After reading a portrait of architect Pierre Yovanovitch in the Figaro, I rushed to visit the new Kamel Mennour right bank gallery, on avenue Matignon (next to Baccarat) and this led me to Hôtel Bristol where Daniel Buren, the king of stripes, is showing a pergola. What fun !

First, the lovely little white and gray gallery on avenue Matignon. As Dylan Lessel, the very young director, was telling me, the space is smaller than the rue St André des Arts’ large courtyard gallery and it is very sparse. White walls and blue grey Savoie marble for the staircase. At street level, two marvelous watercolors of the Monumenta project by Huang Yong Ping and the model of the exhibition, where all containers are in blond wood. I loved it.

Downstairs a mish mash of artists represented by Kamel Mennour: Ufang, Camille Henrot, Anish Kapoor and Daniel Buren. It seems like a tiny shop for Bristol customers to have a quick buy. It is nevertheless very pretty. And it led me to Hôtel Bristol where Woody Allen and David Rockefeller (who will be 101 in June) were staying there the same week in May. When I had tea with Alice Victor, David Rockefeller’s long time right hand, she was telling me about DR’s energy for visiting Fontainebleau and his favorite Paris restaurant l’Ambroisie. The ballet of waiters and well wishers from the hotel had struck me then. So I went back, of course, to see Daniel Buren’s pergola in the garden.

There is nothing as pleasurable as the atmosphere of a good hotel and when I walked in and heard about ten different “Bonjour Madame, bienvenue”, I felt like a queen. Through the bar and in the garden where I was alone visiting the colorful pergola. What I liked best is the clash between conservative orange and pink  geraniums and contemporary screens. It is an experience that you should try.

And why not stop for a mojito at the bar  where artist Hicham Berrada uses mirrors for his videos. A nice way for Kamel Mennour to integrate the « bourgeois » 8 th arrondissement. (28 avenue Matignon and  Hotel Bristol, 118 Faubourg St Honoré)

And this will definitely save you from going to Fondation Louis Vuitton, where Daniel Buren was asked to cover the Frank Gehry building with color stripes. A pure scandal which I am surprised he accepted to produce.

Architecture is a work of art that need no coloring….