Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, from Paris

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I looked around Paris to find a pretty Christmas tree for you, all the hotels are lit in the most exquisite way but the most glamorous decor is certainly that of Opera Garnier where I heard a wonderful “Clemenzia de Tito” with Stéphanie d’Oustrac in Sesto and Ramon Vargas in Tito.  The Foyer has never looked so good!

Bayonne celebrates the Gramont in style

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We were eight members of the Gramont family to make the trip on the new four hour TGV to Bayonne, in the Pyrénées Atlantiques. Our ancestors Roger, Jean, Antoine I, were mayors and captains Antoine II, III and IV were governors of the town from the 16 th to the 18 th century. The occasion was the inauguration of an … Read More

Emile Guimet travels around the world in his own museum

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Emile Guimet, the founder of Musée National des Arts Asiatiques, was born in Lyon, in 1838, the son of a chemist who invented a special ultramarine blue. His family’s wealth enabled him to travel extensively, first to Egypt in the 1860’s, then for ten months around America and Asia with an artist, Félix Régamey , a friend of Verlaine and Rimbaud, … Read More

Alfred de Montesquiou takes us on a dream adventure

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Alfred de Montesquiou, already a veteran journalist at 39, has covered wars in the Middle East for Associated Press and Paris Match and was awarded the prestigious Prix Albert Londres for his covering of the Arab Spring revolts.  He has been commissioned by Arte, the French German television channel, to do a series on the Silk Road which is being … Read More

Fondation Jacques Chirac draws the best

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As usual, Emmanuel Macron was fifteen minutes late, but then he is the President of the Republic and everyone got up to applaud him when he entered the théâtre Levi- Strauss at Musée du Quai Branly. The occasion was the Prize giving ceremony for President Chirac’s foundation to two Middle Eastern associations who work for peace, one in Turkey and … Read More

Happy Thanksgiving!

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  It is not so easy to prepare Thanksgiving in Paris because French turkeys are only ready for Christmas! But thanks to a few American shops, we will manage… I wish you all a lovely holiday and hope your turkey will be as good as ours.