Monday, August 15, 2005

Scrutinizing Carnet's creators for sign of a soul

The husband and wife duo who created a new luxury travel website, Carnet, are featured in this uncomfortable article called "Scrutinizing Boston for tony elegance" from the Boston Globe which provides a disgusting glimpse into their travel "research." Raquel Brulé is the entitled younger wife to Eric de Lavandeyra's aging, nabob husband. These two give no illusions about their lack of tact. The article chronicles one episode where Brulé gets huffy over a latte gone wrong at a hotel café:
"Can I have a plate?" she asks the waitress. When it promptly arrives, Brulé spoons off the foam, clanking against the china loudly, a pained expression on her face. "This is a cappuccino, not a latte," she says politely, as the waitress watches her empty the cup. "Can I have a latte, please?"
In a similar crisis, chronicled by an article run in the New York Times, de Lavandeyra shows a waiter who's boss when it comes to his bagel:
During breakfast last week at the Hotel Plaza Athénée, Mr. de Lavandeyra had a fine fit when his $20 bagel arrived with cream cheese and smoked salmon splayed on the side. “Can you please put my bagel together?” he nearly barked to the waiter. “If I have to work, you should pay me for service.”
The husband and wife, who seem to believe that their lives of privilege were their birthright, claim the noble duty of searching out only the most tasteful elegance, all the while exhibiting their absolute lack of taste. Amazing, isn't it?

Ridiculously, the Boston Globe writer spins an incident where Brulé is turned away from an upscale Boston restaurant for wearing jeans as an example of a "fine line where dress codes can go overboard." Excuses, excuses!

As online travel blog Gridskipper says:
[T]he Times piece is full of so much retch-inducing blue-blood entitlement bullshit, it makes one want to man the barricades and restart the guillotine program.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hired Brule as a temporary employee at a SoHo marketing firm. She was UN-REAL. She's in her late 30's and fancies herself as some sort of Holly GoLightly when, in fact, she a burned out valley-girl (beware: that's the accent she puts on but only God knows where she hails from???) who flits from temp job to temp job.
She made sure that everyone in the office heard her on the phone discussing her property in the Dominican Republic. It turned out that she had a condo time share!!!!
Her website carnettravels.com is an online "ghost town" with broken links and e-tumbleweeds leading to tedium.
Forget, where's Waldo. Where's Brule?

Anonymous said...

I was hired by the tactless aging valley girl, who seemed to be speak like a white, middle class waitress. To my surprise she a a woman of color, but I don't think she knows it. She has never traveled to the islands only "Does Europe". Has no manners and is greatly affected. I was sitting with my mouth open most of the day, thinking I was in an episode of "Punked". Now I know where the character for Hillary Banks came from. What a snooty joke. I couldn't wait for the never ending day to actually end. It was like a car accident, you just can't look away. Toffee nosed cow!!

Anonymous said...

I've done work for her too--a posing parvenu, short on breeding and long on hubris, but with enough wiles to have landed a monied, courtly, and indulgent husband. One man's meat, so to speak.

Anonymous said...

This couple is also in the habit of going through "off the books" employees from cleaning ladies to writers and computer techs, like a child would eat jelly beans. They offer salaries far below the level of the work and ignore former employees who want to be paid posthumously for employment, ignoring emails and penny pinching - essentially stiffing them for their work. All at the emotional whim of Ms. Brule who is exceedingly demanding beyond the scope of reason. Carnet is no more than a bare copy of sites like Living Social and Daily Candy which she strives to copy.

Anonymous said...

He is going to make her look crazy too,like he did with his previous wives, Catherine Hennassy & Marie Laforet...although it won't be that hard for someone so mindless. if she keeps her nose out of his shady business and doesn't question this mans beliefs..

Anonymous said...

I worked for them very briefly as well. I left after a few weeks, telling Ms. Snooty that I wasn't one of the little girls she hired to do stupid stuff that was of no interest to anyone. She spoke to people like they were beneath her - no job is wort being treated like shit by anyone.

Anonymous said...

Apparently she's been hiding her light under a buttload all these years: "Raquel Brule resides in the Dominican Republic and shares her success by contributing to the well-being of the region’s children in distress. Her efforts range from creating safe educational environments to planting shade-providing greenery. Raquel Brule also supports efforts to find a cure for breast cancer." (from a self-written profile, page © 2014)