Beauty Essentials
I make my own skincare products on holiday, so I take a little kit of ingredients with me and mix them when I’m there. I also use Cetaphil body lotion and Rahua shampoo and conditioner, which really revitalises your hair.
People-Watching
I love the market in Revel outside Toulouse. There’s a little bar where you can sit with a kir and watch all the men on mopeds, the older ladies in their linen dresses and hats, the gardeners selling fresh herbs. We always eat amazing truffle pizzas when we’re there. The other market I love is Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. It’s a real spectacle, with beautiful fruit and flowers – and fish, of course!
Childhood Holidays
One of the happiest teenage family holidays I can remember was a trip to Cornwall. We rented a house on top of a hill overlooking Constantine Bay. I loved it – everything smelt of the beach, I had a white bedroom and there was a big kitchen where we all sat around together. It was such a happy holiday. We’d wander down the lane and sit on the beach and play in rock pools. I met my first love there – a surfer!
Greek Idyll
My husband Gary and I went on honeymoon to Corfu. We didn’t have much money, so it was a simple holiday, but magical. To me Greece is that eclectic mix of smells – ouzo and honey and cooking lamb – and the amazing red of the bougainvillea. Pure joy.
Little Luxury
I always take my Chanel lip-gloss, and a cashmere blanket to put on the end of the bed. It feels wonderful to slip under when you have a nap after lunch.
The Big Apple
My favourite city destination is New York. We always stay at the Four Seasons, and there are so many great restaurants and bars, like Serrafina (above), for pizza, and the Russian Tea Rooms.
A Meal to Remember
I’ll never forget going to Harry’s Bar after I’d been to get my MBE at Buckingham Palace. We took our son, the doctor who saved my life [Jo had breast cancer in 2003] and his wife. It was wonderful.
Garden of delights
I love the garden of the International Perfume Museum in Grasse. There are pretty shutters on the house, and the smells, from the orange blossom and the special roses they grow in the region, are heavenly.
The Wild West
We go to a ranch in Montana every year – it’s like food for my soul. We fly to either Denver, San Francisco or Seattle, and have a couple of days to get over the flight and do some city things before heading to the ranch. I always ride the same horse, Josie. She is an amazing creature, and I feel as though we would be best friends if she were human. If you ride right to the top of the hill, the clean smell of wild sage floating up as the horses chomp on the grass is wonderful.
The Smell of Happiness
The scent I most associate with holidays is pomelo, with its gorgeous citrus tang. It was the first fragrance I really “felt”, and I associate it with Parrot Cay in Turks & Caicos. I’d left Jo Malone, the company I’d built, and was feeling a bit lost. As I sat on a lovely beach, looking at sand dollars, a stingray swam by. It was an amazing moment of happiness and the return of creativity. Now I always ship some Pomelo ahead of arriving on holiday to fragrance all the rooms. joloves.com
style staples
I always take my Tory Burch flip flops and a French basket, and I have a selection of beach dresses I’ve collected over the years, including one I love from Thailand in pink and gold; also a J.Crew sweater, Eres swimsuits and a collection of crisp white shirts.
Simple pleasures
I like great service. I want my room cleaned and tidied when I’m at breakfast. I want everything white and clean and perfect. I want simple things done beautifully: a salad for lunch, but a perfect salad; a lovely beach; a great spa; time and space to think and read.
Homes From Home
I have lots of favourite hotels. I recently went to Chewton Glen and stayed in the treehouses (right), which I thought were wonderful. And I stayed in a little place outside Valbonne in the south of France recently, which was simple but beautiful. Luxury is things done very well. I’m very fussy about my room. My husband Gary always says not to take the luggage up until I’ve checked the room.
Questions of taste
Travel Album · Issue 7 - 2017