Season Fantasy Cities

Spring ....... is for spending time in  London hanging out in Cafe Kick on Exmouth Market after work or up in roof tops in Shoreditch.  Spring in London is about The FIRSTS:  sipping your first Pimms, attending your first barbecue, spotting your first spring flowers, showing off your pedicure. And if all else fails, driving to  the countryside  to check out the bluebell fields.

Summer .... is for Sydney, although technically it would be our winter. Sun-filled days on Copper Wharf at Aki's restaurant  or flirting with Chris Isaak at the Blue Hotel (we did!). Yes Chris stays at the blue hotel when he's in Sydney, which his quite funny considering the song. Shopping for vintage finds at Bondi Markets after a sunbathing session on the north bondi rocks  and heading down to  the Icebergs restaurant for rock oysters as the sun sets.

Autumn ....is for Paris, because the light is gorgeous,  the sky is still blue and the air is crisp. Paris has an exotic urban day spa called  Sultane de Saba, where you can get a rassoul scrub and rose oil massage, and feel like you are in Marrakesh. Paris has a great kinky side too, so I love heading down to Pigalle to stock up on Cuban-heeled seamed stockings and Italian erotic comic books 

Every visit to Paris must be finished off with a night at the Crazy Horse Cabaret......Trained in ballet, all the dancers are perfectly integrated into the full choreography of the piece, creating the most stunning possible nude visual effect through their movement and bodies.... and they wear Louboutins too.

Winter ..... is for Venice. How I love that place in the winter... Venice is another world, an enchanted place  where sea becomes land, cars are boats, streets are canals, and reality and fantasy blur.  But winter makes it even more romantic, as  the mist fills the streets and the icy waters flood the cobbled street  at night, so much so, that the hunky locals offer to carry you across to your doorstep. Venice is about bagging yourself a gorgeous apartment with its own private staircase leading to the canal. Very Gothic, very unforgettable.... When I was 17, my friend and I stayed in such an apartment, and I still remember how otherworldly that staircase leading to a basement filled with water appeared. 

And of course, nothing beats  walking across the Piazza San Marco to  the Codognato-run jewellery boutique window to spot Your Memento Mori. This tiny shop full of baroque opulence, established  back in 1866,  always appears to be closed and actually lets very few people in.... pieces in here - most of which look like they should be in a museum -  are at mind-boggling prices.

And let us not forget SEPTEMBER, as this is a season within itself....September is for enjoying the Maritime Alps on the Italian French border. 

There is a small  apartment I rent out in the quaint medieval village perched on a mountain, called Apricale. You get the best of both worlds, as you combine mountain living in a medieval ambiance, with La Dolce Vita style living by driving down to the coast for long lunches in San Remo. 

At Xmas, the town of Apricale lights a bonfire which they have to keep going until St Nicholas.