“The Christie affair”, by Nina de Gramont

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Nina de Gramont, a determined writer

I had read only one book of short stories by this talented and distant cousin, “Of Cats and Men” published in 2001. She has since published five more books and her latest one, “The Christie Affair” is on the New York Times best seller list. And it is a fantastic read. Nina used an article on Agatha Christie’s disappearance for eleven days, at 36, after her first husband Archibald Christie dumped her. And she imagined what the author could have done in her secret hiding place. She had just published “The murder of Roger Ackroyd” and was already a well known figure in England. A clairvoyant, Horace Leaf is called on the case. On December 14, she is found in Yorkshire at the Swan Hydropathic hotel where she registered under her husband’s mistress name, Teresa Neele. When her husband meets her there, she says she doesn’t remember anything. Doctors think she might have suffered amnesia due to the choc of the separation.Read More

At Château de Fontainebleau, balls and parades are on tapestries …

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Branle at the court of Henri III, 1581-1583, Paris Musée du Louvre (branle is a fast dance in a circle) with Catherine de Medici, Henri III and Christine of Lorraine on the left

“There never was in France such a display of magnificence and “courtliness” as during the last years of the reign  of Henri II” writes Madame de Lafayette in her historical novel La Princesse de Clèves. This is one of the reasons to go and see the new show “L’Art de la fête à la cour des Valois” (Festivities at the court of the Valois), from François I to Henri III (1515 to 1589) and admire the three unique tapestries ordered by Catherine de Medici which are loaned to château de Fontainebleau by Gallerie de Uffizi in Florence. The quality of the embroidery and the fine portraits and sceneries depicted on the works is not only very modern, but also very vivid and there are no other known example of feasts being illustrated on tapestries. A hundred works, including Renaissance musical instruments and  many Primaticcio drawings, descriptions of royal parades and embassies, could not have found a better place than this treasure of Renaissance style which includes the chapel, the galerie François I and the ballroom. And the good news is that a new restaurant has just opened inside the castle,  with a view of the basin.Read More

Yoshi Takata, Pierre Cardin’s Japanese assistant, is remembered at Thaddaeus Ropac

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Pierre Cardin Collection, with Hiroko at the center

Yoshi Takata was always with Pierre Cardin. She was his first assistant in charge of the Asian market, his Japanese muse, shadow, intercessor. I knew her well in the 1980’s when she lunched at Espace Cardin in the gardens of the Champs Elysées and was always available to give a tip or exchange nice words. But strangely enough, I had never seen her photographs which are exhibited at Thaddaeus Ropac, in the Marais until April 19. Nor had I ever known that when she arrived in Paris in 1954, after she had worked as an interpreter for Agence France Presse in Tokyo, she met all the important photo reporters of the time, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Edouard Boubat who took her around and showed her the capital. Read More

Cameroun is celebrated twice this week at l’Odéon and at Quai Branly

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Entry gate of Chefferie de Bana, photo Nicolas Eyidi

This week marks a double success for Cameroun, the large country in Central Africa, which is home to Djaïli Amadou Amal, the writer (in French) of “Les Impatientes”, winner of Prix Goncourt des Lycées in 2020 and Ambassador for UNICEF since. She has been named Writer of the Year 2021 by Trophées de l’Edition, and a ceremony at Théâtre de l’Odéon crowned her on Thursday night. Her book is published by HarperVia in New York next September. And a superb exhibition “On the road of the chefferies in Cameroun” at Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac with colorful costumes and 800 square meters of decors. 230 of the works presented come directly from Cameroun, from the families and “chefferies” united in the association “La Route des Chefferies”. And their collection of thrones is unique.Read More

Romanticism is there, but unevenly

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Henry Monnier, La Lecture (reading), 1834, reminded me irresistibly of British actor Rupert Everett in the 1980’s

Just when Musée de la Vie romantique is opening a new (dreary) exhibition “Héroïnes Romantiques” (Romantic heroines until September 4), we learn that Musée des Beaux Arts d’Orléans has acquired at auction in Munich, Marie d’Orléans’ portrait by Ary Scheffer (1839), which had remained in her son’s Philippe de Wurtemberg’s family ever since. And at Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes, the opening of a charming exhibition of XIX th century drawings was the place to be last Tuesday. You can still catch it until April 29.Read More

Art Paris and PAD, talent is everywhere

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Sheila Hicks, Emergence, 2021-2022 at Claude Bernard

The atmosphère at ArtParis was very electrical and within ten minutes I had already seen four galleries with works I loved. At Mayoral, Vieira da Silva with a large “Blue and Yellow, The Villages”, and a remarkable Joaquin Torres-Garcia, “Dos formas en ocre y rojo” from 1938. At Claude Bernard, Sheila Hicks and Julius Bissier transformed the booth into a waltzing hall with the American weaver’s colorful tapestries and the German painter’s quiet watercolors. In its rue des Beaux Arts gallery, Claude Bernard is showing Maryan in a double bill with Kamel Mennour on rue Saint André des Arts. At Galerie Binome, Thibault Brunet‘s tapestry of the series “Boite Noire” and the Swiss Douglas Mandry‘s lithographs on geotextile, were totally new to me and Lisa Sartorio’s photographs printed on Awagami Murakumo kobo paper are wonderful. I did not know this gallery from rue Charlemagne, managed by Valérie Casino, who was attracting buyers like beas on a honey pot at 11 am on Wednesday. Read More

A cheesy lunch at Monbleu, what could be better?

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Olivier and Andrea run the cheese shop and the restaurant with a smile

I was having coffee near the church of a very sad funeral when I met Olivier Rupé, a charming young man who studied finance and marketing and decided that he loved cheese. After training with a few star cheesemongers, he now runs the cheese shop of Monbleu, a restaurant on 37 rue du Faubourg Montmartre, a few blocks from Hôtel Drouot and the former Le Palace nightclub. It is open seven days a week (except Sunday dinner) and caters mostly cheese from the mountains around Grenoble and Annecy where Pierre Gay prepares them, but also any other kind from Normandy or abroad, of course. I loved the young atmosphere, the modest prices and the very kind welcome from Andrea, the handsome Italian who runs the restaurant. The founder, Damien Richardot, and engineer who used to work for the Boston Consulting group and now runs restaurants. There is a  second Monbleu on rue du Petit Thouars in the  Marais.Read More

The Museum and gardens Albert-Kahn reopen at last in Boulogne

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The Japanese garden is spectacular with its rock walls and camellias in bloom

Started during visionary Patrick Devedjian‘s presidency of the department of Hauts de Seine, the renovation of Musée Albert Kahn in Boulogne was conducted over ten years by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma & associates and it reopened this week end. It is the perfect time to visit the 3,9 ha (9 acres) garden, with large white and pink camellias in full bloom and delightful Japanese maples which were documented between 1909 and 1931, by 2 500 monochromes (photographies). The building is conceived as an engawa, a space between garden and house in wood. The park includes three tiny forests, a rose and fruit tree garden, an English and a Japanese garden. The museum offers at the moment a photograph exhibition of extraordinary views “Around the world with Albert Kahn”.Read More