PRAGUE

The unbearable freedom of being

Prague has a slavic soul, the one that is said to be as sentimental as misleading, tormented, libertine.

We warm up in its cafés, we savor its inhabitants’ kindness, we relive the masterpieces of Kafka, Kundera, Vaclav Havel, we listen to Dvorak’s humoresques or the ringing of the city’s 100 spires. In a few words, what we find there is the lust and turmoil that marked its history.

Whether you are a fanatic of modernity (Prague being the capital of design, please) or of ancient architecture, everyone will contemplate one of the most admired technical and historical monuments of the Czech Republic : the astronomical clock, on the old town square. Since the 15th century, the astrolabe at its base determines the position of the stars, the sun and the moon, on top of giving the time. A jewel that opens up every few hours for a parade of puppets embodying sins and virtues…

At the Salvia Café (name of the mythical mother of all slavics), you are offered first class balcony spots for the price of a coffee. Huge bay windows open up to a breathtaking panoramic view of the city : the castle on its promontory, the warm colors of the Malà Strana’s rooftops, the Charles bridge and the Vltava, the National Theater…

You would almost forget about its art déco interior and its discreet elegance. The staff is dressed in frac, as they were back in the day, and as is the cloakroom : in here, we like our traditions. A few feet from there, the contemporary spirit of a more “fashionable” wine bar offers other kinds of sensations.

Prague’s paradoxes charm us. It even happens, as by luck, that we fall in love (again?)…

Do you believe in chance ? 

ROME

THE ETERNAL CITY

Coming to Rome is being invited by the gods inside the city of grandiose, of la Dolce vita, of the eternal.

Rome is a huge outside museum. Its cuisine, its history, its buildings : everything is here to take your breath away !

Of course, there is : the Vatican, the Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, the Borghese villa, the Trevi fountain….

But will you go see Michelangelo’s Moses at the San Pietro Basilica in Vincoli ? The Caravagios, marvels amongst marvels at the Doria-Pamphili Palace ?

Will you take the time to walk around the alleys of the Pantheon’s area, to discover its Renaissance architectural splendours, to savor smoked ham with a glass of wine from the Lazio, to let yourself be transported by the blue of the sky in which you can see the bizarre silhouettes of the umbrella pines ?

Will you dare to slip inside the intimacy of the Farnese Palace, to enter its garden, hidden behind its walls and gigantic doors ?

Will you flirt with the seventh art by visiting Cinecittà, one of the most mythical cinema studios in the world ?
We invite you to !

BUDAPEST

THE DANUBE’S PEARL

At the heart of the Mitelleuropa, the scarred city has found a new energy.

On the right shore : Buda, the romantic, the historical city.

On the left shore : Pest, the roman, whose art is animated by cafés that spread their terrasses into the commercial streets.

There is no doubt that during your walks, you will cheerfully go from one to the other.

The jewish area has kept an indelible mark on the city’s history, between nostalgia and poetry, and is today one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods. The youth likes to go there, especially in the bars that do not exist anywhere else : the ruin’s bars, alternative cafés that flourished in abandoned buildings. And they can be found nowhere else…

Because Budapest is an ever changing city. It is currently booming, on an architectural and cultural level. Here, tradition and innovation live in total harmony. The hungarian women, especially, are very modern.

Every summer Budapest organizes the Sziget Festival (the hungarian Woodstock), the biggest music and theater festival in Europe. You cannot miss it.

Of course, the bathing tradition is still very popular. It is a true cultural shock to bathe in the middle of winter in the outside pools of the Szechenyi baths.

Will you try that kind of shock ?

LISBONNE

THE CHARMING, THE SOFT, THE BRIGHT

Whoever doesn’t know Lisbon yet will first be struck by the incomparable beauty of the Tagus’ shores, by the sublime views from the top of its seven hills, by its garden and its structures, its ancient streets and modern avenues.

In Lisbon, its goes up, and down, it never stops. But without stress. You cannot run in this city, so you just take your time, simply. You wander under an unlikely blue sky and a golden sun, have a chat with the person selling their fruits on a makeshift display in front of the national theater, on Freedom Avenue…

Lisbon is taking the time to smile, to say “hello, how are you today ?” – the extreme kindness of its people is not overrated. It is the time of Saudade and Fado, mysterious musical challenge in the night, its fatalities, its heartbreaks, its ghosts.

In Lisbon, you go around with your mood : by foot, by tramway (and its old time charm), by elevator, by taxi, or metro, or rickshaw…

You can also cross the Tagus by boat, and savor delicious fish meals on the other side of the river, looking over the city.

Lisbon is a changing city, perfect marriage between the past and the present, of which the timeless magic makes you forget everything but the taste of the things of life.

And of Carpe Diem. And of Pastéis de Natas…

Ever heard of them ?

VENISE

THE SERENISSIME

Behind the celebrity’s mask, Venice unveils its hidden figures to whoever knows how to get lost in its canals.

First, this is the miraculous city – a true piece of art built on islands of mud -, the dazzling and wealthy capital, of which the palaces, the churches have not ceased, since the middle ages, to baffle its visitors.

But Venice isn’t just that… Because the city isn’t just a museum. It is also the theater where everyone knows each other, greets each other, where everyone knows that they see and are seen. It is a village with its wine bars – where young and less young people come for an ombra and cicheti -, its campi, where children run and play lankily as their mothers or grandmothers watch.

Venice is also a city for students – you will cross entire colonies of them at spritz hour in Erberia, from Santa Margherita all the way to Santa Marta, where the prestigious architecture school installed an appendix in old cotton factories.

Venice is finally the capital of contemporary art, now devoting to it the symbols of its worn out power : the rope-factory of the Arsenale, many of its palaces and, of course, the harbour’s peak.

So, yes : the capital and its thousands of years-old history, the village and its typically venetians social hideouts, its carnaval, its palaces, its gondolas. But let us not forget the lagoon’s islands. Because you cannot think of Venice without its islands : Murano, Burano, Mazzorbo, the enchanting Torcello, Sant’Erasmo.

And Baudelaire would conclude : “ There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure.”