Destination Find: Bali...HomeExchange

Want your own "Eat, pray, love" experience??......HomeExchange can provide it in this fabulous home in Bali.....in a sleepy village surround by rice fields...only minutes from surfing beaches and all the finest restaurant Bali has to offer........a scooter to help you get around with ease.....and just mother nature outside your door....man oh man...I`m tempted.....see here for details......

Destination Find: Chateau Mcely....

I was introduced to Chateau Mcely by Absolutely Ladylike......wow...this is where I would like to be right now....pampering, luxury, beauty.....fabulous food....a little bit of the good life....care to join me??....

Destination Find: La Mamounia, in Marrakech

After a three-year hiatus, the legendary La Mamounia, in Marrakech, is

back .......and this is exactly where I want to be today!!!!!! .....do you want to join me....

If you ever saw the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much, with James Stewart and Doris Day, then you will remember La Mamounia as the couple's refuge during a harrowing few days in menacing--as Hitchcock portrayed it--Marrakech.

La Mamounia was beloved by Winston Churchill, who used it in the early 1940s as his winter quarters. He painted the gardens from his balcony in the suite named after him. When Charles de Gaulle stayed there, a special bed was made to accommodate his towering frame. Yves Saint Laurent, who called Marrakech his second home and lived there on and off for many years, was a habitué.

Besides the hotel, there is Marrakech itself.........

Read this article in Town & Country Travel to really get you inspired.......

Photographs by Maura McEvoy

Design Find: Classical Epiphany

A couple bought the deconsecrated church and an adjacent apartment in La Convertoie, a fortress in Italy’s Chianti region that dates to the 11th century, and asked Siena architect Marco Vidotto and Vero Beach, Florida, designer Susan Schuyler Smith to fuse them into a single residence.

The nave—now the living room—was restored to reflect its original design. The 16th-century oil depicts Christ’s presentation at the temple.

The dining room, with its original beams, previously served as a loggia connecting the apartment to the church. Lounge chair fabric, Kravet.

Smith installed the center island and cabinetry in the kitchen. The mid-19th-century fireplace “was kept as the focal point,” says the designer.

In the terrace garden, Chianti-based landscape architect Nancy Leszczynski planted Italian sage, rosemary, a pomegranate tree and assorted other flora.

Source: Architectural Digest

Gypsy`s Sunday Spot: Okavango Delta

If you`re living in Africa and you havn`t been to the bush every so often, you just have to take time out and go.....it`s in our blood....it is there where we find ourselves again and charge our batteries.....and the nice thing about South Africa, is you don`t even have to travel far.......but today I want to spend the day in one of the most beautiful nature spots in Africa......the Okavango Delta in Botswana....a wetland paradise, containing roughly 95 percent of Botswana's surface water and located within the arid Kalahari Desert......an area of unbelievable natural beauty.......so here we go........

.........I`ll start the day lazy.....

Unique Traveldestinations

......and then for a fabulous safari...an elephant ride, lots and lots of animals, miles and miles of water, incredible birdlife and peace........

Africa Exclusive

......for the rest of the day I will be right here....reading, enjoying the wildlife and nature ....and just catch up with myself again.....

.....and before I know it the sun will set and the fires will be lit and we will all sit down to an african braai.....

Unique Traveldestinations

Gypsy`s Sunday spot: Montmartre

Today I`m going to spend the whole day with my sister-in-law, Janine......Janine who is lucky enough to live in Paris ...... we`ll spend the day in Montmartre...one of my favourite, favourite spots .......colourful, bohemian and utterly charming.....here we are at the beautiful Bistro L'Epicurean .....having coffee and croissants

.......being expert and marathon shoppers, we will start at the lovely little shops and as always I won`t be able to decide which of the fabulous prints I want (because I want them all!!!!).......but savouring every memory as we walk these ancient streets with it`s old shops and cobblestones and wonderful cafes........having lots of coffee......

At the base of Montmartre, looking up at Sacre Coeur, at the little corner cafe, we will buy Crepe Suzette`s and sit on the steps.....looking out at the great view........enjoying the fact that we are on the highest hill in Paris....savouring each of the scenes of this bohemian village atmosphere.....

Montmartre has long been synonymous with the French Bohemian art community.....everyday, many artists set up their easels to paint in the artist's square known as Place du Tertre......and you can`t help but remembering the great artists that had their studios there....such as Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh...

....for lunch we will pick one of the wonderful cafes...like this one, right on the Place du Tertre, offering a pretty good deal on 6 oysters with a glass of white wine......

...the afternoon will be spent exploring the hill, watching the thousands of people and enjoying the Sacre Couer ........

....and here we will stay till the sun sets and the haunting music of the nightlife begins........

Images from the following travel sites: Go there guide ; tripadvisor ; Flickr ; Montmartre site