FOR AULD LANGE SÖHNE

Germany is a place of great fascination for me. The beautiful countryside, the exquisite music, the — unpopular opinion alert — fabulous language, and the glaring juxtaposition of the rural and urban cultures of, say, Bavaria and Berlin… Recently I noticed that this contrast manages to manifest itself in terms of style, and spending a day with A. Lange & Söhne taught me about so much more than watches. This I will come back to.

The Concours d’Elegance concept is pretty clever: get smart, classic cars with smart owners and let petrolheads gawk at them in smart settings. Some locations feel like the perfect combination of concept and geography, like Lake Como (you can find our review of the Como edition of Concours d’Elegance in issue 65 of The Rake). Hampton Court is perhaps the only London equivalent as an oasis of tranquillity and beauty. If you’re not familiar, it was the retreat of Tudors,