Short cuts

A rendering of the Terrasse Aravis

London The specialist travel bookshop made famous by its appearance in the 1999 film Notting Hill is to close down next weekend after 32 years in business. In the film Hugh Grant played the shop’s manager and ever since it has become a point of pilgrimage for tourists, who pose for photographs outside. In the real world the Travel Bookshop, on Blenheim Crescent, has offered a range of books that belied its tiny size, as well as hosting regular talks by travel writers. At the time of going to press various last-minute attempts to save the shop were under way, including appeals to the film’s stars and offers from authors to work there for free. In the meantime a closing down sale is taking place all week. www.thetravelbookshop.com

Chamonix Building work is due to begin this autumn to create what is being billed as the “highest museum in the world” at the top of the 3,842 metre-high Aiguille du Midi, part of the Mont Blanc massif in France. A cable car from Chamonix to the peak’s summit opened in 1955 (at the time making it the world’s highest) and it has long been a popular destination, both for tourists who want to see the views and mountaineers and skiers, who use it as the start point for their expeditions. Now the summit station is due to be renovated in a €2.1m, three-year, project, part of which involves the creation of a museum dedicated to Mont Blanc and the history of alpinism in the region. Also planned is the Terrasse Aravis, a glass-floored platform suspended over a vertical drop of hundreds of metres. The platform has already won a prestigious design award, but the museum’s world record claim is a little far-fetched – the Bolivian city of Potosí (altitude: 4,090m) has several museums.www.compagniedumontblanc.com

Maldives World-champion surfers, wind-surfers, divers and sailors, as well as conservationists, will give lessons and talks to guests at the Six Senses Laamu resort later this month, as part of a conference and fundraising event. Speakers at the Watermen festival, from September 20 to October 4, range from Jane Seymour, the actress and environmentalist, to free-diving world champion Sara Campbell. Packages for two people cost $6,000 for four days, $9,820 for seven. www.sixsenses.com

Helsinki British airline Flybe has announced 24 new routes across Finland, following its joint acquisition with Finnair of Finnish Commuter Airlines (Finncomm). Flybe will continue to operate all of Finncomm’s routes, plus nine new ones, and is planning further expansion into Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark. www.flybe.com

Santiago Puma Lodge, a new luxury heliski lodge 90 minutes’ drive south of Santiago, has finally opened for the winter season, more than a month behind schedule. Its owners delayed the opening, cancelling all bookings, because of lack of snow and a dangerous layer of snow crystals that might have caused avalanches. “It was a very difficult decision for us to have to make,” said Mark Jones, founder of Chilean Heliski, the lodge’s operator. Conditions have now improved and heliskiing will continue until mid-October; a six-day package costs $11,780 per person. www.chileanheliski.com