic swimmers have raced in pools since 1908, this year’s athletes are slated to compete in the river itself. (Competitions will also take place in cities across France, from Lyon to Marseille, and Tahiti in French Polynesia will host the surfing event.)
The specs are ambitious and inventive, and in some ways could restore the city’s reputation for audacity. Because while the City of Light may be known as the cradle of fashion, culture and gastronomy, not too long ago it was also regularly accused of slipping into a lazy, even smug, complacency—stuck in its ways, resting on the laurels of its storied past.
In the food world, those doldrums translated into controversial snubs from the influential World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, known for flushing out avant-garde chefs. The French Michelin Guide, once considered the ultimate arbiter of fine dining, suddenly seemed staid and irrelevant. London and Berlin took Europe’s centre stage in art and design. Even President Emmanuel Macron described his fellow countrymen as resistant to change, much to the ire of those fellow countrymen—and countrywomen.
But influential creatives and Parisians say that in the years leading up to the Games, and particularly since the pandemic, something has shifted. “I really think that during the last 10 years, Paris opened itself to more new things, for different trends,” says Hélène Darroze, the acclaimed chef whose six restaurants include Michelin two-star Marsan in Paris and her three-star namesake at The Connaught in London. “Paris is happier than before, more joyful than before.”
There’s a giddy sense of anticipation, says the illustrator Marin Montagut, who has collaborated with Le Bon Marché and the Ritz Paris and owns an eponymous boutique in Saint-Germain-des-Prés where he sells hand-painted glassware and porcelain decor. “It feels like Paris is trying to look very, very pretty for a very important evening. She’s been getting some plastic surgery and is trying to get ready in time,” he says with a chuckle. “There’s just a lot of effervescence in the city.”
Nico Therin
For better or for worse, some of the credit for that renewed vitality belongs to the light-as-soufflé Netflix series Emily in Paris, which quickly became the collective escapist fantasy for viewers around the world who were grounded by the Covid-19 virus. Another part of that newfound energy, though, can be traced to the frenzied building of luxury hotels, restaurants, galleries, museums and boutiques over the past few years, including Montagut’s own Paris-themed shop, which he opened in 2020.
In the past three years alone, 25 new five-star hotels debuted across the city, bringing the total to 101. Noteworthy newcomers include Madame Rêve, Kimpton St. Honoré Paris, Château des Fleurs, Maison Proust, LVMH’s Cheval Blanc Paris, and Chopard’s first boutique hotel here, 1 Place Vendôme. The dual autumn 2023 openings of Le Grand Mazarin and La Fantaisie hotels marked the Paris debut of Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki, whose playfully modern, maximalist and flamboyant aesthetic injected colour and character into Paris’s elite hotel scene.
In parallel with the growth of traditional hotels, new players in the luxury rental market are emerging, joining the likes of Le Collectionist and Belles Demeures. Founded in 2020, Highstay rents out luxury serviced apartments equipped with kitchens and living spaces. The firm’s current portfolio includes 36 apartments in areas such as the Champs-Élysées and Saint-Honoré, and another 48 are under construction—all of which it owns. There is no check-in (guests are sent digital access codes) and all concierge requests, including housekeeping and travel reservations, are made via live chat on a dedicated guest portal. “The goal is that guests get the real Parisian experience and feel like an insider, like a city dweller,” says general director Maxime Lallement.
The idea of making Paris as welcoming as a second home is also what drives the luxury real-estate market for foreign buyers, particularly Americans, says Alexander Kraft, CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty France-Monaco. He sees 2024 as a “transition year” and says that the local market is moving at two different speeds: while demand for properties between roughly $1.5 million and $8.5 million has cooled, high-end properties between about $17 million and $85 million continue to sell fast among buyers from the Middle East. Kraft predicts the market will pick up in 2025 following the US presidential election. “Paris is one of those real-estate markets that is eternally popular,” he says. “Contrary to other international cities, it really has broad appeal.”
Nico Therin
Montreal-born, New York–based interior designer Garrow Kedigian is one of those frequent visitors who decided to take the leap and buy his own pied-à-terre in Paris a few years ago, after a lifetime of travelling back and forth for both work and pleasure.
As a part-time resident, Kedigian says he too has noticed a palpable shift in the city’s vibe, which he attributes to a renewed appreciation for tourists following their absence during the pandemic, as well as an “international flair” that has given the city a fresh spark. “There’s a lot more cultural diversity than there was before,” he says. “In that respect it’s a bit like New York. And I think that now the interface between Paris’s unique flavour and the international populace is a little bit smoother.”
For Montagut, one of the best examples of this synergy can be found in Belleville, in the city’s east end, where independent artists, musicians and other urban creatives rub shoulders in Chinese, African, and Arab restaurants and businesses. “There’s a social and cultural diversity here, and for me this is really important,” Montagut says. “If Paris was just the 6th arrondissement, it would be boring.”
The eastern edge of Paris is also one of the preferred neighbourhoods of Michael Schwartz, the marketing and communications manager for Europe at French jewellery house Boucheron. A recent New York City transplant, he is drawn to the burgeoning number of gastronomic gems far from the madding tourist crowds.
Nico Therin
He points to sister restaurants Caché and Amagat (the names mean “hidden” in French and Catalan, respectively), discreetly located at the end of a cobblestoned cul-de-sac, as favourites. With backgrounds in fashion and advertising, the Italian duo who run them have attracted equally fashionable locals to this hitherto quiet part of town. Caché serves up fresh Mediterranean seafood dishes, while next door, Amagat specialises in Catalan tapas.
Then there’s Soces, a corner seafood bistro on rue de la Villette, where you might find Jean-Benoît Dunckel, who co-wrote the score to Sofia Coppola’s film The Virgin Suicides when he was part of the electronic-music duo Air (Dunckel’s recording studio is in the area), or the French designers behind the Coperni fashion line, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant. “This is a really special restaurant,” says Schwartz. “It’s frequented by really cool creatives, designers and musicians, and it’s kind of a destination restaurant for most people because it’s not central.”
What makes Paris’s dining scene so exciting now, according to Stéphane Bréhier, editor in chief of French restaurant guide Gault& Millau, is a sense of fearlessness among younger chefs who reject the traditional trajectory that begins with a lowly stage in a Michelin-star kitchen. What’s more, visitors are likewise foregoing Michelin establishments in favour of newer, more experimental dining spots. “Over the last few years, there’s been a profusion of young chefs who don’t want to work for other people and are daring to set up their own shop,” Bréhier says. “The gastronomic scene is booming in Paris.”
Nico Therin
These bold, emerging chefs feel less bound not only to their elders but also to French cuisine itself. “It has changed a lot,” says Hélène Darroze, who opened Marsan, her first Parisian restaurant, 25 years ago. “The new generation travelled a lot—in South America, for example, in Asia—before opening a restaurant or being a head chef somewhere. They opened themselves to other cultures. This is why the culinary scene at the moment is very interesting in Paris; because it’s a mix of very famous chefs with Michelin stars but also young chefs who don’t care about Michelin stars—they just want to explore so many fields.”
The ever-growing importance of social media and its insatiable hunger for envy-inducing images is driving another major trend in the dining scene: rooftop spots, including Mun and Girafe in the Golden Triangle, the area bordered by avenues Montaigne and George V and the Champs-Élysées. “A lot of rooftops have opened in Paris, where before they were pretty much nonexistent apart from the Eiffel Tower and the Montparnasse Tower,” says Dimitri Ruiz, head concierge at Hôtel Barrière Fouquet’s Paris on the Champs-Élysées.
Five-star Right Bank hotels SO/ and Cheval Blanc Paris have watering holes that offer sweeping vistas of the Seine. But perhaps the most coveted perch during the opening ceremony will be the Champagne bar at La Tour d’Argent restaurant, which boasts unobstructed views of the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Seine. (And yes, someone already had the idea to book it for a private event.) Famous for its signature pressed duck as well as for hosting monarchs and heads of state, the historic restaurant recently underwent a major renovation that included the addition of the aerie, which opened late last summer. “It’s only been in the last 10 years or so that Paris has been developing rooftops, and it’s really taking off like wildfire,” says third-generation owner André Terrail.
Paris’s venerated fashion industry has also found ways to innovate, with fresh faces keeping their fellow couturiers on their toes and the shopping options enticing. In 2022, for example, Simon Porte Jacquemus opened his first boutique in the city on avenue Montaigne—home to Gucci, Chanel, and Prada, among other venerable names—and in March, at the age of 34, became France’s youngest fashion designer to be named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the field. That kind of success has a ripple effect in the creative community.
“Almost every street has the name of an artist or a politician,” says Charaf Tajer, the Parisian-born creative director behind the London-based Casablanca sportswear line. “So the city reminds me always that the people who came before me, who walked those streets, created the future in a way. As much as [Paris] seems stuck in time visually, you can also feel the energy of people creating the present.”
Interior designer David Jimenez, whose 2022 book Parisian by Design compiles his Francophile projects, moved to the city in 2015 and spent his first few years living near the Champs-Élysées, which he says has undergone a noticeable revival. Along with Jacquemus’s arrival, new luxury openings or expansions—including Burberry, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, and Panerai—and city-led greening efforts are bringing Parisians back to the 8th arrondissement, long dismissed as an overcrowded tourist trap where fast-food and fast-fashion chains had colonised the once glamorously luxe avenue. Now, Dior’s captivating Peter Marino–designed museum draws legions of fans, while the city has been busy planting more trees, renovating gardens and repairing damaged sidewalks as part of a long-term embellishment plan. And on the first Sunday of every month, the entire length of the Champs-Élysées becomes a pedestrian-only promenade. “It’s an exciting evolution in a part of the city that seemed sleepy and perhaps lost its way a little bit,” Jimenez says. “Now there’s a thrust forward.”
Nico Therin
The thriving fashion houses are responsible for more than maintaining the city’s unparalleled reputation for chic. To a large degree, they have also helped revive its status as an art capital. The billions generated by LVMH (parent of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Berluti, among others) and Kering (Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, et al.) funded the extraordinary contemporary art collections amassed by their founders, Bernard Arnault and François Pinault, respectively. The rivals rewarded their hometown with two museums, Fondation Louis Vuitton and Bourse de Commerce, that have helped make it a leader in contemporary art.
Also lending a hand: Brexit, which persuaded many international galleries to brush up on their French. One of the most talked-about recent additions is the powerhouse Hauser & Wirth, which opened in a 19th-century hôtel particulier near the Champs-Élysées last year. David Zwirner arrived in 2019, Mariane Ibrahim in 2021, and Peter Kilchmann the following year, all joining long-established Parisian galleries including Perrotin and Thaddaeus Ropac. The City of Light even snagged its own coveted annual installment of Art Basel: Paris+, which now runs every October in the Grand Palais.
“Quite frankly, Paris has been putting up some of the most incredible exhibitions in institutions in Europe,” says Serena Cattaneo Adorno, senior director at Gagosian. “And a lot of private collectors have also decided to open spaces in the city, creating a great dynamic between public and private galleries.”
The always-savvy Gagosian, on rue Ponthieu, has hit upon an authentic tie-in with the Games: a summer exhibition featuring Olympic posters created over the years by celebrated artists from Picasso on up to Warhol, Hockney and Tracey Emin. “Once you start digging, you find that a lot of artists have reflected on sports and the engagement of the body,” Cattaneo Adorno says. “It’s just a really pure and beautiful message about how art and sports have dialogues that can be somewhat surprising.”
A few months out from the festivities on the Seine, interior decorator Jimenez sums up the mood of many locals, saying (only half-jokingly), “I think for most Parisians, there’s a sense of curiosity, optimism, excitement—and an exit plan, in that order.”
While polling shows that nearly half of Parisians intend to vacate the city during the games, Jimenez notes that he will be watching the opening ceremony with friends who live in an apartment overlooking the Seine. “I want to be part of the excitement. I want to see as much as I can and be energised by this very special and unique moment,” he says. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am deeply grateful to be able to experience it first-hand as an American living in Paris.”
Additional reporting by Lucy Alexander and Justin Fenner.
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Recommended for you
Six Senses Are Suddenly Everywhere. Inside the Luxury Resort’s Growing Global Empire
With 26 properties now open, another 43 to come, and the U.S. square in its sights, the rapidly growing wellness-focused resort and hotel brand is now asking the hard questions
September 3, 2024
Astonishing Nature, At Its Most Magnificent
Scenic Eclipse hones 6-star ultra-luxury around Antarctica’s raw nature.
September 2, 2024
You may also like.
You may also like.
Six Senses Are Suddenly Everywhere. Inside the Luxury Resort’s Growing Global Empire
With 26 properties now open, another 43 to come, and the U.S. square in its sights, the rapidly growing wellness-focused resort and hotel brand is now asking the hard questions
If someone hit you in the head (hard) just before the pandemic, and you’re only waking up now, in the middle of 2024, you’ll have noticed some changes. For instance, the global proliferation of Six Senses hotels and resorts.
Once a relatively quiet group of wellness-focused Asian resorts for in-the-know Europeans, Six Senses is now in the midst of a breakneck opening spree with the U.S. square in its sights. Since 2019—when hotel giant IHG dropped $440 million in cash to acquire the operator’s then 16 hotels and resorts from private equity group Pegasus Capital Advisors—it’s grown to 26 urban hotels and destination resorts in 21 countries across four continents. (Its Vana resort in India is one of Robb Report‘s 50 best luxury hotels in the world).
Blink again and that number may have doubled. By 2026, Six Senses, now the flagship brand of IHG’s luxury and lifestyle portfolio, hopes to have a shingle hanging in London, Bangkok, Dubai, Lisbon, Napa, and Tel Aviv. There are currently 43 Six Senses in the pipeline, which will extend Six Senses footprint from the Carolinas to Victoria Falls. Many of those new properties will come packed with branded residences.
So is Six Senses trying to conquer the world via ayurvedic medicine, longevity spa treatments, and mindfulness exercises?
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” admits CEO Neil Jacobs. “But the answer is no, and we have a real point of view on that.”
More on that point of view momentarily, but it’s worth pausing to note that despite his protestations, Jacobs comes to Six Senses with 14 years of experience with a hotel group that is arguable much more overtly interested in turning planet Earth into one massive 5-star hotel lobby: namely, the Four Seasons. As senior vice president of operations for the Four Seasons’s Asia Pacific region, he witnessed the company expand from roughly two dozen hotels into the 130-ish-address, Bill Gates– and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal–owned leviathan of luxury it is today. The Four Seasons’s stated goal is 200 hotels. But Jacobs tells Robb Report it’s neither his or IHG’s intention to turn Six Senses into the Michael Kors of opulent wellness resorts.
“We think less is more,” he says of that aforementioned point of view. “Our competitors are all about growth. With Six Senses the conversation is very much the opposite of that. You’ve got to be really careful about what you do and where you go. I mean, we started with eight resorts in 2012. Then there were 11, and we got rid of two or three. Today, there are 26. So we’ve only opened 18 in nearly 12 years, really.”
Still, the Bangkok-based company is hurtling toward 60-plus properties, a number Jacobs says he is “comfortable” with. What happens beyond that is stickier.
“We have four projects in Italy. We could do another five, but why?” says Jacobs. “Instead, let’s move to another country and spread, rather than just inundate the brand in one country, even though there’s places to do it. It’s a continual argument internally. We have some great places coming to Italy, but we don’t have Venice. So then my team says, ‘If we have a Venice deal, are you going to say, ‘Don’t do it?’ Good question. But the answer is, ‘maybe.’”
Whether it’s Six Senses, the Four Seasons, or Auberge (another brand that has seen a similarly rapid expansion), the answer to the question “When does quantity extinguish the spark of quality?” is worth at least a billion. But it’s also a problem that highlights the welcome fact that, despite the current slump, “luxury” is winning; it may have already won.
From fashion to travel, a growing share of businesses have repositioned themselves to serve the high-end consumer, as growing global wealth supports superior margins realized through the relative simplicity of a luxury rebrand. The affordable family resort of yesterday becomes the aspirational seaside playpen of today. As long as demand for luxury everything is here, deep-pocketed hotel groups will grow to meet it.
At the same time, the success of “luxury” creates a clear existential dilemma: If luxury becomes the standard setting, it is by definition no longer an indulgence, no longer a luxury. And as luxury becomes more gray and undifferentiated, the vague, eye-of-the-beholder quality that was once its strength, is now its liability.
It’s a problem that Jacobs feels that Six Senses was uniquely designed to address.
“That sixth sense in our name, we see it as intuition,” he says. “It’s interesting because one of our initiatives for this year in wellness is spiritual wellness. In the past, we’ve done a lot of yoga, we’ve done a lot of meditation, but we haven’t done a lot of overtly spiritual programs. We think the time is right.”
Those programs serving up, non-religious, lightly-woo spirituality on a silver platter roll out later this year and offer a key differentiator for the brand’s fastest growing customer base: Americans.
“Back in 2012, it was predominately a European customer, I’d say 85 percent,” says Jacobs. “There was no business coming from the U.S. Today, the U.S. is our number market, even though we don’t have anything open in the U.S.”
It’s not for lack of trying. Six Senses planned to open in Manhattan along the High Line in a doomed Bjarke Ingles–designed tower that was crushed by a Gambino crime family construction bribery scandal and the subsequent bankruptcy of its developer. Six Senses has since found a new site on 23rd St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves. in Chelsea, but is at least three years out.
It’s having a better, if not altogether easier, time with the 236-acre farm in Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. The site of a failed “secret hotel” project, Six Senses snatched up the land for $20.2 million in 2022, making it some of the only real estate the brand owns (as with many brands, outside investors typically carry the deeds). Although it would be the first five-star flag in the region, the project has faced community opposition that could scuttle yet another attempt to create a footprint in the U.S.
“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Del LaMagna, whose property shares a border with the site, told the Hudson Valley Pilot. “[IHG] decided they wanted to be here, they started hiring good local people to figure it out, but this whole idea of exclusive resorts for rich people just doesn’t work up here.”
That’s a matter of opinion, but Six Senses plans for the U.S. extend far beyond the town of Clinton. Besides urban hotels in New York, L.A., and Miami, it will open a series of resorts, starting with a 500-acre estate on the edge of Napa and a multi-island project off the coast of South Carolina spanning Hilton Head, Daufuskie, and Bay Point. The gargantuan scale of those properties will eventually facilitate the festivals and retreats that the brand has been recently investing in.
“It’s a lot of yoga, a lot of spirituality, a lot of fun, a dance, a lot of movement,” he says. “Those kinds of festivals resonate with people.”
So if you’re just waking up, welcome to a world where Six Senses is everywhere all at once. But Jacobs hopes that by selecting “extraordinary properties” and by “demonstrating our values in a highly meaningful way” that the resorts will fit into the ecosystem like redwoods in a pine forest. Call it a sixth sense.
You may also like.
Rolls-Royce Debuted the New Phantom Scintilla at Monterey Car Week. Here’s Everything We Know.
Limited to 10 examples, each car has an interior defined by “painting with thread,” and a rumored price of around $2.6 million.
Visitors to the fabled Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris might remember an exquisite marble sculpture standing proud at the top of the main Daru staircase. Named the Winged Victory of Samothrace, this eight-foot-tall headless goddess—with gossamer wings—dates to 190 B.C.
What has it got to do with Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom Scintilla Private Collection limousine, unveiled during this year’s Monterey Car Week? A lot, in fact. Rewind to 1910 and Rolls-Royce’s managing director at the time, Claude Johnson, who reportedly commissioned well-known sculptor Charles Sykes to create a hood ornament to define the new Rolls-Royce brand. Apparently, Johnson had seen the statue during a visit to the Louvre and fell in love with it.
While a change in direction saw Sykes create the Spirit of Ecstasy, inspired by Johnson’s former secretary, English actress and model Eleanor Thornton, the Louvre statue was always considered by Goodwood to be the original inspiration for its now iconic emblem.
So, when Rolls-Royce designers looked for a muse for a 10-car, Phantom-based Private Collection series to be called Scintilla—derived from the Latin word for “spark”—the marque went back to the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue and its Mediterranean roots.
You see that influence in the car’s Spirit of Ecstasy figurine which, for the first time, features a translucent white, marble-like ceramic coating. It also carries over in the car’s two-tone paintwork—Andalusian White for the upper body, and powdery Thracian Blue, inspired by the color of the Med, for the lower section. A subtle metallic flake in the paintwork is said to mimic the sparkle of sunlight off the water.
Yet as with most bespoke and special-edition Phantoms, it’s the interior where Rolls-Royce craftsmanship is truly exhibited. In this case, the theme is exquisite embroidery or, as the automaker calls it, “painting with thread.”
For Scintilla, the embroidery work involves over 850,000 individual stitches. And at night, illuminated perforations in the material give the doors a wave-like glow. In Phantom tradition, there’s a Starlight Headliner in the roof, but here, more than 1,500 fiber-optic illuminations twinkle in sequence to mimic silk billowing in a breeze.
The centerpiece of the interior is the Phantom’s dashboard gallery ahead of the front-seat passenger. Named “Celestial Pulse,” it comprises seven metal ribbons, each individually milled from solid aluminum and given the same finely grained ceramic finish as the Scintilla’s Spirit of Ecstasy.
Rolls-Royce will build only 10 examples of the Phantom Scintilla, which had its public debut at the Quail, a Motorsports Gathering on August 16. Of that already small number, three will come to North America and, like the other seven, have already been sold. While there’s no official word on pricing, the figure $3.8 million has been reported.
“With every collection, we aim to tell the story of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and provoke our clients’ imagination, letting them know our Bespoke designers’ artistry is greater than they can envision,” stated Martin Fritsches, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for the Americas, when asked for a comment by Robb Report. “We can’t think of a better way to tell this story than through the history of our idol, the Spirit of Ecstasy.”
You may also like.
Astonishing Nature, At Its Most Magnificent
Scenic Eclipse hones 6-star ultra-luxury around Antarctica’s raw nature.
Picture this. You’re sitting at the Sky Bar on the Scenic Eclipse II. It’s freezing outside, but you’re warm and dry, sipping a delicious glass of pinot noir as you watch a colony of penguins play on the ice sheet. Is this a dream? Or just another incredible moment from the 6-star ultra-luxury discovery yacht Scenic Eclipse?
It may sound too good to be true, but Scenic has over-engineered their two major Polar ocean-going vessels (Scenic Eclipse & Scenic Eclipse II) to offer up mind-blowing opportunities to connect to untouched nature. While the White Continent continues to hold pride of place on most people’s bucket list, few will ever experience it in such refined style.
With just 200 guests on board in Antarctica for more landing opportunities, Scenic has decked out their vessels out with 6-star hotel facilities, and equipped them with luxury tech toys to satisfy even the most restless traveller.
They offer an impressive close to one-to-one staff-to-guest ratio, up to 10 dining experiences , as well as two state-of-the-art on board helicopters^, Zodiacs and a custom-built submersible^ for further discovery in the destination. Paddle boards and kayaks are deployed regularly (conditions permitting), and guests are provided with polar boots for land-based snow treks.
This is not a floating hotel but a discovery yacht for the discerning traveller. Daily plans are shaped around the weather and sea conditions. A typical day can include a leisurely breakfast and visit to the 550sqm Senses Spa#, morning and afternoon discovery excursions, lunch in your venue of choice or in your suite, and a delicious on board culinary experience for dinner before heading to your spacious suite with verandah to unwind.
When not out with the expert polar Discovery Team relax in the Observation Lounge or indulge in a sauna and massage in the 550sqm Senses Spa# wellness retreat. For your daily entertainment there are whales, penguins, orcas and seals to observe and document.
The two major trips that depart for East Antarctica from our part of the world in the next several months are Mawson’s Antarctica: Along the East Coast, which leaves from Queenstown, New Zealand in December and Antarctica’s Ross Sea: Majestic Ice & Wildlife which leaves from Dunedin in January 2025.
The first itinerary celebrates one of Australia’s national heroes, Sir Douglas Mawson, who occupies a place on the $100 note. This itinerary allows guests to follow in the footsteps of this intrepid explorer, retracing his travels across the continent in the name of scientific research. The trip takes in remote bays and ravishing coves, placing guest in breathtaking landscapes where wildlife reigns supreme.
Led by the expert polar Discovery Team, guests can also opt to dive below the depths of the polar waters in the custom-designed submersible Scenic Neptune II, or take to the skies in the two on board state-of-the-art helicopters (for an additional cost). Guest on this voyage will enjoy a heli-shuttle directly from the discovery yacht to view the remains of Mawson’s Hut. The Mawson 25-day all-inclusive itinerary departs from near Queenstown to Hobart on 15 December 2024 and 13 December 2025 and is priced from $39,270pp* with savings of $13,000pp* and a 50% off the Deluxe Verandah Suite upgrade.
The Antarctica’s Ross Sea: Majestic Ice & Wildlife is voyage of a similar length, 24 days, but here the journey has a very end-of-the-earth feel to it. Striking ice landscapes offer vistas of gem-like glaciers, views to towering icebergs and jagged mountain ranges that form the backdrop to epic wildlife displays.
For nature lovers, the Ross Sea represents a holy grail, one that’s absolutely teeming with whales, orcas, penguins, seals and migratory seabirds. Day trips and land excursions here are all crafted in response to weather, by the expert polar Discovery Team and Captain who know the terrain.
These are side trips and excursions that are well designed to take advantage of the close access to truly life changing experiences and each one is a show-stopper.
Once again guests can opt to book the helicopter^ excursion for an extra cost to fly off and land in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a place like no where else on earth where the snow is void or take a dive in the submersible^ to see what lies beneath.
This all-inclusive ultra-luxury, 24-day itinerary, departs from Dunedin, New Zealand on 31 January 2025 and 29 January 2026 and the voyage starts from $38,970pp* with savings of $13,000pp* and a 50% off the Deluxe Verandah Suite upgrade .
To learn more, visit: scenic.com.au
*Terms and Conditions apply.
^Flights on board our two helicopters and submersible experiences are at additional cost, subject to regulatory approval, availability, weight restrictions, medical approval and weather, ice and tidal conditions.
#Spa treatments at additional cost.
You may also like.
The Small Dress Watch Is Back
Drawer the Daytona—a small, slim dress watch is the discerning wristwear of the moment.
For the first time in decades, dress watches—from simple, three-hand Patek Philippes to flamboyant Cartiers—are running circles around sports watches with regard to both desirability and style.
“In terms of taste, things have changed,” says David Hurley, deputy CEO of the Watches of Switzerland group, a retailer with 30 multi-brand and 25 mono-brand partnership stores across the U.S. While until recently demand “was all about the steel sport timepiece, ” he says, “now we’re seeing dress watches and brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre”—long esteemed for its formal models—“performing well in our stores.”
The genesis of the shift dates back to the early days of the pandemic, when secondary prices on blue-chip sports watches such as the Rolex Daytona, Patek Philippe Nautilus, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak began clocking staggering monthly increases; by early 2022, some pieces were fetching five times retail value. Then, in May of that year, the crypto collapse triggered both a decline in secondary-market values and an exodus of speculators who were only in the game to make a quick buck. Genuine enthusiasts who had been lured to sports models by the prospect of a rapidly appreciating asset were also free to return their attention to timepieces that better reflected their tastes.
“People who got priced out of these sports models suddenly realised they could go into a Patek Calatrava at retail price,” recalls Eddie Goziker, president of the pre-owned dealer Wrist Aficionado. “The market pushed them in that direction. And once they got there, they saw the value in it and stayed.”
With the vogue for smaller cases already in full effect, the clamor for slim, classic styles presented on a leather strap is now at a crescendo, according to vintage dealer Mike Nouveau. “The Patek 96, the first Calatrava ever, is 30.5 mm, and they made that watch for 40 years,” he says. “I’m buying and selling them like crazy, both for my personal collection and for clients.”
“There’s a ton of interest in Calatravas, vintage Vacheron Constantin, obviously Cartier,” says Eric Wind, owner of Wind Vintage in Palm Beach, Florida. “The steel sport watches used to be an ‘if you know, you know’ watch,” he says, explaining the aesthetic about-face. “The Nautilus 10 years ago used to be unknown. Now everybody on the planet knows what it is.”
And that, he notes, includes thieves, further helping the trend toward smaller, simpler, more discreet timepieces. “I know two people who had Patek Aquanauts stolen off their wrists, and another client had a gold Rolex Day-Date stolen in Brussels,” Wind says. “People don’t have the same connotation if you’re wearing an old dress watch—it’s more of a quiet luxury.”
But in the enthusiast world, of course, the quietest luxury can also be the loudest flex, and for dress watches, that includes the strap. Wind notes that bands by Paris-based leather-goods maker Jean Rousseau are afforded particularly high status. “A baller move is getting a Jean Rosseau with a single punch, just for their wrist,” he adds.
And the tremendous breadth of dresswatch designs, from simple three-hand models to ultra-complicated wonders, is a boon for collectors. If your tastes run to sober, sophisticated German watchmaking, a Saxonia by A. Lange & Söhne is just the ticket. A devoted minimalist? You can’t go wrong with the latest Toric collection from boutique maker Parmigiani Fleurier. Fans of more obscure brands would do well to consider the Patek-inspired (and typically sold-out) timepieces by Kikuchi Nakagawa, in Tokyo. Nouveau, for his part, recommends vintage Piaget and Breguet.
Even traditionally sporty brands are getting in on the action. At the end of May, Audemars Piguet introduced the [Re]Master02, a minimalist, asymmetrical homage to a 1960 model, from its extra-thin hour and minute movement to its matte-blue alligator strap, that’s on trend for the current dress-watch moment.
For yet more proof, consider Rolex’s increasing emphasis on its new 1908 Perpetual collection. Introduced in 2023 and expanded earlier this year with a 39 mm platinum model featuring an ice-blue guilloche dial and a brown alligator-leather strap, the 1908 is as sophisticated and gentlemanly as the brand’s iconic sports watches are rugged.
You may also like.
Meet the Chefs Swapping Michelin-Starred Kitchens for Superyacht Galleys
“I get to travel the world and cook with the best produce. Isn’t that the dream?”
When Neil Snowball handed in his notice at Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus in early 2016, he was giving up a coveted head chef role at the Michelin-starred restaurant in London’s exclusive Belgravia neighborhood.
Snowball wasn’t leaving to jump ship to a similar position at another starred establishment, however. He had in his sights his own restaurant — and knew that the best way to accelerate his ambition was to swap the familiarity of fine dining kitchens for superyacht galleys. Soon, he was on the 273-foot Feadship yacht Savannah, earning almost four times what he had on land.
Snowball’s path was uncharted territory; yachting has long been a niche in the restaurant industry. “There’s some stigma that yacht chefs aren’t real chefs, so the crossover isn’t easy,” he tells Robb Report.
Yet the signs are there that this stigma is starting to fade. In the past year alone, speciality placement agency Mymuybueno Private Chefs has seen a 55 percent increase in chefs with extensive Michelin-starred restaurant experience signing up to its books.
As with Snowball, money is the primary motivation, explains Mymuybueno founder Justine Murphy. The average head chef on a yacht has the potential to earn a tax-free monthly salary of between $11,000 to $19,000 per month. The premium for Michelin experience can see an extra $3,000 to $5,000 added to that.
“These chefs largely want to come and earn the money that the luxury industry will provide them for a year or two and then return to land to work towards their own restaurant,” Murphy, who herself spent six years as a private chef on yachts, explains.
Before they even step onboard, however, there’s an audience of yacht owners eagerly awaiting them.
“If you are going to have your own private chef, the preference is for someone with experience in Michelin establishments because of what they can bring to the table, such as modern trends or even the very dishes from the restaurant the owner loves,” Murphy says.
Meeting yacht owners in Switzerland is how German chef Sascha Lenz fell into the industry. “I had a Michelin-starred restaurant in Saint Moritz and I met a family who asked if I could come and cook for them privately,” Lenz says. Today, he’s the rotational head chef on Avantage, a fully-private 285-foot Lürssen yacht that was delivered in 2020.
Lenz says if he’d known how easy it was to make such a salary on yachts with his experience, he would have made the switch a decade earlier. But it’s more than just money — and a two-months-on, two-months-off job rotation — that keeps him on the water.
“I get to travel and to see the world and cook with the best produce,” Lenz says. “Isn’t that the dream?”
The photos from Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and St. Barths interspersed with pretty plated dishes and daily banter with crew offer Lenz’s 180,000-plus followers on Instagram (@billionaire_ch3f) a glimpse into the yacht chef lifestyle. Lenz knows that social media accounts such as his inspire some of the most talented land-based chefs.
“People see that I’m shopping in local markets or cooking a fresh tuna that the crew reeled in,” he explains. “In a restaurant, that piece of tuna would already be five or six days old before we received it.”
While his job may look picture-perfect, Lenz says the swap from land to water required a total mindset shift. “You have to change how you cook,” he says. “You don’t have the manpower you need, nor the time, nor any of the pots and equipment you would use in a Michelin-starred restaurant.”
Murphy agrees that, for some chefs, the transition can be a shock to the system. “They are without the support system in a restaurant, where each chef is responsible for a different section. On a yacht you are doing it all on your own, or with one other if the vessel is over 60 metres [197 feet],” she explains.
And not all of them are cut out for the industry, she adds.
“There are a lot of important attributes to have, especially humility,” says Murphy. “I see it all too many times, chefs who come in and jump around and leave before they have even started, because it’s a whole lot harder than they imagined.”
Others, like Snowball, end up staying much longer than planned. Having saved enough money in two years on yachts to start his own restaurant, Snowball spotted an enormous opportunity in the industry. Along with business partner Matthew Hewlett, the ex-head chef at the three-Michelin-starred The Ledbury in London, he’s plowed his savings into the establishment of Opus Provisions, supplying Michelin-level quality produce to other yacht chefs.
It’s been four years since the business was founded and the duo is on the cusp of topping $7.3 million in revenue this year. “We’ve applied our restaurant work ethics and determination to the project and built it up with blood, sweat, and occasionally tears,” he says. “We are able to provide the products that guests on board are looking for, which in turn makes the galleys a happier place for the chefs to work—we love what we do.”
Sascha Lenz
