What made me take the metro and suddenly head for Boulogne (Pont de Saint Cloud station) on a sunny winter afternoon? I don’t know but the impulse was irrepressible and the beauty that awaited me in the deserted museum Albert Kahn was unbelievable.
Starting the year in beautiful Umbria
I could not have started the year better than at Villa della Genga, built in 1673 in the medieval village of Poreta, half way between Assisi, Perugia and Spoleto. The olive trees and lentil agricultural estate owned by Alessandra and Paolo Montani, was once inhabited by Pope Leon XII and it now houses a small “village hotel”, entirely renovated twelve years … Read More
An Iksel decor is rejuvenating!
At the beginning of the year, one is always full of good intentions, like going swimming twice a week, cleaning one’s car thoroughly or entirely revamping the flat. Thanks to a very creative website dedicated to made-to-order decorative wall papers, you can change the decor of your daily life and turn your house into an Oriental garden or a French … Read More
Happy New Year to you all!
The end of the year was very dramatic in Paris, but with so many signs of friendship and love from all our foreign friends, we are soon recuperating. The Champs Elysées are swarmed with crowds in the very mild weather. Tourists have never been so well treated, good food has never been so important, and we are all waiting for … Read More
Pierre-Alexis Dumas a new President for Musée des Arts Décoratifs
A younger President is taking over Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the very special museum dedicated to decorative arts, housed in the Louvre on the Rivoli side, which also includes a museum of fashion. Pierre-Alexis Dumas, looks so much like his father Jean-Louis Dumas, whom everyone loved and still misses in Paris, that it is moving to see him taking the … Read More
Baccarat is upgrading
When the Baccarat flagship store was located, Place de la Madeleine, my house guests used to bring me presents from the shop and it was very nice… But, yet another luxury hotel, is being built on the site and Starwood capital, who owns the crystal company, had to close the store. Only to reopen five minutes away, in an even … Read More
Black truffles, what else?
December is in France the right month to find black truffles. If you have never tasted them, they are very different from white Italian truffles and are cooked with risotto, scrambled eggs, or eaten on toasted country bred with melted butter and salt. They are a delicacy and can be found wild in Lubéron and Dordogne or grown, as is … Read More
Young vocations are rewarded
So many young people have no idea what to do when they graduate from High School, that it is extremely gratifying and exciting to see thirty one laureates of the « Fondation Marcel Bleustein Blanchet pour la vocation », describe their ambitions and in such diverse fields as jazz and ethno musicology, archeology or special effects, motorbike pilot, ballet dancer, or … Read More