Room service breakfast at Le Bristol, Paris
There is a really-British television show called Strictly Come Dancing, now often shortened to Strictly, and its brand extensions are phenomenal. In the USA, what is called Dancing With the Stars is hosted by Erin Andrews and Tom Bergeron. In the UK, the BBC showed, on July 22nd, 2016, the first ever Prom featuring dancing, with Strictly professionals – and it was sensational. What has this to do with luxury hotels, you may well ask? The final tagline of Strictly, the original, is ‘keep on DANCING”, always said by Bruce Forsyth, long-time inaugural host. The gal adapts this, and urges all luxury hotels, and travel advisors, and governments, to ‘keep on TRAVELLING”.
This is especially relevant where France is concerned. That lovely country, with so much style, so much history, so much warmth, so much authentic luxury, needs all the tourism help it can get. Why keep away and cancel travel plans when you could just as easily personally be harmed in, say, Baton Rouge LA, or by a falling tree in a wood somewhere, or in a car or bicycle crash anywhere.
It is time to concentrate on genuine luxury. Look at the flowers and fabric in suite 630 of Hotel Le Bristol Paris, above. Look at my room service breakfast there, to the left: oh what elegance, with Haviland porcelain, Orfevrerie De France silverware, Ferme des Peupliers yoghurts, A L’Ancienne preserves and Beurre Echiré butter tubs that make the horrid little paper wraps in some other nations’ luxury hotelslook like Walmarts. France offers genuine luxury. Scroll down to see a story on Bordeaux, look tomorrow for another Bordeaux story, followed by Marseille: put Nice – our hearts bleed for you – and Paris into the search, above, to get more. And, be sure, we will all do all we can to encourage the world to KEEP ON TRAVELLING, ESPECIALLY TO FRANCE.
