The great advantage of this Pandemic (if any), is that everyone calls each other and speaks out. And the greatest news of the day is the publication on March 23 (yesterday) of Woody Allen’s Memoirs: “Apropos of Nothing”. I remember Woody announcing to me in 1987, that Mia was pregnant. He was stunned at the time because she had supposedly … Read More
Latest pleasures from Paris in these odd times
Hélène Rodocanachi was the anti heroin of the week. She could not go out and celebrate her 105 th birthday with children (Annick, Josselin and Olivier de Rohan) and stepchildren and was locked up in her retirement home in the Trocadero! This amazing lady lived through two World Wars with her first husband Duc de Rohan, an athlete and 80 … Read More
A new publishing house and an entertaining novel
To start a new publishing house in 2020 needs guts and this is what Philippine Cruse is proving today. At 42, she already has had a rich life. After an MA in Art history completed in Portland, Oregon, she passed her doctorate in French literature at the Sorbonne and went on to work in a bookstore, Alice, in Paris. In parallel, she … Read More
Amiens celebrates its modernized museum
It took 10 years and three different curators to renovate Musée de Picardie in Amiens and the inauguration on February 29 th, in the midst of the coronavirus was somewhat doomed. But I was curious to visit the city where Emmanuel Macron was raised and where his love affair with Brigitte (born Trogneux), started. Amiens is famous for its huge … Read More
Liliane Tuck has a new book out and it is a masterpiece
French readers might not be as familiar with the character of Heathcliff as English educated children who all read Emily Brontë’s best seller “Wuthering Heights” at school. But they will still get the parallel between Lily Tuck‘s hero Cliff, in “Heathcliff Redux“, her latest novel, and the 19 th-century villain. The National Book Award winner, surprises us again in this … Read More
Hugo Vickers’love affair with Gladys Deacon
British Ambassador Lord Llewellyn was on school vacation with his three young children but this did not deter Parisian book lovers to attend Hugo Vickers‘ conference and book signing at the beautiful residence once inhabited by Pauline Borghese. Former Ambassadress Lady Holmes, back in Paris, was in attendance and the tragic life of Gladys Deacon, duchess of Marlborough, was the … Read More
Charlotte Perriand is also a photographer
In the large Charlotte Perriand exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton, I spotted a few powerful photographs and my curiosity was aroused. So as soon as I heard of the new show at Institut de France, I rushed and was happy to visit the very elegant place with the curator Lélia Wanick Salgado and the architect’s daughter, Pernette Perriand-Barsac who worked with … Read More
Bibliothèque Mazarine, a mythical place
Cosimo Marco Mazzoni, a law professor based in Fiesole, died four weeks ago in his sleep in Paris. He had such a passion for Bibliothèque Mazarine, at the heart of l’Institut, that he acquired an apartment a few blocs away, so he could be sure to walk there every day when he was in Paris. He taught at Università di … Read More