Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Murano Urban Resort: Rock'n'Roll Hotel

Thanks to the magic of Google Alerts, I found this story about the French hotel "Murano Urban Resort" in the Telegraph:

The French are good at many things - chefs, fashion, arrogance - but can they rock? Ask the average passenger on a Paris-bound Eurostar to name five famous French pop stars and you're sure to provoke a lot of head scratching. There's the perennial Johnny Hallyday, and you might also come up with Jean-Michel Jarre, Françoise Hardy, Vanessa Paradis - and, er… This is a cultural failing frequently acknowledged by the French media, who never stop wondering why great cities such as Paris or Marseille can't churn out global stars the way they do in Liverpool and LA. As the style magazine Jalouse recently put it, "Le pays de Molière et le rock, c'est un mariage foutu d'avance" (the country of Molière and rock and roll: that's a marriage made in hell). The French never stop hoping, though. Apparently the world is about to be wowed by new Gallic guitar bands such as the HushPuppies and The Parisians, while visitors to the capital can now book a ground-breaking hotel package that boldly offers the chance to "enjoy 48 hours of rock 'n' roll lifestyle in Paris".

...To get the full, super-cool effect of the Murano, though, you'll want to book a "Rock 'n' Luxe" weekend that includes tickets to see stars such as Elton John, Lou Reed and U2 in venues ranging from Opéra Bastille to the Paris-Bercy stadium. Our visit coincided with Kylie Minogue's Showgirl tour at Zénith, an unremarkable amphitheatre in the very civic cultural complex at La Villette. "I could get used to this rock 'n' roll lifestyle," my wife declared as we were whisked there in a chauffeur-driven Alfa Romeo that is all part of the package.
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It smells a bit of fromage to me, but I wouldn't mind trying it out.

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