Spotlight on: Ladurée

No rendezvous on the Champs-Elysées is complete without a stop at my favourite "fabricant de douceurs & gourmandies": Ladurée, in all its gilded grandeur.

In the early 1900s, Pierre Desfontaines, cousin of Ladurée's founder, Louis Ernest Ladurée, took two almond meringue cookies and joined them with a divine ganache filling - creating the macaron as we know it. Prior to that, macarons were simply cookies, first brought to France in 1533.

Places to Stay: Escape Boutique B&B, North Wales

The Escape Boutique B&B is a classic Victorian house with stained glass windows and ornate carved fireplaces, the building has been transformed with neutral colours, vintage furniture and glass chandeliers to create a contemporary urban haven.

The majority of the nine bedrooms have sea views, and every detail is of the highest quality. The beds enjoy pocked sprung mattresses, rooms are painted in Farrow & Ball colours, the sheets are the finest Egyptian cotton, goose-down quilts and the bathrooms feature either roll-top baths or drench showers. Gadgets & gizmos are aplenty with WiFi throughout, Blu Ray DVD players, BOSE iPod docks and the Boudoir suite features flickering LED wallpaper. Yes, really.

At The Shops: Chanel Ephemeral Boutique

In April 2012, Chanel opened the doors of the Ephemeral Boutique located at La Mistralée Hotel, a 19th century manor house just a few minutes from The Fox and the Old Port of Saint-Tropez. This is the second time Chanel have set up the seasonal boutique here, open throughout the summer from April to October.