I Prefer Paris

Happy New Year

Dear Readers,
It’s been a remarkable year and I can’t believe it went by so quickly. I want to thank all my loyal readers for taking the time to read my postings and for your generous comments and emails. My readership has more then doubled from last year, from 400 to over 1,000. Many of you have said that you read my postings the first thing every morning and that it always brightens your day. I am very touched and inspired by that. A special thanks to Cheryl, Mali, Vicki, Maria, Claudia, YSL guy, Lynn, Elizabeth, Barbara, Patricia, John W., Mimi, Maureen, Sandra, Janice, Tomi, Stu, G@ttoGiallo, MadaboutParis, Polly, Jayne,Erica, and Judy for your excellent, informative, and supportive comments. They really make a difference.

I have lots of exciting new ideas for blog stories in 2009 and look forward to sharing them with you.

I’ve met so many incredible people on my Eye Prefer Paris Tours this year from all over the world and some have been generous enough to offer me insider tours of where they live. So watch out, I will take you up on your offers. The other great thing is that I can still share Paris with them long after their tours through my blog and it’s a great way to keep in touch. I receive the nicest notes all the time from them. 

I wish you the very best in 2009 and look forward to your continued generous & supportive emails and comments. I also look forward to meeting you on my Eye Prefer Paris Tours.

Vincent Gagliostro designed the above holiday card. (Yes, that’s me in my disco outfit from the 1970’s with a full head of hair and a 29 inch waist).

Love from Paris
Richard

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: Nadja Romain

I met Nadja Romain when I lived in New York through a French friend of mine and didn't really get to know her till I moved here. She has a fascinating background and has worked in the art and film world. She recently formed her own production company and divides her time between Paris and New York. We sat in front of my Christmas tree yesterday munching on late afternoon snacks and sipping Mariage Freres tea.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in Paris in the 9th arr. and grew up in St. Germain de Pres. Paris was a great city to grow up with so much culture. As a teenager I would spend all my spare time in museums and movie theaters. I discovered all the American classics in the theaters in the Latin Quarter including Hawks, Capra, Huston, Lubitsch, Minelli, Hitchcock... It is how I nourished my passion for America, feeling like one day I will make it there. Places like Brasserie Lipp and Cafe Flore were still reasonable, neighborhood places where you would meet writers and artists and it was so stimulating.

Tell me about your background in the art world.
I studied art history at the Sorbonne and Ecole de Louvre, specializing in late 19th century and early 20th century art. I had a very special teacher Guy Cogeval, who is now the head of the Musee D'Orsay. While the studies at Le Louvre are much more about the art object,  he would have a more global approach pointing out correspondences between art,music, literature, politics and sociology and the relationship between any kind of expression and the context they are growing in which is very important to me. Art is not isolated.

My first job was at Karsten Greve gallery in the Marais and then I started writing for Conde Nast, Vogue Decoration, Maison et Jardin. I also collaborated with artists writing text for them.

You worked at Agnes B. in their film production department called Love Streams. What was the job like and what are some of the films you produced?
I started by chance in 1999 and worked there till mid 2007. My last film was a feature called Mister Lonely directed by Harmony Korine. I mostly worked on documentaries about artists and some of the films I produced were "No Restraint", about Matthew Barney directed by Alison Chernicks, By the Ways a Journey with William Eggelston by Cedric Latey and Vincent Gerard, and Looking Glass about composer Phillip Glass.

What's the name of your new production company and what kind of projects will you be producing?
It's called Provocateur films and my partner is Elma Cremin. We are producing feature films, television shows and documentaries. Our purpose is to produce thought provoking entertainment with good, smart  content focusing on art and social conscience issues.Choosing projects is very personal and we want to make films we would like to see ourselves. We want to help people to think out of the box in an entertaining way and reach a wider audience and don't only want to preach to the already converted. We are currently working on a documentary about Andy Warhol called the Second Life of Andy Warhol. It focuses on his life after he got shot and draws a portrait of him through the takeovers of his T.V. show. People usually don't  know but he was obsessed with T.V. and fame.He even appears in an episode of The Love Boat and had his own T.V. show. He was one of the first people to understand today's culture of fame. It's being directed by Christina Klauson who recently did a documentary about Keith Haring.

What's your ideal way to spend a free afternoon in Paris?
I love to walk across the Seine from Pont du Carrousel by the Louvre to the left bank. I walk down rue des Saint- Péres and then rue de l'Université, one of the most beautiful streets in Paris. I sometimes feel like a tourist here now because I've lived in so many places.

I know you love tea, so what's your favorite salon de thé?
The Ritz Hotel. It's not the best tea but I go for the atmosphere.

If you could invite four of your favorite artists, living or dead to dinner, who would they be and where would you take them?
Federico Fellini- Chez Georges, Mozart- Le Voltaire, David Bowie- Kinugawa, and Martin Scorcese- Le Perrone.

You always have the most fabulous shoes on, so what is the best shoe shop and who makes the best shoes?
The Maria Luisa shop and Christian Louboutin and also Pierre Hardy who is very different but both super talented.

What's the biggest difference between Paris and New York?
I feel the ground in New York is very energetic and the ground in Paris actually absorbs your energy. I sometimes feel Paris drains your energy. Paris is cozy, gifted and spoiled. New York is a struggle but it's where you can make things happen.

What do you prefer about Paris?
The stunning beauty of the city. It's a miracle.I love Paris!

Addresses
Chez Georges
1 rue de Mail,75002
Tel. 01 42 60 07 11

Le Voltaire
27 Quai Voltaire, 75007
Tel. 01 42 61 17 49

Kinugawa
9 rue Mont Thabor,75001
Tel. 01 42 60 65 07

Le Perrone
6 rue Perronet,75006
Tel. 01 45 44 71 51

Maria Luisa
38 rue Mont Thabor,75001
Tel. 01 42 60 89 83

Christian Louboutin
19 rue Jean Jacques Rosseau
Tel. 01 42 36 05 31

Pierre Hardy
15 rue Valois, Palais royal, 75001
Tel. 01 42 60 59 75

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

Dans la Nuit, des Images at Grand Palais

Good news: There's an amazing, must -see video installation at the Grand Palais.
Bad news: It closes on December 31 at 9PM.

Dans la Nuit ,des Images fills the cavernous Grand Palais with 130 screens of videos and films from international artists and filmmakers including Robert Wilson, Bill Viola, Chris Marker, Rosemary Trockel, Christian Marclay, legendary animators Hannah and Barbera(creators of The Flintstones and The Jetsons), Nam Juin Pak, and the world's oldest working filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, who just turned 100.

Highlights were the 1956 William Klein film Broadway by Light, a romantic reminder of what Times Square once was with colorful neon signs and Data.tron by electronic music composer Ryoji Ikeda, a digital landscape with millions of numbers on the screen changing by the nanosecond.

The atmosphere was so seductive with very little lighting besides the films playing and I loved the way the screens were juxtaposed so that you can see many films going on at the same time.

Dans la Nuit, des Images
Grand Palais
Ave. Winston Churchill
Metro: Champs Elysees- Clemenceau, #1 or #13
Open 5PM till 1AM on Dec. 29,30 and till 9PM on Dec. 31
Free
http://grandpalais.fr

William Klein's Broadway by Light from 1956

Moi and Vincent in front of Ryoji Ikeda's Data.tron

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

Christmas in Paris 2008

I celebrated my fourth Christmas in Paris last night. Vincent and I had eight friends over for dinner and we feasted on a delicious menu of foie gras, carrot fennel soup, vegetarian lasagne, and two Buches de Noel's from a special patisserie in Montmartre, one chocolate and raspberry and the other chocolate mousse. One of my friends is Danish and she invited two of her friends from Copenhagen. I also had the pleasure of having two friends from New York who are living here for the next six months for their first Paris Christmas. We sang Christmas songs in Danish and English. It was a warm, wonderful Champagne filled evening  with friends around our Christmas tree.

I feel especially fortunate this year to be able to celebrate in this way with the love and support of great friends and loved ones and I am most thankful for incredible life I am blessed with.

I hope all of you are spending the holidays with your friends and family and are thankful for what you have.

Have a merry, warm Christmas.

My friend Rosemary Flannery was kind enough to draw the above festive drawing of the Eiffel Tower just for Eye Prefer Paris. Check out her wonderful scenes of Paris cards at
http://rosemaryflannery.com/sparkycards/index.htm

My Christmas tree

 
Wreath with Chanel ribbon

 

Buches de Noel

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

Christmas 'Round the World

Two friends of mine, Sherry Jo and Sandra, sent me these photos and description of Christmas trees from all over the world. Enjoy and Merry Christmas eve!

Above photo
Before the ball drops in Times Square, the Big Apple turns on its holiday charm with the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.

The Capitol Christmas tree in Washington, D.C., is decorated with 3,000 ornaments that are the handiwork of U.S. schoolchildren. Encircling evergreens in the 'Pathway of Peace' represent the 50 U.S. states.

The world's largest Christmas tree display rises up the slopes of Monte Ingino outside of Gubbio, in Italy's Umbria region. Composed of about 500 lights connected by 40,000 feet of wire, the 'tree' is a modern marvel for an ancient city.

A Christmas tree befitting Tokyo's nighttime neon display is projected onto the exterior of the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka.

Illuminating the Gothic facades of Prague's Old Town Square, and casting its glow over the manger display of the famous Christmas market, is a grand tree cut in the Sumava mountains
in the southern Czech Republic.

Venice 's Murano Island renowned throughout the worldfor its quality glasswork is home to the tallest glass tree in the world. Sculpted by master glass blower Simone Cenedese, the artistic Christmas tree is a modern reflection of the holiday season.

Moscow celebrates Christmas according to the Russian Orthodox calendar on Jan. 7. For weeks beforehand, the city is alive with festivities in anticipation of Father Frost's arrival on his magical 
troika with the Snow Maiden.He and his helper deliver gifts under the New Year tree, or yolka, which is traditionally a fir.

The largest Christmas tree in Europe (more than 230 feet tall) can be found in the Praça do Comércio in Lisbon, Portugal. Thousands of lights adorn the tree, adding to the special enchantment of the city during the holiday season.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree': Even in its humblest attire, aglow beside a tiny chapel in Germany's Karwendel mountains, a Christmas tree is a wondrous sight.

Ooh la la Galeries Lafayette! In Paris, even the Christmas trees are chic.With its monumental, baroque dome, plus 10 stories of lights and high fashion, it's no surprise this show-stopping department store draws more visitors than the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

In addition to the Vatican's heavenly evergreen, St. Peter's Square in Rome hosts a larger-than-life nativity scene in front of the obelisk.

The Christmas tree that greets revelers at the Puerta del Sol is dressed for a party. Madrid's two-week celebration makes millionaires along with merrymakers. On Dec. 22, a lucky citizen will win El Gordo (the fat one), the world's biggest lottery.

A token of gratitude for Britain's aid during World War II, the Christmas tree in London's Trafalgar Square has been the annual gift of the people of Norway since 1947.

Drink a glass of gluhwein from the holiday market at the Romer Frankfurt's city hall since 1405 and enjoy a taste of Christmas past.

Against a backdrop of tall, shadowy firs, a rainbow trio of Christmas trees lights up the night (location unknown).

Christmas at Arlington Cemetery
Readers may be interested to know that these wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington,Maine. The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. A wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one the poorest parts of the state.

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

Strasbourg Christmas Market: Part 2

Here are the night photos of Strasbourg and the Christmas Market. As you can see the city takes on whole different magical quality.

To read the full story from yesterday click here. To see more photos, click on Christmas in Strasbourg in photo albums section on the right sidebar
(For subscribers, you must go to www.eyepreferparis.com)

 

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

Strasbourg Christmas Market: Part I

To get away from all the gloomy news about the unstable economic situation, I purposely made a concentrated effort this year on my blog to show the fantasy Christmas still holds. I took an overnight trip to Strasbourg the week before last especially to visit their famous Christmas Market. As you can see the nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn is mad for Christmas. I was relating a story to someone the other day as to why I like Christmas so much. When I was a kid I had to go to Hebrew school, which I hated, for two hours everyday after school. When I took the bus to go to school during Christmas time, we would pass the Italian neighborhood , where all the houses had the most extravagant Christmas lights and decorations. It was all so beautiful and magical to me, so when i arrived at school and lit the the very plain Menorah and played with the paltry dreidel for Hanukkah(please don't think I am belittling my background and Jewish heritage) it was quite a disappointment compared to my newly discovered world of Christmas . Not until I was a teenager did I celebrate a real Christmas and my partner Vincent is Italian, and he LOVES to go all out for Christmas, so there's never any lack of it in my household. We just finished decorating our tree as I write this.

Strasbourg is in Northern France in the Alsace region bordering Germany and  was founded by the Romans in 12B.C.The  Middle Ages was the golden period of the city when it was a Germanic Holy Roman Empire.  In 1681 Strasbourg became French , and was annexed back to German empire from 1871-1918, so it is equally influenced by France and Germany. In 1988 the city celebrated its 2000 year anniversary and was classified a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Strasbourg's  biggest event each year is the extensive Christmas market which has existed for over 400 years. It centers around the magnificent Gothic cathedral that was was started in 1176 and completed in 1439. Hundreds of merchants load their small stands with everything that spells Christmas. I went with my friend Pam Grant and we tasted, drank, and shopped our way through the market in the morning, taking it all in. After  a delicious lunch at Saint Sulpecce,a  quaint restaurant with traditional Alsace cuisine, Annie Demoulin, of the Strasbourg tourism office, gave us an informative tour of the city. We started at the church, where she went into great detail about its long history and also about  the Astronomical clock that has daily performance at 12:30PM of animated apostles marching in front of Christ. Afterward we we went to Petite France, the former fisherman's, miller's, and tanner's district with half-timbered houses with long sloping roofs dating back from the 16th and 17th century. We passed covered bridges and weeping willows along the river and canals and a horse drawn stagecoach made us feel like we never left the 17th century . A long, slow boat ride completed our tour of the city and now I was eager to see the Christmas Market come alive at night. The red, green, pink,blue, and orange lights were so much more vibrant at night against the brown gingerbread houses and dark red stucco buildings.  We were intoxicated , literally and figuratively by the hot mulled wine, and we sampled anything the generous merchants put in front of us including spice bread, jelly candies,many forms of chocolate, and yummy hot cranberry juice to warm us from the bitter cold.

We continued to walk every nook and cranny of the city, making sure we didn't miss one Christmas display, ornament, light, or stand. Tired, frozen and happy, we thawed out at our hotel that evening, satisfied that we had done it all.

It was interesting to see the sharp contrast of the city between day and night. I documented both in photos and today I am showing the city in the daytime. Yes, the city is festive for sure during the day , but nighttime lights  brings out an indescribable magical quality, which I will show you tomorrow.

Strasbourg Christmas Market
Till 12/31
Strasbourg is 2:20 minutes from Paris Gare de L'est by TGV train

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: A Night at the Opera

It was another elegant night at the Opera Garnier—rich textures, swirling colors, and layered music transforming all the senses. And then, as we emerged for intermission and headed for the champagne bar and a prime place on the marbled balconies, we noticed a scarlet-clad woman draped on the stairs like a cloth dropped by the wind or a fairy-tale princess, asleep for a hundred years. Some paused in wonder. Some did not notice. Some glanced but then passed by—since nothing could stop them from their intermission cigarette.

The scarlet woman slowly awakened and began to dance, the opera house stairs a stage for her grace. A lone violinist provided the score for her longing. Her dance of freedom became a pas de deux, when a black-clad stranger took her hand. They danced as two and then as one. But the drama ended as it had begun, she alone on the stairs. 

We clapped and continued our intermission rhythms, but realized that sometimes the best moments are those unexpected grace notes “between the acts."

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. Meredith will be teaching photography workshops in December 2008 and in 2009. Please contact her for information at [email protected].

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: Strasbourg

I thought a Christmas decorated door would be ideal for this month. I found this door on a trip to Strasbourg last week to see the famous Christmas market. I love the white fleece slippers with the Christmas trees on them. I also like the unusual planter with the black iron lattice work. I will post photos of the Christmas market, decorations , and the festive city next week.

Milestone: I've just reached 1,000 subscribers a day. Thanks to all of my loyal subscribers in achieving this goal.

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

On the Town at Theatre du Chatelet

New York, New York, it's a helluva town. On the Town at theatre du Chatelet is a helluva revival.

Every holiday season for the past three years, the theatre du Chatelet has produced a classic Leonard Bernstein musical, with the past two seasons seeing excellent full-scale productions of Candide and West Side Story. This year it's the musical Valentine to New York, On the Town, based on the original ballet  Fancy Free by Jerome Robbins.Oliver Smith, the friend that introduced the two, urged them to extend the ballet into a full-blown musical. Bernstein suggested that his friends Adolph Green and Betty Comden, two complete unknowns, write the score and lyrics. On the Town opened on Broadway in December 1944 in the thick of WWII and became a smash hit. The rest is Broadway history with the four of them going on to collaborate on many more successes.

It's a simple story: three sailors on leave in New York for only 24 hours look for love and adventure in the Big Apple. One of the great things about the shows in the series is the commitment by theatre du Chatelet to faithfully revive them to the original Broadway productions. The production values are  glorious with imaginative,evocative sets and colorful period but not dated costumes.  Although there are no standouts in the cast, the true ensemble delivers impeccably with solid performances. Caroline O'Connor, makes her character Hildy Esterhazy,gruff and lovable at the same time.  The orchestra is wonderful delivering Bernstein's brass heavy music with verve.I've forgotten how haunting the song Lonely Town is, and Joshua Dallas playing Gabey, sings Lucky to Be Me with such convincingly sweet innocence, its infectious. The Subway Ride ballet in the end of the second act elevates the production and moves it into pure dance with Jerome Robbins simple and athletic choreography.

It's so rare that one sees a true Broadway musical in Paris, let alone one that is of such high caliber, so if you want some good old-fashioned entertainment that's perfect for the holidays, spend a night On the Town at theatre du Chatelet.

Théâtre du Châtelet
2, rue Edouard Colonne,1st arr.
 Métro: Châtelet.
Tel.: 01 40 28 28 40.
Tickets: up to €95.
Through January 4
www.chatelet-theatre.com

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