Jana Frawley

We check out Los Angeles’ most exclusive zip code, where celebrities play, dogs ride in prams and everyone’s an influencer on Insta.

It’s home and a wave as we check in to the newly refurbished Manly Pacific hotel, on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Close to 1000 days after my last international trip, I said au revoir to Australia and bonjour to France.

Without thinking too hard, a list of pre-holiday viewing and reading set in the great destinations of the world is easy to compile. Going to Italy? Get acquainted with the history, culture and romance of the country by reading The Agony and the Ecstasy, A Room with a View, or Elena Ferrante’s more contemporary My Brilliant Friend. Heading to New York? Binge-watch Sex and the City or go for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, When Harry Met Sally, Moonstruck or Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Vegas? Ocean’s Eleven and Thirteen, and The Hangover (I never said this was going to be all highbrow).

In an average week I’d see a Bentley, starting price $275,000, a total of never. In a month, the number’s just the same. Yearly, once, maybe twice. But during a four-day stay in Monaco, I spot at least 25 plus an assortment of customised Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bugattis, Aston Martins and something that looks like a Batmobile but is possibly a McLaren. Or a Pagani.

When materials such a moss, acorn, twigs and ivy are part of a building’s structure, you could be forgiven for thinking you’re staying in a treehouse.