Bicester Village

We combined our trip out to Bicester village with a look around Blenheim palace which is close by. And I’d recommend, if you have a family like mine, impossible to please everyone all at the same time this is the perfect combo for the cultured consumer. We went to Blenheim first had something to eat and then finished the day with a couple of hours browsing at Bicester.

Bicester Village is a collection of chalet style retail units, almost like a small housing estate, interspersed with interesting food offerings, a sandwich shop,

Pret A Manger, Italian restaurant Tua Pasta and kiosks selling posh French macaroon brand Ladure and luxury French pastries, hold onto your wallet, two eclairs cost us nearly £20.

I’ve been a few times and tried all the restaurants and the best one at the moment is Otto Lenghi, delicious, super fresh, healthy and affordable.

The shops are super, all the luxury brands, Dior, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne westward, Prada, Bamford, Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Valentino, everyone you can think of, Caroline Herrera, the only one not there is Chanel.

Bicester Village opening hours are 9.00am to 9.00pm and you’ll need a couple of hours to look at everything.

The parking is free unless you valet for £35. With valet you do get discounts in some stores on non sale items but the only place we’ve successfully got the discount is in the restaurants, Tua Pasta and Cecconis. You’ll

find nice service in both these restaurants at opposite ends of the village, the food’s average but they have a captive audience.

When you arrive you’ll see parking people directing customers to parking further away but we always ignore this and park closer for free. On the weekends you do have to drive around a bit but we’ve always got one in the end.

To sum up, it’s a unique place to visit, nicely laid out, lovely flowers, visuals and recently a sensory garden has been added with beautiful smelling plants, not quite the capability brown experience at Blenheim but a really pleasant resting spot when you are all shopped out.

Bathrooms and baby changing facilities are 5 star and they even have apartments up by the Tua Pasta and Ralph Lauren, I think they call them Bicester Suites where companies just events and shopping marketing show and tell.

I went to a Hermes event hosted by Charlotte Rogers at This Old Thing London, she’s an expert in secondhand and vintage Luxury goods and it was very well organised and a great networking opportunity in comfort and in private. All in all a lot on offer including recent new additions from Canada and the US, athleisure brands Lululemon and Anine Bing.

They are good at keeping the offering fresh and exciting and you can often find things you’d never otherwise find like a limited edition collection of cushions and home wares from British designer Richard Quinn. Things purchased only a few years ago have turned out to be collectibles.