Luft Lust? Or Just A Lot Of Hot Air?

Have you noticed that there seems to be a lot of hot air balloons floating around lately? (Very poor pun, sorry.) Hot air balloons have always been a particular favourite of Jules Verne-style travellers, old-fashioned romantics and modern designers with a penchant for the steamy, heated and hair-raising. But now they're fast becoming a hot new trend. (Oh, another bad pun there!)

I thought I'd post some of the high-flying flamboyance I've seen rising up from the cultural landscape lately.

{Beautiful image above by Studio Flower Power, available to buy on on Etsy}

Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner rode a balloon to the edge of space on Sunday, saluted and stepped off.

The former soldier hurtled through the sky at more than 830 mph, breaking the sound barrier in his four-minute free fall before popping his parachute above the New Mexico desert.

Then he fell to his knees. Understandable, really. Felix, we salute you back. {Via Sky}

Parisian department store Le Bon Marche's 160-year anniversary is currently being celebrated with a spectacular display of gorgeously graphic luft machines, which perfectly suit the store's famously graphic ceiling. These lovely images are via Vicki Archer and the always-insightful French Essence blog.

A fantastic 3D 'balloon book by artist Lizzie Buckmaster Dove.

A lovely old vintage balloon print, from the Old Maps and Prints store on Etsy.

One of the most beautiful new hotels in Paris, the Versailles-sized St James. The hotel is situated on the site of the first ever hot-air balloon airfield, and because of this the hotel features the balloon as its brand. Whimsical, but strangely uplifting. (Will stop with the puns now.) Bookings through Mr and Mrs Smith or the hotel itself. {Images via Mr and Mrs Smith and St James}

Book illustration on the history of balloons, from 1890.

An astonishing image by photographer Scott Williams that captures the magnificent festival known as the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, held in New Mexico each year. Doesn't this make you want to go and hitch a ride on a balloon? {Via Wiki and Scott Williams}

John Derian's beautifully simplistic interpretation of a hot air balloon for his 'Paris hot air balloon' plate, available as part of his collection. {Via John Derian}

Jules Verne's most famous character, Phileas Fogg of London, and his newly employed French valet Passepartout, set out to circumnavigate the world in 80 days in 1872, in order to win a £20,000 wager (equal to £1,324,289 today) set by his friends at the Reform Club. The novel of their adventures, Around The World In 80 Days, has since become a literary classic. But Jules Verne wrote another balloon adventure before this one, called Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen (Not quite sure of the title but in French it's Cinq semaines en ballon). He used this earlier novel to perfect the style that would elevate his later work to bestseller level, skillfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists with passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. Oh – and lots of hot air balloon flights!

The pinboard above my desk. The tiny hot air balloon gift card is from John Derian's enchanting store in New York. It was all I could afford in that store!

And one more from the fabulously glam St James Hotel in Paris...

And while we're on the subject of travel, I'm not going off in a hot air balloon with a French valet for company (sadly), but I am off for a few days to do some research and finish a photo shoot. I had emailed a photographer I know to do the job for me, but she hasn't replied, which means she must be terribly busy – as I suspected she would be. Consequently, I need to do the shoot myself. So I'm taking my aging, complaining, works-when-it-wants-to camera and going off to finish the job so we can stay on deadline. However, I will be seeing some beautiful places on the way, so I promise to post lots of lovely pics. (If you can forgive the blurry photos.)

On a little aside, those of you awaiting news of the Garden Tours for 2013 will be pleased to hear that details of the itinerary and costs will be posted next Friday (26th), as I am currently tracking down the cheapest deals and awaiting quotes. I sincerely apologise for not having details sooner. It has been rather complicated owing to the fact that people are flying into London from all over the world and so many replied! But I can also tell you that there will be some horticultural treats in store! And for those of you who are Planners Well Before Time (like my Virgo partner), you can feel reassured. All the 2013 Early Bird Special air fares are only just going on sale now. (Chelsea tickets aren't even on sale yet!) Au revoir for now.

Pompadour Pink: A Colour Fit for a King

As the Northern Hemisphere embraces autumn and prepares to bunker down for winter, we here in the Southern Hemisphere are heading into a beautiful spring. The weather has been gorgeous lately too: gentle warm days and long-drawn-out sunsets that linger on until evening. Spring always reminds me of the colour pink. The crab apples, the new season roses, the spring racing fashions at Flemington... It's the time of year when pink really comes into its own. {Above image of the Esther Geldenhuys rose; one of the most glorious pinks there is.}

I'm also pleased that one of the world's biggest proponents of pink, Madame de Pompadour, is enjoying a renaissance. A grand seductress, she deliberately acquired a number of lodges and châteaux in which to entertain the king. (Nothing like a hussy with money!) She then decorated them in a mood that was light and pretty, so he felt at ease away from the more formal rituals of court. I love that. A king who was at home in pink. {Image via the National Gallery}

So here, in tribute to Miss Pompadour herself, is a little ode to spring's most delicious colour. {Above image is an old one of mine from the Carnavalet Museum in Paris}

A design from Dior's 2012 Couture Collection.

Rose Pompadour, a beautiful, elegantly petalled shrub rose from Delbard of France, which has a classic Damask fragrance.

Dior's Pink Pompadour nail polish. {From Dior's current nail polish range}

An exquisite tufted chaise in a very royal shade of pink. 

{Still trying to locate source: will credit shortly}

The Salon des Mars at Versailles. More 'rose' than pink, it's still spectacular.

LA designer Windsor Smith's pink salon. Love the Gustavian grey in the kitchen. (I thought her kitchen was navy? Here it looks grey. It might be the light.) {Will also credit this shortly}

A Cindy Sherman-designed porcelain tureen, created for Limoges and inspired by the original design commissioned by Madame de Pompadour in 1756 at the Manufacture Royale de Sevres. (Sherman's image of herself as Madame de Pompadour was transferred onto porcelain through a complex process which required up to 16 photo-silkscreens.)

The gracious restaurant known as The Olde Pink House, in the old part of Savannah. Has anyone else been here too? It's superb. Each room is painted a different colour. We dined in the turquoise room. I couldn't stop looking at the tint. The unusual paints used in the period interior are just extraordinary.

A sweeter-than-sweet, Pompadour-pink beach house on Tybee Island, near Savannah. (One of the prettiest islands in the US.) This house originally belonged to a dear friend of mine, the interior designer Jane Coslick. She bought it as a derelict, run-down dump and worked her (very pink) magic on it.

But then she sold it and bought this one, right next door. She calls it '99 Steps' because it's only a towel-throw from the beach. The original cottage above is now for rent, if you'd like a week away on Tybee. When I was staying in Jane's house, there were Harley Davidson bikies staying in the pink cottage. They loved it!

Another pink house for vacation stays, the delicious Doll's House on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. I peeked inside here one day. (The dodgy photos are mine.) It was as divine as it looks from the outside.

The pink crab apples in the spectacular garden of the delightful blogger, architect and designer Virginia Blue, of the blog Glamour Drops by Blue Fruit – here.

A beautiful, delicate pink camellia in the extraordinarily beautiful family garden of one of the loveliest bloggers I know, Heide from Adelaide Villa – here. (Isn't it wonderful how all the Australian gardens are now starting to bloom?)

One of my favourite roses, Constance Spry, found in the magical Parc de Bagatelle in Paris, where la Roseraie de Bagatelle (or Bagatelle’s Rose Garden) is home to 1100 types of roses. Wandering through here on a summer's day is sheer luxury for the senses.

Pink wisteria, the prettiest shade of wisteria. My mother dislikes this plant. She says it spreads faster than flu germs. But I love it. We're trying to find a pink plant to grow over our front verandah, much to my mother's horror. {This beautiful image is by ChrisAnthemum}

The pink salon in the former Ireland home of the late, and greatly respected designer, John Coote.

A page from Lonny magazine, which is now in its third year – well done Lonny! This room was photographed by Patrick Cline. Patrick always takes a gorgeous shot.

A gorgeous, 'Old Hollywood' look. {No source/Via Tumblr}

Chanel's beautiful new lipstick, Rouge Allure Luminous Intense Lipstick, which was just launched this month. I love this colour - Secrete.

The Great Book Debate (And Picks For Christmas)

I have a dilemma. I buy all our books at a certain bookstore; a famously beautiful bookstore. I love this store. It has a mezzanine (always the most glorious part of a library), plus lovely, chatty staff and well-curated titles on the front tables each week. I travel all the way across town to buy books at this store, despite there being a closer bookshop within walking distance of our house. The beautiful bookstore has also supported me beyond anything I could have imagined. (They sold more than 170 copies of my Paris book alone: 100 of which I signed for them.) I shop there because I like supporting bookstores. But buying books at this store means I spend three times more than I would if I used Amazon. So the question remains... Is the cost of loyalty becoming too great? {Image above via House & Garden, November 2002, photography by James Waddell.}

Here's the other thing. Last Friday I spent an hour at this store picking out $200 worth of beautiful books for Christmas gifts for our family. When I returned yesterday, the assistant had forgotten to put them on hold, and they'd all been sold. Most were the only copies. "Did I want to order them in again?" the new assistant said. "No, that's okay," I said, trying not to show too much disappointment, as it was indeed A Very Good Bookstore.

So I'd like to ask you this: Do you all still frequent bookstores? Or have you all defected to the Mighty Amazon?

As my partner explained to me last night, if we bought through Amazon, we could potentially buy three times as many books for that money. But as I argued, bookstores would go out of business. The other thing, of course, is that Amazon is slowly hiking up their prices. Once they have a monopoly, they will be able to charge what they want, as the competition will have disappeared. But, oh, how they've lured us all in to begin with! {Image above of Goyard's trunk for Assouline for $20,000}

What a tangled web we weave.

Where do you all buy your books? Online? At second-hand or new bookstores? Or do you simply go to the library? (I went yesterday. It was very cute. It still had the old card system and was staffed by two sweet octogenarians. I heard one say to the other: "Have you heard anything about this Facebook thingy?")

Here are some of the new releases I had put on hold for Christmas gifts before The Beautiful Bookstore reshelved them.  Oh well, looks like our family will be getting gourmet food baskets instead this year...