Eye Prefer Paris is an ex-New Yorker's insider's guide to Paris. Richard Nahem writes his blog from his fabulous 18th century apartment in the fashionable Marais district of Paris
I’m always inspired when I attend Paris Photo, the prestigious, international photo show held every November at the Grand Palais. I was especially fired up this year and didn’t have to go very far to find inspiration; I walked across the street to the Petite Palais and there it was in plain sight.
I have always loved the immense mosaic floor covering the area of the main floor with a mix of earth colors, patterns, curves, angles, and geometry.
Almost every time I visit the Petit Palais, I photograph the floor but for some reason have never been satisfied with the results. This time I studied the floor more intensely, looking for different angles to shoot than before and I liked the results enough to post the photos today.
How do you like them? Do you have some favorites?
Entrance to the Petite Palais is free.
In my latest A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais.
Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
In November of 2017, I wrote about Maison Aleph, a newly opened pastry shop which combines mid-east and French pastries in a new form.Maison Aleph has been quite successful since then and had a pop-up shop last summer in the esteemed Le Grande Epicerie at Le Bon Marché.
I passed by Maison Aleph a few weeks ago and noticed they introduced a number of new products since I was last there. One thing that stood out was a bento box with home-cooked, middle eastern cuisine, a welcome addition to the otherwise all sweets menu. I bought one to go, curious to see how the savory treats measured up to their pastries.
The main course was chicken with a highly spiced Aleppo red pepper paste, cumin and dried mint. Alongside was a richly textured and flavorful mix of pumpkin, sweet potatoes, lentils, in a sesame and hazelnut sauce. A portion of pickled cauliflower, beets, and carrots were a blast from the past with their tangy, sour vinegar taste, a reminder of jars of them lining our family refrigerator when I was growing up. Another fond and funny memory came up while eating the pickled vegetables; I drove with my sister one day when I was about ten-years old to pick-up some pickled, green-peppers from a woman who pickled her own vegetables. When I got back in the car, we were so anxious to try them, we opened the jar on the front seat and dug in. While my sister was driving, after each traffic light, we would dig in again and quickly close it in time for the green light. About 10 traffic lights later and a sour feeling in our stomachs, we realized we ate the entire jar.
Moutabal is much like baba ghanoush except it uses tahini, whereas baba ghanoush doesn’t. It has a smoother, creamier texture, and the Maison Aleph version topped with pomegranate seeds was sensational. I couldn’t get enough of the zaatar-flavored pita chips to scoop up the moutabal and wished I had a second portion of therm.
Last but not least was one of Maison Aleph’s pastries, a square of baklava with layers of chocolate, crispy and gooey all at once.
Another new item I had to try from Maison Aleph was their ice cream. The pistachio with caramelized Iranian pistachios spoke to me loud and clear. I loved the creamy, almost yogurt like texture, and the pure essence of the pistachios without out a lot of sugar to disrupt it.
The bento box comes in three combinations: meat, vegetarian, and seafood.
In my latest A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais.
Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
L’Ecole Van Cleef and Arpels is around the corner from the Van Cleef and Arpels flagship store on the Place Vendome and offers classes in jewelry making, the history of jewelry, lectures, and also have special exhibitions during the year
For the fall season they have prepared a wonderful show of one of the finest jewelry houses in France, La Cloche Jewelers. Their first shop was inaugurated on rue de la Paix in 1901, subsequently opening branches in Madrid and London, as well as branches in Nice, Biarritz, San Sebastián, Cannes and Deauville. The timing for their ornate, Belle Epoque style jewelry was spot on and they produced jewelry for royalty, aristocracy, and celebrities including Queen Victoria of Spain, Edward VII of England, the kings of Greece and Siam, Duchess of Westminster, and Grace Kelly.
Van Cleef and Arpels celebrates the treasures of LaCloche by presenting the first exhibition solely dedicated to this house. The exhibition takes us through the various trends and styles of jewelry for seven decades including Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Egyptomania, and the Far East. A selection of exquisite necklaces, earrings, collars, bracelets, cigarette boxes, and clocks displayed in clear glass vitrines make up the small but well curated show.
The curator of the exhibition Laurence Mouillefarine has also authored a book about history of Lacloche Jewelers and their rise to being one of the most prestigious jewelry makers of the 20th century. The book, to be released on October 18, includes two albums of gouache illustrations of 21 clocks presented by Lacloche Frères at the International Exhibition of 1925.
Please read the wonderful article in the NY Times, Knowing Paris by its Bridges by Elaine Sciolino, who just wrote her latest book "The Seine: The River That Made Paris"
In my latest A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais.
Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
Funny Girl, the Broadway musical that made Barbra Streisand a star in 1965, is having its first run in Paris. Loosely based on the life of comedian Fanny Brice, Funny Girl has some of the most memorable show songs including People, Don’t Rain on My Parade, and I’m the Greatest Star. Did you know that Funny Girl has never had a Broadway revival?
This new exhibition explores the impact Marie Antoinette has made in history, art, and pop culture. An extensive collection of almost 200 artifacts, film extracts, fashion accessories, and archives illustrate the fascination of Marie Antoinette to this day since her death in 1793.
Master photographer Irving Penn still life images were just as prized as his fashion photos. The exhibition covers six decades of Penn’s still life photos including well-known series Street Material, Cigarettes and Flowers.
In the first major retrospective of the painter Greco, the Crete born artist studied in Venice and Rome, but flourished once he moved to Spain in the late 1500s. Greco went on the a second wave of fame in the 20th century when the avant garde compared his style to the more modern day movements of Fauvists, Cubism, Expressionism, and Abstraction.
Lost in Frenchlation is a terrific organization that screens current French and foreign films with English subtitles. Checkout this link https://www.facebook.com/lostinfrenchlation/ to view films being screened this month.
In my latest A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais.
Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
I am happy to announce the publication of the latest book by Elaine Sciolino, The Seine: The River that Made Paris and thrilled to give away a copy courtesy of the publisher.
Sciolino spent over three years of intense research tracking the 483 mile length of the Seine from its remote plateau starting at its source in Burgundy all the way through to the sea at Le Havre and Honfleur. Along her journey she meets and interviews a rich and diverse cross section of people including a bargewoman and houseboat dweller, a riverbank bookseller, and a famous cinematographer who captures the rivers light in a special way. In between she patrols with river police, rows with restorers of antique boats, and at one point jumps in the Seine to take a swim.
Be the third person to leave a comment about the Seine in my comments section on www.eyepreferparis.com below this post and win a copy of The Seine: The River that Made Paris. The copy of the book will also include an illustrated map by Carol Gillott, of the blog parisbreakfasts.com
Click here To order a copy of The Seine: The River that Made Paris.
In my latest A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais.
Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.
