The hub's swept me away one rainy Thursday evening from the UK for a Valentines surprise ! Somewhere i'd never been before but was high on my to visit list! Berlin was ours to discover for a long weekend.

For my birthday this year, despite my efforts to stay home and nurse a cold I picked up in India... The Hubs took me to my favourite hotel for Cocktails and Dinner.

Just a stones throw away, The Marbella Club hotel on the famous golden mile is really quite gorgeous and dripping in old school riviera glamour. An invitation too fabulous to miss so I threw on my louboutin's and headed out for the evening. 

You know I love a resort ALOT when it ends up in two blog posts! Six senses Con dao is so beautiful that I just couldn't put my camera down, meaning hundreds of photos to sift through and edit to find the best ones to share with you. When I say there were literally hundreds of beautiful images that didn't make the cut, you it was something special.  

If you follow my Instagram, you'll know that last New Year The Hub's and I travelled to Vietnam to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We have been to Vietnam before but to the centre of the country (as you know Vietnam is huge)
On a side note, I know I haven't posted the previous Vietnam trip yet but I will!

Waking up at Ritz Paris has got to be way up there in my incredible moments in life memory's. If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know that i'm a bit obsessed with hotels. Well, I only become obsessed with the incredible ones!

We arrived in Paris on a glorious Friday lunch time for a weekend of wedding anniversary celebrations . It was the perfect late summer afternoon, that you couldn't plan if you tried.

Sadly the last day of our little weekend break in the Spanish countryside arrived and it was time to leave the beautiful Hacienda de San Rafael.

We made the most of our stay right up to the last minute. After a lovely breakfast (they have it all set up for you right outside your room for when you wake up, isn't that cute!)  we spent the morning by the pool before taking a final walk around the stunning grounds. 

I love how authentically Andalusian the hacienda was. From its 18th century architecture, to its eclectic mix of interior decor. It really felt like a home away from home. They cleverly used wild flowers and foliage from the gardens to create lovely fresh arrangements around the hotel... something that inspired me to recreate in my own home. 

The hacienda is placed right in the middle an old olive (and almond) estate that surrounds the hacienda. The hotel even make its own brand of olive oil, which we bought a few bottles of. ​

My Dress is an old one, but I found some similar dresses below

We took in our last view of colourful bougainvillea before heading back to our own piece of heaven, inspired and refreshed after the perfect weekend in the Spanish countryside. 

Belle 
​Xx

So I mentioned in my previous post that there was a hotel - The Hacienda de San Raael  iv been dying to stay at, not far from Vejar de La Frontier. Its been on my radar ever since reading about it on one of my favourite blog's Gal meets Glam. 
When I saw it pop up on Julia's Instagram account I actually could not believe that there was such a cute hotel so close to us that I hadn't even heard of, let alone been to. That's why following good, like minded accounts on Instagram (You can find mine here) is so beneficial for finding fabulous places around the world  

On the drive down to the Hacienda we passed endless beautiful sunflower fields, so naturally we had to stop to take some pictures. The sunflower heads were so giant, it was amazing to see. 

When we arrived to the Hacienda after a morning discovering Vejar and the most beautiful drive through endless olive and cotton trees,  we knew immediately that it would be exactly what I hoped and expected it to be. Rustic, laid back Andalusian style.  A true Spanish Cortijo, with bucket loads of character 

Sweetheart luggage here 

After checking in and checking out our room we decided upon some tapas for lunch on the terrace outside our room. The perfect way to spend the afternoon after a busy morning exploring Vejar de La Frontier. 

After lunch we explored the rest of the hotel, finding endless bougainvillea in every colour imaginable, along with lemon and olive groves. The Hacienda is beautifully stylish in the most humble and rustic way with gorgeous grounds to match 

As we know the area well at this point - having explored Seville and the surrounding towns extensively over the past few years, and although i'm sure there is still more for us to discover  we took the opportunity to relax and sit by the pool and enjoy the hotel and gardens. 

The Hacienda is a trove of fascinating treasures, the kind you find while travelling the world. I'm sure they must have many stories behind them. These are the details that make the hacienda something more than a hotel. It has a depth that can only be achieved with love. Its not like staying in a hotel, more like a friends house (fabulous friends who are well travelled)
The honestly bar seriously helps with this vibe...

Now all i'm doing of dreaming of my return....

​Belle  

I have always wanted to stay at The Grand hotel, but never quite had the opportunity. When we recently spent the weekend in Brighton I knew the place to stay immediately 

I'm a big fan of Victorian seaside architecture so i'm sure you can see why The Grand was on my list.   

Its a Iconic hotel has truly beautiful architecture, the kind they don't build anymore... you could say its very grand (sorry)

We didn't have time on this visit for afternoon tea, but its served in the super pretty Victorian terrace and i fully intend to check it out on my next visit. 

The workman ship is everywhere here. Such pretty detail to be found on everything. 

I especially loved the blue and white detailing as you make your way up the atrium 

Speaking of which, doesn't it remind you of intricate crochet work? Atrium's are such an amazing feature of those hotels lucky enough to have one, and I don't recall seeing a finer example although it did remind me a little of The Beekman hotel in NYC

We had a lovely time at The Grande Hotel Brighton... I would truely go back in heartbeat

Belle
Xx

On this throw back trip to Provence (Part 1 Here) we visited our wedding venue Chateau de Massillan for a menu tasting and to agree on some of the wedding plans. 

We first discovered this gorgeous Chateau when we did our first road trip around the south of France. It will forever be one of our favourite vacations, for so many reasons. Finding the chateau was one of them. 
We feel in love with its quirky design, its beautiful antique furniture and its twinkling chandelier's. It was so very my style. No garish colours to contend with, no carpets with bold designs to clash with, it was the preferably aesthetic canvas to create a vision. We loved that it felt like someone's beautiful home, rather than a hotel.  And we loved that it has bucket loads of Character. 

When my husband proposed, we both immediately wanted to get married here. We didn't even look at anything else, and that made it all the more special because it felt totally organic and almost like the venue choose us. 

We wanted something that we could hire exclusively for our entire wedding weekend, so we could celebrate in complete privacy with our friend and massillan was perfect for this. The fact that it wasn't a wedding venue also had great appeal as it only made itself available for a handful of dates over the year. This was a big selling point to us as it felt a little bit more natural and unique.     

It also had an amazing gastronomic restaurant, with absolutely incredible chef (Frédéric de Bourlout) and its own organic kitchen garden meaning all of the catering could be achieved in house (wedding cake aside) and would make this relatively stress free. The only difficult we did have was making the final choices...

As its coming up to our 5th wedding anniversary I will be sharing more from our wedding in Provence, so stayed tuned!

Belle 
​Xx