Bentley Motors and Lalique Crystal get hitched
Bentley Does it: Lalique Crystal and Bentley Motors
get Hitched
A 2.30 am alarm call sweeps me out of the best dream
possible: I’m driving an enormous, powerful and graceful car along beautiful
tree-lined roads. Does this have any Freudian significance I wonder? Probably
not- I’m just about to embark on my dream assignment...driving a Bentley
Mulsanne from Strasbourg in France back to Mayfair in London, staying at
stunning hotels, eating exquisite food and with an en route education in the
history of Lalique crystal and perfume.
You could say that I’d been asked to bear witness to the
union of two of the most quintessentially luxurious brands imaginable: the
wedding of Lalique Crystal and Bentley Motors and the fruit of their union:
Lalique for Bentley Crystal Edition Perfume (for Men). Their select issue of
just 999 collectors’ pieces combines a freshly created and exclusive perfume,
in a Lalique crystal flacon, embellished with the charismatic ‘Flying B’
Bentley mascot. The scent is an original concept of perfumier Mylene Alran from
the French perfume house, Robertat, commissioned by Bentley motors. It combines
top notes of select orris butter (one ton of iris root produces just 2 kilos of
orris butter) with white cedar wood and patchouli, leaving the base notes to
amber and musk. The resultant aroma is masculine and sensual. The combination
of crystal artwork, legendary Bentley symbol and exquisite fragrance (all
presented and preserved in a mahogany box) constitutes the one-off collector’s pieces:
at £3000 a bottle.
Travelling business class from Heathrow to Strasbourg, and
transferring to the hotel in a Bentley, Salomon, the chauffeur, explains to me
that at least 80 Bentleys are usually employed for the purpose of MEPs at the
European Parliament. Can I pick up a good deal on a second hand one I ask him?
It appears that if I could, the mileage on the clock would be very reasonable:
sometimes they only travel about 30km a day.
My first stop was the 4 star Cour du Corbeau Hotel, an
historical gem of a building, originally constructed in 1580 and latterly patronised
by European Royalty. A full renovation and lavish refurbishment has catapulted
it in to the Best Hotel in France 2013 category. A mere cassock’s throw from the impressive
Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg ( a great place to cool down in the
heat) the hotel marries exposed stone and newly laid slate flooring with chic
decor and timbered facade and interiors, with ease.
Evening arrived, and I found myself in a queue of
journalists waiting to kiss a rather cute (and cashmere bedecked) French guy
goodbye-should I take a chance and hope he hadn’t noticed that we haven’t even
met? I decided to behave myself and hobbled off to the Michelin starred Au
Crocodile restaurant, with the rest of the crew, in my poor excuse for footwear
in the 93 degree heat (a pair of fake snakeskin winklepicker slingbacks) for a
sumptuous 5 course meal.
Morning saw the start of the Bentley/Lalique experience proper:
asked to choose my drive colour preference (these were definitely my kind of
guys) I plumped for the Windsor Blue. A little (Bentley) bird told me that it
has been known for the Bentley paintshop in Crewe, England, to follow customer
colour directives based on a showroom customer’s nail varnish-the sales guy
going so far as to paint his own nail in that colour as a guide to the finished
bodywork colour (which, in this instance, was cerise) Now that’s what I call
customer service.
The Bentley, luxury choice of British monarchs, was now my dream
car come to fruition. The Mulsanne packs the George Foreman punch of a 6.75
twin turbo V8 engine in to a supremely muscular body (complete with George
Foreman smiling grille) and glides effortlessly from 0-60 in 5.1 seconds, the engine maintaining a
low-key growl. In fact noise, or the lack of it, is very noticeable in top
range luxury cars such as the Mulsanne. It’s easy to feel detached from the
rest of the world in your own little bubble of peace and calm (a veritable
Bubble Car) My fellow occupants hadn’t revealed the secret to their satisfied
grins, until half way through the journey: integral back massage seats both
front and rear to ease away those little niggles. The subtle curvature of the
bodywork , and the vast bonnet up front gives a fabulous feeling of security
(it doesn’t have a European NCAP rating but you can bet that it would be off
the graph). The Mulsanne can achieve a top speed of 184mph-no mean feat for a
car weighing in at 2.6 tonnes: as some background history to the car’s success,
W.O.Bentley first used aluminium pistons in his engines in the 1920’s, which
weighed lighter, were cooler and increased power output.
Optional extras include a Naim for Bentley premium in-car
audio system, voted clear winner in a recent Fifth Gear blind listening test,
easily beating competition from Bowers & Wilkins in Jaguar, and Audi’s Bang
& Olufsen system. The rear seats are adjustable and rear seat passengers
can enjoy their own infotainment system, along with an optional integrated WiFi
hotspot for constant internet access. The polished mahogany woodwork and deep
pile Wilton carpets ooze class and comfort whilst I found the exterior look of
the car (not liked by all-but, I’m sure, carved on the template of cupid’s
bottom) curvy and sexy. Gliding along the motorway, as if on a waft of (speedy)
air, we arrived at Wingen-sur-Moder for a fantastic tour around the Lalique
factory.
Rene Jules Lalique (1860-1945) was initially a jeweller and
then moved in to glassware and crystal glass design. He was elevated to notoriety
partly by the patronage of stage stars such as Sarah Bernhardt and was iconic
in the Art Deco movement of the 1920’s. The tour took us from the burning
furnaces of the glass-blowing floor, to the delicate finishing off rooms, where
the beautifully crafted glass sculptures are refined by hand. Two hundred and
twenty craftsmen and women contribute to every stage of the manufacturing
process. The crystal glass Bentley/Lalique perfume flacon alone has four
finishing off processes in the latter stages to ensure the stopper is airtight.
A tour of the Lalique museum uncovered yet more exquisite works of art and we
emerged, blinking, in to the heat, to consume the 300km to Reims, home of
champagne, in the cool comfort of the air-conned Mulsanne.
Nestling in the suburbs of Reims is possibly its best kept
hotel and gastronomic secret: the Hotel A Lallement with its Michelin starred
restaurant: l’assiettechampenoise (http://www.assiettechampenoise.com). I was
becoming accustomed to travelling large, but when I opened the door to my
suite, I couldn’t stop myself from bursting in to a loud guffaw; the room was
palatial. My only regret was that I wasn’t spending much time in it: dinner was
at 7 and with a 7 course meal, with 7 different types of champagnes and wines,
A Lallement really did hit the jackpot.
The next day comprised the last leg of the Bentley/Lalique extravaganza,
driving up from Reims to Calais, through
the Channel tunnel and on to Mayfair in London. Our destination this time was
the Westbury hotel in Mayfair , old haunt of Jackie O and just a gemstone’s throw away from Lalique’s
London flagship store. I delivered the Mulsanne with a flouirish (and a small
tear in my eye) to the awaiting doorman, happy to have escaped any untoward
scrapes in the bustling London traffic.
Daniel, Lalique’s head of communication and PR, talked us
through the delicate blending process of the select ingredients used in the
Lalique for Bentley Crystal Edition Perfume (for Men). We saw the finished
product, replete with Lalique Crystal Flacon and mahogany storage box, and
whiffed the legendary woody perfume (and with a perfume this complex, it really
is possible to smell the different layers of the perfume, over time).
Evening was upon us and we said our fragrant farewells, after
yet another gastronomic dining indulgence in the Westbury Hotel.
It’s often not until you actually see the intense labour and
detail to craftsmanship that go in to producing something of beauty that you
are made aware of its intrinsic value: at once, the marriage of the two brands,
Bentley and Lalique, made perfect sense:both are emblematic of prolonged
processes of manual labour and craftsmanship and pure attention to detail. Both
espouse values of heritage and artisanship. Their 999 offspring will surely be
very highly prized collector’s pieces for both Bentley and Lalique aficionados.
Bentley Mulsanne OTR Price: £225,900 Model Test Driven: £260,000
www.bentleymotors.com
Lalique Crystal: www.lalique.com
Cour du Corbeau Hotel Strasburg : www.cour-corbeau.com
Hotel Restaurant: A Lallement Reims: www.assiettechampenoise.com
Westbury Hotel, Mayfair, London: www.westburymayfair.com
Originally published in Ohlala! magazine
By: Ruthie at Me-Mo
Originally published in Ohlala! magazine
By: Ruthie at Me-Mo
Labels: womens online driving magazine
posted by Ruthie @ 7:02 AM
0 Comments
