Paris Diary by Laure

A Basque enclave near the Elysée

parisdia5 June 2015FashionLeave a Comment

Gratianne and Amandine Bascans, what a team;

I was walking towards the Jockey Club where witty and entertaining Mickey Wolfson was giving a dinner party for a young couple of striking Byzantine scholars and I discovered that in the last two weeks, a new shop had opened in the spot of Jérome de Noirmont’s former gallery, at 38 ave Matignon. Two charming ladies, (hard to say who is the mother and who is the daughter) from Biarritz, are running this happy space, Gratianne Bascans, of leather handbags and traveling bags.

The Princess moves on!

parisdia5 June 2015ArtLeave a Comment

Princess Minnie de Beauvau-Craon runs her castle with an eye to the future

To own and maintain a large historical castle has become a gigantic adventure nowadays, and Princess Minnie de Beauvau-Craon, daughter of Marc, the seventh Prince of this French aristocratic family, knows all about it. She has decided to turn a new page at Haroué, her beautiful house in Eastern France, in Lorraine, and modernise her way of life. After exhibiting contemporary sculptor Beatrice Carracciolo and fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, she will soon show contemporary furniture and design, a way to tell her two children that life goes on and can be great fun.

Two Japanese XIX th century falcons

A Peruvian barytone becomes French

parisdia5 June 2015Performing artsLeave a Comment

On May 20 th Rudi Fernandez Cardenas becomes French!

I have known Rudi Fernandez Cardenas for over ten years and met him while he was still studying at Conservatoire National de Musique, in La Villette. How he was born in Iquitos, Peru, in a city that can only be reached by boat or plane because it is in the middle of the Amazone… How he was a soprano at 10 and subsequently selected to study in Lima at the Conservatory and how he won a scholarship to Paris is all fascinating to me.Read More

Where on earth …?

parisdia1 June 2015Happy moments5 Comments

The 5th century bc Temple of Segeste remains very wild and romantic like its arch enemy Selinunte.

In which country in the world can you play two rounds of golf on a Kyle Phillips links course, swim on a listed wild beach, sit in a 5 th century bc Greek amphitheater, listen to « Iphigenie in Tauris » by Euripides with 6 000 young people, and admire (almost) alone a Greek Satyre from 4 th century bc, recently “fished” between Mazzara del Vallo and Tunisia?

You have guessed! I am just back from Sicily, where from Trapani to Siracusa, I have not stopped being startled by the wild beauty of Segeste and Selinunte, the fantastic food and the kindness of the people.Read More

Ellsworth, is well worth it

parisdia1 June 2015Restaurants & Hotels1 Comment

“Ellsworth” faces La Fontaine de Molière

One needs a lot of curiosity and a certain courage to walk into Ellsworth, the new restaurant opened two months ago, by American Braden Perkins (his other restaurant Verjus is half a block away) on 34 Rue de Richelieu, near the Comédie Française. No name on the window, the entrance is hidden behind a nasty scaffolding and inside, the room is narrow and dark. But ! Once you have been warmly welcomed by Sarah, the charming Swedish manager, who looks about 15, you feel much better.

Victoire and Hélène risk it all with their “gri-gri”

parisdia1 June 2015Art4 Comments

The entrance of the gallery, which used to be Yvon Lambert’s

For their first exhibition in their new not-yet-totally-renovated gallery, Victoire de Pourtalès and Hélène Nguyen Ban are showing a good measure of courage ! After negotiating for a long time the lease of Yvon Lambert’s former gallery at 108 rue Vieille du Temple, the young women chose an artist from Cameroun, Pascale Marthine Tayou (yes a man with a girl’s name) to invade the space and use every little corner of the back rooms with his multidiscipline work. Gri-gri means a good luck item and there is no lack of sense of humor in this show. The result is spectacular, fun and unpretentious.

Pascale Marthine Tayou is a self taught artist from Cameroun

A world of cheeses that travel

parisdia24 May 2015Happy moments5 Comments

Order any cheese and you will be delivered 48 hours later.

One of the best Christmas presensts I ever shared was a basket of fresh French cheeses delivered by Fed Ex to a Santa Barbara door step on Christmas eve. The present came from my nephew who resides in Shanghai and had guessed what was most needed by a French family living in America.

With truffles it’s even better.

Fromages.com was the good fairy that not only delivered on time in 48 hours, but mostly sent the most fabulous cheeses you can find in France. How do they do it ? I have no idea but I repeated the experince a number of times with friends in Great Britain and in the US, and the cheeses were always fabulous. A real vacherin Mont D’Or, a real smelly Epoisse, and all sorts of brie with truffles or heart shaped goat cheeses. This seems to be the best kept secret amongst gourmets and I am sharing it with you.
This company based in Tours, is so efficient that I suspect some American management behind it all. ?

Poussin and a few discoveries

parisdia24 May 2015Art3 Comments

I have always been reticent about Nicolas Poussin’s paintings and even in Chantilly where I discovered the fabulous « Massacre des Innocents », which is considered as one of his masterpieces, I tended to be bored by his landscapes. Well, with this new exhibition at the Louvre of « Poussin et Dieu », and thanks to Guy de Compiègne’s new study « Nicolas Poussin, l’ambiguité recherchée » (Ed du Varulv), I had a new look and was fascinated.Read More