The famed scarlet windmill at the Moulin Rouge cabaret venue in Paris will be available to book for overnight stays for the first time. The attraction's owners have partnered with Airbnb to give a handful of guests the opportunity to stay inside a recreated 19th century room that was once hidden from the public.
The secret room in the windmill has been converted into a boudoir with pastel pink curtains and adorned with flowers and the same lace fittings as the nightclub below. The venue can be booked for an overnight stay for the symbolic price of €1. The dates being offered are June 13, 20 and 27, and bookings can be made from May 17.
The stay also includes backstage access and a private tour of the Moulin Rouge, a traditional three-course French meal by resident chef Arnaud Demerville and seats to the theatre's long-running stage show Feerie. The venue, with its symbolic red windmill is in the Montmartre district of Paris and was built in 1889.
“Attending a show at the Moulin Rouge offers an escape from the everyday and an incredible immersion into the glamour and grandeur of French Music Hall. The Belle Epoque-inspired interior of our much-loved windmill will transport guests to the era from which this timeless cabaret emerged,” said lead dancer and Airbnb host Claudine Van Den Bergh.
To recreate the room, Airbnb collaborated with 19th century French historian Jean-Claude Yon to authentically renovate the windmill as it would have been in its heyday.
“The Belle Epoque era was a time when French culture and arts flourished — and no landmark is more iconic to that period than the Moulin Rouge. This secret room inside the cabaret’s famous windmill has been designed to take you on an authentic journey back in time to experience the French capital of arts and pleasures during a moment in history,” said Yon.
Bookings for the Moulin Rouge on Airbnb will open from on May 17 at 9pm UAE time on May 17.
The view from The National
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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