IDENTITY CARD
Formalities : machine-readable passport issued before 26 October 2005 or biometric passport + ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) form, which must be completed no later than 72 hours before departure.
Currency the US dollar (USD). 1 euro = 1.12 USD (June 2017).
Area code +1; 305 or 786 (Miami).
Time difference : - 6 h.
GETTING THERE
BRITISH AIRWAYS offers a daily flight between Paris-Orly and Miami via London Heathrow. This spring, the British airline invested in a high-speed 4G service on all its long-haul flights, as well as a facial recognition self-boarding system on the ground. British Airways is also focusing on innovation: electronic baggage tags, the use of iPads on board, business seat-beds with larger pillows, a more comfortable mattress topper, new bed linen and a cosy duvet. In all, €470 million will be invested to further improve service on board long-haul business class. On the ground, new lounges will be created and the old ones renovated. Soon, a First Wing circuit, designed to facilitate connections for first-class passengers, will be installed at Heathrow terminal 5.
Tel.: 0 825 825 400
Internet: www.britishairways.com
AMERICAN AIRLINES offers seven weekly flights between Paris and Miami. The airline is also a partner of British Airways in a transatlantic joint venture which also includes Iberia, Finnair and US Airways, facilitating travel between Europe and the United States with connections to over 219 American destinations.
Tel.: 0 821 980 999
Internet: www.americanairlines.fr
AIR FRANCE operates daily services to Miami from Paris, using Boeing B777-300s equipped with the latest Economy, Premium Economy and Business cabins.
Tel.: 0820 320 820
Internet: www.airfrance.com
XL AIRWAYS operates two flights a week between Paris and Miami from June to September.
Tel.: 0 892 692 123
Internet: www.xl.com
NORWEGIAN AIRSince this winter, the long-haul low-cost carrier has been offering a direct weekly flight between Paris and Fort Lauderdale, just outside Miami, at unbeatable prices.
Tel: 0 97 07 38 001
Internet: www.norwegian.com
HOTELS
Faena hotel Miami Beach
Just as it did a few years ago in Buenos Aires, in the old docklands district, the opening of this Faena hotel has been accompanied by the launch of a project dedicated to art and culture, dubbed the 'Faena District'. Set behind a sumptuous façade dating back to 1947, that of the former Saxony Hotel once frequented by Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, this glamorous establishment is reminiscent of a film set. The red of the velvet dominates, as does the gold of the palm tree motifs. The hotel also houses a cabaret. On the beach side, encased in a glass box, a golden mammoth, a hallucinatory sculpture by Damien Hirst, stands out as the contemporary jewel of this surprising 169-room hotel, a member of Leading Hotels of the World.
3201 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach.
Tel.: +1 305 534 8800
Email : reservations-miamibeach@faena.com
Internet : www.faena.com
Nobu Hotel Miami Beach
After being a chain of Japanese-style fusion restaurants, Nobu has also become a chain of hotels. This is the third Nobu in Miami, the first having opened in Las Vegas in 2013. Uniquely, it shares its sumptuous atrium lobby with another hotel, the Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel. The atmosphere is relaxing, the materials - teak, leather, linen, etc. - noble and natural. In short, it's like being in Japan, but right in the heart of South Beach. In all, 203 rooms designed by architect and designer David Rockwell.
4525 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach.
Tel: +1 305 531 0000
Internet : www.nobuedenroc.com
Soho Beach House
Seven years after its opening, this beautiful establishment, surrounded by vegetation and designed by Allan Shulman, continues to attract the attention of the whole of Miami. This very select 50-room gem, with its bohemian chic accents, antique wooden beds, weathered club armchairs and unmissable rooftop terrace, is a favourite with travellers looking for originality and elegant relaxation.
4385 Collins Avenue.
Phone: +1 786 507 7900
Internet: www.sohobeachhouse.com
W South Beach Hotel
Opened in 2009, this 346-room hotel has not aged a day, with its sleek futuristic architecture, palm-fringed pool, glass-walled bathrooms suspended above the sea and azure rooftop terrace. In short, these are just some of the W South Beach's many assets.
2201 Collins Avenue.
Phone: +1 305 938 3000
Email : sobe.reservations@whotels.com
Internet: www.wsouthbeach.com
Pullman Hotel
The Pullman Miami may not be brand new or in the heart of South Beach, but it's still a tropical paradise. Located close to Miami airport and port, it is as convenient for cruise passengers as it is for business travellers, making it ideal for express business trips. It is appreciated not only for its comfort and services worthy of a major business hotel, but also for its peaceful charm, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, with its large swimming pool facing a blue lagoon. In all, 281 rooms.
5800 Blue Lagoon Drive
Tel.: +1 305 264 4888
Email : pullman.miami@accor.com
Internet: www.pullmanhotels.com
OTHER MAJOR BUSINESS HOTELS
FOUR SEASONS MIAMI
1435 Brickell Avenue
Phone: +1 305 358 3535
Internet: www.fourseasons.com
ST. REGIS BAL HARBOUR
9703 Collins Avenue.
Phone: +1 305 993 3300
Internet: www.stregisbalharbour.com
MANDARIN ORIENTAL MIAMI
500 Brickell Key Drive.
Tel.: +1 305 913 8288
Email : momia-reservations@mohg.com
Internet : www.mandarinoriental.fr
RITZ CARLTON MIAMI
3300 Southwest 27th Avenue.
Tel.: +1 305 644 4680
Internet : www.ritzcarlton.com
INTERCONTINENTAL MIAMI
100 Chopin Plaza
Phone: +1 305 577 1000
Internet: www.icmiamihotel.com
HYATT REGENCY MIAMI
400 South East Second Avenue.
Tel.: +1 305 358 1234
Internet: miami.regency.hyatt.com
BUDGET HOTELS
HOMEWOOD SUITES DOWNTOWN
A few months ago, the Hilton group opened a hotel in the heart of the business district, between Brickell and Downtown, designed for long-stay business travellers. It's an ideal, brand new option for combining budget and comfort.
1750 Southwest 1st Avenue.
Phone: +1 305 285 7112
Internet: homewoodsuites3.hilton.com
ATtON BRICKELL
Located in the heart of the business district, this is a very good business hotel with a rooftop swimming pool and a popular Peruvian restaurant. This recently opened hotel, which opened in July 2016, offers a number of low-cost packages.
1500 SW 1st Avenue.
Phone: +1 786 600 2600
Email : reservationsmiami@atton.com
Internet : www.attonbrickellmiami.com
RESTAURANTS
Cipriani
You'd think you were inside a huge yacht, and you almost are, because this restaurant is located right in front of the bay. Miami's Cipriani, one of twenty variations on the famous Venetian establishment, has become a veritable institution. Of course, it serves the inevitable Bellini cocktail, but also famous carpaccios, marinated aubergines, fish just out of the net, langoustines and rack of lamb, followed by incredibly decadent desserts. All in the heart of the business district. Ideal for a business lunch or dinner.
465 Brickell Avenue
Tel: +1 786 329 4090
Email : ciprianimia@cipriani.com
Internet : www.cipriani.com
Red, The Steak House
In the trendy SoFi district, Red is a steak house with a chic decor and hand-picked clientele. It boasts a superb wine cellar, top-quality meat and impeccably fresh seafood. The chef offers team-building activities, from creating a cocktail to making a homemade sauce. Terrace with views.
119 Washington Avenue.
Tel.: +1 305 534 3688
Internet : www.redthesteakhouse.com
Palme d'Or
If you're looking for an embassy of French gastronomy to impress your American counterparts, head for Palme d'Or, the Frenchy restaurant in the chic Biltmore hotel. On the menu, great French classics revisited America America style by a rising star of French cuisine. Gregory Pugin left France for New York and the Atelier Robuchon before moving to Miami, where he delights himself - and his customers! - by creating astonishing combinations of octopus and snails, and gastronomic tableaux based on Kobe beef or Alaskan cod. Quail and venison are also on the menu. In short, a very fine table.
1200 Anastasia Avenue - Coral Gables.
Tel: +1 305 913 3200
Email : general@biltmorehotel.com
Internet : www.biltmorehotel.com
Spris Pizza
Launched twenty years ago by an Italian by the charming name of Graziano, this concept has flourished in Florida: a pizza with light dough and mostly local and organic ingredients, always extremely tasty. In all, there are four outlets in Miami where you can have a quick and delicious lunch, preferably on the terrace.
721 Lincoln Road
Tel: +1 305 673 2020
Email : crofty@spris.cc
Internet : www.sprispizza.com
Vagabond Kitchen & Bar
The meeting of a professional restaurateur and a top harpist, both from Lyon, resulted in the Vagabond Kitchen & Bar, a peppy but simplistic place. Together, the two Frenchmen have opted for a no-frills menu, with impeccably fresh, healthy, crunchy, crispy or melt-in-the-mouth produce. The cocktails, which can be sipped by the pool, are to die for... This address is well known to Miami locals, who are quick to flock to the pretty historic district of MiMo, with its very fifties look, for grilled octopus, creamy polenta or mini burgers, all to be shared...
7301 Biscayne Blvd
Phone: +1 786 409 5635
Email : reservations@vagabondkitchenandbar.com
Internet: www.vagabondkitchenandbar.com
Mc Kitchen
Ludovic Maisant
The chef here is a woman, Dena Marino, who cut her teeth in the very select ski resort of Aspen, in Colorado, before opening her own restaurant in the heart of the Design District. On the menu is Italian cuisine, reinvented with feminine grace and elegance.
4141 NE 2nd Avenue, Design District.
Tel.: +1 305 456 9948
Email : info@mckitchen.com
Internet : www.mckitchenmiami.com
LT Steak & Seafood
Highly original sushi, combining coconut and macadamia nut flavours with prawns; deliciously creative cocktails, like the one with tequila, agave syrup, kiwi and japaleño; great rock crab dishes with firm, flavoursome meat; wagyu beef a la plancha, grilled on the outside and melting on the inside: that's all there is to offer at this beautiful beachfront restaurant in the Betsy hotel. As for desserts, a remarkable invention is the Havana flan with Cointreau and coconut, as well as a fine list of Californian wines.
1440 Ocean Drive
Phone: +1 305 531 6100
Email : info@thebetsyhotel.com
Internet : www.thebetsyhotel.com
Wynwood Kitchen & Bar
On the patio of Wynwood Kitchen & Bar, the epicentre of the Art District, stands a portrait of Tony Goldman, the man who started it all in this once notorious neighbourhood. Today, his daughter presides over the destiny of this space, which is both an art gallery and a restaurant serving inventive fusion cuisine.
2550 NW 2d Avenue.
Tel.: +1 305 722 8959
Internet: www.wynwoodkitchenandbar.com
Dolores but you can call me Lolita
Its droll name is a nod to the city's mixed origins, as well as to Nabokov's novel. In the heart of the bustling Mary Brickell Village, this restaurant has a seductive historic decor, a former fire station with a Mediterranean Revival style. The interior rooms are elegant, but it's the terrace that's most appealing for its view of the Downtown skyline. Delicious Southern cuisine.
1000 South Miami Avenue.
Tel.: +1 305 403 3103
Email : info@doloreslolita.com
Internet: www.doloreslolita.com
ESTATE AGENCIES
Barnes
1150 SW 22nd St. - Email:
miami@barnes-international.com
Internet: www.barnes-miami.com
One Sotheby's
1000 Brickell Ave Ste 315.
Tel: +1 (305) 779-2430
Internet: www.onesothebysrealty.com
viaprestige
5701 Biscayne Blvd.
Phone: +1 305 495 6539
Email : info@viaprestigemiami.com
Internet: viaprestige-miami.com
ZeldaRentsMiami.com
1234 Washington Ave.Suite 206.
Email: zelda@zeldarentsmiami.com
Internet: www.zeldarentsmiami.com
INFORMATION
FRENCH-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FLORIDA
100 N. Biscayne Blvd, Suite 1105, Miami.
Phone: +1 305 374 5000
Email : contact@faccmiami.com
Internet: www.faccmiami.com
BEACON COUNCIL MIAMI DADE
80 SW 8th Street, Suite 2400.
Phone: +1 305 579 1300
Email : info@beaconcouncil.com
Internet: www.beaconcouncil.com
MIAMI BEACH CONVENTION CENTER
1900 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach.
Phone: +1 786 276 2600
Internet: www.miamibeachconvention.com
MIAMI TOURISM OFFICE
Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau - 701 Brickell Ave # 2700.
Tel.: +1 305 539 3000
Internet: www.miamiandbeaches.fr
PRACTICAL GUIDES
MIAMI, Cartoville, Gallimard (2017); MIAMI, City Guide, Wallpaper (2015); MIAMI, Guide du Routard 2017/2018, Hachette (2016); FLORIDA, Bibliothèque du Voyageur, Gallimard (2016)
Keys getaway
What could be more exhilarating, when you're staying in Miami, than to play 'On the road again' by climbing into an American car and heading for the Keys? If you have a day, or even a weekend, this little jaunt to this archipelago of thousands of small islands at the southern tip of Florida will be like boarding a plane for the Caribbean. You drive straight along a palm-fringed road, pass forty or so bridges over turquoise waters full of fish and arrive, a few hours later, at the tip of the United States, in Key West. Just a hundred kilometres from Havana, this island of white-painted colonial wooden houses, where hens and roosters roam freely, is a real little corner of paradise. In the 1930s, Ernest Hemingway lived here in a splendid nineteenth-century house, where strange six-clawed cats still loll about. One of the few houses built of stone to survive hurricanes, it is now a museum dedicated to his memory. Further afield, a pretty little beach, Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, lends itself to relaxation in crystal-clear waters and in the company of pelicans. Fans of extraordinary sunsets will want to flock to the town's many seafront bars.
Where to sleep? Internet : www.historickeywestinns.com
