Paris Diary by Laure

Fitzwilliam and Bourdelle strike a new friendship

parisdia3 April 2015Art4 Comments

Thomas Gainsborough, Heneage Lloyd and his sister Lucy from the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Jane Munro, curator of paintings and drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, speaks perfect French and travels to Paris often. She found it totally natural, after spending six years of her life researching artists mannequins in paintings, to offer Musée Bourdelle the exhibition she had curated in Cambridge. Amélie Simier, took it on for the reopening of her museum devoted to sculptor Antoine Bourdelle and his studio. The result is a fun, quirky, unusual show where Courbet paintings flirt with Gainsborough and de Chirico with Kokoschka.Read More

A multicolor Pierre Bonnard at Orsay

parisdia3 April 2015Art1 Comment

“Les danseuses” as seen through fog from high above.

No need to go to Musée Marmottan to see the exhibition « La Toilette, naissance de l’Intime » for there are 14 baigneuses by Pierre Bonnard at Musée d’Orsay. And I must say they are not my favourite. The exhibition, which is drawing 4 000 visitors a day, is a hit and everyone can find a style he likes in this painter who was alive for 80 years and a master of color.

French women don’t get fat at la Régalade

parisdia3 April 2015Books, Restaurants & Hotels1 Comment

La Régalade St Honoré is still a wonderful find.

Mireille Guiliano, former CEO of Veuve Clicquot in the United States, became worldwide famous ten years ago, with her first book « French women don’t get fat » (Knopf) where she tells how she was fat at 16 and never again, even though she eats in restaurants ten times a week.

And Mireille was running the show!

Nazis speak for themselves

parisdia3 April 2015BooksLeave a Comment

Marie Christine Perreau-Saussine and the laureate, Prof. Johann Chapoutot

« Nazis liked neither philosophy nor politics, so it is rather pleasing that you should honor me today with the Emile Perreau-Saussine Prize for Political philosophy » stated Professor Johann Chapoutot at Sciences Pô, the Political science University of Paris where late that afternoon Kofi Annan was also giving a talk. His latest book, « La Loi du sang » (Gallimard) has a subtitle : To think and act as a nazi. Chapoutot who teaches at the Sorbonne was introduced by Pierre Manent, a great intellectual himself, who spoke in such beautiful French in front of a remarkable jury of professors and journalists. This is not « yet another book about the Nazis, it is the meticulous study of how the people of Germany, who felt threatened by an outside enemy, were feeling they acted in legitimate defense.”Read More

And Gaultier leads the dance!

parisdia30 March 2015FashionLeave a Comment

Jean Paul Gaultier is as fun an modest as we know him in this entertaining exhibition.

“Jean Paul Gaultier, made in mode” 2012, © Jean-Paul Goude

Jean Paul Gaultier is one of the rare French Couture designers to have been around for more than forty years and to have kept its inventively, sense of humor and modesty all along. After a world tour of 9 cities, (Melbourne, San Francisco, Brooklyn, London, Madrid….) this show is finally landing in Paris at Grand Palais, with special designs of furniture and the narration of a fashion show by Catherine Deneuve.

Velazquez, full of surprises

parisdia30 March 2015Art2 Comments

“Portrait of infant Baltasar Carlos with a dwarf” came from MFA, Boston

The Spanish flag ornates the Elysée Palace

There will be long queues outside the Grand Palais but you can skip them with a Sesame card.

From the Elysée Palace to the Grand Palais on the Champs Elysées, where the Velazquez exhibition was opening that morning, a myriad of Spanish and French flags were celebrating the official visit of King Felipe and his beautiful wife Letizia of Spain.
For the painter of King Philip IV, this was a strong « socialist » tribute ! but then the royal inauguration was cancelled because of the crash of Barcelona-Düsseldorf flight in the Alps and the King and Queen left.
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Miguel Bonnefoy a new Garcia Marquez?

parisdia30 March 2015BooksLeave a Comment

The Prix Edmée de la Rochefoucauld is given every year to the author of a first novel, and I always try to attend the Prize giving ceremony at Cercle Interallié, for its president, Hélène de la Baume, is charming and the lunch time cocktail party always fun and glamorous.

But this year there was a special bonus ! the 27 year old Venezuealan born writer Miguel Bonnefoy, was so intense and passionate about literature that one could not resist buying and reading his book « Le voyage d’Octavio » instantly.

Coretta, what a good find!

parisdia30 March 2015Restaurants & HotelsLeave a Comment

The light wood decor was designed by Brune de la Guérande

My young golfing friends had told me a about Coretta a month ago but I was a bit defiant since the young have no culinary culture and I was expecting the worst. One of those trendy, tiny food plates with nothing to eat and too many flavors, and a horribly pretentious waiter. Well not at all ! The experience was charming and delicious. For exactly €70 per person. Ideal.Read More