Interview with Julie Gauthier, Founder

Read new Notes SS16 magazine

One17 is an architectural practice that produces a fantastic quarterly cultural magazine for its high-net-worth clients. The publication is called 'One17 Notes' and we are proud to have been featured in their latest issue.

Kevin Drayton, the magazine founder and One17 partner, was intrigued by our company and story and decided to run a 4-page interview with our founder, Julie Gauthier. The extensive interview goes into plenty of detail on our team, process and ethos too.

The interview is accompanied by some stunning high-definition images of our properties and, as soon as we saw the printed copy at last week's’ cocktail party, we were excited to post it online.

Here are links to two documents, one features just our article, for those who want to read it for themselves and the other features the whole magazine by One17 for anyone who wants to read the rest of their fantastic fourth issue.

London Yacht, Jet and Prestige Car Show Cocktail Party

Prestige cars welcoming visitors to the London Yacht, Jet and Prestige Car Show

With the introduction of our new services in yacht and private jet charters this past year and after the success of the London Boat Show, we looked forward to the London Yacht, Jet & Prestige Car Show this week. The trade show presents a range of luxury transport products and solutions in Old Billingsgate, a prestigious Thames-side exhibition venue. 

Sun greeted our team as we made our way to the show on its opening day. This year the show exhibited plenty of modern concepts such as drone videography, digital travel chartering solutions and philanthropy consultants. The stars of the show was naturally the vast array of glossy sports cars and boat engines.

Julie and Sacha Gauthier welcoming partners and new faces to Art de Vivre's new properties and services

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Beautiful luxury hamper prize provided by Gordon Castle

With our new show banner displaying the variety and quality of the properties in our collection, we set up near the centre stage for the upcoming party. Gordon Castle, a beautiful Scottish property in our debuting British country homes collection, kindly provided a luxury prize for the evening; a beautiful luxury hamper. The Gordon Castle Walled Garden hamper contained their new range of products from the Gordon Castle estate including a bottle of award-winning Gordon Castle gin and from the Herb Garden and Orangery, a salt scrub, shampoo, candle and luxury hand soap. 

Julie Gauthier presenting Gordon Castle hamper to winner Kevin Drayton, One17 with team Matthew Lee and Kerry Doyle

Gordon Castle Luxury Hamper Prize with beautiful products from The Gordon Castle Walled Garden

Art de Vivre team, Jasmine and Sacha Gauthier, enjoying cocktails

When the prize giving came around, team member, Sacha quickly entered at the last moment and won Linn’s prize of 6 months of Tidal membership. Kevin Drayton from One17 won our Gordon Castle luxury hamper prize; the lifestyle publication that accompanies their architectural practice recently published a Q&A with our founder, Julie Gauthier. The night was a great success for introducing ourselves to new potential clients and other luxury brands and services. The canapés and the beautiful Vodka cocktails were delicious and ensured everyone was in high spirits all evening.

Delicious cocktails and canapés

Beautiful cocktail location at Old Billingsgate looking over London Yacht, Jet and Prestige Car Show

A great event with plenty of friendly faces and good weather, we couldn't have asked for more. Art de Vivre was proud to sponsor the cocktail party and looks forward to future events with like-minded brands and services. The London Yacht, Jet and Prestige Car Show is still ongoing and the weather for this week is stunning, so we encourage you to give it a visit.

A successful year for Seychelles luxury villa rentals

Art de Vivre has seen an unprecedented 20% increase in bookings from our luxury private villas in the Seychelles this past year. We began in 2003 as Villas de Maitre Ltd and evolved into Art de Vivre a decade later, after huge success in the Indian Ocean. Whilst we have expanded our property rental portfolio internationally, we are proud to continue our success in the Indian Ocean. 

We have three high-end properties in the Seychelles:

Li Al Do Maison

Residence on the Rocks

Villa Praslin

The first two are located in the south of main island Mahé. Whilst the third, Villa Praslin, is a rare beachfront property on the second-largest island, Praslin.

Each of the three villas are unique and offer guests privacy and stunning views. They are fully-staffed with house managers who organize clients’ entire stay.

The villas are first and foremost second homes and are owned by investors from Switzerland, Italy, U.K. and Mauritius. Potential clients who appreciate the architectural beauty and locations of the villas rent them from 1,500 to 5,500 Euros per night.

We have built strong relationships with our villa and chalet owners around the world but we have known and worked with the owners of the Seychelles villas since Villas de Maitre’s debut in 2003. Li Al Do Maison’s owner has kindly offered the villa, as a grand prize in the Princess Alexandra NHS Trust Charitable fund – Breast Unit raffle prize draw at the London Boat Show 2016 this week. We love bringing business to such charitable and congenial owners that we have known for over a decade.

Read our feature written on Art de Vivre's success in the Seychelles

If you are interested in renting a designer villa in the Seychelles, we encourage you to make an enquiry or call us on +44 (0) 1296 334138.

Art de Vivre are proud to be at The London Boat Show 2016

Here at Art de Vivre we are busy preparing for this year’s London Boat Show, from 8th to 17th January 2016. Located at the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands we will be beside Sunseeker’s large and impressive stand volunteering with the PAH charity raffle. When the Princess Alexandra Hospital breast-cancer trials charity needed a grand prize for their raffle this year, we were proud to offer a 7 night stay at one of our top luxury Seychelles properties Li-Al-Do Maison as the Golden Raffle Prize.

Li-Al-Do Maison is a stunning oceanfront 4 bedroom property in Takamaka, Mahé, Seychelles. Our founder Julie Gauthier has been working with its Italian owner for over 10 years and has had many repeat clients coming back year after year. Ideal for families and groups of friends Li-Al-Do Maison’s staff and its location are its highlights. 

We have always found the London Boat Show to be an exciting event and are proud to see so many British maritime businesses present together. When we heard from The Luxury Network partner Sunseeker London that we could be involved in this huge event and make a positive contribution to the PAH charity we jumped at the chance of getting involved.

For those of you attending The London Boat Show 2016, we really look forward to seeing you at our dedicated PAH stand next to Sunseeker and invite you to enter the charity raffle to have a chance of winning one of the fantastic prizes that have been donated to PAH.

If you have any more questions for us, feel free to comment below or drop us an email. We look forward to seeing you there.

Mountains, Valley and Chalets: Our Zermatt Visit

Last month, the Art de Vivre team were hosted by Elysian in their beautiful chalets in Zermatt (1,620m). From the stunning mountain range to the quiet valley town and to the immaculately presented chalets, the visit gave us the chance to explore the exclusive destination of Zermatt and discover more exciting opportunities for our clients.

Breath-taking views of the majestic Matterhorn

When one thinks of Zermatt, they imagine the Matterhorn first and it’s easy to understand why. The positioning of the valley makes the Matterhorn most impressive from Zermatt and during our stay, the mountain was always catching our eye. It was visible from the train station, the bedroom balcony, the bathroom, the dining room and the restaurants. It impresses at all times of day, whether it’s in the soft pinkish glow of the morning, shining brilliantly as the sun hits the snow or the star-studded sky when the way of the first ascenders is illuminated with lights.

It is only natural that the mountains host the main attractions to Zermatt. The most obvious is the skiing and the numerous mountain lifts in Zermatt, which take one to Europe’s highest-altitude ski area at 3,883m. A paradise for hikers and skiers, here you can find stunning slopes for all levels of expertise and enough space to ski in larger groups. 

These heights also host the stunning Matterhorn Glacier Palace, a carved tunnel of ice decorated with lit ice-sculptures and slides that you can interact with; a particular favourite amongst children. The main heights are Gornergrat (3,089 m), the previously mentioned Matterhorn glacier paradise (3,883 m) and the Rothorn (3,103 m). All of these provide a breath-taking view of the majestic mountain world around the Matterhorn, with lifts operating 365 days a year.

The untouched nature of the valley

Lower down the valley, between the towering mountains and the town, beautiful natural sights can be found. Footpaths carve their way down into the valley; past glistening rivers and untouched nature. More traditional buildings are spread sporadically around the outskirts of Zermatt around which you can find the best restaurants the region has to offer. ‘Zum See’ is a popular restaurant that hosts the best traditional dishes with in-season game and local organic herbs and vegetables. The chef came out to meet us personally on our visit, and the whole meal tingled our tastebuds and left us keen for more local flavours.

These open areas are also perfect for hosting fantastic entertainment and Zermatt’s pioneering clay pigeon shooting was one that we were keen to try out with our guide Kirk Tinham. The guns are laser-based and feature no ammunition, making them lighter and more accessible for those new to the hobby. The laser sensors detect whether your shot would have hit and the scoreboard and gun gives appropriate feedback based on hits and misses. This approach is not only safer and easier for large groups but is used by professionals to increase accuracy, as the gunman doesn’t need to resist recoil. We played a few rounds, and are proud to say the winner was one of our directors.

There are plenty of other activities that can host groups of all sizes in the region, and another that we are keen to try another time is fly fishing (July-September). Kirk offers clients the opportunity to privately fly fish the most exclusive lake in the Swiss Alps, with the iconic Matterhorn as a backdrop. This is particularly popular amongst businessmen, who have been known to host meetings during the activity.

Unwinding in the designer alpine chalets

As we retreated further away from the glorious Matterhorn, we came to the chalets at the opposite end of the valley. Chalet Grace is full of personality and the personal touches to interior design are hard to miss. We were delighted to be hosted in this chalet and to have the opportunity to explore its almost “Alice in Wonderland” style interior design of substantial mirrors and a “coffee table” which had been a door from a ruined Tibetan monastery, collected by the owner and repurposed into a stunning table. 

The charming games room was decorated with signed movie posters from Martin Scorsese, David Finch and Ridley Scott, and hosted a pool table, roulette table and a stunning cinema room. The wellness facilities, as with the other chalets, featured a hand-crafted sauna, a range of showers, a hot Jacuzzi (which is perfect for spending time on the balcony during the colder nights) and fitness machines.

Les Anges is a larger chalet with a darker wood forming its aesthetic, and the interiors feel more muted but stylish. The Jacuzzi here is built into the stone balcony, and the larger wellness facilities make it ideal for larger groups and business trips. Finally, Chalet Maurice features a stunning funicular that tunnels its way up the mountainside to reach the chalets’ underground floor - the experience reminded us of a Bond film. This facility means private clients who wish to remain anonymous can reach the chalet without passing through the town.

All the chalets have exceptional staff that can cater for every need, and offer a friendly and genuine service. Our chef that also cooks for the guests of these chalets was extremely professional, providing a seven course gala dinner and a more casual five course dinner for our large group of 15. The food was exquisite and was one of the highlights of the whole trip which is often the same for our guests.

As we tasted our way through the delicious menus, it was clear our talented chef had crafted the dishes with great skill and thought. In Chalet Grace the kitchen was open-plan and viewable from the dining table, meaning we could see our meals prepared right in front of us, an experience that every guest should try.

Our stay in Zermatt will stay with us for a long time and we thank Angeline, Joanne and the Elysian chalet team for our wonderful stay. We look forward to future visits to experience first-hand the authentic chalet experience in our alpine chalet collection. 

If you are looking to stay in a designer chalet in Zermatt or in another resort in the Alps, do send us an enquiry and we'd be happy to offer you some suggestions for your stay.

Art de Vivre joins The Luxury Network

We are excited to announce that Art de Vivre has become part of The Luxury Network, the world’s premier network of luxury brands and organisations. The network includes high-end companies from motoring (Aston Martin and, Rolls Royce), aviation and luxury goods. We look forward to the new opportunities this network will bring, and the fruitful new partnerships we will form with other members.

We are also delighted to be featured on the front page of Luxuria Lifestyle, the official digital magazine of The Luxury Network. The article is an in-depth profile of Art de Vivre, and our founder Julie Gauthier. It discusses the history of our company, the unique way we do business, and the fantastic range of luxury properties we have to offer our prestigious clients. Specifically, it highlights how Julie has redefined luxury rental with a fresh new approach rooted in her 20 years of experience in holiday rentals. Our Luxuria Lifestyle feature goes on to describe our illustrious portfolio, highlighting the best that we have to offer amongst our curated rental collections.

As a result of this venture, Art de Vivre is now offering The Luxury Network members and their clients a premium concierge priority and a personal account manager for every booking they make, to ensure VIP treatment.