Summertime in Biarritz, Marbella, and Tangier ...

In August, Biarritz is full of the French on holiday. The Hotel du Palais, one of the most luxurious hotels in France — a favorite vacation place for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor — is full, and the beaches are full. Biarritz is also one of great surfing places in France.

Aimee de Heeren

On August 3rd, they celebrated the birthday of Aimee de Heeren, the Brazilian born international hostess and socialite. She is ageless, and looking gorgeous. Some say she is 98. Her beautiful villa, "La Roseraire," which she has had for more than fifty years, was full of houseguests, including Luiza and William Pretyman, her niece and nephew from Brazil; her daughter Cristina de Heeren, who has the Cristina de Heeren Flamenco Foundation in Seville; Angulo Begonia, who knows everyone all over the world; Mark Sabbah, Ben Solms who owns the Phonebook of the World on the internet, Jim Mitchell from New York, and several flamenco dancers, who performed at her birthday party.

Aimee lives like few people today — in palm beach, in an Addison Mizner mansion, a luxurious apartment in Paris, the villa in Biarritz and the magnificent town house near the Metropolitan Museum in New York. She travels to her houses with her two butlers, Jose and Mohamed, three maids, a cook and her secretary Dania Flores to keep track of everything, including all those houseguests.

Barbara San Damien and Tenu, Princess von Hohenlohe

Meanwhile, in Marbella ...

Barbara and Carlos San Damien, the Marques and Marquessa reign supreme. The lunches and dinners prepared by her wonderful staff at their villa “La Barbara” on the grounds at the Marbella Club are the most sought after invitations in Marbella.

The beautiful Ana Pliego (she was friend of the late banker Alfonso Fierra for more than forty years) gave a dinner for 400 at "Los Jardines de la Meridiana for the Ambassador of Kuwait and wife, Tunex de Shuhaibel – a very spanish dinner, shrimps, mushrooms, beef and fruits and chocolate mousse. Dinner was at 11 PM and the music, the dancing and the falmenco went on until dawn.

Then on to Tangier and Charles de Sevigney's house, Dar Zero, on top of the casbah next to his famous York Castle (Charles and the late Yves Vidal created the famous York Castle, which was later destroyed by the storms in the Atlantic several years ago). Charles maintains his beautiful house with his faithful servants, Said, Rachid, Abdullah and Anwar. He also travels with them to his apartment in Paris. Mickey Easterling from New Orleans stays with Charles for the month of August and there are non-stop lunches and dinners.

Charles de Sevigny's staff at Dar Zero: Anwar, Said, and Rachid.

The big italian dinner for the 15th of August, Ferro Augosto, one of the big holidays in Europe was given by Nadia and Suami Lavalle at their magnificent villa in the casbah. 400 people in red white green costumes dined on tomatoes and mozzarella, melon with proscuitto, red, green and white pasta and ice cream. There was disco dancing on the roof of the villa and and it was still going on well after the sun came up.

In Tangier: Coco Blaffer from Houston, Nicola Mirabella from Paris, Vincent Coppie, Bruno Rait-Maduz, Jerome Guerin, Jean Pierre Callonder, director of AI (Atlantic Intelligence) in Morocco, and lots of photographers and models from Paris. Tangier is the most exciting place to be in August in Morocco.

Of course there are other places — Marianne and John Castle were on their boat in Nantucket, Newport and Maine. Pauline Pitt, Joan Schnitzer and Irvin Levy and Nancy Brinker were in Aspen. Joanie and Ronald Linclau were in Beverly Hills. Seal and Heidi Klum were in Malibu. If you were in St. Tropez you might have seen Gerard Depardieu or Johnny Hallyday or Terry Allen Kramer and Nick Simunek. Or in Capri where Mariah Carey, Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin were soaking up the Mediterranean sun along with Barbara de Portago staying with Jill Fuller. Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart were in Sardinia. The great Yanouk Noah was in Portofino.

Eugenia Martinez (daughter of the Duchess of Alba) separated from her husband, the matador, Francisco Rivera, the Duke of Montoro, was with a new friend, Gonzala Miro in Ibiza. Also in Ibiza, Linda Evangelista, Roman Polanski, Philippe Starck, Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughn, Andrea Casiraghi and his new girlfriend Tatiana Santo Domingo, the daughter of Julio Mario and Beatriz Santo Domingo of New York. Usually in Ibiza, but not this year, Elle McPherson and her children were in Barbados. Elle is now separated, as the world knows, from Arky Busson, Flocky Busson’s son.

Princess Caroline of Monaco and Prince Ernst of Hanover were on their yacht, Pasha 111, with their daughter, Alexandra and Princess Caroline’s two sons, Andre and Pierre, along with her daughter Charlotte and her new boyfriend, Felix, and Ernst’s two sons, Christian and Ernst. They were on their way to their house on the island of de Lamu off the coast of Africa.

In Majorca on their yacht, the Spanish royal family King Juan Carlos, Queen Sophia, Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia, who are expecting thir first child this fall, Princess Elena and her children, also with the royal family, Prince Hakon and Princess Metti Merit of Norway and her son Marius. Also Rosario Nadal and her husband Prince Kyril of Bulgaria. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones were also in Majorca at their house.

Baroness Carmen (Tita) Thyssen Bornemisza (she was also the ex-wife of the actor Lex Barker) is on her yacht, Matauma with her son, Borja and her three Maltese dogs, Lucky, Daysse, and Taitu. She plans to take the fabulous Thyssen art collection to Shanghai and Beijing later this year.