Bella Italia without stress I hear you: you’re also fed up with mass tourism. Enough with going on holiday, ending up in a huge crowd, overpaying everything, eating badly, queuing up for a monument, taking that selfie and going home more tired than when you left. But Tuscany is beautiful, and still in your bucket list. Is there a way to see it without stress? I come from Tuscany myself, and I can tell you that we also love spending time in our region, for our holidays or weekends. It’s not difficult. Just do it like Italians do. Best value in Tuscany As a general rule, the best way to get to k ..read more

Thousands of tiny golden leaves and dots are shining in the sun. I notice them even before I see the famous yellow stores above the balconies, when I arrive at the Fairmont le Montreux Palace. Why? Because its iconic facade is all new and polished. Its intricate decorations have been restored one by one. “We had to renovate this historic part of the building, so we thought: why not refurbishing the rooms as well?” They explain to me at reception, when I ask why everything looks so glowing. So when I enter my room, I have high expectations. It has been finished three weeks ago. How will it look ..read more

What is the Sport for Good Weekend? Imagine the beautiful Swiss mountains. Titlis, Engelberg, and their gorgeous nature in Summer. Now imagine you can spend a weekend there in a beautiful hotel, and share your time with the best Swiss athletes. They will give you a class, or play golf with you, or offer you different activities like biking, rock climbing , HIIT training and paragliding. I can tell you that this means a lot of laughing, and challenging moments as well! Welcome to the Laureus Sport for Good Weekend. Last weekend I attended the event and trained with Denise Biellmann, who has bee ..read more

New CEO (Noah Horowitz), new all digital accreditation, new uniforms, new galleries, a new installation from my favourite contemporary artist (Refik Anadol), Art Basel 2024 has a new version indeed. Today I went to visit, for its pre-opening and press conference. It was packed. I go to Art Basel every year, but, not being a collector, I don’t know much about the business that’s going on behind the scenes. However, today I saw a woman buying a Picasso, and I can tell you that this Art Fair has been dubbed “The Olympics of Art”. There is so much going on! Business is huge, but Art Basel is worth ..read more

Let’s say you are learning a language. Do you learn it the moment you memorise some words? No, your brain will register the information at night, while sleeping. And let’s say you are I’m the gym, lifting weights. Does your muscle become bigger that moment? No, it will start to change at night, while you’re sleeping. During the day, your brain is constantly supervising all bodily activities, and it’s only at night, that it can allow itself some “me time”. It is actually having a shower, washing itself in fluids that carry away toxins, Alzheimer plaques, and so on. Conclusion: your sleep is you ..read more

Road trips allow you to see what you could never see, if you are just flying from airport to airport. Meet locals, discover villages you’ve never heard of, and, in the case of the road trip we did, watch the spectacular coast line. Here are 10 ideas of things to do, based on our itinerary, which was: Zurich  – Madrid – Chile (flying, for a marathon) – Madrid – Porto – Nazare – Sintra – Cascais – all the way down to the end of Europe (Cabo Roca, Portugal) – Algarve – Sevilla – Gibraltar – Marbella – Granada – Alicante – Valencia – Barcelona – St.Tropez – Monte Carlo – Zurich. 1. Pack so li ..read more

Where am I? Plop. Clank! I hear all of a sudden, when the limousine driver takes my luggage out of her taxi, puts in on the ground with a thud, and closes the trunk. “You need to walk, from here to the winery. I can’t go any further; the road is too tight for my car. You’ll find it!” She says, looking a bit unsure. I look ahead the beautiful lines of wine grapes. There is something indeed, up there. Good job I am fit, because this is steep! There is no road anymore, and I need to drag my trolley, camera and computer, all the way up, hoping to find a beautiful cantina. I wonder if it’s worth th ..read more

Why Why is it a good idea to convert your excess body heat at night? Because this can help you to enhance muscle recovery and regeneration. While sleeping! How The revolutionary fabric of this Dagsmejan pyjama, which is used for the whole recovery line, features responsive energising minerals that recycle excess body heat and convert it into natural far infrared energy. The fabric is natural: made with eucalyptus fibres, combined with heat activated, energising minerals. The effect on the body is similar to a fancy infrared sauna, but it’s just much easier to have. You can do this every night ..read more

To this day, 358 women (and 646 men) have a marathon result in 7 continents. That’s less than astronaut flying to space! Those were 681. This is another of the many reasons why I set this goal to myself, after completing the 6 Marathon Majors: running in 7 continents. Last week I run Santiago de Chile, which is my 6th one. I am only missing Oceania now, and I plan to run Sydney in September. Looking forward to another challenge! The Santiago de Chile medal The Antarctica marathon t-shirt. You can’t buy it you have to run! Africa: Marathon des Sables ..read more

I had a little shock, when I read this title on the Telegraph. Being a British newspaper, I suspected the article might have been written regarding England. But no, the report starts with nothing else than Paris, the City of Love, and the state of sex in France. A poll by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) found that 24% of French adults between 18 and 69 said they had no sex in the preceding 12 months. What is more alarming, is that this result mirrors those of other Western countries. Let’s go to Britain. The number of British teenagers having the first sexual experience by the ag ..read more