I Prefer Paris

60th Anniversary of the Paris Historic Association

The Paris Historic Association is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this year.

In the early 1960s, the 17th-century palaces and mansions in the Marais were either in shambles, in disrepair, derelict, or abandoned, and there was a great chance that they would be torn down because they were beyond repair. Luckily the minister of culture at the time, Andre Malraux was aware that these buildings were in danger of disappearing and that they needed to remain standing and safeguarded. The Malraux law was passed in 1962, which meant that all the hotel particuliers/palaces were now historically protected, and the owners were responsible for maintaining and upgrading them. Since then, many of these buildings have been beautifully and meticulously restored, and I show clients some of them on my Marais tour.

On rue de Rivoli, close to Hotel de Ville, there’s a series of photos with before and after photos of 12 historic buildings that have been restored in recent years. It’s amazing to see the transformation.

The offices for the Paris Historic Association are at 44-46 rue Francois Miron. They sell books about the history of the Marais and provide information about the history and architecture of the Marais.  https://www.paris-historique.org

 

 

Doors of the Month September, 2023: Rue Bonaparte

I was doing research for a tour client in Saint Germain a few weeks ago and while strolling the rue Bonaparte, I discovered a bevy of great doors.

 

Alaia/Gres. Beyond Fashion

It’s a big month for the brilliant fashion designer Azzedine Alaia, who sadly passed away in 2017. This month, there are two major Alaia exhibitions, one at his foundation and gallery in the Marais, and the other at the Palais Galliera.

At the Fondation Azzedine Alaia, Alaia/Gres. Beyond Fashion, explores the similarities in the designs of Alaia and the couturier Madame Gres. Although they lived in different time periods and never met, they both studied and wanted to be sculptors, which strongly inspired their clothing designs. They strived to elevate, drape, and sculpt the female form.

Madame Gres, born Germaine Émilie Krebs in Paris in 1903 and died in 1993, was notoriously private. She spent most of her life in her atelier draping gorgeous gowns in silk jersey, inspired by the Greco-Roman period.

Azzedine Alaia, born in 1935 and raised in Tunisia, was a dressmaker’s assistant after he graduated from the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts. He moved to Paris in the 1950s and worked for various fashion houses, including Dior, Guy Laroche, and Thierry Mugler. In 1980 he opened his own studio, in the then-rundown Marais. He rose to fame in the late 1980s/early 1990s, designing sexy, form-fitting dresses and gowns worn by Raquel Welch, Naomi Campbell, Grace Jones, Tina Turner, and Madonna.

The exhibition displays the designers side by side, and it was fun trying to guess which ones were Alaia and which were Madame Gres.

Fondation Azzedine Alaia also has a lovely café in the courtyard, serving drinks and light food during the day, and there’s also a bookshop with fashion and design books and magazines.

Alaia/Gres. Beyond Fashion

Until February 2, 2024

18 Rue de la Verrerie, 75004

https://fondationazzedinealaia.org/en/

Madame Gres

Madame Gres

Café of the Month, September 2023: La Palette

One of my favorites in Saint Germain des Pres, La Palette is the quintessential Paris café. It has everything a classic Parisian café you would imagine: a zinc bar, dark wood paneling, waiters wearing starched white aprons from the waist down, classic rattan café chairs, dark leather banquettes, extended white canvas awnings, chalkboard menus, and worn-out wood tabletops.

Opened in 1902, it attracted artists including Cezanne, Picasso, and Braque and art students from the nearby Beaux-Arts school, hence the name and palettes used in the inside décor, and Hemingway, Jim Morrison, and even Julia Roberts have been clients. In the book Invisible by Paul Auster, the main character frequently goes to La Palette, and it was designated a historical landmark in 1984.

I sat inside in the dining area and ordered a café noisette. It wasn’t the best I ever had but soaking up the rich atmosphere of the dark walls, the cool, 19th-century style paintings, the waiters running to and fro, and the tarnished mirrors, made up for the mediocre coffee. 

La Palette serves an extensive drink menu with coffee, tea, soft drinks, cocktails, mocktails, beers, and shots. The limited food menu offers eggs, large salads, charcuterie and cheese boards, steak tartare, duck confit, and croque Monsieur.

La Palette 43 Rue de Seine, 75006

 

Book Giveaway: Of Love and Paris by John Baxter

I am always excited when John Baxter writes a new book, and his latest is Of Love and Paris Romantic and Obsessive Liaisons, which looks to be a juicy and entertaining book.

Here’s a synopsis of the book.

The French may not have invented love, but they perfected it, and the laboratory in which they did so was Paris. James Joyce called the city "a lamp for lovers, hung in the wood of the world."

From the Middle Ages, Paris has drawn those who wish to experience the limits of love – intellectual, spiritual, and carnal. In Of Love and Paris, John Baxter turns the spotlight on some of them, from the medieval troubadours who seduced court ladies with flowery verse to Man Ray, whose camera conferred immortality on his lover and model Kiki, and Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who turned their moans of sexual pleasure into music. The grandes horizontales of the belle epoque, accomplished technicians of eroticism who drew the rich and powerful of both sexes to Paris, had their modern incarnation in Gala, who left the bed she shared with poet Paul Éluard and painter Max Ernst to seduce the young Salvador DalÍ.

Love in Paris, however, can take unexpected forms. Was the devotion to Marcel Proust of his housekeeper CÉleste Albaret any less passionate than that of Anne Desclos to Jean Paulhan, for whom she composed "the strangest love letter any man ever received"—the notorious novel Story of O, the predecessor of Fifty Shades of Grey? Love has a multitude of faces, and some of the most mysterious and surprising are unveiled in Of Love and Paris.

John has been generous enough to offer two copies of Of Love and Paris.

The fifth and tenth person who leaves a comment on the bottom of this post today on this link

https://www.ipreferparis.net/2023/09/book-giveaway-of-love-and-paris-by-john-baxter-.html

will receive a copy of Of Love and Paris.

CLICK HERE to purchase a copy on Amazon.