You don’t always get what you want

 

Lincoln Park Oposite Casa Polanco

Typical Barragań interior

Beautiful Cobble Stone Streets

At Casa Polanco

Today was a tour day. We started with the buffet at the hotel a beautiful selection of breakfast items and then I ordered Green Sauce Chilaquiles. I love this spicy Mexican dish. I did notice on the menu that they make French Toast with Sourdough brioche infused with Mexican whiskey and cinnamon, served with Papantla's vanilla creamy sauce and organic berries. I am sure I will try this!

For years we have wanted to visit the Mexican Architect Luis Barragán’s Studio. We love his architecture, his use of light, color, space and greenery. He won the Pritzker Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize but for Architecture.

Tickets to visit his home and workshop are extremely hard to get. On every previous visit to Mexico City, I would get on my computer daily as the trip approached and attempt to get tickets I always failed. Visiting this site became an obsession for us. We made our reservation to stay at Casa Polanco and I asked them if they could secure tickets. Casa Polanco came through, they knew a man who knew a man that could get us tickets.

As an aside I don’t think we have ever stayed a better hotel. Everything is amazing, the service, the location, the room, the helpfulness of the staff. We would never consider staying anywhere else!

On a previous visit to Mexico City we had visited a Luis Barragán private residence: Casa Gilardi in San Miguel Chapultepec. Its use of Color, Space, its indoor pool all made it a spectacular residence (the owners still live there). We greatly anticipated this tour and visit to Luis Barragán house and studio

 

The guide picked us up and took us to the first house, where we met the granddaughter of the man who commissioned the house. The house is in the most unbelievable neighborhood: Chimalistac. All of the roads are cobble street narrow and twisty. It is amazing to drive through the streets. We arrived at the home, and the granddaughter took us on a personal tour. The family still owns the home. All of the furniture and most of the decorations were designed and placed by Barragán. We didn’t think it was as well executed as our memory of Casa Gilardi. The driver then took us a long ride to get to Luis Barragán Studio. I finally figured out he was stalling and driving randomly. Our reservation for the tour was at 3pm it was currently 2pm. Once I figured it out, I decided we had time to go shopping and then make our tour. We drove to some shops Cathy wanted to check out and then left for our tour arriving exactly on time. The house to us was a disappointment. So, if you are ever going to Mexico City, have an interest in Luis Barragán architecture drink it all in at Casa Gilardi. But as Mick Jagger said: “You don’t always get what you want”. We expected to be blown away by Luis Barragán studio, we weren’t but we were by Casa Gilardi, we got what we needed.

 

We returned to the hotel and walked across the street to Lincoln Park and enjoyed just sitting and watching the world go by.

 

We walked back across the street and went to the Hotel’s library. First, they served us wine and champagne then the two waiters who are everything you wish all waiters were, insisted we should have a margarita. Each was eager to make one for us. So I decided to get one from each and have a margarita tasting contest. Cathy and I tasted both and politely decided it was a tie. I think they will be waiting for us when we return from dinner with a tasting of other Tequilas.

 

A couple of thoughts. Mexico City is far greener than I remember, trees and parks everywhere. There is no comparison with Los Angeles. It is filled with nature and people are out all the time walking, sitting and just enjoying the beauty of nature.

 

There is a tremendous police presence. It is very different from LA. Police vehicles drive everywhere and constantly blast their sirens. At first we thought they were chasing criminals but that wasn’t the reason. It is a deliberate policy to let people know the police are near, they do that to reduce crime. It is a constant background noise. I think it might be effective, but I really don’t know.

 

After drinks at the Hotel, we took an Uber to Rosetta. We had previously eaten there and liked it. Jaimie had warned us the food quality (but not the bread) had gone downhill, unfortunately he was correct.