An extravagant jewelry collection in Brussels

parisdiaArt, Fashion4 Comments

Sophie de Kinkelin, necklace in red feathers from Aratinga solstitialis, North Brazil

Travelling to Brussels for the opening of Solange Thierry de Saint Rapt’s jewelry exhibition “Objets ambigus”, was exciting and fun. This long time collector (over 40 years) of extravagant artist’s jewelry, has been wearing the largest and longest necklaces, the most threatening rings, and many purple jewels at every art opening, while she was running l’Oeil magazine. Now, is the occasion to see a third of her collection at Bozar, Brussels, where the minister of Economy, Didier Gosuin, introduced her show as part of “Design September”.Read More

La Biennale Paris is on the right track

parisdiaArt

It took ten years to for Bruno Surgères to collect these yellow pineapples in opaline Empire vases and the presentation is fabulous

Everyone seemed a bit nervous for the opening of La Biennale Paris, an International art fair which used to be devoted to antique dealers and jewelers and is, this year, mainly focused on twentieth century paintings and decorative arts, with a few Asian, African and XVIII th century decorative arts. The whimsical decor created by fashion designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac gave it a light atmosphere and the very blue sky through the Grand Palais’s glass roof made everyone happy. There is a future for La Biennale, which will now be a yearly event. And for the first time this Saturday, entrance will be free, from 6 pm to midnight to celebrate Les Journées Européennes du Patrimoine.Read More

Food, food, and more food on rue du Bac

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Beaupassage, a food gallery between Raspail, Grenelle and Bac

I naively thought that rue du Bac had filled all its spaces with luxury food and catering, between La Grande Epicerie and the numerous pastry shops which line this epicenter of the 7 th arrondissement. Well there was a little space left within the buildings, and famous chefs such as Sophie Pic, Olivier Bellin, Pierre Hermé and Alexandre Polmard have invested the site with take out food, coffee shops and restaurants. And there is even a gym to eliminate it all!Read More

Les Marches, a lovely bistrot in the XVI th

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Marinated salmon and warm potatoes at Les Marches

 

A dear friend asked me to book her a table near Fondation Yves saint Laurent so I decided I would test for her Les Marches, a bistrot that had been recommended to me all summer long. It is not new at all, but has a divine quality: it is very amicable and simple, and really cheap for the area, the XVI th arrondissement, especially across the street from Palais de Tokyo and its -too- trendy spots. Les Marches is part of Les Routiers, a group of restaurants located on highways all around France, where routiers (truck drivers) stop for a good but reasonable meal. I did not know they existed within Paris!Read More

Everything you should look forward to in the Autumn

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Jean Boggio, Ring, Pikotzea 2, Collection Solange Thierry de Saint Rapt at Bozar Brussels

C’est la rentrée! back to school or to the office after the long summer recess. September brings its new books, new shows and the Paris Biennale from 8 to 16 September. Take your diary and make sure to pin down the dates, starting today with Brussels and Paris.Read More

Sicily, an enchanted island, again and again…

parisdiaArt, Flowers and gardens, Wine

Anne and Patrick Poirier’s carpet in Palazzo Butera’s private apartments in Palermo

My holidays in Sicily did not start well. If you have read “A Summer’s lease“, the hilarious John Mortimer novel on an English family who rents a house in Tuscany and never gets water because the owner has not paid the bill, you will understand what we went through. I was getting ready to make a wonderful potato purée in a sea shore villa west of Agrigento, and have a cool shower before a gin and tonic, when suddenly, there was no more water on the tap. Well I used what was left in the hose in the garden to cook…Read More

Galerie de la Présidence is everywhere, and at la Biennale

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Albert Marquet, Porquerolles, Fort of Saint Agathe, 1938-1939

I have always been intrigued by Galerie de la Présidence, just across the street from the Elysée Palace and next to the Ministry of Interior on place Beauvau. It is well defended by myriads of policemen and I had only been inside for a fabulous Marquet and a Giacometti exhibition. But when I recently heard that Françoise and Florence Chibret-Plaussu, its owners, were lending paintings all around to museums’ exhibitions, I decided to go in and learn more.Read More

Henri Cole, a poet from Boston who loves Paris

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Famous writer James Lord drawn by Balthus

Henri Cole lives in Boston and teaches in Southern California, but he was born in Japan from an Armenian-French mother and an American military father and he writes poetry in Paris. He has just published a charming book, “Orphic Paris” about “his” Paris which anyone who comes and visits should read first at home, then a second time, while walking along the Seine. He loves all the same monuments and atmospheres as I do and follows Rilke and Rodin in their secret places. Paris has nourished his imagination and his writing.Read More