If you’ve lived in LGBT New York for some years, you might recall a time when the city’s abandoned piers along the Hudson were best known for nocturnal trysting. Way back then, The LGBT Center’s Garden Party was a neighborhood event hosted in an erstwhile parking lot with a single catering company. What a difference…
It’s not uncommon to encounter gourmands who are mad for Maille. The definitive Dijon mustard, notable for its nose strength and a creamy clarity of texture, Maille is the mustard used by acclaimed chefs around the world. For many people, once you’ve tried Maille, there’s no other mustard. Inspired by the summer season and the ongoing…
Ever since Magnus Hirschfeld founded the world’s first homosexual organization in 1897, Berlin has exerted a magnetic, magical pull for LGBTQ people from around the world. As Christopher Isherwood revealed in numerous novels and memoirs, Berlin in the Twenties was a polymorphous haven of LGBTQ diversity—and 21st-century Berlin is considered by many to be Europe’s gayest…
Elevating hospitality to a five-star art has been a specialty of Switzerland since the founding in 1893 of the world’s first hotel school, École hôtelière de Lausanne, located in the Lake Geneva Region in the French-speaking part of the country. With nearly 1500 lakes and 140 glaciers, as well as snow-capped mountains and a surfeit…
Given its global reputation for beauty and bounty, there’s no shortage of reasons for visiting Bordeaux—and yet it’s all the better that the city chosen as “European Best Destination 2015” offers some truly extraordinary hotels. A UNESCO World Heritage site for its 18th-century architecture, which is second only to Paris in number, Bordeaux is located in…
Every student of fashion—and of Madonna—immediately recognizes the iconic photographs: the Mainbocher corset, Marlene Dietrich in chiaroscuro, the Hattie Carnegie dresses—all of which are the works of the legendary German-American artist who goes by one name: Horst. One of the 20th century’s most influential fashion and portrait photographers, Horst P. Horst (1906-1999) created an extraordinary…
Some years ago, thanks in part to a certain best-selling novel and an Oscar-winning film, Marseille had such a raffish reputation that its natural attributes were often overlooked. Situated on one of the world’s most beautiful harbors with more than 35 miles of coastline, France’s second largest city offers 300 days of sunshine a year…
Even the alpacas are happy on the San Juan Islands. Located in the northwest corner of the United States between Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver, the San Juan Islands are so pristine that both residents and visitors feel a shared responsibility to maintain the ecological balance. With a mission devoted to the stewardship of whales and…