Elizabeth Hurley | The BEST Restaurant in Paris

0:03Welcome to Travel Secrets with me, Tanya Rose, the podcast sharing wisdom for fellow travelers. Each week, I ask my guests to reveal their six travel secrets and the holidays and adventures that surround them. I would just like to say thank you to Mason Rose, the sales and communication agency that represents some of the finest hotels around the world for partnering with Travel Secrets, the podcast.

0:33Today, my guest is the lovely Elizabeth Hurley, actress, model, producer, founder of Elizabeth Hurley Beach and ambassador for Esther Lord's amazing cancer campaign. And I have to say now, because it's such a poignant day, I'm so sorry to hear about Mr. Lord. I know. You know, it's really sad because when I first auditioned for my Esther Lord contract 30 years ago, over 30 years ago, Leonard was in charge. So Leonard was the one that chose me. And he's been so unbelievable to me over the years. I always called him my American daddy because he and his late wife Evelyn really were like parents for me then and yes he he died on Saturday 92 fabulous life wonderful life but an amazing amazing man loved popular he I remember him and Evelyn coming to my wedding in India back in 2007 I mean I'm now divorced but everyone's still good friends and they were last up at the party they were dancing staying in tents They were amazing.

1:38So he's going to be truly missed. Well, the tributes have been amazing and he did have a well-lived life. So we wish him well wherever he is. Yeah, he'll be in heaven. So you have traveled all over the world with your job. I can't wait to hear your travel secrets. But before we get into them, perhaps you can just tell us a bit about yourself and about how travel has impacted the person you've become. Well, I have traveled an enormous amount. But because of my job being in show business, I haven't been that, I've never really had any time to travel per se. So really wherever I've gone, it's been because I've been paid to be there for a job.

2:16So in my holiday, actual vacation choices, I've been fairly dull because I'm normally exhausted at the end of a shoot or something. And then I very boringly go to exactly the same places every time where I want to be in complete silence and no one talks to me. And I can just lie down and read a book. So as a vacationer, I'm incredibly boring. I always went to the Caribbean until I discovered the Maldives. And now I'm really hard pressed to go anywhere but the Maldives because it's silent and there's nothing going on. So, you know, obviously anybody who goes to the Maldives to have a fun time, they're not going to have one unless their fun is lying down reading a trashy book in the shade, which is my joy.

2:59But for work, I've traveled absolutely everywhere. Did you grow up traveling? No, not very much. My dad was in the army, so we did move around quite a bit. But we didn't have swanky holidays when I was young. So in fact, the first time that I really had sort of a swanky holiday was my very first job. Sorry, not a holiday, I was working. It was my first job ever. And it was back in the 80s. and it was a theater tour of the middle and the far east with I don't know if you remember Derek Nimmo and Leslie Phillips well it was their theater tour and I was playing sort of the young young ingenue and Leslie Phillips was the hello dirty old man father of my boyfriend but that was the first time that I really traveled and part of his deals with British Airways so we had first class flights and we stayed in the smartest hotels and I was sort of 20 or something and I really I didn't even have a credit card at that stage, but we were allowed to sign anything to our room apart from alcohol.

4:00And it was just unbelievable. So I had three or four months and that was my first real adventurous travel. And we went all around the Middle East and then all the way around the Far East, finishing up in Korea before we came home for Christmas. And that still to this day was probably my best job ever to quite honestly. That's amazing. And that was so long ago that you went to Korea. So long ago. Yep. Now it's the trendy place to go. Everyone wants to go to South Korea. It's amazing. Yes, that possibly wasn't my favourite part of the trip. In fact, the Middle East was enormous fun because, you know, we were so young.

4:30And I bet they were fun, those two. We were just so wide-eyed and it was so fabulous. So that's really when I started realising how wonderful it would be to just see these amazing places and be paid to be there and be busy. Because I'm not a very good tourist, but I'm a very good traveler. Well, let's get into your travel secrets then. So what's the number one destination you think everyone should go to once in their lifetime? This new year, I went with, funnily enough, some mutual friends of ours, Trini and Elizabeth Day. And Trini had organized a trip to Egypt. And I'd been to Egypt on business before, in and out and in and out, but I'd never really seen it in all its glory.

5:11So it would be pretty sad, I think, to get to the end of your life without seeing the Great Pyramid. And also visiting Luxor was absolutely extraordinary. And the boat looked wonderful as well. Yeah, the boat was beautiful. I think if I did that trip again, I would say don't rush through Cairo. I wish we'd had more time in Cairo. Because the museums, both the old and the new, are magnificent. And I'm not a big museum person. And I remembered when I was there that I didn't really like it with a guide. I prefer to read the bits on it because they're only really telling you what's written very precisely on the card.

5:51But as it is, you have to sit there listening for a really long time. You're like, oh, hang on, I can see that. It's a 12th century and it's this. So I would have done more time in Cairo, probably more time in Luxor, probably a little less time on the boat, but it was beautiful. But you know, once you're on a boat, you suddenly become incredibly fussy about your food and about this, that, and the other. Whereas of course, when you're in a very smart hotel somewhere you can have what you like yes absolutely i've just come back from istanbul had the best food in the best hotel i just stayed at the peninsula in istanbul and honestly i can put my hand on my heart and say i think it is the best new hotel in europe oh it is extraordinary so lovely to stay in a five-star luxury hotel isn't it heaven it's just heaven i always fall in love with every shoes and every pillow but when i saw your trip to egypt it did make me really want to go I've seen the pyramids in Cairo but I've always wanted to do that death on the Nile boat trip so I'm going to find out from Trini the name of that boat because it looked really glamorous and lovely well there's probably other boats too but yeah yeah no there's we saw a couple of I'll tell you what my okay so my tip for this is and this is why this boat wasn't the ideal boat because we went for New Year and it's cold at night.

7:06It's really nippy. So I think that if you're going to go at that time of year, you should be in one of the boats that have glass enclosures at the top, which we didn't have. So we were dressed in skiing jackets because it was quite nippy, which we hadn't been expecting. But I think if you went in the spring, that boat would have been absolutely fantastic. That would be my tip if anyone's traveling on the Nile. Very good tip. What's your most unexpected travel experience? Once I agreed to do a movie, which sounded great, in Moscow. This is not recently. This was maybe eight years ago. So everyone was friends with Russia.

7:44And we all had lots of Russian friends and went there quite often. So I was offered this lovely movie with Gérard Depardieu in Moscow. And I was very excited. And then a few weeks before we were about to leave, the director called me, He was French. And he said, can we have a conversation, but don't tell your agent. And I was like, normally in the olden days, that would have been a nude scene. We have not put into script. And I was like, they're not going to ask me to do that. I'm way too old for a nude scene. What does he want? And he said, well, you know, I said we were shooting in Moscow. And I said, yes, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

8:14There is a slight change, but it is so much better. We're going to Groshny. I'm like, Groshny? Hang on, Groshny? I know Groshny. It's been in the news, surely. I'm like, not Chechnya. And he's like, but yes, we are going to shoot in Chechnya. So, of course, everybody said, don't go, don't go, don't go. But this had happened to me before when I'd been offered a movie in St. Petersburg much earlier on when it was a little bit dodgier there. And they were like, you can't go to St. Petersburg. You're going to get kidnapped. Your baby will get kidnapped. You can't go. So I didn't do that. And another actress, quite important, did the job.

8:45And I was an idiot. So I thought, you know what? I'm going to go and do this job. So I did spend a month in Chechnya filming. and that was a very interesting experience. And Depardieu would probably be in a very exciting experience as well. Well, he was great. The funniest thing about him is that he actually speaks perfect English, but because he doesn't really want to talk to anyone, he pretends he can't. So he just basically used to shoot French. No, he spoke grunt. He didn't actually even speak French. When you walk in the morning, he'd go, and you'd go, hey, he'd go, and dig you in the ribs a bit.

9:23And you say, oh, you know, how was your evening? And you go, oh, and that was it. Oh my God, that's hilarious. So apart from doing our lines, it was just a lot of, but it was actually quite sweet. And I love Gerard. And the funny thing is, even though Chechnya was an alarming place to be, obviously, because it's, you know, they'd only just, they were just rebuilding Grozny after the war and it was still under the control of the military. So it was scary in many ways. Quite interesting. I saw quite a lot of firearms. Yes, firearms galore. But once I was home safely, I really enjoyed it. You're fine.

9:56And did you get to go to Moscow? Yeah, we shot a bit in Moscow too. Okay, so you got to Russia in the end. We got to Russia in the end. I've shot quite a few times in Russia, actually. I shot just as communism was collapsing. And we shot, funnily enough, in the Ukraine, in Moscow and the Ukraine. But that was the time in Moscow before there were all the smart shops. There was one dollar shop still where if you had dollars, you could go and buy a razor blade or, you know, a tin of soup or something or a bath plug. Otherwise, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we went to Yalta just when it was crumbling there.

10:30Oh, did you? And people were crying every day. My dresser was this beautiful young Ukrainian girl. And she was crying because I think their currency had sort of collapsed literally whilst we were there filming. I was there with, I think it was with ITV. I was feeling sharp. Do you remember Sharp with Sean Bean? Yes, loved it. Sean Bean, back in the day. Back in the day. It was about 92 or something we were shooting. It's 92, 93. And it was a sad time, but it was a beautiful time. Yeah. I met Sean Bean very briefly. Albert Finney was my son's godfather. And we were having lunch in the Ivy. And my best friend said, kept looking over.

11:07And he said, what are you looking at, Zara? And she said, I'm looking at Sean Bean over there. And he went, I'm the famous person at this table. You should be looking at me. And he went over to Sean. He went, Sean, you don't know me. I'm Albert Finney. But one of the girls at my table really fancies you. Will you come and join us? Then my friend went, yes, he did. Because he's shy. He came because of Albert. Nothing to do with my friend. He wasn't remotely interested in her. But he had had the same voice coach as Albert. So he was just besotted with him. And we had the most hilarious time. It was just very funny.

11:36Well, he was extraordinary because he was very shy. And this was way before cell phones in 92. and indeed in Russia, no hard lines either. I mean, there was absolutely none. There was one hard line in one sort of interesting hotel we were all staying in. But Sean was so obsessed with his football team, which was one of the Sheffield ones, the one that was called Blades, because he had blades tattooed on his arm, that every Saturday at 4 p.m. or whatever, he was allowed the phone and he called his mom in Sheffield who put the phone by the radio. The loud speaker? Yeah, so that he could listen. There was no hands-free or anything, so that he could listen to the whole of Blades playing.

12:19I know. Very, very funny. Sheffield Wednesday, I think. Oh, yeah, Sheffield Wednesday. Or Sheffield United. I don't know. Either or. I know there's two, and I wouldn't have a clue. No, I don't know which one. But he was adorable, but shy. Very fun. So what's your most overrated or underrated place that you've been to? To be honest, I've sort of enjoyed almost everywhere I've been, And even if it was somewhere that, you know, sounds as if you're not going to have a great time, like Chechnya, I actually had such a laugh. And I remember really back in the day when I was filming for the BBC, I mean, way back, one of my first jobs, we shot in Budapest when it was still communist.

12:57And that too, though, was actually fabulous. And I shot a couple of movies in that Caribbean in the last few years. And they were fabulous too. I mean, yes, there's mosquitoes and, you know, there's not always a great selection of food, etc. And it's quite hard because it's very noisy with the sound if you're doing night shoots. And the movie my son directed was in the Caribbean. So sound was an issue. But to be honest, wherever I end up shooting, I kind of love it. And you make the most of it. Yeah, I think so. I remember doing a movie in Nova Scotia, which I loved. New York in the summer, I don't suppose, is anyone's favorite destination to shoot in because of the humidity.

13:40But I kind of loved all of it, really. Where's the Caribbean island that you go back to most of the time? Well, I always used to go to Mustique, and I loved Mustique. In fact, that's the only one I go to. We shot in Nevis. I did three movies in Nevis because, well, funnily enough, it's the same French friend that did Chechnya. So I obviously didn't hold it against him. He set up a production company there, and we did a couple of movies there. But I like Mastique because I do always crave a bit of privacy. So I found Mastique really gave me that. But as I said, I lost my heart to the Maldives. I love the Maldives too.

14:18No mosquitoes. I know it's because they're zapping it with Bugsbury, but I'm okay with that. There's a new hotel opening in January in the Maldives, which is going to be so fabulous. It's called Dot Here. Oh. but it's next to another hotel but it's got a bridge and it's three private villas with 10 bedrooms each and it is going to be sensational wow you must go there wow you would love it Damien would love it that sounds unbelievable your friends so you basically have a private party so you have the other hotel if you want to go and have a bit more life and restaurants and stuff yes and the diving and everything but otherwise you've got your own private villa and it's going to be absolutely divine So January next year.

15:02I'm going to get my diary out. Absolutely. Absolutely. And where did you go in the Maldives when you went? Some of my favorites, I think. I like Vila very much. Yeah, it's beautiful. And for different reasons, I like the other ones. I mean, Cheval Blanc is pretty smart, but sometimes it's a bit too racy and buzzy for me because I like it a bit quieter. I went to a lovely place called Vaccarou, which I couldn't have liked more. And that's when we did the absolute best. We were in a little boat. With so many dolphins. I've never seen so many dolphins in my life. Riding along beside us. I mean, it seemed like there were hundreds of them.

15:37That was the best ocean bit. Because I don't actually dive. But I really love watching dolphins. I mean, that was exquisite. And did you do a beach campaign there? I have done many before, but no. Well, actually, funnily enough, you say that, yes. Every time I go, we are shooting beach. But it's actually not really official shoots. It's really me and my son. and we shoot a ton of content, which we then hoard and keep using. Yeah, until we next go to another Maldives. The first Maldives I ever went to was Riti Ra. And I have to say, it is still magnificent. Yeah, it is. It's wonderful. I mean, it's not as sexy as all the new fangled huts and stuff, but there's something beautifully run about it.

16:20And the restaurants and the choice. I don't really like it when I go to a resort and there's only one place to eat. No, especially in the Maldives, you can't go anywhere else. You can't go anywhere. So I'm not that fussy about food, but sometimes you do think, oh, my goodness, I'd like another menu. Yeah. I don't want another piece of broiled fish. Thank you. Are you still your own model for your company? Yes, I am. Well, you are the best model that you could be. Oh, I don't know about that. In fact, I think we sent you years ago to a place in Mauritius called Shanty and Ander. Oh, you did? Yes, I think we did years and years ago.

16:49Gina, I knew we'd done something together. I told Biggins that, and then I lost a laptop, and I lost a load of stuff, so I actually couldn't search. That was years ago. Oh, yes, we did. Yeah, exactly. Mauritius. Shanti Ananda. Well, I know when that was, funnily enough. You do? Well, I do know exactly when it was because, A, we did do a proper beach shoot. Yeah. I think it was for Hello, wasn't it? Yeah, that was a proper one. Well, we did it and then we licensed some to them. We used to license them to whoever we felt like. But I particularly remember that because a month later, my son was going to do his entrance for Summerfields.

17:24And we realized that he couldn't do long division or all sorts of things. So I spent the entire holiday teaching him long division, checking his long multiplication and whatever, ready for his Summerfields test. That is so funny. And my husband did exactly the same thing. We go to the Column d 'Or every summer, three weeks. And he was just before he went to Summerfields, my husband found the same. He couldn't do maths. So he was teaching him his times tables. And I speak fluent French. There was a French couple next to us and they said, look at that awful English man making that poor little boy.

17:54doing his time stable. Let's talk about food and drink. We've talked a little bit about it, but it's so important in life and in travel. Travel is the most important thing. So what do you like eating? Where do you like eating? What's your favorite cocktail? What's your favorite meal? What's the best meal you've ever had? That's a lot of questions. A lot of questions. You can just ask one. Well, I've often been asked in interviews and stuff, they always say, what would your dead man walking meal be, you know death row and it would be the Ritz in Paris is spaghetti bolognese have you ever had it no oh my god I have I mean it's so delicious I love spaghetti bolognese anyway oh well the Ritz in Paris is spaghetti bolognese I mean there must be maybe two pounds of butter per portion and it actually comes separately they don't mix the meat with the pasta and the pasta's got so much butter on it but it is the most delicious that would be my my death row last supper oh my god you have to have it oh no I'm going to the only thing I've ever eaten in the Ritz is a club sandwich which is very good as well I have to say yeah but but then you always get white bread don't you yes no spaghetti bolognese oh great okay I love the Ritz in Paris I think it's such a beautiful hotel me too is that where you always stay I like to yeah yeah when you can and what else do you eat when you go uh well to be honest I'll really eat anything I'm allergic to clams so if anyone's doing a delicious vongoli thing I can't have it but But otherwise, I pretty much eat.

19:20I'll eat anything that's put in front of me. I'm not that fussy. I mean, I eat pretty. To me, I don't eat that healthily. But I think sometimes when you see what other people eat, one realizes how healthily one actually does eat without even thinking you're eating healthily. Do you go to local farm shops and things like that then when you're in the country living there? Yes. Yeah, and it's really boring. Well, I mean, I couldn't have a delivery if I wanted one because there isn't any. I mean, there's literally nothing to eat unless you've slaved over the other. So we cook everything. and um yeah we go to well we've got an excellent local butcher um so i get meat from him and i also have a really wonderful man in northern ireland who i buy beef from which is brilliant on instagram he's called meet pete and his beef is unbelievable and he ships it to you in the country he ships it to us and there's an amazing fish man in grimsby alfred endby in grimsby has unbelievable fresh fish which he sends to you and he also makes salmon mousses and all sorts of things so he's great.

20:22So I do a bit of I have to do quite a bit of online shopping because we're all the way out in Herefordshire and we don't really have any we don't have a waitress or anything. Is there a nice pub near you that you go to? I mean I'm sure you could drive to one. Yeah but that's not that's not the local. I'm too lazy to leave the house really. I don't really go anywhere. When you were married to Aaron did you love curry? I love India. I love Indian food. I absolutely love it and do you love India? love India it really is like a second home to me and I still go there a couple of times a year because I still make caftans and stuff there in Bombay so I love it and I'm the greediest ever when I'm in India I can't control myself I eat everything my sister got married in India and everyone else in our party had terrible tummies except for me because I ate curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

21:15I didn't have anything else. By the end of two weeks, I was thinking maybe I should drink the water so that I actually go to the living room. But I didn't. It's such a different experience, isn't it? Well, you know, it's actually quite interesting because I think because Arun was Indian and grew up in India, everybody I hung out with there were Indians because that's who he was with. I mean, there's some international people, but it was very Indian. And I have been to other places before So years before that, my then boyfriend did a movie in Calcutta, for example. And I realized that most of the people that we're hanging with were probably expats.

21:52And sometimes the same when you go to Africa. And I actually realized that it's a much, much more fulfilling and better experience when, of course, you make friends with people who are actually from that place. And it's just a completely different experience. So all my friends, funnily enough, I went to a charity event for the Royal Ballet last night. and at my table was a really nice girl that I know from Bombay. I know her sister very well. And they're just, it's just a different experience when you can hang with the locals. It's just much nicer. I think it's very important to do that, actually.

22:26Even if you're not going to a different continent, even when you go to Venice, for example, you should ask the locals where they go and do that. You want to hang with a load of Brits everywhere you go. No, absolutely. No, you definitely don't want to do that. What is your top travel tip? Well, it has to be about the packing, doesn't it? Packing and footwear. It doesn't have to be, but it probably should be. Yeah, it's miserable. I mean, it's really miserable to be somewhere and you've just got inappropriate clothing. Too hot, too thick, too cold, too skimpy, uncomfortable shoes, not a hat. It's just miserable.

23:05So I think as you grow up, you realize to be less cavalier about that and be really boring like Trini. She's the best packer in the world. I keep telling her she needs to come and show me how to do it. Well, you can watch it on Instagram. I know, but I still can't do it. Her tutorials are amazing. They're really good. But I haven't got the rails. I mean, she's just amazing when she does it. But I think also you have so much better time because you take so much less. So this November, last November, we went to the Melbourne Cup. And it was the first time I'd been back to Melbourne since Shane died.

23:37And so it was, we knew it was going to be a very traumatic trip. So we linked it into going racing and also an opportunity to, you know, to get some closure in other ways. And I just thought, I don't want to take a ton of luggage with me. So I did a real Trini pack. Did you? Absolutely. It took me about a week and I didn't take a single excess. But everything was lined up. Every outfit was exactly ready. I had no stress on the day. Everything, I just knew it. And you wore every single thing? I wore pretty much everything, especially the events. I wore exactly what I told them I was going to wear.

24:13I had hats, shoes, but I had everything lined up. And then, in fact, you can pack quite small. And it was great. Well, Rich DeGrant and I have a running thing that he only takes hand luggage. And I only take check-in luggage. So when we were in Istanbul this weekend, I had like this massive suitcase. And he was so close. He said, and I'm going to have to wait for you at the other end. Yeah. But he's amazing. He takes one little suitcase and he went to the souk and shopped like crazy and still had enough room. It's extraordinary. I bet he only had one pair of shoes. I bet he wore gym shoes the whole time.

24:46He actually bought some shoes in the Grand Bazaar. So I don't know where he put those. Anyway, my suitcase was expandable. I'm very glad it was because I bought many, many things when we were there. I just cannot do hand luggage. Can't do it. Trini does. I know. She does. And she goes to New York. But she does do that one that you can only take on BA. Yeah. And she does have a big bag. She puts a big Ramoah and she puts a big bag on top. Yeah. Then wraps half her clothes around her. Yes. She has about five scarves. But I bet you she wasn't cold in Egypt because I bet you she had the right stuff, didn't she?

25:17Yeah, probably. She probably had her thermals from Uniqlo or wherever it is that she buys them. I have those too. No, I have thermals from Uniqlo. I probably copied her. Yeah, I took way too much to Egypt. I mean, it was miserable. Miserable. Silly me. So what's your most poignant travel experience? Um, well, actually going back to Melbourne just now for the Melbourne Cup was, it was very bittersweet. I got very upset, but then I was very glad that I went. And I know when I next go back to Australia, it'll be fine. Was Shane from Melbourne? Yeah, he was from Melbourne. All his family are there.

25:54And so, you know, I could see his mum and dad and brother. And it was the first time I'd seen them since. I'd seen the kids before because they'd come to England. So yeah, that was really full of disturbing. Yeah, that wasn't good, but I'm really glad I've done it. My dad died in Paris. So whenever I go back to Paris, I always feel sort of a little bit strange. Was he on holiday there or working there? Yeah, he was on holiday. He was actually staying with me. Oh no. But I remember things like teaching Damien to swim. That was actually at Riti Ra in the Maldives. and that will always be a beautiful memory for me.

26:32Just little things like that, I think. And my mother doesn't travel very much, but I took her to Mustique and that's one of her happiest memories of being there with us. She loved that. Otherwise, I'm not that sentimental, really, because I am almost always there for work. But I think visiting... Actually, I'm quite sentimental about Madrid because Madrid was one of the first films I ever did as a grown-up. And I just had such a lovely time there because no one in the cast was famous. So we were all just, you know, actors thrilled to have a job. And there were about five of us. It's actually where I met my ex, Hugh, because he was playing Lord Byron and I was playing Claire Claremont.