From Paris to Champagne, with Love

The ability to warm (or cool) your bottom at the touch of a button puts you firmly in the league of luxury.

- JAMIE NONIS

Paris is always a good idea. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) certainly thinks so, and we couldn’t agree more. It’s our first excursion back since the pandemic, and the city hasn’t lost its charm. Throngs of tourists are back, it’s shopping galore along Champs-Élysées, Notre-Dame is being lovingly restored following the devastating fire of 2019, traffic around the Arc de Triomphe is as frantic as we remember, and the Eiffel Tower stands triumphant amidst it all.

Paris is in the thick of rugby fever when we arrive, with the World Cup finals a week away. And the good folk at JLR have decided the French capital is a good place to introduce its facelifted Evoque — the baby of the Range Rover family — as the compact SUV is popular in these parts. And it’s easy to see why. 

The modern luxury SUV stands in pretty contrast to the Belle Époque architecture of the city and yet is evidently right at home along these picturesque Parisian streets. Particularly in Corinthian Bronze, a handsome chocolatey hue, to which we are handed the keys. It certainly struck a pretty picture juxtaposed against the revolving entrance of Le Royal Monceau — Raffles Paris, a beautiful 1920s hotel of historical renown transformed by Philippe Starck in 2010.