Now that everyone spends their time sending text messages and posting on Instagram, physical social life has virtually disappeared from our lives. I find myself enjoying talking to my baker more and more while buying a baguette! But little by little, “the Friends of…” and “Cercle des Mécènes” have developed and created cultural salons focused on specific themes. In music, … Read More
Flora Soames shares her “One Day Box” in a book
In the introduction to her book of decoration, Flora Soames writes: “My definition of a One day Box is a place, real or imaginary, where we store fragments of our past that spark a feeling of connection – memories of sights, smells and sound we love, and to which one day we hope to return”. So the venue for the … Read More
Antony Gormley hits Musée Rodin like a storm
On this first day of cold autumn weather, British sculptor Antony Gormley could only be delighted to find all the roses of Musée Rodin still in full bloom. His exhibition of 75 sculptures and models in conversation with Rodin’s masterpieces is the event of the week, just before the openings of Paris + by Art Basel and Peter Doig at … Read More
Claire Bretécher, Prix Émile Perreau Saussine, Journée des Plantes in Chantilly and a novel on worms…
The Autumn Journées des plantes in Chantilly were heavenly with perfect cool and sunny weather and newcomers such as Jean Marie Dheedene from the Clematis Foundation in Belgium. He develops new clematises which survive better the heat and need little watering and has classified them all according to the flowering period and the perfume. I visited Claire Le Meur who … 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
Nic Barlow, a photographer at heart, has left us
Nic Barlow was a very dear friend. But most importantly he was a fabulous photographer, a garden specialist and also a great portraitist. His warmth, extravagant tastes, unusual clothes brought him the sympathy of all sitters. He left us last Tuesday, August 1, at 72, peacefully in his sleep in his beautiful house of Stancombe Park, Gloucestershire. He liked to … Read More
An ideal outdoor cantina and a nostalgic show at the Saint Laurent museum
I went to see the new Yves Saint Laurent show on “Shapes” which reminded me of the glorious years when anyone could buy a Saint Laurent ready-to-wear outfit because they were cheap. The premises of the Foundation, decorated by Jacques Grange, are elegant and simple but not functional. The rooms are small and on three levels. The whole space will … Read More
Musée Albert Kahn has more than its Japanese gardens to show
Albert Kahn, the successful banker of the turn of the century, who documented the world with 72 000 autochromes, in the “Archives of the Planet”, was a keen traveller and he always took a photographer with him. For its new exhibition, his museum in Boulogne is showing extraordinary photographs of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in 1909. The crossing … Read More