Dream Team
Winter 2015-2016
Unlike other general managers, often tucked away in their windowless offices, Christelle breezes around the hotel: fresh, French, all style and all smiles, as frontline as she is back office. And no wonder — she started more than ten years ago in the restaurant of this French Caribbean outpost and has since seamlessly made her way up to the top job. [...]

Going With the Flow on the Mekong River
July 3, 2015
Kneeling down on the pavement in Luang Prabang, I rest my swing-basket of sticky rice, warm and damp, on my lap. At this early hour, the light is still colorless and the shadows long. In the distance, a procession of monks in glorious robes trails down from one of the city’s many gilded Buddhist temples. [...]

What a difference a baby makes
July 22, 2014
As the globe-trotting Prince George celebrates his first birthday, Michelle Jana Chan - who has taken already her one-year-old on 50 flights - reflects on the challenges and rewards of travelling en famille. [...]

A cooking masterclass with Michel Roux
July 20, 2014
We are squatting on inch-high wooden stools under a tree on the bank of a brackish lagoon. As we chat, a train suddenly roars past a few feet behind us. The tracks had been disguised by undergrowth. We both wince; we clearly have not chosen the perfect location for a picnic. [...]

Hanoi cuisine retains its French flavour
March 5, 2010
I curled my fingers around a cup of gritty black coffee and watched a group of students sitting along the pavement on plastic stools. In the midst of their huddle was a steaming pan of freshwater snails. [...]

Vietnam : Embers of empire
July 16, 2005
Fifty years on, there is still a strong French accent to life in Vietnam. The French used to say of their former colonies in Indo-China: "In Vietnam they plant the rice, in Cambodia they watch it grow and in Laos they listen to it grow." Things haven't changed much. [...]