I Prefer Paris

Parisian of the Month: Cyril Ermel

Cyril Ermel runs IBU GALLERY, one of the most beautiful galleries in Paris located in one of my favorite places in Paris, the Palais Royal. IBU has the most exquisite collection of art, objets, and hand crafted jewelry.

Where were you born, where did you grow up and when did you move to Paris?
I was born in Larmor Plage, a lovely Breton sea resort famous for sailing. I grew up in a boarding Jesuit school  and have wonderful memories of those days. I moved to Paris when I was 20, what a year!!!

What is origin of the name IBU?
IBU simply used her initials as her artist’s name. IBU is Irena Borzena Ustjanowski. She was born in Poland and emigrated to New York in the 60’s.

There is a tragic but somehow inspirational story about the owner of the gallery who died. Can you tell us that story?
IBU died in October 2002 in a helicopter accident. Her two daughters Apollonia and Athéna Poilâne asked me to work with them to carry on IBU’s projects/legacy. I did not think twice and stepped in immediately. It was so clear to me that there was no time for lament! Artists are eternal.

 When did you start working for IBU GALLERY and how did you get the job?
I met IBU at a vernissage in 1999, where we were introduced to each other thanks to Joyce Ma. It was a fantastic period for IBU, She was presenting her jewelry during the Chanel haute couture shows, exhibiting her first bronzes pieces at Christian Liaigre. Then, she took the gallery space under the arcade of the Palais Royal to exhibit her artworks and to share her visions about art.

My experience with IBU was extraordinary, she became my mentor. I felt so fortunate to be her assistant and to work with her. I remember each and every word of advice from her, cherishing them to this day.

Tell me about the artists you represent and the philosophy of the gallery?Does the gallery have a particular specialty?
At IBU GALLERY we exhibit IBU’s artworks: bronze functional sculptures, sculptures and jewelry… creating a dialogue with other artists who have the same artistic endeavors and shared inspirations.

We exhibit photographs selected by Jayne Baum from the JHB Gallery in New York including Ellen Carey’s 20” x 24” Polaroids side by side and the IBU “soap sculptures” in bronze ; Don Freeman’s giclee prints in coversation with “thank you nature” vases by IBU.

We regularly exhibit a group of South Korean artists discovered and collected by IBU in the 90’s: Lee Ufan, Lee Bae, Choi Byung So, Kim Chun Hwan, works that are sympatique with her dream stone table, levitation consoles…

We also highlight jewelry created by IBU, Ted Muehling, Aude Lechere, Jean Grisoni, Alina Alamoréan, Vincent Vaucher…  Always present is IBU’s vision of beauty and art. Her philosophy reigns.

 

What are your current exhibitions and the story behind them?
Currently on view is a selection of candles and giant vases in bohemian glass and consoles in bronze by Eric Schmitt. In September we will present works on paper by the South Korean artist Kim Chun Hwan, sculptures by Antoine Tarot, and the “beach art” objects by Emile Perauer.

The Palais Royal where the gallery is located has changed a lot in the last few years. Many of the antique shops and galleries have been replaced by big name designer fashion boutiques. How do you feel about the changes and do you think they have a positive or negative effect?
The change at the Palais Royal is really for the best. Not only do well known designers like Marc Jacob and Stella McCartney have a presence in Palais Royal, but It introduces people from the “mass” luxe to a different vision of luxury. Under the arcades, you also have new exquisite boutiques presenting beautiful gloves by Marie Beyer, alternative fashion by Rick Owens, handmade glasses in tortoiseshell from the Maison Bonnet, and of course the Pope of elegance vintage, Didier Ludot. Thereon, all the galleries and shops of the Palais Royal will celebrate Didier in October, exhibiting different versions of the little black dress in his honor.

What neighborhood do you live in and what are some of your favorite things & places?
I leave near the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. Trees and nature are important to me, especially outside the windows of my apartment.  I am not going to give you a list of shops, food places as there are so many… but my favorite promenade after work : from the Palais Royal I walk to the Pyramides du Louvre, cross the garden of the Tuileries, end at the front of the Musée du Jeu de Paume. Look at the Concorde, Champs Elysée, Grand Palais, Tower Eiffel… it is so cliché but it stills moved me so much and make me happy even after twenty years in Paris.

 What’s the most exciting thing about your work?
My relationship with the artists. I love them, they live in a different world. They understand and respond to life in an extraordinary, creative way and to present their visions is so enriching and fulfilling. I also have a very privileged relationship with my clients.

Who is the one person, living or dead, that you would love to come to the gallery?
Baron Haussmann, he was such a visionary. He brought Paris from the middle age to the 20e century, keeping the spirit, and an aesthetic unity. I admire him!

What do you prefer about Paris?
Every day is like the first time, the first day I set foot in Paris.

IBU GALLERY
166 Galerie de Valois-Palais Royal
Metro:Palais Royal/Musee de Louvre
Open Tuesday 2-7PM, Wed.- Sat. 11AM-1PM, 2PM-7PM ,Tel.01 42 60 06 41

www.ibugallery.fr
[email protected]


Eric Schmitt

Metro Posters

Before I get to today's post, I just want to say many, many, thanks to the out pour of responses and comments to my Third Anniversary post last Friday. You were all so kind and generous and I am now newly inspired to write Eye Prefer Paris. I also heard from new people I have never heard from before, so please don't be shy and would love to hear from you again. Below is an adorable reconfiguration of my beret photo lovingly and cleverly designed by one of my long time friends Kathleen who lives in Los Angeles. My beret is off to you for creating this.

I've decided to post photos of recent metro posters and will do so on a regular basis. I have taken dozens of photos of the imaginative, sometimes even arresting images and for some reason never posted them, so now is the time. Even the metro posters are works of art in Paris, as opposed the the ads I used to see in the New York subways mostly advertising injury settlement lawyers with 800 numbers and Dr. Zizmor, the creepy looking dermatologist.

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Eye Prefer Paris Third Anniversary

 

Today is the third anniversary of Eye Prefer Paris. It's been a fantastic, exciting, and unpredictable joyride for the last three years and I have no intention of getting off of it. 

513 posts later, I still love the joy, passion,creativity, inspiration, and challenge of producing Eye Prefer Paris four times a week. It's interesting, I sometimes read that bloggers have trouble consistently finding new things to write about and it's the opposite for me. If I had the time I could write something everyday about this amazing city and still have tons to write about. I have hundreds of photos backlogged to yet post.

I think Eye Prefer Paris has evolved more into an online travel magazine about Paris rather than still being a blog. Let me know if you agree.

I have never put a photo of my self on my sidebar (although I have posted a few photos of myself in my stories) because in the last three years I have not had one photo taken of me that truly captured me in Paris. A spontaneous photo by a tour client who insisted on having me put on a beret ended up being the perfect photo.
What do you think? You like?

I want to thank and acknowledge my readers and subscribers- 2111 of you- who take time out of their busy schedules to read what I write. After all what is a writer without an audience? I also appreciate the emails and comments you send me, many which are quite inspiring and most kind.

One important question I would love for you to answer:
What is your favorite thing about Eye Prefer Paris?

I raise a flute of Champagne to the third anniversary of Eye Prefer Paris and please join me in a toast to Paris. Clink!

Below is my first post from June 26, 2006. I hope I have fulfilled what I set out to do.

About This blog
This blog is about how a native New Yorker dreamed of moving to Paris …… and what he discovered once he got there. Come live this Paris dream vicariously through the eyes(and ears) of Richard Nahem. He writes his blog from his 18th century apartment overlooking tree-lined Place St. Paul in the fashionable Marais district of Paris.

Three years later I still write my blog on my Mac in front of this window with a lovely garden view. As I tell all my friends who come over, this is where all that blog magic happens.

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Lille Part Three: Great Food Finds

Although my visit to Lille was short, I did discover two great food finds.

Meert is a sensational old world patisserie, confiserie, ice cream parlor,salon de tea, and restaurant, a visual delight and a gastronomic treat for the sweet tooth. Opened in 1761, it became reputable for its ice cream and the count of Lille declared it the best in the world. I came across Meert on Friday night after the patisserie part was closed and I nearly broke the glass to get a taste of the amazing looking chocolates and sweets. I contained myself and went the next morning for breakfast, although I did dream of Meert and counted different flavors of chocolate truffles instead of sheep to get to sleep.

The Louis XVI style tearoom built in 1908 is most inviting with its creamy vanilla walls, high ceilings and plush forest green velvet chairs. I enjoyed a strong put-hair-on-your-chest coffee served on fine white china and a flaky, but not too buttery croissant. The icing on the cake was they served three chocolates along with the coffee and croissant. You have to love a place that serves chocolate with your morning breakfast.

I quickly finished so I could fully give myself over to the patisserie and chocolate shop. I could have spent the whole day there but my boring, rational mind said I had to get the 1:24 train back to Paris. The shop had only been open for 30 minutes so I watched  the the staff stock the shelves with the most beautiful tarts, and glazed, fruit topped loaf cakes and brioche as my sweet tooth reared its ugly, ravenous head. I tore myself away from the patisserie to visit the chocolate, tea, and sweet shop next door. I savored the precious moments I had and took in (without sampling anything believe it or not!) the boxes of pastel colored marshmallows, chocolate bars in foil resembling gold bricks, appetizing jars of jams, and stacked boxes of intriguing caramels.

Elegant tearoom at Meert

Pastries & sweets at Meert

My friends Jerry and Daniel from Monterey told me I must dine at L'Esaminet de la Royale, their favorite restaurant in France. They said they had been going there for years and had become friendly with the vivacious owners. With that winning recommendation I booked a table for Friday dinner. The restaurant was charming and Jacques, one of the owners greeted me warmly. I immediately told him him that Jerry & Daniel sent me and he couldn't have been more gracious. He profusely praised the boys and sent them his best regards. It goes without saying the service was great. I started with two slices of two different types of jellied vegetable terrines topped with white asparagus spears, served with a glass chilled avocado soup. It looked gorgeous and tasted even better than it looked. It was a perfect light, summer dish and the soup was one of the best chilled soups I ever had. Calves liver was simply prepared but a little on the thick side accompanied by a potato gratin and fresh steamed vegetables. Dessert was an fresh apple tart with a caramel and vanilla syrup. The apples on top barely had any sugar on them so that you fully appreciated the intensity of the syrup. Many thanks Jerry and Daniel for this memorable and special meal.

If you love good art, excellent food and great architecture, a trip to Lille is a must.

Meert
27 rue Esquermoise, Lille
Tel. 00 33 (0)3 20 01 84 21
Closed on Sundays
www.meert.fr

L'Estaminet
37 rue Royale, Lille
Tel.  00 33 (0) 3 20 42 10 11
Lunch Monday to Saturday
Dinner only on Friday night
Reservations necessary

Jacques from L'Estminet de la Royale- Monsieur Friendly

Carbo loading

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Lille Part Two:The Old Quarter

The highlight of Lille besides lille3000 was the old quarter of the city. The mishmash of architectural styles including Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Flemish, and La Belle Epoque was a welcome contrast to the dominant uniformity of the Haussmann buildings of Paris. Around every corner was another great photo op, a building, park, street, courtyard that surprised and thrilled me. Lille has been under Flemish, Burgundian, Spanish and finally French rule in 1667, hence the varied architectural style. In the 19th century it was an industrial capitol that thrived in metalwork, chemicals, and linen and cotton textiles. Much of old Lille was recently restored and redeveloped and now has the feel of the Marais in Paris and Soho in New York with fashionable restaurants and boutiques.

Charles de Gaulle was born in 1890 in the old part of the city and his house is a museum that includes the bullet ridden Citroen which he was driving when the OAS attempted to assassinate him in 1962.

Here is just a small sample of my photos.

St. Maurice

 
Hospice Comtesse

Place De Gaulle

Eye Prefer Lille?

Palais de Beaux Arts

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Lille Part One: lille3000

I went to Lille, a city in northern France close to the Belgian border, on Friday and Saturday to see the lille3000 art & cultural festival. lille3000 was started in 2004 when Lille was the European Capital of Culture and every year since, the city has hosted the festival with contemporary cultural events all around the city. This year it is called Europe XXL and the theme is eastern European culture starting with Berlin and finishing with Kazakhstan.

I took the easy one hour train from Gard du Nord station, and was met by a very nice young man Yohav Oremiatzki who works in the press office of lille3000. He was kind enough to organize guides to show me the exhibits at various venues around the city. There are over 25 venues and Yohav asked me ahead of time what type of art I was interested in so he can select what he thought I would like. 

Close to the train station was the Tri Postal, an old post office that was turned into an art space a number of years ago. The wide open lobby looked like a 70s lounge bar and I was greeted by Caroline, my eager young guide. A common theme I found among the guides, who were mostly student types in their 20s, was their theoretical explanation of the artists and their works. I don't know whether this was self imposed or part of their script but  I felt sometimes the work didn't need that much explanation. The show with three installations was called Invisible Borders and the first floor was mostly a black wall with white chalk graffiti by Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi,which made bold political and comedic statements about everything wrong with politics, war, the economy, and the environment. The spirit was much like Keith Haring with simple but effective drawings.

Upstairs was a number of video installations and the most provocative was Katarzyna Kozyra's  documenting the famous Budapest baths. In order to infiltrate the men's section of the baths, Kozyra miraculously pretended to be a man by adding a prosthetic life like penis, and somehow making her chest look like a mans, while hiding an almost invisible camera in her towel. Pretty wild, out there stuff.

The second venue was the Saint Sauveur Station, a former train station that has been made into a cultural center that includes an art space, a circus, a playground for kids, cafe & restaurant, and movie theater. (Apparently making art spaces out of old industrial buildings is the rage in Lille). My energetic guide Vincent looking hip-hoppish in his long black shorts and T-shirt took me through Hotel Europa, a set of kitchy rooms decorated in 50s and 60s style which can be rented out for parties or special occasions by the hour. Talk about conceptual art! A photography exhibit by a collective of wild and crazy Russian artists called the PG group show outrageous photo collages satirizing modern Moscow life. The highlight was the hypnotic video The Feast of Trimalchio on three wide screens. The new work by AES+F collective is based on Satirycon by Petronius which depicts a modern day fantasy scenario of eternal youth and unlimited wealth in an exotic luxury hotel where nobody seems to have problems or human issues.

 

My guide Vincent at Hotel Europa installation.You can rent this room for a special occasion.

 The hypnotic video The Feast of Trimalchio

At the stunning Palais des Beaux -Arts Museum (finally, a real art museum), was Istanbul Traversee, an homage by over 20 artists to the great city of Istanbul. The works were not a picture postcard showing off the city but rather a very personal and sometimes political view of the complicated  culture of its Greek, Roman,Byzantine, and Ottoman roots. Although most of the work was interesting and well executed, there wasn't anything that jolted me. Maybe the theme was too broad and I also think the splendor of the architecture of the museum itself overshadowed the art.

On Saturday morning I went to yet another converted art space, the L'Hospice Comtesse, a former hospital built in 1237. The show Hypnos has a most interesting theme, a visual history of the unconscious from 1900-1949 including the occult and surrealism with films, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The informative guide Miriam relayed fascinating stories of some of the artists, many of whom did not consider themselves artists, often having day jobs. Her explanations gave a another dimension to the show so I felt they were justified. Well known artists like Brassai, Duchamp, Paul Klee, Miro, and Max Ernst were represented but I found the work by lesser know artists, some of them outsider artists including Adolph Wolfi to be more fascinating. Victor Brauner's work was outstanding and his striking surreal paintings haunted me.

Palais des Beaux -Arts Museum

Victor Brauner

Last but not least was my favorite show of all, the installation Bornhouse at the 17th century Eglise Sainte Marie-Madeleine, which I almost skipped because I was getting arted out. I'm glad I didn't. When you walk you are struck by three 25 ft. archways crammed from floor to ceiling with stainless steel pots. Behind is the enchanting Bornhouse made of lace and cardboard designed by Russian architect Yuri Avvakumov. Once you are inside the house,  you peer into the little peepholes and you find small works by additional architects that are similar in weight and size of a newborn baby, hence the name of the exhibit.

As you know I have a thing for babies, so the icing on the cake was the massive, intimidating baby sculptures in black resin dominating the rue Faidherbe. The first sculpture is the apocalyptic horseman First Rider and the others are the twelve Angels & Demons.

Bornhouse

Angels & Demons

 

The Apocalyptic Horseman First Rider

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see lille3000 and if you are in Paris it is absolutely worth the short jaunt to Lille to see something quite special. Thanks again to Yohav for making all my arrangements.

If you can't make it to lille3000, many of the exhibits are at the Venice Biennale 2009.

More about Lille tomorrow.

lille3000
Till July 12, 2009
www.lille3000.com

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Restaurant Review: Ethik a Table

Ethik a Table by Emily Monaco

When I recommend restaurants, I usually rank the actual food at the top of my list of priorities: even if I’m sitting in the corner of a tiny room using a plastic fork and being sneered at by a horrid waiter, if the food is incredible, I don’t care. Which means that I surprise even myself when I recommend Ethik à Table: I don’t go for the food, but for the experience.

Ethik à Table has gone through several incarnations since they opened their organic restaurant/traiteur two years ago. They’ve gone from being opened for lunch and dinner to being opened sporadically, to now, when they are mainly a teaching kitchen and mass traiteur combined with a restaurant that opens upon reservation only.

I’ve been by for smoothies occasionally: everything is all-natural and organic, which I like in a smoothie, but I recently stopped by for dinner with Alex. On offer is a list of pizzas, each made with a different kind of flour, from buckwheat to chestnut, and a dish of the day, which on the day I visited was vegetarian cakes made from legumes, served with basmati rice.

An aperitif is often on the house in Parisian restaurants: here, it’s one of the smoothies I’ve come to love. We’re the only people eating tonight—a byproduct of opening upon reservation only—but it’s because we’re alone that we’re able to chat with the owner and chef, and I realize why I really love this place.

He serves us our main—we’ve both opted for the dish of the day. While it’s perfectly adequate, it’s nothing special: although I love knowing that every bite I’m putting into my mouth is ethical and organic, I can’t help but feel that I could do better myself. What I love is chatting with the proprietor: he knows something about everything, from politics to the environment to technology, and each one of these topics sets him going on yet another tangent, explaining one more new thing to us as we sip our smoothies.

I’m struck by the realization that he seems like a new version of that old image of the French restaurateur, the man who hovers and chats with you as you eat, although this one is environmentally conscious and thinks that the Parisians should take a page out of the book of my native New Yorkers and plant trees on their rooftops.

Alex orders dessert, but I just want coffee. My new friend asks how I’d like it—strong or weak—and brings a box of free trade chocolates for me to choose from. I select a tea-infused one and eat it with my coffee, which is perfectly brewed and quite tasty, something I’ve never before been able to honestly say about free-trade coffee. Alex’s fondue au chocolat is more free trade chocolate, which he can melt himself at will and use for dipping organic apples, bananas and kiwis.

The owner returns to hang on the bar and chat as we finish our meal: the bar that is made from environmentally conscious wood. This man doesn’t do anything halfway: over the course of our meal, we’ve learned that the floors are bamboo, the chairs we’re sitting in are free-trade, their plastic is mostly made from corn, even their sodas are organic. He tells us about their animations, evenings based around a theme like organic wine, where there are debates and talks and, of course, food. His enthusiasm excites me, and I can’t wait to come back and witness one for myself.

I’m happy to support him and his ventures, but as we leave, I wonder if it wouldn’t be just a bit better if the food itself were something to write home about.

5, Rue Collégiale, 5th arr.
Metro: Gobelins
Phone: +33 1 42 17 00 87
Price: 10-15 euros
Hours of operation: By reservation only

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.

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Cheap, Quick Eats: Used Book Cafe at Merci

It's been more than a year since I wrote a post in this category and I am sorry to have been so neglectful. Truthfully, there hasn't been a place worthy of the title but I unexpectedly came upon a new delight last week and was compelled to share it.

I was with an Eye Prefer Paris tour client for a Marais tour and the last stop was the boutique Merci. Standing in front of the shop and contemplating lunch, as I was famished ( it was after 2PM, way past my feeding time), I saw a an appetizing sandwich being served outside of the used book cafe at Merci. I decided this was perfect and I sat and ordered the fresh buffalo mozzarella sandwich on toasted baguette with yellow and red tomatoes and basil. It came out quickly and it was perfectly presented on a silver rectangular tray. The open faced sandwich looked beautiful and soon as I bit into it, it was delicious. Creamy and crispy at the same time, it fulfilled two important taste sensations. It was pleasant sitting outside on the wide, not too noisy Boulevard Beaumarchais  savoring my lunch and I was in and out in less than 30 minutes. The menu also includes a smoked ham sandwich on baguette, cakes and pastries, coffee, tea, and soft drinks. Indoors the ambiance is dark and cozy with mismatched antique furniture.

Cost: 7 euros
Experience: Most enjoyable!

Merci
111 Boulevard Beaumarchais, 3d. arr.
Metro: Chemin Vert
Tel: 01.42.77.00.33
Open 10AM-8PM, Monday to Saturday

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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

Artseen: Maryanne Pollock Chez Grace

Artseen: Maryanne Pollock Chez Grace Text & photos by Jennifer K. Dick

A humid Saturday early evening, I climb the turreted staircase in Abbesses metro station to emerge onto a colourful children’s fair with trampolines, cotton candy, a merry-go-round. I wander a short block along the bustling rue des Abesses, once the haunt of Picasso, Picabia, Dali, Van Gogh, Monet, then knock on the door of Grace Teshima’s third floor apartment. The walls are stark white, the lighting over a series of tile-sized paintings by American artist Maryanne Pollock is gallery-professional, and yet there are two fabulously inviting crimson couches by big windows overlooking the bustling shop-filled street below. Teshima offers me a drink. I could be the first one at a party, but the room has been emptied of all other furniture and the walls have been carefully hung with three series of paintings and mixed medium works, another series and further works are displayed in an adjoining space. This is my first time at chez Grace, a monthly art salon curated by Teshima and which began four years ago “almost by accident” as she explains.

Though Paris has a longstanding tradition of the “salon”, bringing to mind the ambiance of Gertrude Stein’s place in the 1900’s, I have not attended one. Neither gallery nor squat, this traditional, homelike venue provides artists with what host of “chez Grace”, calls “an extended living room”. It is a place for one artist to share new or a selection of work. Chez Grace has become a popular community spot for art enthusiasts, friends, or travelers who want to take the time to really look at one artist’s work, to talk to the artist, reflect and discuss thoughts on the work, even ask questions about technique, personal history, home or the artist’s work environment. In short, it is a convivial space where collectors, casual spectators, fellow artists, even families, can purchase or really spend time with the art Teshima has selected for her once-a-month shows, or for visits any day of the week by appointment. Here, her guests mingle comfortably, lounge on giant couches in a space which is not as self-promoting, showy or theatrical as many of Paris’ vernissages. As cameraman and filmmaker Nicholas Kent notes, Teshima shows “a large variety of work” which he films for her posterity (some is online) and her blog. However, as Teshima admits, this “variety” also means there is “not one consistent eye—sometimes the work is professional and other times it can be amateurish. I select art by persistent artists, friends, those who I like.”

In the case of Maryanne Pollock, graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1982), and who has shown work in Egypt, Switzerland, Paris and throughout the USA, she certainly could have sought out a gallery for this show. However, as she says, she is “an educator”, “moving more towards collaboration”, widely involved in art projects throughout the world which foster greater community, dialogue, meeting—often working, as she currently does in the USA with at-risk kids—so this intimate venue fits her. Here, everyone takes time to discuss and inquire about the pieces, to interact with them.

The work itself is fabulously inviting, and perfectly suited both socially but also aesthetically to this context. Pollock’s show entitled “Human Grid” is made up of many small works, easily hung in a place this size, and which allows enough time and space for onlookers to take them in. Completed primarily in recent years though a few date as far back as 1992, these abstract and figurative pieces display great variety and dialogue between painting and drawing techniques (ink, water, acrylic, pastel)—such as in her “Cosmic Garden Series” which dominates the main room. “Cosmic Garden Series” is made up of dozens of tile-sized acrylic canvases plus a few paper watercolors which depict flowers, small male figures, or landscapes. Some are coated with ornate tile-like designs recalling mosques or iron gratings, as well as fabric designs: tartan or plaids. All of these hang alongside a single, startling miniature self-portrait out of which the artist, in hat, scarf and winter clothing views the viewer, confronts them. She is there, painted in unhappy red-nosed hues, a winter among all this vibrant summer. For Pollock, this series is a “post-9/11 kind of prayer”, touching on political themes, natural exploration, economics, and even her personal origins subtly through the references to her Scottish and Catholic Irish heritage as seen in the tartan paintings.

As the title does here, much of her work indicates a spiritual/cosmic component. “(I am) investigating the deeper realms of the conscious, subconscious and super-conscious minds” she writes in her artist statement. As such, the work is both evocative of earth and sky, of nature and man, of untarnished landscape and construction (grates, buildings and windows, as seen in a colourful pair of paintings which recall peculiarly appealing and lively housing projects). It also evokes unseen, minute or microscopic elements, beyond-language sensations which dominate recent abstract works, such as the show’s poster-publicity piece, “Phthalo Maze I”. Pollock states that her work links her to the original Sanskrit word for art, whose meaning is “to connect”, thus she sees these as “tracings” of “journeys, soul”, a space where “I abstract the visual narrative of everyday urban life.” They are also, she mentions, “daily windowscapes” looking outward even as, she states, “creating something is a kind of self-reflection”.

It is growing late, and I have stayed for hours when three of us pause looking together at one of her pieces. Pollock says, almost speaking to herself, seeing her work anew, “there is a static, geometric, architechtonic framework, and then those kinetic lines that fan out.” This summarizes the collection, a point stretching into line, an artist reaching towards self, towards other. Echoes of Kandinsky and Miro are evident to me, though she also adds that her work/practice references Motherwell—doing black and white rice paper studies before moving into color, “so that color doesn’t confuse me”—as well as women such as Judy Pfaff or Beatriz Milhazes (currently showing at the Fondation Cartier thru 21 June 2009) who are “unafraid to be joyful or women”. As we grab a last drink and mill about, Pollock states, “I pay attention to that interconnectedness. I pay attention to coincidence.” And I think, chez Grace, it is a nice coincidence to come inside a home, off the exciting bustling Saturday streets to find oneself in contact with such vibrant work echoing that life just outside.

Grace Teshima/ Chez Grace,
rue des Abbesses, Paris 18e, 
tel : +331.42.62.45.98 or +336.98.42.69.69
http://graceteshima.blogspot.com
If you are passing through Paris, do not hesitate to check in with Grace Teshima, to attend one of her shows or to have a private visit of works.

Contact for Maryanne Pollock: via her Artfile listing (scroll down alphabetically): http://artfile.wpadc.org/alpha.php?a=15

Jennifer K Dick is an author (of Fluorescence, Retina, & Enclosures) and teacher (currently at EHESS and Ecole Polytechnique). She co-organizes the bilingual IVY reading series with Michelle Noteboom in Paris which began in a gallery thanks to curator Susie Hollands. Jennifer is now completing her PhD at Paris III on visual uses of the page in poetry: text and image in works by Anne marie Albiach, Myung Mi Kim and Susan Howe.
http://ivywritersparis.blogspot.com

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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: Chantilly Night

When you visit Chantilly, you step back into another time. The fairy-tale chateau and Le Nôtre’s gardens set the stage for mystery, intrigue, and imagination. And, on Nuit des Musées, the past was alive and festive. From (tattooed) maids-a-riding, their silk trains blowing in the wind … to friendly lords-a-leaping, their smiles saying “follow me” (so I did!) … to cantering horses moving gracefully through the gardens. We were at a fête of another age.

Then night fell, the full moon rose, and the castle—at least in my imagination—moved in a decidedly haunted direction. Menacing statues. Shadowy figures. Flickering candles. Colonel Moutarde did it in the bibliothèque with the candlestick.

And just as I felt I was about to be swallowed up by a revolving secret bookcase, fireworks lit the sky. We all turned to look, leaving the ghosts free to dance behind us, as they no doubt were before we came.

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 published by Browntrout Publishing can be ordered online or in bookstores throughout Paris and the U.S. Original photographs are available directly through the artist. She will be teaching several photography workshops this summer (and a special workshop for teenagers beginning July 20) and is available for private photography instruction/exploration in Paris. Sign up for an information-filled, creative half-day lesson! Contact: [email protected]  

 

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 3 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

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