It’s always very exciting to enter a newly restored house and Château de Rambouillet, managed by Centre des Monuments Nationaux, is particularly interesting for it glittered under three different regimes. First, King Louis XVI who used to hunt there often (it is close to Versailles) and he asked Hubert Robert to conceive laiterie (milk farm) for Marie Antoinette who did … Read More
The Musée de la Marine is back, brand new!
Musée de la Marine on place du Trocadéro, is one of the most popular museums in Paris given the number of passionates who live on the 3 000 kms of French sea coast and own sailboats. And since its closing for renovation in 2017, it had been very much missed. I was excited to enter (after booking a time slot … Read More
At Petit Palais, Modernity is the theme
This is the third part of a trilogy started by Christophe Leribault at Petit Palais with “Paris Romantique ” in 2019 and “Paris 1900”, in 2021. “Le Paris de la Modernité, 1905-1925” is a multifaceted show starting with Montmartre and Montparnasse, the beginnings of automobile and aviation, Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin’s fashion, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and the … Read More
Double bill in Lille, Women artists and Jef Aerosol!
Lille is an easy destination, an hour on the train from Paris, and it’s another world in itself. The Palais des Beaux Arts has the greatest collection of Rubens and Goya and I discovered for the first time the Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse, a former medieval hospital, where the great street artist Jef Aerosol has a retrospective. I did not … Read More
Villers Cotterêts, the new citadel of the French language, is open
I was totally excited to finally get to Villers Cotterêts after a series of mini disasters (the opening visit was cancelled) and an hour and a quarter of driving from Paris. The small town of 10 000 inhabitants, is pretty dreary and the castle which houses the new Cité Internationale de la Langue française stands out like a meringue among … Read More
Le Bourget airport, a chef d’oeuvre of the 1930’S
Some of you might have seen the film on Rudolf Nureev’s defection to France, which took place at le Bourget airport on June 16, 1961. He had come to Paris to dance with 100 dancers from the Kirov for a month and as the group was going to London, he was being sent back to Moscow supposedly for a benefit. … Read More
Les Journées du Patrimoine, it’s this week end
Traditionally every year in mid September, Les Journées du Patrimoine offer you the possibility of visiting public and private buildings which are not otherwise open to the public. The most coveted is the Elysée Palace for which long lines form early in the morning. This year they take place on 16 and 17 September and I visited an interesting Hotel … Read More
Brittany is still a winner, especially in the heat!
In the summer, I love to take my little car and drive west with a few friends to visit. This year I went to château de Lassay, in Mayenne, with Hugues de Montalembert whose young cousins still inhabit this mid 15 th century military castle. Aymeri, Cecilia and their three super talented children (two girls are classicists at Ecole Normale … Read More