abeautifulviewonlife

Live a little. Dress up. Wear a perfect pink gloss. Strut your stuff to the nearest hip & happening place. Relax. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Enjoy life.

Category: TRAVEL

August 7, 2012

A touch of affordable luxury in London

One of my favourite hotels, citizenM, has just opened a new hotel in London (close to the Tate Modern Museum and the Millennium Bridge) and I was lucky to get an invitation for the grand opening. I love London but going there for a weekend is always a financial bummer considering some people’s my exorbitant shopping behaviour and outrageously expensive hotel rates. Luckily citizenM has resolved the latter: room rates vary between 99 and 199 pounds, which is very low compared to other hotels in the city. But this new UK addition to the Dutch hotel group offers so much more than just a good price.

The new design hotel is packed with cool Vitra furniture and (contemporary) art by amongst others Mario Testino, Erwin Olaf, Mark Titchner and Gavin Turk. There’s even a shop-in-hotel by Amsterdam bookstore MENDO where you can buy the most beautiful design books and ship them to your home address. The rooms are not big, but very comfortable with a heavenly 2 by 2 meter bed, crispy clean linen sheets, a relaxed shower with nice beauty goodies and a unique touch screen tablet that controls everything in the room: from the ambient lighting, window blinds and temperature to the television, free movies on demand and wake-up alarm. There’s free wifi throughout the whole hotel so you can also browse the internet with your room tablet and access all your favourite social media channels.

Final verdict? Worth every penny.
See for more information www.citizenM.com.

Cheers.

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June 14, 2012

City trip | Antwerp

From top to bottom, left to right: cool purple skull candle and home wall inspiration as seen at Paul Smith, window drooling at Het Modepaleis, Barbie fest at Step by Step, my new acquisition and the reason I will starve for weeks, some sightseeing, fun fashionable helmet and finally the bedroom, bathroom and nice beauty goodies (Ren!!) of Hotel Julien.

Antwerp (Belgium) is a very cool city bursting with shops, bars and restaurants. The only thing is, you really need to know where to go. Some areas are very nice, other so so. The following tips will definitely guide you in the right direction.

HOTEL We stayed in Hotel Julien, my favourite in Antwerp. The location is very central, the rooms are stunning, the breakfast is delicious and the private spa divine. Alternatives are boutique hotel Maison Delaneau, mini hotel Room National and Sleep in the City studios. A good budget option is design hotel Banks.

SHOP The street to be is Schuttershofstraat with amongst others Coccodrillo (best design shoe store in Antwerp), Maje (super feminine, cool French brand) and Essentiel (Belgium brand with nice basics, especially for men). In one of the side streets you can find concept store Graanmarkt 13 with brands like Isabel Marant and Marni and further down Schuttershofstraat on Hopland Sandro, another French, super cool brand for men and women and my favourite store in Antwerp. On the other side of town in Lombardenvest (near Nationalestraat) you should stop by Step by Step (with Barbie’s in the window), selling amongst others Isabel Marant and Vanessa Bruno. In the same street you can find casual chic clothing brand Maison Scotch, minimalistic cool A.P.C. and classical feminine Les Petites. And finally, further down Nationalestraat have a look at concept store Renaissance with brands like Alexander Wang, Acne and Viktor & Rolf and designer heaven Sien (Proenza Schouler, The Row and Iris van Herpen). TIP! Best time to shop in Antwerp is during January and July, the official sale periods!

RESTAURANTS  We had dinner at Cuichine (Chinese fusion) and  Ferrier 30 (Italian) Both were very nice, but Docks Cafe and Dome Sur Mer are also very good options, especially if you’re a fish lover (think giant fruits de mer, fresh fish and oysters).

With love.

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May 29, 2012

No tracksuits allowed

If you want to travel in style, this leopard print trolley from Mulberry is the suitcase for you. But be warned: no velour tracksuits, flip-flops, make-up less faces and dirty looking t-shirts allowed when traveling with this baby. A fashionable suitcase requires a fashionable outfit!

Travelling is so underestimated these days, if you ask me. What happened to the good old days when travelling was something special? When guys wore fancy suits and girls pretty dresses, beautiful make-up and vavavoom perfumes. Now don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that when you’re on a holiday you just want to relax. But come on, that’s no excuse for awful looking travel outfits. Combine this trolley with loose fitting cotton trousers, comfortable but chic flats or wedges, a cool t-shirt, big sunglasses and a colourful scarf and you’re good to go. Have a fabulous holiday!

With love.

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January 3, 2012

Hot off the press | New Rika Hotel

Rika, one of my favourite Swedish designers, has opened a hotel above the Rika store in the Nine Streets (9 Straatjes) in Amsterdam. The Rika Maison is a heaven for fashionistas: you get to sleep in a beautifully decorated, über stylish loft, one of the coolest shops in Amsterdam (Rika) is on the opposite side of the street, the second coolest shop in Amsterdam (Acne) is very near and don’t let me get started about Filippa K, Skins, Mendo and Stout practically around the corner.


   

   

With love.

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August 16, 2011

I ♡ P A R I S

Lisa Fonssagrives for Vogue 1939, photographed by Erwin Blumenfeld

I just returned from a 5 day trip to one of my favorite cities in the world: Paris! I can recommend everyone to visit Paris longer than the regular (stressful) 2 days where you want to see/experience/eat as many things as you can and ultimately return home very tired. When you’re there for 5 whole days you have the time to drink a cup of coffee in the morning, to take a stroll through Le Marais, to enjoy a Merlot with fabulous people watching at Café Charlot and to shop like a maniac. See below my favorite things of this trip with mon amour:

1. Cordonnerie Minuit Moins 7 (10 Passage Véro Dodat, 1th arr, open mon-sat 10.30-19.00): the one and only official repair-guy of Christian Louboutin shoes (and yes, I have put a shoe repair guy at number 1, which girl wouldn’t?) This Louboutin doctor can fix your worn out pumps and make them brand new again including new red rubber (!) sole. This guy is very busy; women from all over the world are sending him their shoes! Your shoes will be ready in 5 weeks. The whole package including shipping costs to the Netherlands is EUR 85. Trust me, this is worth the wait and your money.

2. Musée Rodin (79 Rue de Varenne, 7th arr.) This is one of my favorite places in Paris. The museum is lovely and the beautiful garden is packed with fabulous sculptures like The Thinker. It’s so nice and quiet in here, you almost forget that you are in the middle of a very busy city.

3. Transportation Skip the subway, ditch the grumpy taxi driver and step on a bike! Paris is so much more beautiful above ground…It’s so easy to rent a bike; you just need your creditcard and a Vélib rentalpoint (spread over 300 locations around town).

4. The Mother of all concept stores Colette (213 Rue St-Honoré, 1th arr) I L O V E this store. Everytime I am there my hart starts to beat faster and I move around  like a maniac, since I don’t know where to start looking… Some people (read guys) don’t understand the fuss around a couple of gadgets, funky shoes, expensive candles and difficult magazines. Therefore, ditch your love, send him with a book to the downstairs café and tell him not to bother you for the next hour. Enjoy! If you can’t get enough of concept stores have a look at Merci (111 Boulevard Beaumarchais, 3rd arr.), L’Eclaireur (40 Rue de Sévigné, 3rd arr) and LE66 (66 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, 8th arr).

6. Lunch! My favorite place in Paris is tartine heaven Cuisine de Bar (8 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 6th arr.), but the homey cooked food at Les Fines Geules (43 Rue Croix des Petits Champs, 1th arr) and the croque monsieur at Café Le Nemours (2 Place Colette, 1st arr) are also very good.

7. Lifestyle extravaganza If you’re into coffee table books then you should not leave Paris without a visit to one of these bookstores: Assouline (35 Rue Bonaparte, 6th arr), 7L (7 Rue Lille, 6th arr) from Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld and OFR (20 Rue Dupetit Thouars).

9. Dinner! Chez Omar (47 Rue de Bretagne, 3rd arr.) for fabulous couscous with merguez saucages, Caffe dei Cioppi (159 Rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, 11th arr) for delicious Italian food and Frenchie (5 Rue du Nil, 2nd arr) for French food to die for (book well ahead).

10. Drinks! Trendy lounge bar Andy Wahloo (69 Rue des Gravilliers, 3rd), affordable cocktail bar Experimental Cocktail Club (37 Rue Saint-Sauveur, 2nd arr), sexy and mysterious ChaCha club (47 Rue Berger, 1st arr) and very exclusive and ‘tough cookie to get in to’ Le Baron (6 Avenue Marceau, 8th arr).

13. Palais Royale (202 Rue St-Honoré, 1st arr) This former monastry is a shopping walhalla. Dont’s miss vintage accessory queen Gabrielle Geppert (31 & 34 Galerie de Montpensier), Stella McCartney (114-121 Galerie de Valois), Marc Jacobs (56 Galerie de Montpensier) and Pierre Hardy (156 Galerie de Valois).

With love.

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