‘Please don’t call me Mr De Winter, I’ve a very impressive array of first names; George Fortesque Maximillion, but you needn’t bother with them all at once, my family call me Maxim.’

In 2003, Phil Bayly and his wife were offered a real estate dream. We all know about the trials and tribulations of building on foreign soil — especially in France, a country known for its deep and profound love of the English and our constant invasion. 

 
As we came down the home run in Les Houches, the shinning beacon of hope — a cold beer — couldn't be far away. Behind the Bellevue cable car in Les Houches lies the Kitsch Inn.

One of the first things that you will need to consider when booking a snowboarding or skiing holiday is whether you want to stay in catered or self catered ski chalet.

The Freerider World Tour is a group of well-sponsored, pumped-up, big mountain athletes who are living the dream. I hate them. Well, I don't hate them. But they help me work with Oxford to define the word envy.

Stéphane Lagarde's Ecorider ski school is the first of it's kind. So many celebrities from the sporting world stake claim to an environmental policy, some even go so far as to squeeze themselves into a Prius. A Prius that tends to be waiting from them on the tarmac at the private airfield when they land in their G5. Stéphane is an eco-warrior of the most genuine kind, one that realises change must come from direct action. We spend a few days on and off-piste with the man in the shadow of the mountain.

So, you’re one of the 63,000 people worldwide with $100m or more in assets, wedged into some ungodly diamond-encrusted wallet or gold-plated purse. You're in central London. You have money to burn, but nowhere to turn. You need a fixer.

We aren't quite ready to tell you all about the delectable night at Voltaire a few weeks ago, so in the mean time, here is a visual taster!

If you ask the local folks around Bristol, you will find a host of people and the old rags pontificating about the “way things were”. James Wilkins and Christine Vayssade bought the lease on a property on Chandos Road to set up their dream restaurant. It just so happens that the space was previously owned by another couple who ran a highly successful restaurant there for over 30 years.

With the 991 series Porsche 911 Carrera well established in the market place, we find ourselves asking the question which only comes once a decade or so... what is the new 911 Turbo going to be like? Oliver Smith woos the Widow Maker.