“Chou farci”, stuffed cabbage, by Timothée

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Start with a chou frisé

While listening to Professor Philippe Godoy‘s conference on the Eglise de la Madeleine at the turn of the century, I ran into a group of young students who live nearby and one of them, Timothée, who attends ESCP, a high level business school in Paris, also apprentices as a chef. He learned to cook with his mother, Marie, who with her husband Vincent, runs a bed and breakfast in La Boudio in Cantal, and volunteered to prepare a chou farci (stuffed cabbage) for his friends in my kitchen. I watched him do it and it takes a little time (3 hours), needs dexterity with your hands, but is a cheap and very filling meal for our winter months. And it was delicious. Read More

A fireworks of Marquet at Galerie de la Présidence

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Notre Dame de Paris, 1908

Galerie de la Présidence survives in front of the Elysée Palace and surrounded by police and security fences, and it is even celebrating its 50 th anniversary. When you have the good idea of ringing the bell, Florence Chibret-Plaussu opens with a smile. She and her mother, Françoise, have been collecting paintings by Albert Marquet (1875-1947) for years and some of them could already be seen at Musée d’Art moderne in the large retrospective of the artist, five years ago. In their three floor gallery, it is a festival of greys and bright colors, and my devotion for this painter was entirely fulfilled by the variety of 26 paintings exhibited, from Paris to Algiers and Marseille. The show is on until January 29 and you will be surprised!Read More

Anselm Kiefer at Grand Palais until January 11, do not miss it!

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Die Asche der Brünnen im Akra, (ashes from Akra’s well), 2021, © Anselm Kiefer, Photo Georges Poncet

When I met him at Daniel Templon’s decoration, Jean Michel Wilmotte, the architect of Grand Palais Ephémère, advised me to go and visit the Anselm Kiefer “For Paul Celan” show, around 4 pm to get the best light of the day. Unfortunately it was raining when I went last Monday but I understood why the light was so important in the exhibition which takes over the 10 000 square meters of the temporary building on the Champ de Mars. This is probably the safest art gallery in Paris at the moment, and there are no lines! Fifteen years after his installation for Documenta at Grand Palais in 2007, Anselm Kiefer has become the most celebrated German artist in Paris. He created a specific work for the Panthéon a year ago and was chosen by President Macron as one of the works to open the French Presidence of the European Union this January 1, thus celebrating the Franco German relation. The artists works in France, in Croissy. Read More

At Musée Guimet, Duy Anh Nhan Duc and Tajikistan glitter…

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Guy And Nhan Duc in front of Parlour of wishes, 2021, photo Enzo Orlando

There are always surprises at Musée Guimet, and this time it was Duy Anh Nhan Duc, a Vietnamese botanical artist who is showing on the top floor a series of sculptures and installations made with dandelion seeds. He takes us on a three part journey with a triptych which leads us to dream and poetry. Born in 1983 in Ho Chi Minh City, he now lives in Paris and works with nature, endlessly gathering plants such as dandelions, salsify, thistles, wheat and clover which he transforms into delicate art. He delivers a dialogue with plants and captures their fragility. In the lower galleries, the mysterious country of Tajikistan is revisited with its little known archeological sites and enchanting buddhas.Read More

Eva Jospin is striking in Giverny and fills up musée de la Chasse

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In the Galleria, Eva Jospin fills the space with a large mural and a tunnel full of surprises at Musée de la Chasse

Musée de la Chasse has been closed for renovations for two years, its fabulous director Claude d’Anthenaise has retired,  and Eva Jospin’s exhibit throughout the museum and in the Galleria downstairs is the perfect momentum for its reopening. Children and parents are forming a huge crowd outside and inside the Hotel de Mongelas in the Marais, and I found it difficult to figure out the story behind the artist’s precious cardboard sculptures. There are no cartels and no explanations.  But from having seen a few of her exhibitions at Galerie Tarasieve nearby, and more recently at Giverny’s  Museum of Impressionisms (until January 16), I just let myself be carried around with the crowds and enjoyed her new works immensely. You have time to see the show in Paris until March 20 th. Read More

Four hands at the piano and in real life!

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Mladen Tcholitch and Prisca Benoit in Paris for a ravishing four hand concert

Pianists Prisca Benoit and Mladen Tcholitch have recorded a CD of Mozart’s concertos for two pianos and orchestra K.242 and K.365 with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists conducted by the Brazilian chef Lavard Skou-Larsen. The two pianists have developed a program of four hands pieces which they played in the last five years and they performed a ravishing private concert in Paris this week with Mozart’s sonata for four hands and mainly Dvorak and Brahms dances. It was the most optimistic way to start the Christmas season. Read More

Marcel Proust reappears at Musée Carnavalet

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Jacques-Emile Blanche, Portrait of Marcel Proust, 1892, Musée d’Orsay © RMN-Grand Palais, Hervé Lewandowski

I found the exhibition “Marcel Proust, a Parisian novel“, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth at Musée Carnavalet, a little disappointing but it seems to be extremely popular and the small rooms are swarming with visitors. There is a trend on Proust right now and it is as if one felt more clever around him… Since Carnavalet is the museum of the city of Paris, the show concentrates on the Paris of Proust, the boulevard Malesherbes, Lycée Condorcet, Plaine Monceau, Saint Augustin, rue de l’Arcade,  all his favorite addresses of the 8th arrondissement. 280 works ranging from his bedroom to archive films and rare pictures of his parents, try to recreate his world, but probably due to the lack of space, the atmosphere is not there…Read More