I shivered when I got the email. Would I like to take part in a Best Life retreat – ‘a chance to take a step back and think about the year ahead in a luxurious but relaxed environment’?
 
Visions of hand-holding, chanting and baring my soul in front of hundreds of people danced before me. But it was being hosted in the luxury 5-star Grove hotel, there would be massage and beautiful gardens, 3-course dinners and miles of countryside. And, anyway, didn’t I want to take a good look at my life and make some changes to make it better? With the New Year in sight, the answer was yes.

 
What’s a Best Life retreat?
 
Nina Grunfeld, the life coach who leads the Best Life retreat, set up Life Clubs in 2004 and currently runs private and corporate workshops throughout the UK and abroad. She is the author of several books, including The Life Book. And I’m pleased to see she doesn’t look like somebody who is ever likely to break into a chant. Instead she’s pleasant, cheerful, practical and quietly inspirational; she looks like somebody I could be friends with.
 
The Best Life retreat takes place over two days, with two hour-and-a-half workshops and plenty of time in-between for reflection, relaxation and a chance to sample the loveliness of the Grove hotel. There are eight of us in the Best Life group and nothing we’re asked to do is extremely challenging; tasks revolve around thinking, writing and talking in small groups.

I find it really refreshing to take some time to stand back and take a good look at my life, and hardly bat an eyelid when I find myself paired up with the person on my left, discussing my hopes and fears quite candidly. (Group work takes place in pairs or groups of three, don’t worry, you won’t be forced to ‘reveal’ yourself to the entire room.)
 
What I liked about the sessions were how normal they felt, nothing was forced and everything was very practical – I didn’t feel I had to come up with any grand philosophies for my life. It was more about making small changes, creating some practical to-do lists rather than making giant leaps and tearing my soul apart on the table.

In fact it was a bit like a good conversation among friends – though with a lot more structure, over a longer period of time and without the hangover. The difference was the presence of Nina, who throughout the sessions provided a gentle guiding hand and helpful insights based on years of experience and – as I quickly picked up – a keen intuition.
 
Time for a bit of ‘best life’ pampering
 
And of course the gorgeous setting of the Grove hotel played its own part in helping me enjoy my first steps to a better life. After the first session we had dinner in the bistro-style setting of The Stables restaurant; set apart from the main hotel it has the air of a cosy club and is nicely secluded. And the next day I had a deep massage with Chris in the Sequoia Spa; as one of the group later comments ‘I could feel the toxins literally flowing out of me during the treatment’.
 
It’s the first time I’ve ever had a male masseuse and the stretching and deep tissue work is just what I need. An inspiration himself; a baker for 20 years (all that bread kneading was great training) and a keen amateur rugby player, he decided to retrain as a sports therapist, loved the massage part of the course and made it his profession. Afterwards, I head to the pool area – no, not to swim, but to continue to ‘chillaxing’ vibe.

 
Returning to my room in the 16th century manor house building, I feel quite spoiled. The centuries-old feeling is preserved – corridors are hung with heavy velvet drapes and veiled lights lining the passageway give the effect of flickering oil lamps. So it’s a real surprise to enter the ultra modern bedroom with uber stylish glass armchairs, a white metal love seat and a very contemporary take on a four poster bed. I love the design and the new-meets-old works very well in the high-ceilinged sash-windowed space.

 
Back at the ‘Best Life’: the final session
 
Some very interesting things happen in our final session. One of the ‘practical goals’ I have set for myself is to take a course in Indian head massage. My partner for this exercise is a trained masseuse and gives me some useful guidelines. My next partner has listed some work contacts she wants to make as her practical goal. Turns out I have worked with some of the people on her list and point her in the right direction.

I’m not saying that everybody will end up sitting beside someobdy who can help them achieve their goals. But it does go to prove that talking to strangers can be very interesting and often more rewarding than you might have expected.
 
What happened next?
 
And how has my life changed since the retreat? Well I’ve just completed a one-day course in Indian head massage and have my first certificate!
 
For reservations at the hotel go to www.thegrove.co.uk or call 01923 294 288; The Grove, Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire WD3 4TG

A grand-turn-of-the-century mansion house hotel is a great place to play at being a duchess, as I found out

Tylney Hall is a very grand turn-of-the-century stately home hotel in 66 acres of Hampshire countryside. It’s very Downton Abbey – a family home for three and a half centuries, though the current building dates from 1901, it was used as a hospital during the First World War. And Highclere Castle, where Downton was filmed, is less than an hour’s drive away.

It’s been a home for the Tylneys (who owned a sizeable chunk of Hampshire in the 1700’s) and the Earl of Mornington (who demolished the 18th century mansion house so he could sell the timber in the surrounding woodlands – the terms of his inheritance stated he couldn’t fell it while the house was standing, easy that – he just knocked it down). Baronet Lionel Philips built the current house and after him came Lord and Lady Rotherwick who lived there until the 1940s, when the house was sold and became a school until 1984. It re-opened as a hotel in 1985 after being restored to its former glory.

It’s a building fit for a whole bevy of lords and ladies, dowager countesses, delicate Turkish princes and other distinguished guests. Sweep down the grand oak panelled staircase and make believe you’ve just been summoned by Carson’s gong for dinner. The wood was imported by the Baronet from Italy, probably around the same time he was shipping over an ornate ceiling from the Grimation Palace in Florence and installing it in what is now the Italian Lounge, popular for afternoon tea.

The Baronet’s library is still full of books, only now there’s a bar there as well. All of the lounges have huge fireplaces and – real! – open fires. Pastoral landscapes line the high-ceilinged corridors upstairs and there are suites for private parties and corporate meetings (the Hall is just an hour’s drive from London). Everywhere there are beautiful views of the grounds – formal gardens, woodland and wild meadows, a boathouse lake and sculpted fountains. Sit on the beautiful stone terrace and look down what is claimed to be the longest uninterrupted view in Hampshire – though you won’t be able to see the bomb shelter at the end from here. What a long scary run that must have been …

What are the rooms like?
The bedrooms in the main house have beautiful views over the formal Italian gardens and lake beyond (deluxe rooms from £220, garden view for £255). The rest of the 112 rooms are housed in the garden courtyards in former outhouses and have their own front doors opening onto lushly planted lawns. Great for families, you’ll be able to hear the ducks quacking in the nearby water garden. Or stay in one of the Orangery suites (from £430) and the ducks will be right on your doorstep.

My room is in the main house and has a huge marble fireplace and big bay windows. It’s a quirky blend of old and new – a shiny Nespresso machine on a leather-topped period table, an iPod dock on the retro mahogany desk. It’s a junior suite (from £360) so I have a couch and armchairs with a view of the lake.

What’s in the bathroom?
The shock of modernity! After all the floral soft furnishings and period furniture next door, the bathroom is a contemporary surprise. There’s a large corner bath, toiletries are by Molton Brown and the fluffy robes and slippers on the back of the door are standard in every room.

How’s the bed?
King size with a floral pelmet trim. The pillows are so vast and comfortable that I’m discussing them on Twitter at 7am the next morning – up with the sun for an early morning walk, country estates do that to me when they’re outside my window.

What about eating and drinking?
The Oak Room dining room was the Baronet’s smoking room, it’s a very grand space with a high Baroque ceiling, floor-to-ceiling windows and beautifully dressed, white linen-clothed tables. Gentlemen, ties please.
Sunday lunch is very popular with locals and hotel guests (from £29.50 for three courses) and evening dinner offers a Table d’hote menu (£31.50 for 2 courses, £39.50 for 3) or a la carte (£49.50 for 3 courses). Food is local as far as possible, with herbs and some veg from the hotel’s kitchen garden.
The chef sends out a smoked salmon amuse bouche to start the meal, and there’s a lady wheeling roast beef around in a large silver carving trolley. It’s all very old world and hospitable. There’s a pianist tinkling his way through classical and pop but I don’t stick around once I’ve finished my cheesecake – it’s 9pm, Downton time! What could be better than watching Downton Abbey while feeling like you’ve wandered into it?

Anything else?
There’s a leisure centre with gym and a snooker room – even if you don’t play, check out the fantastic black and white photos of Tylney as a private residence on the walls. There’s a spa offering Kerstin Florian treatments, as well as a light-filled indoor pool, whirlpool and saunas.

Come in the summer and laze on the loungers by the lovely outdoor pool in the garden. There are mapped-out walks around the grounds, as well as packs of games and adventures for families. There’s an 18-hole golf course if you’re that way inclined, tennis courts and a croquet lawn, plus the hotel can organise archery, falconry, horse riding and clay pigeon shooting for guests.

What’s nearby?
There’s plenty to keep you entertained if you tire of being a duchess. Basingstoke Leisure Park is a 15-minute drive, Legoland 40-minutes and Thorpe Park just 45. And you can be at Highclere Castle – the ‘real’ Downton Abbey – Winchester Cathedral or Stonehenge, all in under an hour.

Where is it and how do I book?
Tylney Hall Hotel is located at Rotherwick, Hook, in Hampshire. For information and booking contact the hotel on 01256 764881 or visit the website at www.elitehotels.co.uk.

Even if you have only a short time to spend in Dublin, you’ll find it easy to pack in a lot in this compact and exciting capital city where the Guinness and the craic flow freely. So, whether you’re a first-timer, culture vulture, foodie, shopper or determined tourist on search for as many leprechauns as you can fit into your wheelie bag, my suggestions for the best things to do in Dublin has something to suit you.

Dublin for first-timers

If it’s your first trip to Dublin – or even if you’ve visited before but are keen to get an insider’s view – sign up online for City of a Thousand Welcomes before you leave home. You’ll be paired up with a Dubliner who will take you off for a chat and drink at one of three brilliant local venues – the über-chic five-star Merrion Hotel, the ‘old Dublin’ institution Bewley’s Café or the vibrant Porterhouse bar and micro-brewery. The service is free, the Dubliners have volunteered their time and the cost of the drinks is covered by the nice people at the Little Dublin Museum who run the service.

Allow some time to have a look around the museum (admission free) when you call in to hook up with your Dubliner – the city’s newest museum is devoted to recent social, political and cultural history covering everything from U2 and James Joyce to the Easter 1916 Rising and Queen Victoria’s visit. Have a chat with Godfrey, the chatty tour guide who’s full of ‘behind the scenes stories’ – see if you can tempt him out for a drink with your volunteer.

Brush up on your ancient Irish history with a trip to the National Museum of Ireland (admission free), or pop into the crypt at Christ Church cathedral– above; dating from the 11th century, it’s the oldest building in Dublin and one of the largest medieval crypts in Ireland and the UK. Here you’ll find an exhibition of the cathedral’s treasures (they survived because they were in no one’s way, according to the guide), a really interesting video presentation of the church’s history, and the mummified remains of a cat and rat who got stuck in the organ pipes in the 1860s. They also turned up over 60 years later in James Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’. The crypt’s coffee shop is a great place to stop off for a cuppa – it’s one of the most atmospheric coffee shops in Europe.

Dublin for culture vultures

For a small city, Dublin packs a big cultural punch. Former home to Nobel prizewinning writers WB Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett (who now has a bridge named after him), as well as Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Brendan Behan, Jonathan Swift and Bram Stoker; contemporary authors in residence include Roddy Doyle, Sebastian Barry, John Banville and Marian Keyes. So, as you can imagine, the Dublin Writers’ Museum in Parnell Square has a lot to talk about!

The James Joyce Centre is at 35 North Great George’s St, close to the city centre, and you’ll find Shaw’s birthplace at 33 Synge St, Dublin 8, a 10-minute walk from central St Stephen’s Green.

 

 

There’s a small but perfectly formed exhibition of exotic artefacts including illuminated manuscripts, rare books and paintings at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle (admission free); its Silk Road restaurant and coffee shop is one of the best in the city. The Irish Museum of Modern Art in the former Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, on the outskirts of the city has a permanent collection with an emphasis on works from the 1940s onwards, as well as visiting exhibitions.

Take in a theatre production at The Abbey, which Yeats helped set up as a home for nationalist Irish writing in the early 20th century – the scene of riots during first productions of The Playboy of the Western World where the nationalist Irish community took great exception to talk about women’s undergarments (a slip!) as being very ‘un-nationalist’. You’ll find theatre with a more international slant at The Gate.

Speaking of the Yeats family, you’ll find several works by Jack B Yeats, including his iconic Dublin masterpiece The Liffey Swim, below, as well as many of his sketchbooks, at the National Gallery of Ireland, which recently went through a major refurbishment. It’s the perfect way to kick off a browse around the gallery’s main collection and familiarise yourself with other Irish artists such as John Lavery, Paul Henry, Louis Le Brocquy and Walter Osbourne.

Dublin for foodies

If you’re in need of refreshment after your turn around the National Gallery, pop across the road for The Merrion hotel’s afternoon Art Tea; drink tea, eat cakes inspired by the hotel’s very impressive Irish art collection, and stroll around the beautiful Georgian rooms afterwards to admire the paintings.

If words, not pictures, are your thing head down the road to The Westin hotel, opposite Trinity College, for its Most Peculiar Afternoon Tea. Inspired by James Joyce, it features ‘Joycean nibbles’ from his works, like pork cheek, roast beef and smoked salmon savouries, banana bread with honey butter, and clever sweet treats that include popping marshmallows, panna cotta with popcorn and a super good chocolate and caramel sea salted brownie. It all kicks off with a ‘Victorian Mojito’ – served in a teapot!

For blow-the-budget fine dining try the multi-starred Patrick Guilbaud restaurant at The Merrion; for chips after a few pints of Guinness on your way home from the pub head for Leo Burdock’s in the shadow of Dublin Castle (if you don’t fancy the walk up the hill, Rick’s Burgers on Dame St near Trinity does a mean bag of chips too). For sweet treats and possibly the best hot chocolate you will ever taste, stop off at one of Butler’s Chocolate Cafés around the city.

The buzzing Temple Bar area has plenty of bars and restaurants for lunch and evening dinner; other well-priced options for eating out at night are Crunch Café, Aungier St, The Larder, Parliament St and – for an affordable treat – The Winding Stair on Lower Ormond Quay overlooking the Ha’penny Bridge.

Dublin for tourists

For a real – and literal – taste of the Irish social scene in action, don’t bother with a fancy wine bar or gourmet pub, head for ‘old Dublin’ haunts like Neary’s in Chatham St (just off main shopping drag Grafton St and known to tourists as ‘The Chatham’ – well, that is the name over the door!), and the Stag’s Head. Both are lively spots to strike up a conversation and, yes, the locals are very friendly.

But the city is not all about drinking. And while missing out on the pub experience would be missing a key part of what the city has to offer, there are plenty of things to do in Dublin for every interest.

You just have to do it if you’re a tourist – visit ‘the home of Guinness’, the Guinness Storehouse at St James’ Gate, with its historical tour, 360º views of the city and – of course – one of the tastiest glasses of Guinness you will ever sample, right where it’s made.

The National Leprechaun Museum on Jervis St reveals the ‘truth’ about the Irish version of ‘little green men’, with the story starting back at the first ever leprechaun sighting in the eighth century.

You’ll be able to access both on the Dublin Bus Tour, a hop-on, hop-off service that takes you round all of the city’s main attractions – the best way to familiarise yourself quickly with Dublin’s history and landmarks, and perfect if you are on a short trip.

Dublin for shoppers

Pedestrianised Grafton St is the heart of shopping in the city, with high-street brands and chic department store Brown Thomas (Dublin’s answer to Harvey Nichols). Nearby, the George’s St Arcade is great for quirky one-off pieces and vintage finds; while Avoca on Suffolk St is a bit of a treasure trove of great Irish designers, high-end fashion and stylish home buys. Jervis Centre, across the Liffey – around a 15-minute walk from Grafton St – is one of the best city-centre shopping centres, you’ll be able to see Dublin traders on the lively Moore Street market in action nearby.

Dublin hotels

You may fall in love with The Merrion hotel after your afternoon tea, most people do. So treat yourself to a room upstairs in the art-hung corridors, with views over Merrion Square and Government buildings, a bit like staying in Whitehall in London, just with more trees and a quirky statue of Oscar Wilde in the square outside. There’s a bronze James Joyce in the hotel garden off the terrace – you can see him in the main photo above, you’ll pass it on your way down the glass corridor to the stylish spa. As well as the grand, but cosy, drawing rooms with ornate fireplaces and real fires, there’s a discreet bar with the feel of a gentleman’s club, perfect for an early G&T or a post-dinner brandy. The actor Gabriel Byrne was in one of the leather armchairs the evening we visited. (All of us being Irish nobody got too excited about being in close proximity to Irish-Hollywood celebrity.)

Housed in four Grade 1 listed Georgian townhouses, the hotel is all tall windows and high ceilings. That makes for very spacious bedrooms; ours had couches in front of the huge fireplace and could easily have fitted in that writing desk, which occupies its own room next door to the bathroom (gleaming white marble tiles and mirrors). If you’re feeling like Ireland, with its writers, poetry and Guinness-fuelled evenings, might just inspire that novel you’ve been meaning to write, this is the place you might even start it…

For more information and to book visit www.merrionhotel.com, call 00 353 1 603 0600 or email info@merrionhotel.com

What’s it like to be a style icon? Say, Grace Kelly? Who could resist trying it for one night at London’s Connaught hotel in Mayfair…

I’m not sure I’m a style icon. In fact, let me rephrase that. I’m definitely not a style icon. My look is rather more eclectic – a mix of High Street, modern-dressed-up-as-vintage and a few odd things that have been lurking in my wardrobe for years. But after immersing myself in Grace Kelly style in the fashion exhibition in London’s V&A, I wanted to indulge my stylish fantasies.

The Connaught hotel in Mayfair was Grace Kelly’s favourite hotel in London and the actress-turned-princess visited frequently with her family from the ‘50s through to the ‘70s. To celebrate the relationship and coincide with the V&A exhibition, the Connaught was offering a ‘Grace Kelly package’ of pampering and take-home goodies so that anyone – even a ‘blow-in’ from the west of Ireland – could be a celebrity for a night.

Because there are some places you can escape to and shut out the world. Where time stands still, frozen in a bygone era of elegance and grandeur. Where the luxury is understated, though all the more luxurious for it, and where five-start service and attention to detail surround you.

The Connaught in Mayfair is one of those places, home of old world glamour – grand interiors and a majestic sweeping staircase, leather armchairs in plush bars, discreet silver service in the conservatory dining room and butlers on call. It does have some modern touches to place it firmly in the 21st century of course, and the new wing has a Japanese garden – fancy!

Back in my room, I enjoy some of the treats of the Grace Kelly package, laid on by the hotel. There are DVD films to watch, including some of the actresses classics – Rear Window with James Stewart and The Country Girl with Bing Crosby, for which she won an Oscar. And a book to browse through, produced in association with the exhibition, a fascinating insight into her life in Hollywood, then Monaco. I curl up to sleep afterwards, like a princess in my enormous bed with cotton-wool soft bedding and downy pillows.

It’s 7am and I can’t open the blinds in my suite. So I do what any woman would do in a crisis. I phone for the butler. He arrives within minutes – could it even have been seconds? I am very apologetic but the butler brushes it off – he gets called in to deal with all sorts of requests he explains cheerfully, from packing and unpacking for guests to running their baths. He’s also happy to give advice – on everything under the sun by the sounds of what he gets asked on a daily basis – from the expected ‘Where’s good to eat’ to the rather more surprising ‘What handbag do you think I should buy’.

So where would he send us Grace Kelly fans to hang out in London? (The handbag is easy of course – it has to be the Kelly bag.) He considers the question for a moment, then proclaims ‘the King’s Road’ triumphantly. The perfect place, the right era and individual enough with enough quirky boutiques and independent bars and eateries for cater for a whole host of glamorous fashionistas.

Blinds sorted, he’s off to answer the call of another guest – typing the belt of their dressing gown perhaps? – and it’s time for me to dress for breakfast. Served in the sedately stylishly front conservatory, I’m attended to by discreet waiters who serve my cooked breakfast on a huge monogrammed plate. There’s nothing as crass as a buffet dripping beans over the tablecloth here.

I stop to flick through some glossy magazines in the foyer, thinking as I turn the pages of Grace doing the same thing in this very space all those years ago. Then, with a flick of my hair and a flounce of my handbag, I’m back on the street and on my way into work. Back to being just me again, but with the spring in my step that comes from hanging out in posh Mayfair and the thrill of ‘being Grace’ for a night.

It’s an exciting 24-hour destination – but you need to plan carefully to make the most of a short trip here.

You might not fly here for just one night, but New York is an exciting stop-over on a trip to the States and if you plan carefully you can easily fit in several of this city’s must-see landmarks in a one night/ two-day trip. Also, with cruise lines like NCL operating from the Hudson dock, it’s the perfect one night destination before heading for the high seas.

Manhattan magic
Stick to Manhattan if you’re strapped for time, it’s perfectly sized for walking and walking is the best way to get a sense of the city; from the views across the harbour at the tip of the island – take the free ferry to Staten Island for the best views of Manhattan skyline – right up to the 800 acres of Central Park.

Plan your walk to cover some of the city’s key areas:
Wall St and the commercial district at the tip of Manhattan – queue for a ticket for the Stock Exchange visitors’ gallery
Stylish SoHo (an abbreviation for SOuth of HOuston street – pronounced House-ton, expect looks of distain if you mispronounce) and Greenwich village, with quirky boutiques, hip hotels, happening bars and the uber-swish loft apartment of wealthy Manhattanites
The edgier Meatpacking district, the latest up and coming area since Greenwich and Soho up and came
Fifth Avenue for shopping, Broadway and Times Square for street-life and bustle

New York is a song that unfolds in your head as you walk, a simulated Woody Allen film set that feels hyper-real because it’s all so familiar.

One night in New York: What to do

Stay
The Sheraton on Seventh Avenue is within sight of the bright lights of Times Square and Broadway, well placed for MoMA, the Rockefeller Centre and Fifth Avenue shops, and an easy walk to Central Park. Expect to pay about $200 a night, but ask about deals and discounts
The alternative: W in Times Square is a hip midtown hotel, great for the theatre district. Or take your copy of The Collected Dorothy Parker and sit in the Algonquin Hotel (59 West 44th Street), home to the Algonquin Round Table most famously associated with the writer, though in later years she said she didn’t actually spend much time there as it was so expensive.

Eat
Butter, downtown on Lafayette St has a stylish arched interior that manages to be intimate and spacious at the same time – ask for a cosy banquette along the wall.
The alternative: It’s easy to eat on the go, pick up a breakfast ‘caw-fee’ and a doughnut from a street stall as you go; put together a posh picnic at upmarket deli Dean & Deluca or, for a classic New York experience, pick a diner at random and enjoy the staff repartee.
Note: You may want to read Anthony Bourdain’s behind-the-scenes account of the New York restaurant scene in Kitchen Confidential before venturing out to eat – you may never eat mussels again.

Drink
Enjoy the world-famous Bloody Marys and martinis at the posh King Cole Bar at the glamorous St Regis bar on 55th street, just off Fifth Avenue.
The alternative: The Ear Inn has been popular with its Soho locals since the early 1800s and the dark wood décor and retro feel has changed very little in the meantime.

Shop
Fifth Avenue for designer names, department stores, American favourites like Gap and, for European tastes, H&M. And, of course, Tiffany’s. Stand outside with takeaway coffee and a pastry – evening gloves optional.
The alternative: Greenwich Village is packed full of quirky boutiques but can be pricey.

See
The hottest shows on Broadway right now are – still – The Book of Mormon, Dear Evan Hansen and Hello Dolly!; queue up at the Times Square ticket booth to get on-the-day deals.
The alternative: The iconic Blue Man Group has shows running all over the world, see them at their original home in the Astor Place Theatre on Lafayette St. Combining multi-media theatrics, music, lighting, mime and comedy, it’s an amazing experience that should not be missed.

View
The Empire State building is the classic destination, once the tallest building in the world and the site of romantic meetings from Sleepless in Seattle to An Affair to Remember.
The alternative: ‘The Rock’ at the top of the Rockefeller Centre, close to Times Square, has uninterrupted views of the city and a great view of the Empire State! Back at ground level, skate on the famous ice rink in winter; take a tour of neighbouring NBC studios or Radio City Music Hall.

Art
The ‘big three’ are MoMA, the Guggenheim and The Met, with impressive international collections.
The alternative: Skip the European treasures and head for the Whitney Museum of American Art at 945 Madison Ave.

Two more to do
Crafty New York: Visit Purl Patchwork on Sullivan in Soho for gorgeous fabrics and sewing classes, and Purl next door for wool
Take the Sex and the City bus tour

What’s everyone in Manhattan talking about right now?
Bars: 10 Downing, Scarpetta, Monkey Bar
Hotels: Ace, Standard, Cooper Square
Shops: The entire Christopher St area, Dossier in Fort Greene, Partners and Spade in Noho (North of Houston – remember, House-ton!)

Don’t go without
The Luxe City Guide to New York, insider info on the best places to eat, drink, shop, spa, see and stay packed onto a slimline compact fold-out card; the ready-made half-day shopping shopping and activity itineraries will save you weeks of research.

And finally, if you’re nostalgic for home – though why you would be overnight I’m not sure – the New York outpost of Soho House is at 29 9th Ave

Paris for a day. It seemed an impossibly romantic notion. But Eurostar is currently advertising it from as little as £29 each way.

I decided to go. I would sit at pavement cafes. I’d eat frites. I’d wear red lipstick. I might even smoke a Gauloise. Though taking up smoking was probably a step too far – even for Paris.

And so I found myself applying red lipstick at 5.15 one morning, layering on the mascara, tying a Liberty scarf with a ‘sourire’, taking the early train to St Pancras and boarding the 7.22am Eurostar to Paris.

10.47am. Paris. Ha!
I am here – an accordian plays in my head, overlayered with Edif Piaf belting out ‘Non, je n’regrete rien’, there are croissants and men shouting in French. The strains of the accordion die away as I face the realisation I have no euros and cannot buy a map, jump on the metro, take a taxi or withdraw any cash as the only cash machine in the station is out of order. And so I find myself being fleeced by the station bureau de change who charge 7 euros for the privilege of giving me a colossally bad exchange rate for the 20 English pounds I luckily have in my handbag.

I then spend an age in the metro peering at a huge map and trying to work out how to get to Notre Dame while realising I should perhaps have done a bit more preparation than just putting on red lipstick.

Still, I cheer up when I come out at Cite station to find Notre Dame towering above me and a cluster of lovely flower shops selling Christmas decorations. I buy a Santa climbing up the Eiffel Tower for my nephew and a Felicitations card for his brother who is not yet 24 hours old. I go to Notre Dame, arriving during mass and take Holy Communion in French – turns out ‘Amen’ is the same in both languages.

I stare at the stained glass windows for a while and try to imagine what the jewel-like colours must have looked like to a 12th century congregation before books and colour printing and mass produced images kicked in. But several years later I’ll remember this thought as I write a series of books called Cathedrals in Britain.

And with books on my mind I spend a very happy hour in Shakespeare and Company, the English language bookshop founded by George Whitman in 1951, named in tribute to the orginal Shakespeare and Company founded by Sylvia Beach in 1919, which became a meeting point for writers like Ernest Hemmingway, F Scott Fitzgearld and James Joyce in the 1920s. Sylvia Beach also published the first copies of Joyce’s Ulyssess.

If I ever opened a bookshop, it would be a bookshop like this; tables stacked with secondhand bargains outside and in the uneven-floored winding warren of rooms inside, rickety shelves piled high right to the roof. There are glass cabinets full of faded Penguin originals, library books, antique books and books that people have loved, alongside brand spanking new books in the front of the shop.

I buy a slender volume of Ernest Hemmingway’s prose writing on Paris and my purchase, A Moveable Feast, screams ‘pretentious tourist’ as I leave the shop and wander around the Left Bank. Past the Sorbonne and through the winding streets that are home to many more bookshops. I leave touristy Paris along the banks of the Seine behind as I walk through the ‘rues’ where people live and shop, past boulangeries, boucheries and hairdressers, past French ladies doing their shopping and people walking their dogs.

Lunchtime
I stop when I come to Place de la Contrescarpe to have lunch at La Contre which has been recommended by A Hedonist’s Guide to Paris, my bible for the trip. (It’s the perfect companion for a short stay, handbag-sized, covering the essentials – where to eat, drink, shop and stay, with a smattering of culture.) La Contre turns out to be exactly as good as promised, a large terrace overlooking the small square gives way to a lovely old wooden ‘library’ with bar and dining room behind.

Apart from a few tables of French men taking coffee and a lone writer tapping on his laptop, I have the place to myself and take a table by the window in the library, order onion soup, poulet supreme and frites. Hemingway lived on Place de la Contrescarpe in the 1920s, he describes it for me in the first chapter of A Moveable Feast, which I’ve given up trying to hide in my newspaper. Because there’s no way to hide I’m a tourist, regardless of how much lipstick I slap on.

Afternoon
After lunch I walk down to the Jardin du Luxembourg and have a great time taking photos of it on my new camera (an Olympus SP 810UZ in case you’re wondering) and try out both the watercolour and sketch effects – those poor old artists on their rickety wooden chairs really are wasting their time …

From here I walk all the way down Montparnasse, the centre of cultural coffee-house life in the 1920s, and through the grand military museums and monuments of Les Invalides to the Rodin Museum, arriving just as it shuts under its new winter closing regime. But I don’t care because this means I’ll have more time to wander down the Champs Elysee and oogle the designer shops on the Rue Du Fauborg Saint Honore. But not before I’ve spent another half hour photographing myself under golden-coloured trees on the Esplanade des Invalides.

Evening

So now it’s getting quite late as I reach the Champs Elysees and I take some photos of the Eiffel Tower outlined in the distance against a violet sky, and then it’s dark and the streaming traffic from the Arc de Triomphe makes beautiful ribbons of coloured light all along the wide boulevard. There’s just time for a quick walk along Fauborg de St Honore before I have to work out how to get to Gare du Nord for my 18.43 train home.

The spectacularly bad planning which has characterised the entire trip almost results in me missing it. Here’s a tip, remember that Paris has the same rush hour traffic as anywhere else at 6pm and the last place you want to be half an hour before your train leaves and you’re supposed to be checking in, is sitting in it.

I’ve treated myself to a Standard Premier ticket on the way back which means I get a big comfy seat, dinner and a glass of wine. Standard Premier on the way out gets you a continental breakfast.

My day in Paris has been wonderful but oh so quick, a quick flash of magic, a bonheur bref. But I have lovely memories and my photos, though none it turns out of me on the Esplanade des Invalides. I had to delete them. Paris may still be beautiful after almost two thousand years, but it looks like I can’t do close-ups past 40.

Travelling by Eurostar to Paris
Eurostar operates up to 18 daily services from London St Pancras International to Paris and the fastest journey time is 2 hours 15 minutes. Visit the website’s deals page to get the best bargains or phone 08432 186 186. Upgrade to Standard Premier for flexible fares, spacious on-board accommodation, a light meal and a selection of magazines.

What to take with you
A copy of Hg2: A Hedonist’s Guide to Paris, red lipstick, euros