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I’ve just spent a long weekend in the northern French city of Lille, where there’s some fine architecture and some appetising specialities: moules et frites (mussels and French fries), gaufres (waffles) and crêpes (pancakes).

The city, which is close to the border with Belgium, used not to be a hotspot for tourism, but that all changed in 1994 with the arrival of the Channel Tunnel, linking the United Kingdom with the European mainland.

Lille suddenly found itself at the centre of a triangle connecting London, Paris and Brussels. Ever since then, tourists have been able to take the option of stopping off from the high-speed Eurostar trains and spending a pleasant break in Lille, where French life’s at a slower pace than in Paris.

The Eurostar link has, of course, transformed the place, with the huge Euralille shopping mall evidence of an economic boom. In 2004, the city was European Capital of Culture.

But not everyone, it seems, has benefited from the largesse brought in by tourist Euros. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many beggars in such a relatively small city. Men and women with pathetic paper cups were squatting on street corners, beside automatic cash machines and on church steps. Sometimes they approached while you were out walking.

A few were alcohol-fuelled, but in the main these were simply the dispossessed and desperate – a sad sideshow in a modern, thriving city.

by Andy Moreton

It’s what the media call the silly season, so here we go: a luxury hotel in New York City is reportedly offering a bespoke service for your pet dog.

The Jumeirah Essex House has brought in a designer to create a memorable experience that includes a luxury dog bed, treats made by the hotel’s executive pastry chef and food from bowls supplied by the trendy New York boutique Wagwear (‘style and design for the fashion-minded dog.’)

Of course, no luxury perk programme would be complete without a gift bag, and this one includes a plush fleece blanket that can be monogrammed on request.

I can just hear all my British friends saying: ‘Only in the United States!’ But wait …

In Merthyr Tydfil in Wales are arguably Britain’s poshest kennels – although luxury hotel would be nearer the mark. Dogs arrive at the Royvon Pet Hotel in air- conditioned cabs and are checked in to specially designed rooms with 24” plasma screens.

Leisure time can be spent at the spa or exercising in six acres of secure grounds, three large fenced play paddocks or two indoor activity halls.

And if the dogs get homesick, they can bond with their vacationing owners because all the suites are fitted with a webcam.

Kennels owner, Sarah Draper, said: “We like to think of ourselves as the Ritz for dogs.”

by Andy Moreton

If you want the Ritz for humans, Luxique can secure the best rates at the luxury hotels in London and Paris.

When visiting Paris, it’s always fun to go to a flea market to see what old bargains you can pick up to adorn your home. But for one unfortunate British couple, this signalled a chain of events about which they are still probably pretty embarrassed.

Their find was a 19th century live artillery shell, and it caused a major security alert when they tried to board the Eurostar train back to London. Explosives experts, firemen and police were scrambled to the Gare du Nord, the main Eurostar terminal in Paris, and services were held up for at least an hour.

The device dated back to France’s Third Republic, around 1885, when the whole country was full of live explosives following the Franco-Prussian War.

“Live explosives are strictly banned on all cross–Channel services, no matter how old they are,” said a French customs source. “All kinds of banned articles are picked up every day, but this is the first time someone’s tried to get through with a pre-First World War shell in their luggage.”

The unnamed couple, who thought their purchase was ‘a nice souvenir’, were cautioned about their behaviour before being allowed to return to Britain. The shell was confiscated and destroyed.

by Andy Moreton

The French capital is an explosion of colour and vibrancy at any time of the year. Book your luxury hotel in Paris through Luxique – we have an unrivalled selection of classic and modern.

The popular Pompidou arts centre in Paris now has a smaller cousin 170 miles to the east.

The Metz Pompidou will have no permanent collection of its own but will show, in six-month or yearly rotations, parts of the vast collection of 65,000 contemporary works held by the Pompidou in Paris, most of which are never displayed.

There are also spaces in the spectacular new building for other contemporary art forms, including cinema, modern music and dance.

Metz, the capital of the Lorraine region, is hoping to recreate the success of the European arm of New York’s Guggenheim museum, which has transformed the fortunes of Bilbao in northern Spain since 1997.

The director of the Metz Pompidou, Laurent Le Bon, said: “For us it’s a little French Revolution – yet it’s such a simple thing. We are just saying that the big collections are for everyone, not just for Paris.”

This is the first stage in a drive to decentralise the French state’s enormous art collection. A branch of the Louvre will follow in 2012 in Lens, a former coal town only an hour from the Channel Tunnel.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has an extensive selection of luxury hotels in France – including some of the best that Paris has to offer.

Paris may be the city of love, but the authorities there have called a halt to one romantic tradition that’s gone just too far.

The trend of attaching small padlocks, with messages, to two of the capital’s bridges as a sign of undying love began about two years ago. Now, there are almost 2,000, and the French capital’s town hall has announced that they’re defacing the bridges and have to stop.

The cadenas d’amour (love padlocks) are on the Pont des Arts, which links the left bank of the Seine to the Louvre, and the Passerelle Leopold-Senghor, between the Tuilerie Gardens and the Musée d’Orsay.

A town hall source said the practice posed the question of preserving heritage – the rusty locks were becoming an eyesore on photogenic monuments.

Paris is the latest in a string of tourist sites to be struck by the love-lock craze, whose origins are unclear.

In Pécs, southern Hungary, lovers have been clamping padlocks to a fence in a street linking the mosque in the city’s main square and its mediaeval cathedral since the 1980s as a sign of commitment.
In Florence, Italy, love padlocks have been fixed to the railing at the centre of the Ponte Vecchio.

And love-struck sweethearts also favour Mount Huang, China, where it’s customary to ‘lock your soul’ together and then throw the key over the edge of the cliff into the misty valley below.

by Andy Moreton

Let Luxique unlock the secret to a truly memorable stay in the French capital. We have a selection of some of the best luxury hotels in Paris – both traditional and modern.

A theme park that’s recently opened in the Loire Valley region of France is unlike any other in the world.

The Terra Botanica near Angers is entirely devoted to plants and their role in our lives. Designed along strict environmental principles, the park takes visitors around four areas with specific headings: ‘coveted plants’, ‘generous plants’, ‘mysterious plants’, and ‘tamed plants’.

In addition, there are forty attractions including interactive games, a water trail and a treetop trail. ‘The Botanical Odyssey’ takes the guest on a virtual reality voyage across the Atlantic. In ‘Journey to the Centre of the Plant’, visitors explore what goes on inside a tree by watching photosynthesis as it takes place.

A boutique gives visitors the opportunity to buy their own plants to take home, and there are plenty of picnic spots as well as two restaurants along the way.

by Andy Moreton

Angers is about 190 miles south-west of Paris. Luxique can help you book a luxury hotel in the Loire region, with a choice of five in various towns.

Eurostar – which provides the train service under the Channel Tunnel between the UK and the rest of Europe – has been strongly criticised for the chaos caused by severe winter weather before Christmas.

Five trains broke down in the tunnel and 2,500 people were left for hours without food and water in carriages that were dark and unventilated.

An independent report says Eurostar had not properly prepared its trains for the heavy snow on the French side. The snow got under the trains’ winter cladding and then melted as they passed into the warmth of the tunnel. The resulting condensation caused electrical problems.

The report said Eurostar had no working plan to evacuate multiple broken-down trains. The result was that passengers were left in the dark – literally and figuratively, because they were given little or no information. One of the trains was carrying families back from Disneyland, Paris. Parents had to strip children to their underwear as the heat rose in the darkened carriages.

Eurostar’s Chief Executive, Richard Brown, said the company would be investing more than £30million ($47million) in order to implement all the review’s 21 recommendations.

“I recognise that we let down a considerable number of our passengers very badly with the disruption and breakdowns before Christmas, and, once again, I’d like to say, on behalf of Eurostar, I am very, very sorry,” he said.

by Andy Moreton

The Spanish capital, Madrid, is one of a number of destinations to which the train is expected become a viable alternative to the plane within Western Europe during the next decade.

It’s thought a high-speed Paris–Madrid train link will be in place within the next two years, bringing the journey time between the two cities to 5½ hours.

Although a flight would take less than half that time, you have to add several hours for checking-in, airport security and travel to and from the city centres. The rail industry is hoping to attract passengers who are becoming disenchanted with this ‘airport hassle factor’.

The German train operator, Deutsche Bahn, is in talks with Eurotunnel about a direct train route to and from London through the tunnel, while Eurostar – which currently runs services from London St. Pancras direct to Paris and Brussels – has also made no secret of its interest in taking trains farther afield.

There would certainly be no lack of support from the respective governments as trains are seen to be more environmentally friendly than planes in short-haul travel.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a wide choice of luxury hotels in Madrid, from the traditional Westin Palace to the quirky and fun Room Mate Mario.

Parisians have been marking the 100th anniversary of the day the Seine burst its banks and filled the city with torrents of muddy water.

Thousands of residents were forced from their homes and power was cut off for months.

To commemorate the 1910 flood, Paris’s Galerie des Bibliotheques is exhibiting a collection of photos, postcards and witness accounts. Among them are sepia shots of bowler-hatted men travelling piggyback, trousers hoisted up and knee-deep in water; people pulling up to Notre Dame cathedral in boats, and food being delivered by ladder to second-floor apartment windows.

But while present-day Parisians view the old scenes with a smile, there are warnings that it could happen again – and be ten times worse, despite various flood defence measures put in place over the years.

“The flood is unavoidable,” said Louis Hubert, director for the Paris region at France’s Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development. “What we can simply say is that we are almost certain to see new considerable floods, but we don’t know when.”

Paris museums such as the Louvre have a flood plan by which priceless objects are removed to a safe house in a town north-west of Paris – if they get enough warning.

by Andy Moreton

The exhibition at Galerie des Bibliotheques is on until March 28th. And if you’re planning a visit to France’s romantic and historic capital city, browse through Luxique’s unrivalled selection of luxury Paris hotels.

There was something quite alarming about the revelation last week that five passengers had had their pockets picked while sleeping on an Air France flight from Tokyo to Paris.

I think it was the violation of that unwritten code that, although some fellow travellers may snore, some may chat when you’re trying to read, and some may get up rather too often to visit the loo, everyone is basically honest.

The Air France-KLM Group said the incident was ‘very rare’ and wouldn’t prompt the airline to change proceedings by cabin crew, whose primary concern remained the flight’s safety.

The passengers on the Boeing 777, who were in business class, lost about £3,600 ($5,750) and the police in Paris are investigating.

An Air France spokeswoman said the airline didn’t provide a secure safe for valuables on board, and cabin crew ‘were not mandated’ to query passengers on which bags they were opening or if they were the rightful owners.

While Air France was responsible for the loss of any baggage in the hold, she said, it was up to the passengers themselves to protect money and other valuables they took on to the plane.

by Andy Moreton