Kent Monkman inaugurates Canada’s cultural center

The inauguration of Canada’s new cultural center in Paris, within the Embassy which recently moved from avenue Montaigne to 130 Faubourg Saint Honoré, was a great evening full of surprises. Kent Monkman, the successful painter could not have been more charming and his huge painting “Miss Chief’s wet dream” a parody of  the “Raft of the Medusa”, was made especially … Read More

Maria Yanouchevskaïa remembered in style

It was a unique moment of emotion and talent listening to Macha Yanouchevskaïa’s friends and former pupils at the conservatory of Issy les Moulineaux. Macha was a dedicated cello teacher and taught chamber music to young teen agers who were all there to pay their respects to the musician they adored. She died in December 2015 and all the pieces … Read More

Happy Premier Mai

I am so happy to wish you a beautiful May 1st with this huge bunch of muguet (lily of the valley) which I picked especially for you yesterday. This year the lily of the valley came later but bloomed in one week with the hot weather and now the rain. Everyone in France is celebrating our “labor” day and I … Read More

Jacques Genin, a chocolate genius!

  His reputation is that one has to eat his chocolates the day they are made and his metal boxes are devised to keep them fresh for a fortnight… Jacques Genin has a corner chocolate store on rue du Bac and rue de Varenne and it is hard to resist his lovely Easter bunnies and hens. He was recommended to … Read More

Joyeux, there are many reasons to love this place!

Yann Bucaille Lanrezac is a dreamer. But before dreaming, he became a successful businessman in Brittany and in 2012, he bought a catamaran named Ephata. He used it to take autistic children and/or with drown syndrome for a day’s sail. Six thousand so far have been on the boat. One day, a young woman told him: “I don’t need a … Read More

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, from Paris

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

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