Fjord fiesta - Scanorama

SUITE LIFE
Key players: Pianist Alex
Antal and receptionist
Malena Vives (below)
from local carpenters, and patchwork curtains of
veil-like silk woven and sewn by seamstresses in
the nearby village of Pollença.
Diehl, whose poems were once published in a
collection by his compatriot Jorge Luis Borges,
also initiated a weeklong symposium for artists,
poets and intellectuals in the Formentor gardens
called The Week of Wisdom. In the early Thirties,
large audiences would come to hear the German
philosopher Hermann Keyserling argue for an
alternative to his country’s policy of militarism
(this just before the Nazis took power). Formentor
has been an intellectual hub ever since. Over
the years, the hotel and its gardens have hosted
everything from Catalonian poetry groups to EU
summits, speeches by the Dalai Lama and peace
negotiations between the late Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat and Israel’s then foreign minister
Shimon Peres.
The only thing Palau feels is missing from
Diehl’s time, and which disappeared when Barceló
took over six years ago, is dinner dress. Whereas
men were once required to wear a jacket, tie and
black shoes, in line with today’s more inclusive
guest policy the only stipulation is pants.
At the same time, and also to Palau’s dismay,
the waiters no longer wear white gloves when
they serve paella.
40 FEBRUARY 2013 SCANORAMA