Twenty years of relationships have opened doors to exceptional people, places and experiences. Our Little Black Book is where local expertise, trusted connections and the unexpected come together.
The most memorable journeys begin with who you know.
For more than twenty years, AAV has built trusted relationships with the people who make Europe extraordinary: château owners and vignerons, chefs and artisans, curators, guides and private hosts. These are not suppliers found in a directory. They are friends of the house, met in person and returned to year after year.
This is not simply a network of partners. It is a Little Black Book built over two decades, one relationship at a time: the numbers that answer, the doors that open, the names that vouch for ours. It is, quite simply, the reason our journeys feel the way they do.
20
Years of relationships
6
Countries, one house
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Little Black Book
Met in person. Kept for years.
The people we know
The WinemakerWhose cellar is rarely opened to visitors.
The ChefWho welcomes you beyond the dining room.
The ArtisanWhose savoir-faire is usually discovered by introduction.
The CustodianWho opens the doors of a family legacy.
The InsiderWhose expertise takes you beyond what can be looked.
France is the heart of what we do, and where most of our journeys unfold. Yet the same relationships, cultivated with the same patience, reach across Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. In every country, our specialists live where you travel, and the people they trust become the people you meet.
I
France
The heart of the house. Châteaux, ateliers and vineyards we have known, and been welcomed in, for two decades.
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Italy
From Piedmont to Puglia: the families, cellars and workshops behind the façades, and the tables that never needed a sign.
III
Switzerland
Alpine addresses, lakeside houses and the quiet precision of the people who keep them.
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United Kingdom
Country estates, private rooms in London and the people who hold the keys.
V
Spain
Andalusian cortijos, Basque kitchens and artisans no guidebook will ever list.
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VI
Portugal
Quintas of the Douro, Lisbon ateliers and a coastline known by first name.
PT
FRFranceITItalyCHSwitzerlandUKUnited Kingdom
ESSpain
ESSpain
PTPortugal
PTPortugal
And, when your story calls for it, beyond.
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IIIThe Little Black Book
Behind closed doors
Some of the most memorable experiences cannot simply be booked. They are offered, by people who choose whom they welcome. They exist outside opening hours and off the pages of any guidebook, and they are extended only through introduction.
A private collection viewed with its owner. An exceptional estate that is still a family home. An artist's studio on a working morning. Each door is opened for you personally, always with discretion, and never simply for the sake of exclusivity.
AAV
Pages from the book
A few doors we have opened
01
A private collection
Viewed after hours with its owner, in rooms that never open to the public.
02
An estate that is still a home
Lunch served by the family who have kept the château for generations, at their own table.
03
A table that is not a restaurant
A chef cooking for you alone, in a kitchen that has never printed a menu.
04
Coco Chanel's private apartments
Rue Cambon, by introduction, and a story told by those who know it best.
05
A jeweller's archive on Place Vendôme
Historic collections shown by the house itself, behind a door without a handle.
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A cellar without a sign
A vigneron's own reserve in Bordeaux, Burgundy or Champagne, opened for a table of four.
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IVHow we open doors
Relationships, not reservations
What sets these experiences apart is not that they are rare. It is that they are personal. Three principles guide every page of our Little Black Book, and you will recognise them in any journey we write for you.
01
Earned in person
Every introduction in our book was made face to face and kept over years. It is why doors open for our guests that do not open for a booking platform.
02
Discretion, always
Many of our hosts welcome guests precisely because we never advertise them. What happens behind a closed door stays there.
03
Never for its own sake
Access matters only when it means something to you. We open a door because it belongs in your story, not because it is hard to open.
Exceptional access begins with relationships built over time
The AAV way, for twenty years
VA word on discretion
Many of the doors in our Little Black Book open only because we have promised they will stay closed to everyone else. We keep that promise. It is why some of what we do cannot appear on this page, and why our guests are welcomed as friends rather than visitors.
Your journey starts here
Open the Little Black Book
Tell us what you are passionate about: the artists, the craft, the wine, the history, the table. We will open the pages that speak to it and shape a journey around encounters you will not find anywhere else, including some you may never have known were possible.
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