Foie gras and pear was excellent
When two people I trust tell me to try a new place, I rush! and this is what I did with an English friend at Sauvage, which replaced the wonderful La Marlotte on rue du Cherche Midi. There is no decor at all in this blunt white wall space furnished with very simple woden tables. The reception is warm and young and the food delicious. You will not be disappointed.
Palais Garnier facing avenue de l’Opéra, © Photo Jean-Pierre Delagarde
5 January 1875, marks the inaugural Gala for the Paris Opera created by Charles Garnier. Napoléon III has been deposed. The show on stage is very “pale”, all eyes are directed on King Alfonso XII of Spain, the Lord Mayor of London and the President of the French Republic, Patrice de Mac Mahon. The building was the real hero of the evening, not the ballet nor the diva. This is how lively, Gérard Fontaine’s story about the construction of one of Paris’s most celebrated buildings is. “L’Opéra de Charles Garnier” is a riveting read in French and in English, based on 19 th century archives.Read More
Kings of the Old Testament, 1140-1145, Statues columns from Chartres cathedral restored by the American Friends of Chartres
Musée de Cluny is currently being totally remodeled and the new entrance in a modern building is a huge success. Besides the lovely exhibition around the “Unicorn” tapestry “La Dame à la Licorne”, a large show “Naissance de la sculpture gothique” of 130 statues from 1135 to 1150 illustrates the birth of Gothic sculpture in Saint Denis and at Chartres cathedral. It is the best way to see these incredible works of art from close up.Read More
At Deyrolle, Claire Morgan shows “Losses”
With Christmas getting dangerously closer, my steps led me to rue du Bac and rue de Sèvres where two small exhibitions are quite enchanting. While doing your shopping at Hermès, at Laurence Tavernier (for nightgowns) or at “38” rue de l’Université for South African and Mexican artifacts, make sure to step into Fondation EDF next to the Récamier restaurant to get immersed into “Light matters” by Erwin Redl and to go by Deyrolle, rue du Bac, for Claire Morgan‘s exquisite exhibition.Read More
Mattia Bonetti, mirror
It’s a good idea for the Christmas season to have commissioned mirrors and jewelry from famous French artists. And this is exactly what Pierre-Alain Challier, the charming galerist from the Marais, has conceived with Anne and Patrick Poirier, designer Mattia Bonetti, Jean Michel Othoniel, Hubert Le Gall and more terrific designers… The result is a fun show on two floors with objects at all prices. If I could pick one, it would be the large mirror in the hallway which is magical. Read More
The best table at the left end of the restaurant is for three
Théâtre Marigny has just reopened after five years of rejuvenation by his new operator, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and two architect-decorators, Jean-Michel Wilmotte for the public spaces and François Joseph Graf for the “Costes” restaurant. It is a huge aesthetical success, since modernity mixes with the 19 th century style of the theatre founded by Jacques Offenbach, in 1855. Ushers are dressed by Irié, a favorite designer of director Jean Luc Choplin, formerly at Théâtre du Châtelet. The musical “Peau d’Ane” is not quite up to its film version with Catherine Deneuve, but bluntly reveals the talent of Charles Perrault in his fairy tales. And the restaurant set on the gardens of the Champs Elysées is extremely pretty.Read More
After his 190 th book signed, Daniel Marchesseau was still smiling
Some brilliant characters have the knack of bringing people together and Daniel Marchesseau, curator of over seventy exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo and Martigny, is one of them. The cocktail party organized at Christie’s for the launch of his thirty second book “Diego Giacometti, sculptor of furniture “(Editions du Regard), was the most fun, chic, amicable event of the month. And he sold over a hundred and nighty copies that evening…Read More
“Sarcophage des Epoux”, Cerveteri Necropolis of Banditaccia, ca 520-510 bc, Musée du Louvre
In twenty years between 1830 and 1857 Giampietro Campana, who was running the Monte de Pietà in Rome, managed to create the most extravagant collection (12 000 pieces) of Italian art from Antiquity to his time. It was dispersed when he was accused of mixing the Papal state’s money and his own, and for the first time, the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg and the Louvre have reunited over 500 works bought by Czar Alexander II and Napoléon III. Read More