This morning we begin the 48-hour drive south from London to Palma de Mallorca, dog in tow. The other half was working in New York all week and only got home on Friday morning. That still gave him almost 24 hours to get his act together. Last weekend, however, as I was tidying the bedroom, he told me not to touch a small pile of clothes: underwear, socks, a T-shirt. “That’s what I’ll be wearing on our journey,” he said, excited about his holidays. Sweet. Sort of. Though I did have to explain to him that Big Ted and Little Ted would have to stay at home this time. There were tears.

I get to travel a handsome amount with work and always have a bag half-packed. Even so, summer holidays invoke preparation rituals. My dog and I both got haircuts this week – not at the same place, I hasten to add, and my barber certainly didn’t trim my undercarriage. The neighbours have been recruited to water the plants. The transformational promise of travel is on the horizon – we are going somewhere. And I am not the only one from Monocle on the move.

In the coming days, several members of the London team will be heading to Bangkok, where they’ll meet up with James Chambers, our Asia editor based there, to start working on a new Monocle Handbook on Thailand. (The series’ previous editions have covered Portugal, Spain and France; the one on Switzerland is currently at the printers.) I love these books because they encapsulate our thoughts on the idea of travel: they are concise; they spotlight hotels both high and, well, a little less high; they take you off the beaten track and introduce you to people who know the country. And they’re the perfect companions whether you’re planning to stay for days or weeks – or are even considering putting down roots. In short, you need a set on your bookshelves.

And talking of perfect companions, how about letting our design editor, Nic Monisse, and editor, Josh Fehnert, keep you amused on your travels? The editorial duo – sort of the Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger of Midori House (in that Nic’s also a stand-up comedian and Josh is a Matterhorn of a man) – commissioned, cajoled and concocted a perfect line-up of essays to celebrate the on-going Venice Biennale. Called The Monocle Companion: 50 Ideas on Architecture, Design & Building Better, it’s a great beach read or flight-time filler. It’s clever and amusing, like its editors. It’s available here.

If you did the right thing and clicked that link, you will have noticed that subscribers to Monocle get a discount on their purchases. There’s another thing that subscribers get: free access to a fast-evolving catalogue of online, bang-up-to-date City Guides. Mexico City was just added to the line-up at monocle.com and Madrid will be next. These guides take you beyond the usual spots to discover cool neighbourhoods, fun chefs, the best inns and unmissable retail outposts. Plus, you can download a handy map to your phone. I know, crazy stuff.

And that discount even applies to tickets for our annual Quality of Life Conference, which will be taking place in Barcelona from 4 to 6 September. Perhaps we can entice you to put the city on your travel agenda and join us? Since we started the series more than a decade ago, the conference has become the key moment for Monocle readers to come together, mix and mingle, like the ingredients in a tasty paella. You can find the full details here. If you book, we’ll also be sharing details of our Patrons programme that comes with another bonus – a chance to have a holiday with team Monocle. Intrigued? You know what you need to do.

Anyway, I’d better get off this laptop and return to my lap dog. It seems that I am in charge of all music and radio-station selection (he’ll do anything to stop me driving). But wait, is that Big Ted I see poking out of his bag?

In Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The Planets”, Mars is a fitting first movement (writes Henry Rees-Sheridan). The red planet seems perpetually at the forefront of our collective imagination – its only meaningful competition in the solar system is offered by Saturn, with its snazzy rings. But the terracotta patina of Mars has its own visual appeal. And while Saturn might look spectacular, it’s just a big ball of gas: future humans won’t be able to move there in the wake of a mass-extinction event on our home planet. Mars, on the other hand, has a rocky surface that’s firm underfoot and is a mere 225 million kilometres away – the perfect back-up. Nasa knows this and is hoping to send astronauts there “as early as the 2030s”.

Thankfully, you don’t have to wait so long to get your hands on a piece of the planet. Meteorite NWA 16788 – billed as “The Largest Piece of Mars on Earth” – is up for auction at Sotheby’s New York on 16 July. It was discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter in Niger’s remote Agadez region (“NWA” stands for “Northwest Africa”). About 70 per cent bigger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth, NWA 16788 represents about 6.5 per cent of all known material to have made the interplanetary jump to our globe. It’s “covered in a reddish-brown fusion crust, giving it an unmistakable Martian hue”.

Alongside a juvenile ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton (as reported in a previous edition of ‘What Am I Bid?’), NWA 16788 is one of the double headliners of this year’s Sotheby’s Natural History auction. While sales of dinosaur fossils to private owners have triggered anxiety among palaeontologists, meteoriticists are less concerned about private meteorite ownership – researchers can glean most of a rock’s scientific information from a tiny subsample. A single gramme of meteorite is almost as scientifically valuable as 1kg; plus, it’s easier to convince owners to donate a sliver of rock than a whole dinosaur skeleton. So, despite the meteorite’s estimated going price of $2m to $4m (€1.7m to €3.4m), the scientific community should be able to count on the generosity of NWA 16788’s eventual buyer.

Looking for a place to escape the heat in Tokyo (asks Ben Davis)? Here are three exhibitions worth visiting if you’re in the city this summer.

‘Takahata Isao Exhibition: The Man who Planted Japanese Animation’ at Azabudai Hills Gallery
“Strive for realism while doing what could never be done in reality,” said pioneering director Isao Takahata, best known for works such as Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013). This exhibition traces Takahata’s career from his time at Toei Animation to co-founding Studio Ghibli, where he focused on the lives of ordinary people and Japan’s natural landscapes. Newly unearthed material provides fresh insight into his films and the stories and techniques behind them. 
Runs until 15 September.
azabudai-hills.com 

‘Birds, Birds, and Birds: All Sorts of Fujimoto Yoshimichi’s White Porcelain with Overglaze Enamels’ at Kikuchi Kanjitsu Memorial Tomo Museum
Just across the road from The Okura Tokyo hotel in Toranomon, you’ll find the Tomo Museum, which showcases Japan’s contemporary ceramics. Its summer exhibition celebrates the work of the late Yoshimichi Fujimoto, a master of porcelain with overglaze enamels, renowned for his depiction of birds in nature. His images of sparrows, kingfishers and moths possess a watercolour-like quality, with details that invite closer inspection. 
Runs until 28 September.
musee-tomo.or.jp

‘The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto: Primordial Future Forest’ at Mori Art Museum
A contemporary art museum is the setting for the first major survey of Hokkaido-born architect Sou Fujimoto’s work. Taking the forest as its central concept, the show begins with an expansive collection of models. From there, you’ll find walk-in installations, a future-city concept created with data scientist Hiroaki Miyata and buildings reimagined as stuffed toys engaging in conversation.
Runs until 9 November.
mori.art.museum

For more on Sou Fujimoto, read our interview with him here. 

When Chris Green opened Ven Space in Brooklyn’s leafy Carroll Gardens neighbourhood, he knew exactly what kind of business he wanted it to be: an intimate shop celebrating the traditional bricks-and-mortar experience (writes Naomi Xu Elegant). The multibrand menswear boutique – which stocks luxury clothing, shoes and accessories – doesn’t offer an online shopping option. To access its meticulous curation, you have to step inside.

On the shop floor, you’ll find wares from a mix of brands including Japan-based Auralee and Dutch label Camiel Fortgens. T-shirts by Our Legacy sit beside Dries Van Noten button-downs; the shapely handcrafted ceramics dotted around the boutique are also for sale. Green, a longtime resident of Carroll Gardens, handpicks every item, guided by his personal taste rather than seasonal trends. “I don’t want to be everything for everyone,” he says. “I don’t think that anybody can be – and if you try, you’ll lose the strength of your own point of view. So I started by thinking about what I would actually want to wear.” 

Ven Space (“ven” means “friend” in Danish) is open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, while Mondays and Tuesdays are dedicated to private appointments. Green is on the floor every day and his commitment is paying off. Though the shop launched less than a year ago, it has already gained a devoted following, with regular customers popping in to snag new launches. “We pride ourselves on getting to know the people coming through the door,” says Green.
ven.space.com

For more places to shop in New York, check out our new City Guide, which has all the essentials. 

My cousin Biscuit once witnessed his own funeral (writes Cannelle). Instead of looking for him in the obvious places – under the fridge, say – his human owners immediately decided that he had died somewhere and held an elaborate, closed-shoe-box ceremony in the back garden. Not only was this a perverse burial site for a housebound guinea pig, but he also lives on, cowering between the kitchen wall and the oven, in perpetual fear of his better-loved replacement: a house cat.

But such flippant devaluing of us guinea pigs might be a thing of the past. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, has report