Geneva’s airport is built so that its visitors are in gentle unison: the departee and arrived, the yin and yang of journey. It’s a soothing notion, though an impossible concept in London, I think to myself as I swivel my overnight luggage past a queue of businessmen expertly fishing out wallets and keys from various nooks at security control. We’re headed to breakfast with Yilin, founder of W=Hb2 in Lausanne: a hop, skip and a manual transmission rental away. The woman at the Europcar desk asks whether we will be crossing the

Swiss border at any time during our rental period, and all three of us simultaneously shake our heads grunting out a long ‘noo’. Our destination is but two hours away, and the route allows us to skim Lac (lake) Lausanne to the right My eyes are on the road (one hand in a pack of Pret’s yoghurt glazed cranberries), but Simon is engrossed in updating the car of the unfolding scenery in an array of noises from the back seat. To be fair, this is quite unlike our usual route to work on the Overground.

Workout top – Nike. Cashmere joggers – Movers & Cashmere

“W is Tungsten, right…?” I rack my brains for a shoddy GCSE memorisation of the period table and Yilin giggles over her green tea. She’s a Chinese-born biochemist of Imperial London background, and I’m not helping myself by trying to figure out what W=Hb2 stands for. The Power Duo Face Serum stands between us in gleaming rose-gold and frosted body, with two adjacent pumps in the shape of yin & yang symbol. “Wellness = Health x Beauty squared”, she says (ahhhhh), which targets inner health (H) and external radiance (b) charged with good energy, or chi in Chinese. And the optimal balance: or La formulae secrete.

The science backs this up, as Phase I (left pump) is composed of the resilience of the Alpine Rose (PhytoCellTec), Tri-peptide and Probiotic Bacterium, which kick-start the regime with an anti-ageing layer – light and refreshing to the touch. Phase II (right pump) cloaks the skin with anti-pollution and brightening ingredients such as Niacinamide and raspberry cultured stem sells.

Two separate rose-goldpumps aform the yin and yang symbol

The brand is decidedly Swiss in science, “it’s in the water, the nature, the Alps”. Yilin, a warrior in her own right (could easily pass for royalty in the Qing dynasty), who notes that Chinese greens is her favourite food but heartily orders a Full English at breakfast, wants to change the landscape with this new player in the market. It’s almost philanthropic, a call for conscious beauty rituals of sorts, a yang to the existing yin.

The GPS re-routes us to a diversion that avoids the rush traffic back to Geneva and we find ourselves in the depth of the Swiss Alps, the air getting crisper by every hairpin bend. By dusk our balance was restored, our little stint with Yilin in Switzerland had offset the hubbub of stale routine in London. We cross the border into France twice as we navigate back into the city and decide not to tell the rental car company about it.

Our drive from Geneva’s airport, along the namessake iridescent lake and through the spirited town of Vevey (only to stock on road nibbles, first-aid medicine and cash) right up to the foot of the Grimselpass was done in near-absolute silence. Not a single tune filled the Bentley Flying Spur W12 S, conversation tapered to pensive grunts, and after a while, the only sound in our rolling chamber was the gentle clicking noise of the turn signals. Even the inbuilt GPS, perhaps sensing something sacred, signalled silently but earnestly with her animated arrows. Without telling each-other so, my husband and I had been busy soaking up the innate luxury of the car, silently fingering seat controls and grazing the graceful lines of the athletic dashboard with our eyes. The scent of new leather permeated the car, reminding of the freshness of the journey.

It was only when I pulled over at a lay-by at the base of the pass, delicate snowflakes melting on the gleaming hood of the purring Flying Spur, when the excitement kicked in. We started the climb, all windows down, Bluetooth paired, blasting the James Bond medley as we heard a waterfall roar somewhere in the distance. 52kms down, 921 to go. Our sprint through the Alps was to be short but resolute, in scaling heights and documentation. But as ever, when it comes to Bentley, I – the driver – am the sidekick.

Copy in this feature is a revised adaptation of the Bentley Magazine Issue 59 article.

Swiss Air

Its façade like something out of a Wes Anderson flick. It’s as remote as it gets, perched atop Grimselsee reservoir, with views that make you reconsider the one night stay. The kind of place where, in winter, the snow is piled high and the hot chocolate and ratatouille lasagne dinner, the things you wake up for. Stay at least 3 nights, if you can afford the time.

Wearing: All Bally Apres-Ski resort

Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964)

Wearing: All Bally Apres-Ski resort

Right: André Ledoux 1948 ad for anouraks. Left: unknown source.

Right: Winter 1963, Vogue.

Above: Spread with Jacques Heim 1938 Winter Sportwear

When it comes to reaching anywhere off the beaten track (i.e a destination not entirely manageable with a local taxi straight out the airport), somewhere remotely remote and high up/buried deep on a mountain there is bound to be a fair amount of schlepping involved. By this I mean that for most of the journey you will most likely drag your overstuffed wheelie on uneven terrain while juggling local currency + a pocket-full of relevant/irrelevant ticket stubs + some really dodgy foreign language skills. You will most definitely quiver as you look out for your stop, half certain that you missed it some time ago and because there is suddenly a lake outside the window when your destination is a ski-resort.

Lest we forget, the Swiss efficiency knows no schlep. This is no ordinary night on the Overground from Haggerston to Hackney Central. And for this to work you’d have started with a Swiss flight, whereon the doors close bang-on-the-dot and touchdown like butter on warm toast (perhaps not always but our flight out of Heathrow was what all flights should be). The glass-ceiling Golden Pass train from Montreux glides by quaint villages and perhaps the most sensational scenery in Europe. The phenomenally glassy Lake Geneva is but a teaser to the view that unveils at 900 meters above sea level. And hey, wasn’t the mountain to our right when we departed?

On arrival into Gstaad, a vintage Bentley collects us to go the last 100m down to Le Grand Bellevue, our final stop. The driver tells us the car was formerly owned by Roger Moore. See, the schlep never happens.

Coat – Woolrich. Cashmere sweater – The White Company. Bag – Celine. Jeans – 7 for All Mankind. Hat – H&Ma

Le Grand Bellevue is warm – almost homey if not for the resident five-star service. If the canary-yellow façade wasn’t hint enough, plush velvet and fabric sofas give it away immediately on arrival. We are handed a brass pineapple at check-in. Attached, a key (!) that opens the door to our room under the cone tower of the East Wing. We abandon our bags and head down to recharge with the afternoon tea by a crackling fire, available at the lounge daily. After a plate of scones and a few chapters of airport-bought Grisham later, we drift back to the room – drunk on the aroma of burnt wood and a hint of peppermint or lavender wafting from the lift coming from the spa floor. Rest tonight, tomorrow we’re going skiing.

Park & Cube was a guest of Le Grand Bellevue, all views and opinions are my own. The season ends March 31, and re-opens for summer June 24th so make sure to book before then to catch the ski-season!

Grüezi aus Zürich! (Gear up for the mother of all long posts!)

Make My Switzerland app, available on Android and iPhone

Can you believe how clear the water is?!

Viadukt, ze ‘hip’ corner, North-West Zurich

Frau Gerolds Garten and the Freitag tower

Züri Fäscht

Top – Amber Sakai. Shorts – Thierry Colson. Bag – JinYoo103684. Shoes – H by Hudson. Bar necklace – Kirsten Goss Urban Edge.

The first time I was in Zürich I was back in uni, on a layover home from London to Warsaw during the winter holidays – I arrived in the night, watched the first snow fall, and left at dawn. Hey, I was 21 and practically wearing a diaper, what did I know about efficiency? It’s the age when you turn a 2.5h flight into a 10h one (commonly known now as the Ryanair logic) and still call it an adventure. I locked my luggage at the airport and took a train into the city with just a DSLR, which turned out was missing the memory card. A good friend took me around town at midnight and the city was completely empty and quiet. It was so beautiful. Nothing was recorded, and in the morning I packed up the unused camera and took the first plane out.

Now, I have no idea who found out about that trip, because my second visit was precisely the opposite and fulfilling everything that was missing from the first. As a guest of the Swiss Tourism board, I was invited to the city of Zürich to test out the Make My Switzerland app ahead of its launch. It was July, we boarded a Swiss flight on a midsummer morning, blasting with air conditioning and oozing with general Swiss efficiency. It was the height of the Züri Fäscht, a festival that happens every three years, reportedly attracting 2 million visitors from around Europe (Zürich itself only has a population of 1.83 million, mind). My camera was appropriately equipped, as I’m sure you can see, with even a spare card and battery in my back pocket. Clifford Lilley, one of the ambassadors for the app and one firework of a character, took me around ze ‘hip’ areas of town (Viadukt/Frau Gerolds Garten) on rented bicycles, which also turns out to be the best way to travel within the city. Later I attempted to see the Old Town in daylight with my favourite style crusader, Jen and Fred, and ended up spending most of the afternoon repeatedly getting separated and looking for each other in the crowd. Eventually we gave up and resorted to one of their favourite past-times as locals: a dip in the canal, which is pretty much like swimming in a bottle of Evian (straight out of the fridge, brr!). If you’re anything like me and enjoy seeing cities with a bit of peace and quiet, visit Zürich any time of the year, except the three days during Zuri Fäscht. (Also ideal if you do plan on using the app) But if you’re looking to be a part of the greatest summer celebration, with the biggest fireworks and the most civilized (?) festival etiquette I’ve experienced in my life, then book your tickets now for 2016.

A big thank you to the Swiss Tourism Board for the hospitality!