Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   Driving Home for Christmas…  Hands down, that's my favourite song for the festive season.  Nearly 113 million Americans alone are expected to travel at least 50 miles from home for the holidays, with 102 million driving, some 7.2 million planning to fly and 3.6 million planning to take a bus, train or boat.  So while Christmas is certainly a time for eating, drinking, gifting and cocooning with family, it’s without doubt the biggest time of year for travel. On that note, let’s do a little armchair travelling this weekend…  Imagine yourself getting home for the holidays on one of those [streamliner trains that oozed the elegance of old world travel](. Rail travel is set to see a major comeback in the next few years. Climb aboard and experience the [lost romance of the sleeper train](. Flying home? Let’s reminisce over [airplanes that had piano bars, cocktail lounges, pubs, and restaurants](. Or for something in between, hop on [the flying rail plane that never was](. Maybe a [flying yacht]( is more your speed? Slightly less luxurious but certainly most unusual, discover [the secrets of travelling the world on a cargo ship](. Sticking to the seas, get [your ticket aboard the world’s first cruise ship]( – let’s just hope you get home in time for Christmas dinner.   Personally, I love the freedom of a good road trip. And if I was still of a certain age to be asking Santa for gifts, at the top of my list would without a doubt, be [a caravan yacht](.  But spare a thought for the delivery guys on the road this Christmas, doing their best to make sure we get our gifts on time.  Speaking of which, we’re ringing the bell for “LAST ORDERS!”  Get your orders in before Sunday at the stroke of midnight for delivery via Santa’s slay.  PS. don’t forget if you [order 2 books or more]( you get FREE Express Shipping with DHL using the discount code “FREEDHL” at checkout.  And when the gifts are sorted, settle into your weekend conversation starters.  Stay curious, [Nessy]   [The Modernist Maharajas](   [7 98002_0]( Theirs is a fairy tale with all the elements that titillate and intrigue us mere mortals no end: a glamorous royal couple living in the lap of luxury, a marriage at an unimaginably young age, the flamboyant holidays on the Côte d’Azur in the company of Man Ray, a jaw-droppingly avant-garde palace, her tragic, untimely…  [Continue Reading](   [All Aboard! The Lost Romance of the Sleeper Train](   [7 98002_0]( Books, songs and movies have long-romanticised what it’s like to travel overnight on a sleeper train. Julie Garland took us on a musical ride along the Santa Fe Railway in The Harvey Girls, while Bing Crosby and company whisked us across the American plains to the mountains of Vermont aboard a beautifully vintage streamliner train in White Christmas…  [Continue Reading](   [Signed, Sealed, But Not Always Delivered: The Lost Art of Letterlocking](   [chest]( “I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in the morning” is a heartbreakingly frank line taken from the final letter written by Mary Queen of Scots, on 8th February 1587, the morning of her execution at the command of her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. This brutally honest letter, addressed to her brother-in-law,…  [Continue Reading](   [What David Bowie Learned from the Gugging Psychiatric Institution](   [42206844_2176859825682176_5186569486941028352_n-1]( By 1994 David Bowie’s musical career was in a bit of a quiet phase, let’s say. He hadn’t managed to recreate the massive success of his 1983 album Lets Dance. Ziggy Stardust had long since departed back to the cosmos, The Thin White Duke had been retired, and Bowie’s latest incarnation, Tin Machine, had disbanded.…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXXVIII)](   [317757975_837250710883066_1090041423299115479_n]( 1. Retro Paper Architecture View this post on Instagram A post shared by Charles Young (@paperholm_) Paper art and architecture (available in glass domes) by Charles Young. Shop the art here. Found via Present & Correct.  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessy Keyholder? [Apply now to unlock the Vault!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To read more from MessyNessyChic visit the Blog]( and make sure you keep getting these email by adding contact@messynessychic.com to your address book or whitelist us. Our postal address: In a Café, Paris 75001 Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](.