Saint-Paul-de-Vence, situated approximately 25 kilometres from Nice, is one of the oldest medieval towns on the Cote d’Azur. Having long been a haven for the rich and famous, in the 1960s this ancient town saw many a French actor being drawn to its unusual eccentricities, including Simone Signoret, Lino Ventura and Yves Montland.

Alongside famous actors, some of the world’s most celebrated artists have lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, such as Marc Chagnall, and, more recently, artist lovers Arielle Dombasle and Bernard Henri Levy.

Being a well-known hive for attracting famous actors, poets and artists, it seems only natural that Saint-Paul-de-Vence is equally as renowned for its modern and contemporary art museums and galleries, the most famous being La Fondation Maeght, one of the most esteemed galleries in the south of France.

The Fondation Maeght was founded in 1964 by Marguerite and Aime Maeght, a French art collector and editor. The extensive collection housed at the Fondation Maeght includes works by some of the most important and influential artists of the 20^th century, including Joan Miro, Fernand Leger, Georges Braque and Alexander Calder.

This independently funded gallery, which relies on no state funding whatsoever, attracts more than 200,000 visitors each year and many of the art exhibitions that are put on every year in museums throughout France, in Europe and beyond, are based on Fondation Maeght collections.

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Perrier-Jouet is now planning to put its latest limited edition champagne on sale for the public – if you are lucky enough to live in Monaco that is.

The bottle was created for the Prince Albert II of Monaco and Miss Charlene Wittstock royal wedding that took place earlier this year.

It was also a symbolic choice for Perrier-Jouet as the brand was born from a love story between founder, Pierre-Nicolas Perrier and Adèle Jouet over 200 years ago. This made the limited edition version an ideal addition to the royal wedding with its romantic background.

The champagne was served in magnums at the official wedding dinner, which was held on the beautiful terrace of the Opera Garnier in Monaco.

There was also a dinner served by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse and the Monte Carlo SBM teams. There were around 500 guests including European royalty, Heads of State and other notable personalities.

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In July this year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a decision to extend Executive Park, a 70-acre office park built in the 1970s into San Francisco’s newest residential neighbourhood.

Located between Candlestick Park and Highway 101, Executive Park is to be a compound for creating a new domestic community on the southern side of the city. The site of the project is both owned and developed by the Yerby Company.

Heller Manus Architects is responsible for five of Yerby’s midrise buildings, including one high-rise tower that will accommodate 500 residential units designed to cater for a wide spectrum of family sizes and their incomes.

Talking about how the design project will transform the community, Clark Manus, FAIA, CEO of Heller Manus Architects, said:

“Executive Park is a gateway project that will be a catalyst in creating a new residential community at the southern entry to San Francisco that will unite the Bayview and recently approved Hunter’s Point to the east and the Little Hollywood and Visitation Valleys to the west.”

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Combining photography, film and animation, the Chicago based design agency, The Digital Kitchen, have created a truly unique architecture of special effects in the lobby of The Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.

So extraordinary is the design for the hotel lobby that it was recognised with the Design Grand Prix at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity held in June. In addition to receiving the highly prestigious festival’s greatest honour, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Digital Kitchen’s exceptional design also received a Gold Lion in the Offline Digital Design category.

When you walk into the lobby of a hotel, no matter how exquisite, high-end and five star it may be, you do not expect to be faced by a multitude of central columns, wrapped in screens with moving images of bodies, which, inside semi-transparent glass, give the impression of volume and that there is a person inside the columns.

This awe-inspiring lobby was built with a mission to “create a hotel experience like no other,” and to “give the building itself a personality, a perspective, a voice.”

Talking about how they wanted the project and the lobby to challenge guests to the hotel, Anthony Vitagliano, Executive Creative Director of Digital Kitchen, explained that they want guests “to think about the combination of film, architecture and interior design.”

Asides a swarm of columns of transparent moving images, the lobby comprises of an extensive use of mirrors, propelling visitors into a mesh of seamless imagery, and, according to Anthony Vitagliano, “you don’t know where the top of the building ends and the floor begins.”

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