Mes Favoris
Mes Favoris is not a sponsored list. There are no affiliate arrangements, no brand relationships, and no payments behind any of these recommendations. These are simply the things that have earned a permanent place. The watches worth wearing, the books worth reading, the hotels worth the rate, the bottles worth the occasion, and the objects that keep coming back to mind when someone asks what is actually worth their time and money. Everything here has been used, worn, visited, read, or drunk. Nothing has been included because someone asked.
WATCHES
Rolex Submariner - The watch that invented its own category and has spent sixty years refusing to leave it. It works on a wetsuit and it works with a dinner jacket and it has never once asked for your opinion about that. The benchmark exists for a reason.
Grand Seiko SBGW231 - For anyone who thinks they know what a dial looks like until they see a Grand Seiko in afternoon light. The finishing is extraordinary. The modesty is part of the point.
Longines Conquest Heritage - The argument for buying vintage made in a current production watch. Thin, elegant, historically grounded, and priced where serious watches used to live before the market lost its mind.
Hodinkee - The only watch publication worth reading consistently. Sharp editorial, no manufacturer pressure, and genuine opinions from people who actually know what they are talking about.
Watchfinder - The most reliable place to buy and sell pre-owned watches without the anxiety of a private transaction. Condition reports are honest. The selection is deep.
FASHION AND CLOTHING
Brunello Cucinelli - Cucinelli figured out that beautiful things and fairly made things are not in conflict. The cashmere is the proof. So is the fact that the company still runs out of a medieval village in Umbria.
Drake's London - For ties, scarves, and the kind of small decisions that quietly define a wardrobe. Everything is made with a seriousness that is increasingly rare and immediately apparent.
Sandro Paris - The best answer to the question of what Parisian everyday actually looks like when it is not trying to look Parisian. Consistent, wearable, and worth the price point.
Mr Porter - The most useful single destination for menswear that has already been edited by someone with taste. The editorial content is genuinely good and the selection rewards time spent.
Uniqlo - For the pieces that do the work without the conversation. Their cashmere and their Oxford shirts have no business being as good as they are at the price.
TRAVEL AND HOTELS
Hotel Le Burgundy, Paris - On the Rue Duphot, a short walk from the Place de la Madeleine. Small enough to feel like a private address, serious enough about wine to earn a different kind of loyalty.
Parco dei Principi Grand Hotel & SPA, Rome - A Gio Ponti interior on the edge of the Borghese gardens. The kind of hotel that reminds you what the word grand was supposed to mean before it became a category
Eurostar Business Premier - The only sensible way between London and Paris. The journey through the tunnel is part of the trip. Order the wine before the train moves.
Away - Carry On The case that has survived enough to earn the description. The compression system works, the wheels hold, and it fits every overhead bin that matters.
BOOKS
A Moveable Feast — Ernest Hemingway Still the best book ever written about Paris. Read it before you go. Read it again when you get back. It improves with each visit to the city.
The Dud Avocado — Elaine Dundy The novel that captures what it actually feels like to be young and loose and alive in Paris. Funnier than it has any right to be and more true than most memoirs.
Watches: A Guide by Hodinkee - The reference book the watch world needed and finally got.
Authoritative without being inaccessible. Worth having on the shelf whether you collect seriously or are just beginning to pay attention.
The Leopard — Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa For anyone traveling to Italy who wants to understand what they are looking at. The most elegant novel about the end of one world and the arrival of another.
Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson The book that made travel writing funny without making it shallow. Read it on a train somewhere in Europe and try not to laugh out loud in public.
WINE AND FOOD
Krug Grande Cuvée - The Champagne against which everything else is measured. Worth every penny on the occasions that deserve it, and there are more of those than most people allow themselves.
Domaine Weinbach, Alsace - The producer that makes the case for Alsatian wine to anyone who has written it off. The Rieslings in particular are worth going out of your way to find.
Château Léoville Barton - For anyone who wants a serious Bordeaux without the second mortgage that the first growths now require. Consistently excellent, consistently underpriced relative to its quality.
Epicerie du Bon Marché, Paris - The finest food hall in Paris and therefore arguably in the world. Go without a list and leave with things you cannot explain but will not regret.
Lavinia, Paris - The wine shop on Boulevard de la Madeleine that rewards an unhurried afternoon. The selection is extraordinary, the staff knowledgeable without condescension, and the basement worth the stairs.