Archive for the 'Gardens' Category

A PERFECT PARISIAN DAY, By Maggie Harris

August 16th, 2012

 

A Perfect Parisian Day, by Maggie Harris, will appear as a five part series.

Maggie Harris is AHA’s research guru, and though much of her work is done staring at a computer screen, gathering information is not enough for AHA. In this series, Maggie puts her feet on the cobblestones and explores a great AHA destination, Paris. Assignment: To make her way to Musee Marmottan Monet, explore the gallery, and find a special place for AHA guests to lunch. To take copious notes to enrich and improve our travel itineraries for AHA guests! Mission accomplished.

 

 

 

 

I feel really blessed and humbled to be able to apply some of the experience from my travel adventures to the mission and vision of Art History Alive!It is a joy to use travel success )and travel disappointments) to help positively inform the AHA experience. So when Art History Alive asked that I take some time out of my work in Paris to scope some finds for them, what was my response? Oh, fine, twist my arm!

My personal challenge, on this particular day, was to truly explore, to simply take a journey. To have one destination, but to allow

myself to meander my way there and be open to detours along the way. To revisit some favorites and find some new joys as well. To figure it out without my cellphone GPS or scouring the travel books or restaurant reviews in advance. This kind of journey – slower, more aware, unrushed – is just the kind of travel that AHA boasts and often creates the most intense joy and offers the most amazing finds. This was just such a day.

 

It was not just a day in Paris, it was a gloriously gorgeous day, the kind of day that every person who dreams of going to Paris envisions. It was, afterall, April in Paris.

Lucky me to be in this city and have only one goal in mind ? to visit the Mus?e Marmottan Monet. Somehow, on my visits to Paris, I had not yet managed to explore this gem of a museum. It boasts the largest collection of Monets in the world, as well as numerous works by other artists such as Degas, Sisley, Pisarro, Renoir, and more. I was eager to see some of Monet?s less famous pieces and particularly excited about exploring a part of Paris that I was not very familiar with.

 

Ready for my day, I left my lovely hotel in the 6th arr. and set off for the metro station. Craving a caf? cr?me (just as it sounds, coffee with warm cream), I stopped at a storefront that had a serving window on the sidewalk. The pan au chocolat (chocolate croissants, essentially) was calling my name, so in celebration of being in France ? and knowing I would walk it off in no time ? I caved (for just 3 Euros! Take that, Starbucks!) I made a spur of the moment decision to detour up the road to the Jardin du Luxembourg so I could sit and enjoy my morning snack. I have noticed that in France one rarely sees people eating ?on the run? as one does in the States. People aren?t scarfing sandwiches on the metro or gulping coffee as they juggle a briefcase and hail a cab. Any food experience is to be enjoyed. Savored. So off I went to savor!

Once inside The Luxembourg Gardens, in all its leafy, lovely serenity, I love thinking about how Victor Hugo featured the park so heavily in ?Les Miserables?, Hemingway strolling through it, and reading current literature that mentions it. Should I try to grab a green chair around the large fountain area in the bright sunshine, surrounded by tulips and pansies? Should I sit on a bench along one of the shaded paths and watch the joggers and tennis players as they seized the morning in their own way? I opted for my favorite spot of all, right in front of the Medici fountain. It is romantic and mystical to me with great trees filtering lovely green dappled light while their leaves whisper overhead. Today the fountain had actually been drained, but it had no less charm than when it is full of water. I settled into a green lawn chair to enjoy my coffee, croissant, and a little bit of the novel I was reading. Two older Frenchmen played chess to my left. To my right, a quintessential French couple cuddled together on one chair (at 9am!).

After a good 25 minutes of serenity, caffeine, and chocolate, I left the gardens and headed to the metro. I was excited to get to the 16th arr. to explore and witness some great art!

 

 

 

 

Upcoming: April in Yosemite – Waterfalls and Wildflowers

February 8th, 2012

Yosemite Falls Reflected

Spring is waterfall season in Yosemite, when the snowmelt comes rushing over rock walls and races 3,000 feet straight down in a powerful ribbon to crash on the rocks below. Juxtaposed against the power and strength of water is the delicate wildflower season, a gorgeous time to be in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

AHA’s Gold Rush, Wines, and Yosemite, April 19 ? 26, 2012, is a great 8-day getaway?from San Francisco to Carmel-by-the-Sea, with Yosemite as the ?jewel in the crown.? However, we are offering our guests the choice of an abbreviated version as well. For those who just can’t get away for a full 8 days but long to get up into the hills and stay in Yosemite, AHA is offering a 5-day, 4-night version. This “Sierra” version, April 19 – 23, 2012, will begin in San Francisco, followed by 2 days in Sonora, including a massage and facial, Murphy’s wine tasting, and, of course, Yosemite?and the Ahwahnee.

I love this area, know it quite well, and enjoy sharing it. The links will take you to details and pricing.

Days 1 ? 5: (Sierra) We will begin this trip at sea level in San Francisco, with all its culture and color, and then meander on to?spend two days in the heart of the Gold Rush area in Sonora. While here, our guests will enjoy a European body massage and facial by leading professionals in the area. We will then go wine tasting in the adorable little town of Murphys, and finally make our way into Yosemite National Park, arguably one of the most beautiful places on earth. After checking in to the historic and very majestic Ahwahnee Hotel, we will explore the park and picnic along the way, just soaking in Yosemite.

Days 6 and 7: We will come full circle as the final two days of this itinerary find us back on the California coast in beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea. Quaint as can be, with its storybook architecture, we will wander the streets, share some delicious meals, the fresh salt air, and prepare to return to life.

To sign up for Gold Rush, Wines, and Yosemite or Sierra, click here.

 

 

Lago di Como: A Peaceful Retreat

November 15th, 2011

Above Bellagio, Lunch, Baita Belvedere

I recently Googled the 10 most beautiful lakes in the world, and, I think I need to speak to the judges. Lago di Como did not make the cut, and I wondered about the criteria. I suppose it would be impossible to judge a place on the way it makes you feel. Well, not for me it isn?t.

For visitors, Lake Como has two distinct faces. One really fun and alive, with this big blue beautiful backdrop but focused on the shore, and the other focused right smack on “The Lake.? For me, it all depends on where you stay. I have visited both faces and prefer strongly to focus on the lake. I can shop anywhere.

For over 30 years I have held onto a small, really dated brochure on a place I’d written to before email. This brochure has been suspended over the trash bin several times, but I had a hunch. Something about this hotel drew me in, and someday, I thought, I would at least give it a drive-by. Finally, after all these years and many visits to Lago di Como and some of her very pretty hotels, we spent five beautiful days at the Hotel San Giorgio, in Lenno, and now I know that my hunch was right, because this place is a treasure.

Even though many villa-hotels dot the lakeside, none that I could find have the magic ingredient

Lake Entrance to Villa Balbianello

that the San Giorgio has, and that is the huge rolling lawn and garden that sweep from the hotel down to the lapping edge of the lake. Dotted with chaise lounges, chairs, and small tables all facing the lake (and Bellagio on the opposite shore), it is quiet, restful, and magical. Whether we started our day there in the sun, or ended our day with the sunset, it is what sets the Hotel San Giorgio apart, and it is why I want to share it with AHA guests who surely will love it. Another discovery of a 3-star+ property with a 5-star location?my favorite combo.

Always fun is a boat ride/day trip to beautiful and hopping Bellagio. Thanks to Maggie McKenny-Harris, our intrepid researcher, we experienced a lunch

there that we won’t forget. While all the bustling crowds are winding around the pretty alleyways of Bellagio, Chiara picked us up and whisked us away, up, up, up above the city to the slow food, farm-to-table Trattoria Baita Belvedere, where we were the only English speakers, and we love that. The homemade cheeses, succulent simmered boar, and fresh porcini mushrooms were fabulous, as the back of the Swiss Alps stared across the lake at us, and we looked down on the top of Bellagio. Peace and beauty.

Ice Cream and Oranges on an Island

From Villa Melzi, owned by Napoleon and by Liszt, to Villa Carlotta with its fantastic gardens, the prize- winner for me was the old monastery converted

into Villa Balbianello.?Perched on a promontory that juts out into the lake with water on three sides, it is as if it were floating. A short boat ride from the Hotel San Giorgio, this villa, it’s history, collections, and gardens are absolutely staggering.

Isola Comacina is the only island in the lake and a must-stop for lunch on any Lake Como itinerary. And why would anyone pass a seven-course lunch on a stone terrace, overlooking the lake and under spreading shade trees? Please! The freshest ingredients served simply over a lazy three hours include twelve different vegetables, gorgeous pink trout, chicken, and aged parmigiana scooped out of the wheel and plopped right into your palm. And every course is bottomless. Everyone finishes with ice cream and oranges, highlighted by a coffee ceremony featuring sweet scalding espresso and an intriguing tale of island history. OK, I’m there. Back on the mainland, we were thankful we had walked along the pretty greenway from the hotel. We hoped we could negotiate the winding walkway back, but the lounges on the lawn at the Hotel San Giorgio were calling to us, shhhh, nap, nap, nap. Lago di Como has become, or more likely always was, a place to run to, escape into, a place to let down and go limp.

Art History Alive will be traveling to Lago di Como in the Fall of 2013. All of the above-mentioned places will be part of the itinerary, and there will be other surprises as well. Group size will be 6. Start dreaming.