I Prefer Paris

Sundays with Polly & Richard: Rouault Exhibit at Pinacotheque Paris

Polly and I missed each other last month, as we were both on vacances. We were anxious to see each other and Polly suggested the Rouault exhibit since her out of town guest wanted to see it.

The story of Rouault and how the exhibition came about was much more fascinating than the work itself. Georges Rouault was born in Belleville in 1871 and though he worked during the time of many art movements, his work couldn’t be categorized in any of them. He was most influenced by Gustave Moreau, a pre-Raphaelite symbolist painter, who was his mentor. After Moreau died in 1896, he became the curator of his museum, his former home and studio. Another big influence and close friend was Matisse. The exhibit is subtitled the Masterpieces from the Idemitsu collection, which is a compelling but long story about a powerful Japanese industrialist who acquired a large collection of Rouault’s, called the Passion. This is only the second time the collection has left Japan in over 35 years.

The exhibit felt claustrophobic with dark walls and tight spaces and the hoards of people made it even feel more so. We were both under whelmed and walked away with disappointment. Although Rouault was a talented artist with a strong, bold style, the work just didn’t speak to me. I did like the portraits of the nude women and dancers, some of the intricate African headdress portraits, and one portrait, Madame X, was one of the few standouts. However, as I looked closer at some of paintings I became more drawn to them and liked them more.

Afterwards we went for a drink at the lively Café Madeleine on Place Madeleine. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day and we sat outside, catching up on the last two months and enjoying probably the last warm days like this till next spring. Not our most exciting outing, but it’s never about the event, it’s about hangin’ with Polly.

Click here to see what Polly wrote.

Georges Rouault:The Masterpieces from the Idemitsu Collection
Pinacotheque de Paris
28 Place de La Madeleine, 8th arr.
Metro: Madeleine
www.pinacotheque.com
Open daily 10:30AM- 6PM, till January 18th

Wishing you all a happy Rosh Hashanah. Here's to a happy and healthy new year.

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I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Monuments Nationaux at Hotel Sully

The Monuments Nationaux, which is the national trust for over 100 monuments in France, is in the beautiful Hotel Sully, a former private mansion built in 1630 located in the Marais. I recently discovered a series of sumptuous photographs capturing some of the 100 monuments the trust is in charge of in the lovely garden.

Monuments Nationaux at Hotel Sully
62 rue St. Antoine, 4th arr.
Metro: St. Paul, Bastille
Open 9AM-7PM everyday

http://www.monuments-nationaux.fr/

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Parisian of the Month: Miguel Lobato

Miguel Lobato more than loves shoes. He proves it in his small Marais shoe and bag boutique loaded with an exquisite hand-chosen collection of the top innovative labels including Martin Margiela, Pierre Hardy, Jamin Puech, Lanvin, Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga, Costume National, Chloe, and Charlot Vasberg. He’s so passionate about the shoes he selects, that he tries on every style before he buys them to make sure they are comfortable enough for his customers. Customers are mostly Parisian and when buying for the shop he chooses styles that have a strong look but not a wild one.

Even though his parents are Spanish, Miguel is a true Parisian, being born and raised here. At an early age he had a penchant for clothes and studied fashion design at Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the most famous school to learn haute couture. After finishing school, he worked as a production manager at Paule Ka, an avant-garde ready to wear house.

Eight years ago he realized there weren’t any high-end accessory shops in the Marais and opened up Lobato in 2001. After a few seasons, he moved away from general accessories to just shoes and bags. The decision paid off well, as the shop is now the premiere place where chic Parisian women buy their footwear & bags. The glass front door is draped in a shear white curtain and it almost looks like a private club, with customers having to be buzzed in. A simple interior, painted soft vanilla, is oval shaped and the merchandise is showcased on brightly lit curved shelves. Fall bestsellers are Lanvin ballet flats with elastic sides in black patent & dark kaki suede, Martin Margiela high boots with a stacked heel and Michel Vivien sky-high heels. Miguel says the must-have bag this season is a supple leather Jerome Dreyfuss bag in two color combinations, elephant gray with brown trim, and black with brown trim that can be worn three different ways and comes with a little flashlight so you can locate those hard to find items in the bottom of it. His new favorite collection is by an innovative American designer Nicole Brundage who lives in Italy and her patent leather high-heeled, open-toed maryjane and pointy oxford are this season’s stars.

I asked Miguel if there was one person in history he would love to sell shoes to and he said Princess Diana. He lived in the Marais for 15 years but recently moved to St. Germain in the 6th arr. When asked about his favorite places in the Marais, he told me he has little time to explore the neighborhood but loves the nearby L’ Eclaireur, a top cutting edge men’s and women’s clothing boutique.

This season's must-have bag by Jerome Dreyfuss

I requested Miguel to try on of his favorite shoes so I can get a photo of him and with great pride he modeled an espresso brown suede and leather Martin Margiela boot with a triangle heel.

Some of my Eye Prefer Paris tour clients have bought stunning shoes at Lobato as a happy but expensive Paris high fashion memento.

Lobato
6 rue Mahler, 4th. Arr
Metro: St. Paul
01 48 87 6814
Monday to Saturday 11AM-7PM
http://www.lobato-paris.com

Nicole Brundage

Strike a pose, Miguel

Weekend in Oslo

I was in Oslo, Norway last weekend for a family birthday celebration. One of the highlights besides the super fun birthday bash was the Norsk Folk Museum. Only five minutes from the city, the open-air part of the museum is in the country with rolling green meadows and horses. I loved the 17th and 16th century buildings with foliage and grass growing on the roofs.

http://www.norskfolke.museum.no/

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival

My friend Diane Pernet, who has what I think is the best fashion blog period, A Shaded View on Fashion, has been give the honor of presenting the first annual fashion film festival at the Jeu de Paume.

Why I think Diane’s blog is the best out there, is that she really reports on the cutting edge of fashion, style, artists, and artisans from all over the world and not the obvious industry fodder about the latest overpriced “it” bag or latest Karl Lagerfeld folly on most fashion blogs.

"A Shaded View on Fashion Film" is a spin off from the successful You Wear it Well Festival. A prestigious jury from the worlds of art, cinema, and fashion will judge a selection of short films produced by designers, photographers, stylists and creators in the fashion world. The festival is a study in the drama, power and personification that fashion evokes and commands on screen. Three documentaries are making their France debut: the 2003 cult Brtish film The Cockettes and two others called Masters of Style about John Galliano & Alexander McQueen.

Read my interview with Diane.


A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival
September26, 27 & 28
Schedule:
Friday 9/26-6:30PM-9PM,
Saturday 9/27, -3PM-8:40PM
Sunday 9/28-3PM-7:40PM
Jeu de Paume
1, place de la Concorde
Metro: Concorde
Admission:3 euros
http://www.ashadedviewonfashionfilm.com/

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Door of the Month: 21 Blvd. St. Germain

Imagine having these regal beauties watching your every entrance and exit.

21 Boulevard St. Germain, near rue de Poissy, 5th arr.
Metro: Maubert Mutualite

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Meredith Mullins: The Seine

The Seine has been called the most romantic street in Paris. It is also a winding path for lazy barges and a superhighway for processions of bateaux-mouches as they light up the night. It is a backdrop for stolen kisses as well as a way for tourists to see the underside of 30 something bridges. It is a stage for thousands of shimmering jewels, diamond by day and gemstone by night. But most of all, it is a source of reflection. It reflects the delicate northern light, making the buildings and quais and bridges around it that much more luminescent. And it reflects the life of those who are drawn near and inspired by its strength. It is a spirit to be reckoned with.

Meredith Mullins is an internationally exhibited American photographer, currently living in Paris. Visit www.meredithmullins.artspan.com to see more of the Paris images. Her award-winning book, In A Paris Moment (click here to order), and her 2009 Paris Calendar can be ordered online or in bookstores throughout the U.S. Original photographs are available directly through the artist.</strong>

Restaurant Reviews: Le Zinz

I am pleased to announce I have two new restaurant reviewers, Emily Monaco and Jessica Arriola Marati. They will alternate each month, so here is Emily’s yummy first review.

Paris sometimes seems to become a caricature of itself: when suddenly every neighborhood starts to look like the one you just left, and every restaurant seems to be the same cute little 19th century bistro, it’s time for a change, one that will prove to you that Paris is an ever-changing, thriving city that is by no means stopped in time. Head to the trendy 11th, and have dinner at le Zinz.

Le Zinz may not be the first place that tourists visiting the city stop for a nice meal, but hidden behind the grungy exterior is a thriving wine bar with a fusion menu that will stop you in your tracks and make you question everything you thought you knew about French cuisine.

Luckily, the servers actually do know everything, at least about cuisine at le Zinz. All of the daily specials are printed on a large chalkboard, and the waitress brings it to you to meticulously explain each dish. As this is technically a wine bar, your waitress will be sure to match whatever you choose with something from their immense cave.

The dinner menu rotates every day, featuring a combination of fusion Asian-French cuisine classic French dishes (with a twist, bien sûr) but the same items tend to appear seasonally.

The layered beet salad is reminiscent of a millefeuille, with massive rounds of bright red beet contrasting the creamy blue cheese filling. The mushroom soup was deemed “the best ever” by a dining companion who is quite well versed in the world of mushroom soup. Deep and rich without being overwhelming, the soup truly is the essence of mushrooms in a bowl. The star, however, is the crunchy fried shrimp with Thai sauce. Shrimp are cooked to perfection, and the sauce is just the right mix of sweet and spicy that, for some reason, seems so hard to come by in Paris.

As for main dishes, the seared ahi tuna that graced every menu in the 90s is once again a feature on this one, but the care with which the chef pairs sauces with the delectable tuna makes this anything but monotonous. A honey-glazed duck dish that, from its description, would be perfectly welcome on the menu of any bistro in Paris is completely reinvented: rather than being overwhelmed by a sweet sauce as so many tend to do, the duck is left to fend for itself, the sauce just a complement to the true flavor of the dark-fleshed fowl.

As an eating experience, le Zinz may not be what people expect when they decide to go out for a nice meal in Paris: nowhere to be seen are white linen tablecloths and exquisite flower arrangements. You’re much more likely to see a barmaid with several piercings doling out the Bordeaux than you are a waiter in a penguin suit. But part of the charm of le Zinz is finishing your meal and knowing that most people would just pass it by, dismissing it as just another student bar in Oberkampf.

Le Zinz
108 rue Oberkampf 75011
01 56 98 10 20
http://www.lezinz.com/
Metro: Rue Saint Maur
Opened Tuesday-Thursday for lunch from noon to 2 and Tuesday-Saturday for dinner from 7-10
Closed Sunday and Monday
Price range:30-35 euros per person for three courses & wine

Emily Monaco is an American student/expat from New York who has (hopefully permanently) moved to Paris. She spends her time in Paris seeking out artsy movie theaters, eating in amazing restaurants and trying to figure out how to use the Vélib.
http://travelday.today.com

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Mama Shelter Hotel

A new high -designed cheap chic hotel by Philippe Starck, Mama Shleter, has just opened, with state of the art rooms featuring I-Macs, free WIFI, Kiehl’s cosmetics, cotton satin sheets, and Starck’s signature furniture for only 79 euros a night for a single.

Sounds like a dream come true. But there is a catch, as always. It’s in the 20th arr. which is an out of the way neighborhood where the closest metro is a ten minute walk, although the 76 bus from the Marais takes only 15 minutes and stops right in front. However, there is a cool factor about the area, with boho artists and creative types moving there in the last few years escaping the high-rent-for-too-little space areas. It’s kind of what the lower east side of New York was ten years ago- still kind of grungy but definite signs of development. One plus about the location is if you are into music, La Fleche d’Or, one of the top electro rock clubs with live music, is across the street. On every floor of the hotel next to the elevators is a cutesy blackboard listing the nightly roster of bands at Fleche d’Or. Another local attraction is the popular cemetery Pere La Chaise, where all sorts of crazy antics and rituals happen in front of Jim Morrison’s grave.

So if you want to stay in a great, cheap hotel in a funky out-of –the-way neighborhood, then come to mama. Even though she’s hard to get to, she’ll take good care of you once you get there.

Mama Shelter
109 rue de Bagnolet, 20th arr.
Metro: Porte de Bagnolet
Bus: #76
Tel. 01.43.48.48.48
www.mamashelter.com



Philippe Starck tought' he saw a puddy-cat

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Chartres en Lumieres

Every year since 2003, the city of Chartres hosts a light show on its historical church and other monuments & buildings around the city. I wrote a post about Chartres two summers ago and was always eager to go back, so my friend Heidi Ellison joined me last night to check it out.

The light show doesn’t start till nightfall so we took a 5:30 train and arrived at about 6:30.It was a crystal clear, dream of a sunny day with beautiful light and a crisp pre fall chill in the air. The city had cleared out from day-trippers visiting the church and we roamed the pleasantly uncrowded, narrow, winding streets in this charming village.

We had a leisurely dinner at the quaint but not cutesy Café de Cathedrale. It started to get chilly, so we each had pot a feu a grand mere (grandma’s stew). The three kinds of tender meat with potatoes and braised leeks & cabbage followed by a warm tarte tartin was just the hearty fare we needed to go out into the brisk night air to see the lights. We thought nightfall was at 8:30PM but according to Chartres time it’s 9:30PM, so we only had about 45 minutes to see all 20 sites in order to make our train back to Paris.

Above Photos © ParisUpdate.com

We scurried to the church and in a tower behind it, classical music was booming while someone controlled the light show. The illuminations were stunning and dramatic and the music set the mood back to an earlier century. Although mesmerized by the thrilling moment-by-moment changing of the projections, we had to force ourselves to leave to make the most of our time. Behind the church were two low buildings with long stone walls and the projections were portraits of historical figures moving horizontally across them.

I researched what the theme was this year and also the significance of the faces and figures I was seeing, but the official site didn’t have any information, nor could I find it elsewhere. Frantically trying to fit it all in, the last illumination, besides the church, was the best. It was small corner building of two stories and the entire façade was a mural with peasants toiling away.

A near full moon hovering in the background gave the evening a whole other dimension of romance, mystery and magic and I felt child like wonder ogling the lights with my mouth open, much like the glee I still experience when I see fireworks.

Chartres en Lumieres 2008
Till September 20th
Trains leave almost every hour from Montparnasse station
http://www.chartresenlumieres.com/

Subscribe to I Prefer Paris

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com