Urban Influence
For Virtuoso, The Magazine ’s City issue, we made a botanical splash at one of CDMX’s chicest hotels, Casa Polanco, before diving into the surrounding neighborhood’s modern arts scene. Writer Alexandra Owens shares a compelling case for why art and design lovers should visit now. If fromage is more your thing, we’ve also got a new guide to eating your way through Paris, one cheese at a time. Scroll down for the goods.
A New Wave of Modern Design Is Heating Up Polanco
On first impression, Polanco feels a little like the Upper East Side, as friends had told me it would. It’s one of Mexico City’s most lavish neighborhoods, complete with Michelin-starred darlings (Pujol, Quintonil), high-end retail (its jacaranda-lined Avenida Presidente Masaryk sports Gucci, Ferragamo, and Hermès, plus other haute heavy hitters), and coveted real estate.
Where to Find the Best Cheese in Paris
It was more than misting, but not quite drizzling, one night in Paris just before Christmas. You know the kind, when you step out of the hotel thinking, This is fine, and Those fancy hotel umbrellas are so huge and stupid, then after walking a few blocks realize this is definitely not fine and you’d give anything for said huge and stupid umbrellas. It was 30 minutes to opening at one of Paris’ most in-demand restaurants, and I was more than peering, but not quite leering (OK, I was probably leering) into Bistrot des Tournelles in the Marais.
Five Things We Love: The Parker Palm Springs
Palm Springs has always been my home away from humdrum. That two-hour straight shot from Los Angeles into the desert (followed by a hard right into the former playground of Elvis and Sinatra) shakes off the worldliest woes. When my wife and I got married there 25 years ago, an old-timer at the hotel bar told us not to worry about the rain pelting down everywhere else in Southern California.
Safari’s Quiet Season Delivers a
One-of-a-Kind Experience
Across East Africa, each season carries its own rhythm. Between November and March, that tempo slows into what Micato Safaris calls the “quiet season.” The plains turn lush and green, temperatures are mild, and baby animals are plentiful. It’s not quiet because there’s less to see – there are just fewer crowds around. Low traveler numbers (with the exception of the holidays, which are always in high demand) translate to fewer game-drive vehicles in the bush, clearing the way for intimate moments to witness wildlife and the beauty of calving season.
Thebe Magugu, founder and creative director of his eponymous fashion brand, shares what he’s been loving lately.
Packing : A Chanel silk headscarf, which I use as a do-rag to protect my hair on flights, and the Thebe Magugu sterling Sisterhood pendant. It’s a good luck charm of mine.
Reading : Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Watching : Weapons and The Substance are two of my favorite recent movies – they’re both quite intelligent horror.
Dreaming of : Japan. Every time I’ve been due to visit, something ridiculous happens, the last being contracting chickenpox. I’m hoping for no disease or plague this time!
The White Lotus heads to Saint-Tropez: The show will reportedly film at Château de La Messardière this summer. The days of using airline-provided headphones are over. Until we’re back in Seoul, we’re into this at-home alternative to a Korean body scrub. Tour Chilean painter Matta’s preserved Italian home. Skip the hot toddy: Drink one of these bartender-recommended warm cocktails instead.
