Avenue Matignon continues its fast ascension in becoming the modern and contemporary art destination for all the collectors who can’t be bothered to get stuck in traffic on their way to the Marais. And the White Cube gallery, which is discreetly housed on the second floor of an Hausmannian building at n°10, is showing a completely unknown-to-the French American artist, … Read More
In Sceaux the chateau and the park are a discovery
I had been trying to visit Château de Sceaux for many years but always ended up being there at the wrong time. It only opens at 1 pm while the park opens very early and is incredibly busy with joggers and retired couples who walk energetically with sticks. The occasion of the visit was a small exhibition of photographs (some … Read More
Hangar Y is Frédéric Jousset’s latest coup
One does not often travel to Meudon, a very royal suburb of Paris, which had a direct road to Versailles in the times of Louis XIV, when minister Louvois owned it. Frédéric Jousset, a successful French financier, has invested the Hangar Y which used to be a storage fro dirigibles in teh 19 th century, and is turning it into … Read More
Musée Bourdelle had a serious facelift and it’s successful
The garden was awakening and the first pink magnolias were in bloom to celebrate the 5 million € renovation of Musée Bourdelle, the house and studio where the turn-of-the century sculptor trained so many famous artists such as Giacometti and Germaine Richier. The architect Bertrand Naut has done an extraordinary job or consolidation of the foundations and restoration of the house … Read More
Chambord, Chenonceau, Cheverny, the Loire Valley is still fantastic.
An English friend wanted to visit the castles of the Loire Valley. And I had not been for so long that I decided to drive her to three major places, very near each other, and an easy journey from Paris. You can even do it in one day if you like. So we started with Chambord, in grey weather and … Read More
Fabrice Hyber is a delight at Fondation Cartier
If you’re looking for a pretty walk in an enchanted forest, go to Fondation Cartier and immerse yourself in the Fabrice Hyber exhibition “The Valley” which is set in different classrooms with sixty works of which twenty are painted for the show. In the 1990’s, the artist started planting a forest with 300 000 tree seeds in Vendée, next to … Read More
A precious twinning of Mortefontaine and Bordentown, brings Joseph Napoleon back to life
When Napoléon was exiled in 1815, his brother Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), who had been King of Naples and of Spain but mostly loved “reigning” on the small village of Mortefontaine, thirty miles north of Paris, moved to America and settled in Bordentown, New Jersey, on the Delaware river 32 miles from Philadelphia. He collected 15 000 books and created the … Read More
A flower magician and an Italian artist make wonders together
The annual Gala dinner of the Friends of Chantilly celebrated the Duc d’Aumale’s two hundredth anniversary at the Palais Royal, in Paris, where he was born on January 16, 1822. Built by Richelieu in 1628, it was Anne d’Autriche’s and the young Louis XIV th residence in the 17 th century. It then became the palace of the Orléans family. Today … Read More