Visual Diary ~ Exploring Los Angeles Summer 2016
It’s turning out to be a rather bonkers summer after all. A few weeks after moving to Paris we began to plan a few weekends away. When you live in France, you only have to hop on a TGV to arrive in a location that feels out of this world. The South of France was our oyster. No need to leave the country this summer. I was perfectly settled with our romantic little road trips to Saint Tropez, Marseille and Nice. What a perfect time to move to France I thought. I certainly didn’t think we’d be road tripping across the USA a few weeks later.
A few weeks ago I received an invitation which changed my summer plans. A bloggers trip to the Bulgari resort in Bali. Of course I jumped at the invitation (and i’m on my way next week) but before Bali is a very important car event in California that Etienne goes to every year. Hardly on the way I know (it’s a 16 hour flight from San Francisco to Singapore, then another plane to Bali but hey, tiny detail). So last week we flew out to LA with a view of getting to the Monterey Car Week just in time for the Concours d’elegance at Pebble Beach, and then we’re flying on to Bali.
Not ones for particularly planning our holidays, I’ve begun to settle into my boyfriends vibe of flying by the seat of our pants. So, LA, we arrive off our 11 hour flight. No hire car, no hotel booked, no problem we say. LucyWillShowYou, well hopefully Etienne was going to. We jumped on our apps at the luggage carousel, HotelTonight, Booking.com and LateRooms, to see what hotels we could find for the night.
All came to the rescue but we decided on our first night in Koreatown, at The Line Hotel via LateRoom.com. We arrived mid pool party (so LA), and must have had a friendly look on our faces as we were upgraded to one of the most beautiful rooms overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Floor to ceiling windows, we’d hit jackpot with this place. We took some early dinner at their Instagram famous Comissery restaurant. Think jungle filled roof top conservatory. So beautiful but we were so tired, we hit the hay early, ready to watch the sunrise from our amazing bedroom.
The following day after breakfast, we joined our friend in Santa Monica, took a swim and had a great drive around before checking into a hotel I have been dying to visit for years, the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel. More on the hotel in a separate post coming to LWSY soon.
Ever ones for hotel hopping, the following day we discovered Petit Ermitage, again booked by LateRooms.com. What a dream. If you came to me and said you needed a realistically priced hotel, great vibe, good food. I wouldn’t hesitate to send you here. The rooftop pool offers insane evening vistas, and the predominantly French crowd gave us both a feeling that we we’d made a great choice.
We also visited Malibu House, the newest outpost of Soho House, and controversially the only Soho House which requires a separate membership. Set right on the beach, the house is all you can imagine from a Soho House, the classic menu, great cocktails, and hey this is LA, so a pretty awesome casting of members. The house sits directly on the beach, so have lunch, grab a towel and step down the ladder to the beach for a quick dip or walk.
No trip to LA is complete without a visit to Rodeo Drive, we walked and talked, and may have done a little shopping along the way.
The following day we began our road trip to Carmel, CA. We arrived at National car rental at LAX at 6am (the only place you can hire a car so early in the morning) to rent our beast. By beast I mean our Dodge Challenger. We headed to Santa Monica to join our friend Ted, and set off towards the Big Sur, of course via the iconic Madonna Inn.
Come back soon for my LA to Carmel road trip via the Big Sur…
LWSY