The Dune Hotel Blog

French cinema “on A.I.R”

Emilie — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:15:54 +0000

Few month ago we had the great pleasure to invite Michel Spinosa in our Artists In Residence program. He came to get a lot of material, research for his new script. It was a great experiment to work with him. And we discovered a very talented director and a sentient being. He went back to Paris to write his story. And maybe soon he will come back to shoot the movie.

We wish him the best for this new movie.

Looking forward to meet him again.

Save Earth

Emilie — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:08:54 +0000

There is a cute small round press button at the bottom right corner of almost all monitors: Please make use of this.

Stop printing out Harry Poter, Jeffrey Archer and other e-books. This is a classic example of paper wastage.

If you have forgotten to give double-side prints, make sure you make use of the empty sides as scribbling pads or for your kids’ imposition !

Take two minutes from your busy schedule before hurrying back home to shut down the computer.

All of us are big time Googlers. Have you heard of the Blackle search engine? Blackle (Google powered) is a search engine designed all in Rich Black so that your system consumes less power.

So change your homepage.

Plastic bags these days indeed come in bright and flamboyant colours and tempt us to take them home with us. But the saying, “Appearances are deceptive” holds true for these plastic things too. Next time, hold back or go prepared to counter temptation with a cloth bag.

Roses, Jasmine, Hibiscus and Peas; All these saplings cost hardly between Rs 10 - 20 each. Can’t we afford to plant these in and around our houses? Also, more importantly, caring and maintain them as they grow?

Try to segregate the different kinds of waste into Bio-Degradable (Fruit or vegetable waste) , Recyclable (waste Paper, paper products) and Electronics (Floppy disks, CD-ROMS ). Once you have segregated your thrash, look for specialized trash cans to throw them away.

Use rechargeable batteries though it’s an expensive product, it’s one-time purchase. Recharge when required. (Same applies to cell-phones, MP3s, iPods and Laptops)

Remember to close water taps before preening in front of the mirror. Of course you are beautiful, but Water is precious resource!

Let’s not just wake up and walk out of finished meetings and conferences with a sigh of relief, let us remember to turn off the lights and projectors too.

Take few minutes to learn about topics like ‘Global Warming’ , ‘Air / Noise /Land / Water Pollution ‘ etc apart from constant surfing of News, Latest Gadgets, Movies and Music.

The Earth has already become a dangerous place to live in for the animals and birds. Soon it might be our turn. So let’s pledge to save our beautiful planet so that you and your future generations can live happily and peacefully ever after.

Takla Makan

Emilie — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:22:43 +0000

Melissa and Nazar have open a fashion design studio in Pondicherry.
It is ready wear collection and accessories for men, women and children.
They are in love with our planet and are promoting responsible and ethical activities.

They have installed an amazing corner made of an old Indian door frame
for their brand Takla Makan at Paradise shop and we had a very nice lunch together.

We wish them a big success.

Melissa & Nazar

NoArt The return !!!!

Emilie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:35:40 +0000

Yes they did it! Noart with his family gang came back after 5 years! Nathalie his wife, Lola his 10 years old sweet daugther and his very cute 7 years old twins Tom and Mathieu jumped in the swimming pool as soon as they arrived and enjoyed 12 days of bliss at the Dune. Kids caught the indian way of life very fast, having yoga class, going to temples, being blessed by the elephant, and eating murgh malai kebab every day! After two days of rest and hanging around Noart had an idea…wich we hapilly made come true….He simply floodligth the artist studio one with a masterpiece!

Noart his our soul artist, he gave us a door to eternity (the famous beach gate), today he illuminates the rooms, waiting deseperatly for the next idea a door again ????

Please come back soon we all miss you!

Noart fixing his masterpiece in artist studio one

FLOWER POWER

Emilie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:41:23 +0000

Our dear friend José Ferré came for 15 days to relax and enjoy The Dune. In the meantime he identified the flowers in land. Thanks for this lovely job.

Enjoy.

“WonDiorLand” in more pictures…

Emilie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:16:35 +0000

As the demand is tremendous here are some more and better pictures…ENJOY

Love to all.

Bird eye

Emilie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:45:28 +0000

Nicolas Chorrier better known as Nicopix gave us his vision of The Dune.

The place looks so small when you are a bird!

Thanks!

The Dune from Top

Dior At The Dune…Simply Magical

Emilie — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:54:56 +0000

Dear All

Sometimes in life there is what we call “Instant de grace”. It was really what happened this last four days at the Dune. The team of Dior perfume choose the Dune to launch their last “baby” named “Escale à Pondichéry”.

Fourty journalist from all over the world, Kalyani Chawla (the indian face of Dior) and François Demachy (Senior vice president of olfactive development of perfumes for the LVMH group) were invited to discover the perfume. No need to tell the huge organisation that everybody had to display. Jérome Pulis (director of international communication ) and Sandrine Bourley-Heyler (director of events) started to work with our team few weeks before. They asked Sumant Jayakrishnan to be the set designer for the event. Instead of a simple set designer he became a sort of a “Great Wizard” and everywhere he puts his inspiration the Dune transformed as a “WONDERLAND”. All the guests had a total olfactive trip. Each Dinner was a “fragrance” journey and a delight for the senses, corridors of tuberose, swimming pool filled up with roses, candles light, colors, tribal music, Katak dance, experimental cuisine and kindness of the staff. A very warm athmosphere surrounded everybody. They felt at home, protected and constantly filled with wonder. Nothing to worry they just went with the flow.

But we have to insiste here on the magical and tremendous team work wich happened so naturally. Everybody gave his best to create this unforgettable happening. So we deeply thanks everybody for their energy, creativity, organisation, punctuality, modesty, and lets say it: humanity!

It was Rare, Magical, Brilliant,Sublim, Spectacular and so Generous.

THANK YOU ALL

Kalyani Chawla arrives at the Dune

François Demachy started with a blessing

The first Dinner around the pool

Gala Dinner

The Tribal and last Dinner

Sumant Jayakrishnan “The Wizard” and Sunil Varghese

Indian Masks

“Escale à Pondichéry”

Mister Frears

Emilie — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:56:47 +0000

One of the best movie director of our time came for holidays with his daugther and enjoyed The Dune. Just to freshened up your memorie : My beautiful Laundrette, Samy and Rosy get laid, Prick up your ears, Dangerous Liaisons and recently the Queen and Chéri. Thanks Mister Frears for visiting us we really hope you had a good time.

Looking forward to see you again

The Dune team.

Stephen Frears

Dear Dune’s Blog readers

Emilie — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:39:46 +0000

Sorry Sorry to be so fickle but sometimes I let myself going with flow. Life is so peaceful here at The Dune.

Anyway …here some good news.

Our dear Nougat had five very cute ducklings and more are on the way…

Nougat and her babies

And we would like to introduce you to the best Alliance Française’s director wich won the award of the most well adapted director we ever met: Michel Houdayer. A little tribute to his work , he made with his wife Santa the alliance a very living place and a lot is happening there. Bravo Michel.

Michel Houdayer