En Vogue in Paris: Sensible Luxury
There’s a smart way to enjoy the best things in life – and it’s accessible through the Sat-Nav system of the Porsche Panamera 4S
There’s a smart way to enjoy the best things in life – and it’s accessible through the Sat-Nav system of the Porsche Panamera 4S
Photography & Text: Marcus Hoffmann // Fashion Stylist: Giulia Carla Beskid // Model: Gabriela Bohacova // Car: #PORSCHE Panamera 4S
When people talk about luxury fashion, they tend to think of Paris, France. It’s the one city which is most commonly known for its extravagant style. ‘Extravagant’ as in very luxurious, but not at all wasteful, like Dubai. You won’t see palm trees made from gold at the Seine, like you can in the desert.
‘Extravagant’ as in superior, but in no way excessive like Las Vegas. This is a city where people are used to set benchmarks in luxury without the naïve concept of ‘topping’ everything. There’s a significant difference in the French approach: if, for example, they’d wanted to create a “most-luxurious Hotel”, they’d focus on the ‘luxurious’ part. Enhance it as far as possible – et voila: you’ll get something like the ‘Splendid Royal’, which only features 12 suites, but no ordinary rooms. In contrast: the American approach gives you a monstrous creature with 2000 rooms and 5 restaurants… and at least one casino.
‘Extravagant’ as in tasteful-pleasing, but in no way overgenerous. Technology and architecture are purpose-orientated skills, which can be used in a smart way to create artful objects… if you’re able to do so. Which the French are. When they needed a place for trade fairs and big shows, they built the ‘Grand Palais’ with its huge but delicate glass-roof. Porsche did a similar job on the new Panamera 4S. They could have given it twelve wings, huge spoilers, massive wheel arches and vulgar air intakes, but instead they went for a very clean and neat design structure.
This is a car which looks like an instant classic. A car with a tasteful sculpted design that doesn’t irritate any environment or setting no matter how classy it may be. A point we proved with a tiny version of the big car we brought, in the salon of the ‘Splendid Royal’. It fits perfectly in the space between the 100 € champagne bottle and our fashion model Gabi.
We didn’t choose the Hotel just for its picturesque interior design, but mainly for its brilliant location close to the Champs Elysée, directly between the Elysée Palace and the Grand Palais. This is the epicentre of Paris Fashion Week. This is the place where everyone needs to come at least five times when Fashion Week is happening. Here are the coolest cafés and bars with a true Parisian flair, thanks to the rich high-class locals, who are able to immunize these locations against tourist-targeted management. Quite a few times you won’t even find a waiter able to speak English. Don’t mistake this behaviour as foreigner-unfriendly arrogance – in fact, everyone is astonishing friendly here – try to see it as a very self-conscious statement to being French.
Being French isn’t all about eating baguette and drinking wine (hence it helps the cause). It’s a way of living, a concept of life, which highlights the good things. If you’re French and you stumble across something with a beautiful nature, you’re entitled to enjoy its appearance. In contrast: If you are German and stumble across something with a beautiful nature, you first have to ask for the purpose of the object, then evaluate the quality of how the object achieves its purpose and if you are able to detect a character feature of superiority, then you are allowed to like it. So, it didn’t take us by surprise when a lot of French people shouted “Aaaah le Porsch’!” in the direction of our “supertollschöner schwäbischübereffizienter Viertürersportwagenlimousine”.
After visiting the Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tour we went for the Café Carette from which you’re able to see the most common view of the Eiffel Tour. There are a few very good cafés at this spot, but Carette has by far the best macarons.
This is the sort of place which gets portrayed in movies set in Paris. It’s likely that the reason why this doesn’t feel too cheap of a cliché, is the possibility that the original cliché was started in a place like this, maybe even in this actual place. It didn’t undergo radical changes since its opening in 1927. It’s a must-see experience for everyone coming to this town who wants to get in touch with the Parisian style without any compromises. There’s even a lot of room to park your car in front of it, since this place isn’t too crowded with offices (unlike the rest of the city). Most people come here with the Metro anyway – at Place du Trocadero.
It is hard to imagine that this car was developed simultaneously with its new station wagon sister - the Panamera Sport Turismo - since there seems to be no compromise in the design of a perfect sporty limousine. Yet the new Shooting Brake car also manages it to pull of that “yes, this looks just like it has to be”-feeling. Unlike many car makers, they didn’t just alternate the roof line and top of the back doors, but changed the whole backside of the car (including the whole doors and wheel arches). Both cars are extremely beautiful on their own and you wouldn’t guess that one of them is the botched version of the other.
Have a look at the new Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo: newsroom.porsche.com/en/products/porsche-panamera-sport-turismo-world-premiere-geneva-motor-show-gims-13455.html
The area close to the Elysée palace is crowded with art galleries, patisseries and some interesting jewels you definitely need to look out for. One of them is a flower shop which exists at this location and in its form since 1845. Owned as a family business. It’s ‘Lachaume’. A place which is extremely busy during fashion week. It’s likely that this might still be the best place in the world for a bouquet of flowers, as it was pronounced to be at the world expo of 1889.
Close by, just a two-minute drive down the Champs Elysée is the Arc de Triomphe. Nice photo spot. Not the best place to park, yet still in a lovely area. There are a lot of flagship stores here – not just from fashion brands – but also from car manufacturers. The kind of stores which are just for PR and not for marketing; meaning: they tend to show cars you really can’t buy – like formula one cars, Dakar-rally trucks,…
Luckily, we brought the Panamera and not the Panamera Sport Turismo, so our shopping capacity was restricted naturally and money was left over for dinner. If you manage to get yourself in the same position – resist the temptation to go bezerk on your credit card limit – and still be left with at least 95 € you’re able to experience THE French cuisine with a diner menu at the prestigious ‘Laurent’ restaurant. Be warned though: you’re able to step up the game and go for even bigger menus, order additional desserts… Once you’ve taken in the astonishing atmosphere and tasted the Michelin-star honoured meals you get the whole point of luxury lifestyle: It’s not at all about being excessive – it’s just about enjoying the absolute most of a single moment to create an everlasting memory.
Hotel Splendid Royal www.splendideroyal.fr/
Café Carette www.carette-paris.fr/
Flower Shop Lachaume www.lachaume-fleurs.com/
Restaurant Laurent www.le-laurent.com
These are some relevant tags: #Porsche #Fashion #Model #article
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