MY FIRST TRIP TO PORTUGAL

Pestana Palace Hotel entrance

My hairstylist, Matthew Shields and I, went for 2 days to Lisbon where L’Oreal asked me to speak at a conference on beauty and aging and do a bunch of interviews. Never having been, I was delighted at the opportunity.

We stayed at the spectacular Pestana Palace Hotel built by Marquis of Valle Flor who made his wealth during colonialism as one of the major cocoa producers. The palace was recently turned into a hotel without damaging any of the structure or art of the original.

This view from my window shows the stables across the street where the Marquis kept his horses.

Staircase going to my room

This is what I looked up at when I lay in bed. It’s all so beautiful and I applaud the people who restored it, but couldn’t help thinking of the slave labor that allowed such wealth.

The corridor to my room

This is the ceiling of the room where I was interviewed.

The first evening after our arrival, the representative of L’Oreal suggested me go to the Porto Santa Maria, about 40 min north of Lisbon on the beach. I can’t recall having had a more delicious meal of fresh cray fish and bass. This was the view from our table.

The crayfish were still moving when the chef showed them to us.

It was while I was sucking on those delectable legs that my tooth—or rather the veneer on my tooth—came out.

Matthew and I had a good laugh helped along by the best bottle of Portugese white wine. I wanted to ship a case back home but they don’t export it. Worth going back for another visit. Fortunately, the head of L’Oreal Portugal has a brother who is a dentist who had just returned to town and he met me in my room after dinner to put the veneer back.

Our main course was sea bass coated in sea salt and baked

The salt is scraped away and the fish was melt-in-your-mouth fresh and delicious as were the vegetables.

The next day was the conference.

. . . and then a luncheon of most of Portugal’s beauty editors and other journalists in one of the palace’s dining rooms. It was fun until my tooth came out again

One kind lady at the lunch loaned me her fan to cover the damage until my kind new friend, the dentist, made a return trip to fix it again. That’s Matthew next to me.

We returned to Los Angeles the following day and I went straight from the airport to my dentist who, on Monday, will put a new (hopefully permanent) veneer in—just in time because we start shooting 3rd season of “Grace & Frankie” on Tuesday.

By the way, the 2nd season will start (streaming) May 6th and I assure you it is really funny…better than 1st season. We previewed the first 2 episodes of season 2 at the Tribecca Film Festival on Thursday and I am told the packed theatre laughed and even cried. There are some very touching moments. After the screening, Gayle King interviewed Lily and me and it was a lot of fun. It’s always fun with Lily.

Stay tuned.