A family-owned 5* inn, Les Sources de Caudalie, is located just outside of Bordeaux among the in the vineyards of Château Smith Haut Lafitte. With 61 rooms, three restaurants, a spa menu featuring wine-based treatments and one of the most stunning indoor pools anywhere, the hotel offers a luxurious yet entirely approachable experience.
Getting There: The brand new high-speed trains from Paris will get you to Bordeaux in just over two hours. The train station in Bordeaux is also new, and incredibly easy to navigate. A handful of car rental agencies are located at the station (Europcar, SIXT, Enterprise) and the drive to Les Sources de Caudalie takes less than 20-minutes.
Dining & Amenities: There are three restaurants to choose from onsite: the Michelin-starred La Grand’Vigne (where a healthy and delicious breakfast is served each morning), the farm-to-table La Table du Lavoir, and Rouge, a casual bar and upscale grocery—perfect for a glass of wine and tapas-style food. There are cooking classes, wine tasting classes, a small but functional fitness center and an airy, light-filled indoor pool. The spa is home to 19 treatment rooms, with a menu that offers high-tech treatments that center around wine and natural hot spring water.
To Do: Tour the Château Smith Haut Lafitte winery next door, or another nearby vineyard—the region’s finest are less than an hour’s drive away. On Sunday morning, visit the Marche de Quais farmer’s market in Bordeaux, where you’ll find local produce, an endless selection of cheese and delicious rotisserie chicken. Stroll through the city’s Neo-classical squares, visit the Musée des Beaux-Arts and break for coffee at a riverside café. If the weather holds, Cap Ferret is just one-hour by car from the hotel and is well worth a visit. Go oyster tasting on the Arcachon Bay or post up on one of the area’s sprawling white sand beaches.
-Rebecca MacGregor
Since 2007, when fashion designer and philanthropist Donna Karan founded the Urban Zen Foundation, an inspiringly beautiful holiday market appears at 705 Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan. Each year, Karan creates a marketplace that combines humanitarianism with consumerism, promoting shopping with a purpose. The Foundation is dedicated to three initiatives: preservation of culture (past); bringing mind, body and spirit to healthcare (present); education (future.) The opening last night featured more than 40 artisans from countries as diverse as Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, India, South Africa and Mexico, artisans that exhibit at the International Folk Art Market in the Southwest each summer. The space is the perfect venue in which to display fabrics and objects, photographs and fashion in such a way that they - and you - feel instantly at home.
Of particular beauty were the feather light shrugs, coats and jackets of Farzana Sharshenbieva from Kyrgyzstan; the magnificently, finely tie dyed bandhani silk scarves of Gujarati Abduljabbar Khatri; the sensuous Zulu pots of Jabulile Nala whose mother is considered a national treasure. I adored the heavy, indigo dyed raw cotton jackets of Laotian Boukhong Signavong that greet you as you enter this magical space.
There is nothing more healing, nothing more inspiring, nothing more warming than to be in the presence of passionate artisans who draw beauty from their souls to share it with others. It was hard to leave Urban Zen last night, so hard, in fact, that I shall return tomorrow."
["post_title"]=>
string(42) "Urban Zen Promotes Shopping With A Purpose"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["ping_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(42) "urban-zen-promotes-shopping-with-a-purpose"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2018-12-07 17:03:53"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2018-12-07 22:03:53"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(31) "http://lisalindblad.com/?p=8769"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}
}