Rue Magazine features Maison Luxe!

Huge thanks to Rue Magazine for featuring Maison Luxe in the new issue! 

Check it out here! 

A very quick stop in Nice, France...

 A few quick photos of my 3 days in Nice, France. 

It doesn't appear that I'm obsessed with the Cours Selaya, does it? I totally am. 

 I look like I'm about to pounce on those poor pears! 

Spring 2012 Lighting, edition 2.0

Tilda Chandelier (WOW) 

$1495

Reeves Pendant  

$425

Savoy Pendant (I LOVE THIS!!) 

$325 sm. / $450 lg.

Sheldon Chandelier 

$875

Bastia, Corsica

Corsica has long held a strange place in my heart, and for years I've been trying to figure out a way to get there. Finally, I made it! Here is the ferry that I took from Livorno, Italy to Bastia, Corsica on a rainy Saturday in November. You can't imagine how excited I was to get on this boat...dreams coming true at last! Until we hit open water in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and then I kind of panicked. 

 4.5 hours of open water. uuugh. 

Once I arrived, I never wanted to leave. Bastia is an old Italian fishing village dating from the 1600's, and although the territory now belongs to the French, you can see the Italian influence everywhere. The combination of French boulangeries and Italian architecture? This was a town after my own heart.

This store literally brought tears to my eyes. Have you ever seen such wonder in all your life? This shop was FULL to the rafters with homemade cured meats, cheeses, honey, wine...everything you could ever want, and all made on the island of Corsica. This shop has been in the same location since 1789. Isn't it gorgeous? I'm still coveting the honey and salted caramel sauce I brought back....everything else was devoured immediately! 

The day I left it was pouring rain...and I was sad. Don't those two things always go together? Goodbye Bastia, I promise to come back soon.  

More ominous open water...yikes. 5 hours of this....

 I headed up to the deck to take a peek...and found the life boats. Not sure how everyone would have fit in them, since there weren't many...hello, Costa Concordia, anyone? Eeek. 

 Incase you don't fit into the lifeboat?

I was headed towards Nice, France and as we got closer, the sky began to turn that wonderful turquoise blue that only happens on the Cote d'Azure. 

Hello, France! 

OH, hello gorgeous French man guiding our boat into the Nice harbor....

I mean...have you ever?  

Next stop? Nice, France!

72 hours in Firenze

 After the whirlwind that is Rome, I arrived in Florence for three dreamy days filled with museums, mozzarella, leather glove shopping, and AMAZING sights. Here are a few photos...above, the view from my room at the darling B&B Le Seggiole, an 18th century building converted to lovely apartments. 

The Duomo is so astounding, and huge, and every inch is full of carving and detail. 

Breathtaking. And chock full of tourists!

Beautiful font, found inside the Duomo 

Tile detail 

(I love how similar this is to Moroccan tile design)

 

I nearly got arrested taking these photos....they have a very strict *no photos* policy inside The Accademia, but it was worth it because seeing Michelangelo's David in person is breathtaking. It's worth noting that the statue of David is HUGE. I am not even as tall as the block of marble he is standing on. AMAZING.  

Another Michelangelo sculpture, incomplete, but I found this equally stunning. You could almost feel the struggle of the man freeing himself from the stone. 

 This room was so beautiful...and again, stolen photos. I kinda think they might be the best ones. 

Osteria of the White Boar

 My dinner the first night in Florence may or may not have been this giant homemade mozzarella ball, soaked in balsamic. We'll never know. 

The butcher down the street from my B&B. 

I love the Italian nonna giving the meat a good once over. 

 

To grow up playing on the steps of a 16th century church must give you a unique perspective on the world, no?

 Palazzo Vecchio Tower 

View of the Arno River and Ponte Vecchio from inside the Uffizi Gallery. 

One of my favorite places in Florence, or anywhere really, is the Museo Galileo. I raced in here one hour before closing and spent every moment completely transfixed. Again, no photos were allowed, but I couldn't resist this one....an early astrological star chart, handmade, entirely out of wood. I didn't dare take a photo of the actual preserved FINGERS that they have, once belonging to dear Galileo himself. Eeek. 

 My dream car, parked right outside my B&B one morning!