A Hotel in Minorca With a Medicinal Garden and an Orchard

The creative director Ramdane Touhami, co-founder of the beauty brand Officine Universelle Buly, is venturing into the literary world with his new Parisian bookstore, La Pharmacie des Âmes. Translating to “the pharmacy of souls,” the shop occupies a former 19th-century pharmacy — with all the original cabinetry preserved — in the Seventh Arrondissement (it previously housed the offices for his creative agency, Art Recherche Industrie). “The name of the shop is a way of saying, ‘come heal yourself with some new perspectives because you’re sick,’” Touhami said with a laugh. “In all seriousness, we’re here to instill a bit of doubt, to make people question their ideas on the world. It takes time but I think books have that power.” The shelves and display cases feature a selection rich in the classics, from Hugo and Balzac to Fanon and Césaire, as well as a significant offering on race, gender, politics and culture. There’s Dan Charnas’s “Dilla Time” (2022) alongside bell hooks and Maya Angelou books, lesser-known academic works like Rom Landau’s “Moroccan Drama” (1956), and new releases including those from Touhami’s own imprint, Les Nouvelles Éditions du Réveil. This spring, he’ll also launch Street Lit, a literary podcast that he says will be “free from the stiff, very white, very bourgeois style of literary criticism.” instagram.com/pharmaciedesames

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A Restored Farmhouse in Minorca

On the Spanish island of Minorca, a 19th-century farmhouse made of limestone, clay and wild olive wood has been transformed into a boutique hotel. It took five years for the hotelier Benedicta Linares Pearce, a Minorca native, and her husband, Benoît Pellegrini, to restore what is now Son Blanc Farmhouse. The couple tapped the Parisian architecture firm Atelier du Pont and the Mahón-based agency ARU Arquitectura to design the hotel and to create a 320-acre farm built on regenerative agricultural principles. The property is planted with hundreds of olive and almond trees, a medicinal garden and a fruit orchard. It’s also home to sheep, hens and bee hives.

The 14 guest rooms are furnished with pieces by Spanish designers including clay sconces by the Barcelona-based Danidevito Studio and upholstered headboards by the artists Mariona Cañadas and Pedro Murúa. For breakfast, guests can dine on the terrace of the Main House, which overlooks the sea. All other meals are served in the hotel restaurant situated in the…