I Prefer Paris

Paris Window Boxes 2021-Part Two

I’ve collected more photos of window boxes since the last ones I posted in July. Enjoy! 

https://www.ipreferparis.net/2021/07/paris-window-boxes-2021.html

Les Jardins d’Etretat

When I was in Etretat in June filming the Lupin video for Atout France, I was fortunate to visit the Les Jardins d’Etretat. 

The gardens were launched in 2017 but date back to 1905, when they were part of Villa Roxelane, owned by Madame Thébault. She was good friends with Monet and so inspired by his work that she designed the garden to reflect his artistry. 

The beautiful gardens are on top of one of the cliffs of Etretat and the site where Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Eugène Delacroix, Edouard Manet and Vasily Polenov were inspired by the views and landscape. 

The stunning landscape of the gardens has won many awards including the European Garden Award for “Best development of a historic park or garden” and also a Michelin star in their Green Guide. 

Besides the gorgeous greenery of the gardens, there’s also contemporary sculptures and artworks dotting the grounds by world-renowned artists. There are seven gardens nestled within the multi-level main garden including Avatar, Impressions, Amont, Aval, Emotions, Zen, and La Manche. 

https://etretatgarden.fr/en/

Metro Station of the Month: Saint Germain des Pres

The last time I updated the Metro Station of the Month was in 2017. If you are new to Eye Prefer Paris, I started the Metro Station of the Month in 2007 and every month for a few years I would feature a unique metro station. Since the metro stations were finite, I pretty much stopped publishing the feature when I ran out of stations. Occasionally, a metro station will be revamped, and I will write about it. 

I was getting off at the Saint Germain des Pres metro station last week and noticed a new installation celebrating the artists, writers, and musicians who lived in Saint Germain, which was a hot bed for the creative arts community for most of the 20^th century. Some of the featured talents include Miles Davis, Juliette Greco, Jacques Prevert, Marguerite Duras, Francoise Sagan, Romain Gary, and Sonia Rykiel, whose photos adorn the walls with cool graphics spelling out Saint Germain des Pres. 

CLICK HERE to view the other Metro Stations of the Month.

Top photo-Miles Davis and Juliette Greco

Georges Hugnet

Romain Gary

Amelie Nothomb

Francoise Sagan

Marguerite Duras 

Sonia Rykiel

Jacques Prevert and Léopold Sédar Senghor

Boris Vian

Romain Gary 

 

Paris Rooftop Views: Tour Saint Jacques

I am christening a new photo series today, Rooftop Views. I have specifically chosen rooftop sites around Paris to take photos from. The first in the series is from Tour Saint Jacques, which is on the rue de Rivoli just by Chatelet. 

The Saint Jacques Church was built at the end of the 12^th century, funded in part by the butcher’s guild, and named Saint-Jacques de Boucherie/the church of the butchers. The old tower was replaced and rebuilt in 1522 and during the French Revolution the church was dismantled, and the stone was auctioned off. However, there was a clause in the deed of sale that the belltower couldn’t be destroyed. In 1862 the tower was declared an historical monument and in 2001, the city of Paris in partnership with the conservation of Historic Monuments undertook the restoration. It was finally completed in 2009 and reopened to the public in 2013. 

You must book tickets online and they only let about 15 people at a time because the area surrounding the top of the tower is minuscule. There was a genial guide who shared the history of the tower at the base, and he talked for about 15 minutes before the group was allowed inside the tower. There are 300 spiral steps going up and I bravely took them on last Sunday, a warm, humid day with the temperature at about 82 F. I certainly got my cardio workout that day, but it was worth it because the 360-degree, unobstructed views were spectacular, as my camera clicked away. My I-phone takes such good quality photos, that my regular camera has been collecting dust and feeling lonely. I dusted it off and attached the tele-photo lens, so I could get some sharper photos, so here are the results. 

I would love to get your feedback. More in this series coming soon. If you have any suggestions of more obscure places in Paris that have extended views of the city, please email me @ r.nahem@gmail.com or leave a comment. 

Here’s the link to purchase tickets. 

https://www.desmotsetdesarts.com/visites-guidees/visites-guidees-paris/visite-de-la-tour-saint-jacques

 

 

Loire Valley Château Week: Chateau La Ferté-Saint-Aubin

I am ending this series of Loire chateaux with La Ferté-Saint-Aubin. It’s my favorite of the three, not so much because of the chateau itself, although it’s beautiful, but because of the young, energetic owner, Lancelot Guyot (is that not the perfect name for an owner of a 17^th century chateau?). 

Before I say more about Lancelot, here’s a brief history of the chateau. Although there is a history of the family from the Middle Ages, the current chateau was constructed in the late 17^th century for Henri de Saint-Nectaire, who was a general and a diplomat. The chateau was later sold to different owners over the next three centuries, and in 1987, Jacques Guyot bought the chateau from his brother Michel, and opened it to the public to help fund the restoration and renovation. 

Fast forward to 2016, when his son Lancelot, who had gone to business school and started a web company, became bored and wanted a more challenging career. He bought the chateau from his father with the desire to do something innovative, rather than just retain the chateau as an historic monument. 

I met the dashing Lancelot, who I believe is in his early 30s, with sandy blond hair and blue eyes, as he was busily setting up the chateau for a live rock concert that night. As busy as he was, Lancelot was kind enough to personally give me a tour of the chateau and share his vision for the future of it. His desire is to transform the chateau experience, which usually caters to an older visitor, into a living, breathing place, which young people and children can also enjoy. His ideas (some of which are already in place) include fun activities visitors can participate in. 

On site games are a big part of the activities, taking place inside the chateau and the in the gardens and forest. They include the Escape Game, where a team of guests are locked in the chateau and have 60 minutes to escape while finding clues and solving puzzles, and the Poison Trail, which dates back from 1682, when there was a rash of poisonings of the royals and the aristocracy under the reign of King Louis XIV, and participants have two hours to either to create their own poison or choose to solve the mystery of poisoner. Every year the chateau sponsors a giant murder mystery where participants try and solve a murder in the chateau and for 2021, the name of the hunt is The Case of the Suitors.

Sir Lancelot

May I take a nap? 

The inside of the chateau has fifteen, sumptuously decorated rooms open to the public. Unlike most other chateaus which have the rooms roped off, many of the rooms of Chateau La Ferté-Saint-Aubin are unencumbered and embrace people using the furniture and using the rooms. When Lancelot explained that to me, I jokingly said “May I take a nap” on the four-poster bed in front of me, and he replied “Why not? On the second floor is a large game room where guests are invited to stay and play. The attic rooms, which were once the servant’s quarters, now have tools and ancient industrial objects from local artisans. 

Chateau La Ferté-Saint-Aubin also likes to make use of its kitchen and in summer a specialty of the chateau, Madeleines with honey, are baked in the oven, while visitors can learn how the old kitchen operated and they can also participate in a Madeleine making lesson, where they receive a copy of the secret recipe.  

Pavillon de Cerfs (serfs’ quarters) is an historic building on the property turned into a cottage for rent with five bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, and three bathrooms. The chateau also has a beautifully decorated space for wedding receptions. 

CLICK HERE to watch the video on Facebook I did for Atout France last month that includes footage of my interview with Lancelot. 

Did you like Loire Valley Château Week?

https://www.chateau-ferte.com/fr/ 

Looks very Downton Abbey 

Game room
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Loire Valley Château Week : Château de Villesavin

Continuing with Loire Valley Château Week, today I am writing about Château de Villesavin, which is located on the Sologne region of the Loire on the Beuvron River. Originally a manor house was constructed on the site in the 14^th century, but the present-day building was built by Jean La Breton, Lord of Villandry, (he also owned Chateau Villandry) who was the finance minister under the reign of King Francois I. Breton oversaw the construction of the extravagant Chateau de Chambord and taking a cue from it, he used the same French and Italian architects and craftsmen. The chateau was purchased in 1937 by Count and Countess de Sparre, and their direct descendants Lars and Véronique de Sparre own and run it today. 

The main part of the handsome chateau is horse show shaped along with two other buildings on each side with similar architectural. The structure on the right side had an enormous tree in the middle, creating much needed shaded for the warm weather. 

There are two museums in the chateau. What began as a collection of globes has blossomed into The Marriage Museum which now has over 1500 objects related to weddings. Vitrines with reimagined wedding settings between 1890 and 1950 proliferate the museum along with other significant wedding souvenirs and memorabilia. The second museum exhibits a collection of antique horse drawn buggies and carriages. 

One standout feature is a dovecote, which is a tower used to house pigeons or doves, and the one at Château de Villesavin can hold up to 1500 birds. Inside the tower are hundreds of perches for the birds to collect. 

There’s 27 acres of forest and open meadows surrounding the estate and there’s a small farm tailored for children where children could feed and play with goats, sheep, cows, rabbits, chickens, and donkeys. Another offering for children is a hunt to find the ghost that’s haunting the chateau and on Halloween they offer a special hunt. 

https://www.chateau-de-villesavin.fr/

CLICK HERE to watch the video on Facebook I did for Atout France last month that includes footage of the chateau, which includes the inside of the dovecote.

 

Loire Valley Château Week: Château de Troussay

Dear Subscribers, my apologies if you received my last blog post twice in your email. I was testing out my new subscription delivery service with Feedblitz. 

Last month when I was in the Loire Valley, I had the good fortune to visit three smaller, less known chateaux. I am writing about each one in a separate blog post this week and calling it Loire Valley Chateau Week. 

The first chateau I visited was Château de Troussay, which has the distinction of being the smallest of the Loire chateaux. Located in Cheverny, it sits in the shadow of the mega Chateau Cheverny, which I wrote about in 2017 (CLICK HERE to read). 

First built in 1450 as a simple manor house for Robert Bugy, a councilman of the town of Blois, the first recorded property deed is from 1545. Later descendants of Bugy expanded and improved the house, turning it into a chateau. 

The first sale of the chateau was in 1732 to the Pelluys, a well-respected family from Blois. Part of their daughter’s dowry when she married the knight Christophe de Réméon, a descendant of a companion of Henri IV, was the domain of Troussay, hence the name of the chateau. In 1900, the chateau was sold to Count Maurice Delamarre de Monchaux, which he bought for his wife Isore Hurault de Vibraye, and it is still inhabited and owned by the family. Major changes were made to the chateau in 1900, giving it the current look. 

I liked the architectural quirkiness of Château de Troussay, especially with the formal chateau juxtaposed with the manor house buildings, which housed a winery, horse stables, and food storage. Also, the chateau has English style gardens rather than the formal French, symmetrical gardens. However, there are four formal garden pavilions made of stone from the 1500s that stored gardening tools and in another quirky feature of the chateau, is the “museum”, which in fact was a tiny room inside one of the towers which displays a collection of antique dolls. 

Another distinction the chateau has, is that it has the best-preserved porcupine carved out of stone in France, which is proudly displayed on rear part of the chateau. 

The rooms inside the chateau were a mix of period furniture and antiques from the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th century, and a round room which was a mixture of a salon and playroom was the most interesting. 

The chateau also sells honey form their own beehives, and other local food products plus they can prepare a picnic basket to have lunch on the grounds. You can also stay at the chateau which has two suites and two cottages for rent. 

Chateau de Troussay is open weekdays and weekends at 11with guided tours only, but you are free to explore the grounds after the tour. 

https://chateaudetroussay.com/?page_id=1225&lang=en

CLICK HERE to watch the video on Facebook I did for Atout France last month that includes footage of the chateau. 

Visit to Martin-Pouret Vinegar Factory in Orleans

The last stop on my visit to the Loire Valley and the Sologne region in July was the Martin-Pouret Vinegar Factory and shop in Orleans. 

I met one of the two owners, David Matheron, at the offices of the factory. He and his business partner bought Martin-Pouret in 2019, from the last generation of the family-owned business that was started in 1797. He and his partner both worked for many years for other large corporations but wanted to create their own business by buying an existing, established company rather than starting from scratch. The former owner, who was in his mid-60s, wanted to retire and none of his children had the desire to take over the company. David explained to me that it was still a virtually small business, but it had enough prestige to give it an extra boost and expand it without losing its brand identity. He also told me the history of the vinegar industry in Orleans and the surrounding area. Orleans was the main gateway for the Loire winemakers to ship and transport their wines to other parts of France. Since vinegar is a by-product of wine, it was a natural happenstance that Orleans became the largest and most significant city to produce it. At the tipping point, Orleans had over 400 vinegar companies but by the late 20^th century they all but disappeared to a handful, thus including Martin-Pouret, one of the last survivors. 

David walked me through the old factory, where the main production is now, although they will be moving to a larger, more up to date, newly built facility in the next few years. He took me through each process, first showing me the oak barrels that hold and age the vinegar, an almost identical process to wine. Next was the storage process in these huge vats, then the assembly line where the vinegar is bottled, then adhering the labels to the full bottles, and finally packing them into boxes for shipping. 

Once we were done with the factory visit, David was kind enough to take me to their retail shop a few minutes away from the factory by car. The store is located in the center of the city on rue Jeanne d’Arc, a wide avenue decorated with lovely, vertical flower beds that leads to the Orleans cathedral. The well curated and designed shop showcases the products including a long list of vinegar types and flavors, mustards, cornichons, jellies and jams, and oils. David and his partner updated the packaging and labeling, creating an appealing color palette, along with humorous illustrations. David said another thing they added was new products to enhance and compliment the vinegar and mustard, which included the jams and jellies and the cornichons and dared to even add balsamic vinegar, imported from Italy, rather than made in the factory. 

In the back of the shop, there are three taps which dispense three different types of mustard and David donned an apron, and personally pumped mustard into a handsome, white ceramic pot, put a lid on it, and handed it to me to take home. There’s a refrigerated case that contains daily, freshly made lunch meals that include an appetizer, main course, and dessert, cleverly packaged in glass Mason jars. Another offering at the shop is a cooking class, taught by a well-known, local chef, using ingredients from the items sold in the store. 

Another fun activity the store offers is vinegar and mustard tastings, and David was kind enough to do a mini-crash course to introduce me to the various vinegars. Much like wine tasting, each vinegar had its own distinct flavor and aftertaste, and the top-of-the-line vinegar was aged for seven years and packaged in a perfume-like, shaped bottle. The mustards were also fun to sample and by the end of the tasting, my nose and sinuses were clearer than they had been in years. 

When we finished the vinegar and mustard tasting it was lunchtime and David and I had lunch together with dishes we selected from the prepared foods in the refrigerated case. The most divine dish was the dessert of strawberry and cranberry jelly panna cotta.

Just as I was leaving, David took a large shopping bag and stuffed it with all kinds of vinegars, mustards, and pickles, and it was so heavy, I could hardly carry it with my luggage on the train. I now have enough stock of vinegar to last me perhaps a few years. 

Thanks so much David for such a fun and informative experience.

Checkout the enticing food recipes on their website. https://martin-pouret.com/blog/category/les-recettes.html

Orleans is only an hour train ride from Paris.

Martin-Pouret 

11 rue Jeanne d’Arc

Orleans, France 45000

https://martin-pouret.com/

 

 

La Bourse de Commerce- Pinault Collection

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always admired La Bourse de Commerce, a stunning rotunda bordering Les Halles, but it remained a mystery, piquing my curiosity. What was this building before, why is this architectural wonder empty and not being used, and why don’t they put something fabulous in there? 

All these questions were recently answered when La Bourse de Commerce opened in June this year. 

The original structure, which was the wheat exchange of Paris, was erected from 1763 to 1767 and used for the storage and buying and selling of wheat. It was side by side with Les Halles, the great wholesale food market of Paris at the time. The Paris Commodities market took over the building and in 1886, it went through a major reconstruction which included decorative new features such as three allegorical sculptures, four Corinthian columns, and wall frescoes by noted artists of the period. Luckily, these architectural elements were classified as historical monuments by the City of Paris, and didn’t suffer the same fate as Les Halles, which was torn down in the late 1960s, and rebuilt as a tacky, soulless shopping mall in the 1970s. 

Multi -billionaire Francoise Pinault, who made his mega fortune by owning high fashion luxury brands such as Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga, has acquired a vast contemporary art collection over the last decades. The collection boasts over 10,000 pieces and is worth approximately 1.25 billion euros. What to do with and where to put all that art has always been on Pinault’s mind. Like other like-minded collectors of this magnitude, Pinault sought to display his art in venues of his own choosing rather than donate them to a museum. His original plan was to take over the old Citroen factory in the 15^th arrondissement of Paris, and create a museum, but the city gave him a hard time and lots of red tape, so he abandoned the project and bought a palazzo in Venice instead to showcase his collection.

Pinault was still determined to have a museum in Paris and perhaps prompted or maybe stung by the fact that his business archrival Bernard Arnault, opened the Frank Gehry designed Louis Vuitton Museum with his major art collection. In 2016, Pinault signed a 50-year lease with the city for Bourse de Commerce to display his collection and commissioned Pritzker prize winning architect Tadao Ando to design and overhaul the space. The focal point of the museum is the striking 30 foot high and 95-foot-wide concrete cylinder in which the contents of the museum revolve around. At the top of the open cylinder is a dome with painted frescoes at which you must crane your neck to study in detail.

I visited La Bourse de Commerce last month, and even though I read many articles and blogs about it, it didn’t prepare me for the astonishing beauty of the space. I was so taken by the architecture and the way the dome was constructed, looking at the art was an afterthought. I loved the sculptures that were on the floor under the rotunda by artist Urs Fischer, especially the centerpiece which resembles a classic, Italian marble statue but upon closer inspection it’s made of wax. There are wicks connected to the wax and the idea is that the life of the sculpture lasts until it has been completely melted. Other sculptures in the rotunda by Urs Fischer fabricated in wax include a melted down set of plane seats, an office chair on wheels, and a headless man’s body in a blue blazer, light blue button-down shirt, and khaki pants with wax dripping down from it. 

The main gallery spaces, which cover about 75,000 square feet, are splintered off the sides of the rotunda on three-floors, similar to the Guggenheim in New York. The current exhibition features a stable of artists from the collection but no specific theme or cohesion to bring them together. The most interesting exhibition was by David Hammons, a collection of familiar objects and sculptures reinterpreted and reinvented. 

One other feature I was impressed with was the vitrines with handsome wood frames and a single object in each. 

I was fascinated with the impressive architectural details at every turn such as the marvelous, intricate staircases, the beveled, round glass ceiling, the mosaic tile floors, and the clean curves of the rotunda. Taking photos at odd angles was a blast and the results are below. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a peek at the restaurant because the entrance is blocked and only open to people who have a reservation. 

Bourse de Commerce 

2 Rue de Viarmes, 75001 

https://www.pinaultcollection.com/en

Maison Tatin

Maison Tatin is the original hotel where the recipe for tarte Tatin was first invented. I stayed at the hotel for two nights during the first week of July to prepare for and do my live video for Atout France, which was recorded on July 8. (CLICK HERE to view the video in case you missed it). 

I arrived at the tiny Lamotte-Beuvron train station at 9:30am, after taking a 7:07am train from Gare d’Austerlitz in Paris. The hotel was conveniently located just across from the train station. As I was walking toward the hotel, a painted sign on a wall spelled out in bold letters “PAYS DE LA TARTE TATIN”. This is when I realized the tarte Tatin was more significant than I thought. 

Originally named Hotel Terminus, because it was next to the railroad station, the hotel was opened in 1830. It was popular with hunters during the fleeting hunting season, which lasts for approximately a month, beginning in September. Two sisters, Caroline and Stephanie Tatin, owned the hotel in the mid-1800s and it became renowned in the area for its restaurant, earning the honor of being selected for first Michelin guide as one of the best restaurants in the Sologne region where it’s located. 

The story behind how the tarte Tatin came to be is a bit along the lines of the chocolate chip cookie, somewhat of a culinary mistake that then became history. One busy Sunday in the height of hunting season, the restaurant was packed with hungry, local hunters. One of the sisters started to prepare an apple tart, leaving the apples on the stovetop to cook in butter and sugar. She became distracted with other duties in the restaurant and when she returned to the stove, the apples were overcooked and starting to burn. To save the tart from ruin, she quickly made her crust, putting it on top of the apples. She then baked it, and when it came out of the oven, she flipped it on to a serving platter, and low and behold, the tart Tatin was inaugurated. The original recipe was given to a family member, Fanny Tatin, who passed on the recipe to the subsequent owners. 

The hotel was bought by a group of investors in 2019, and significant renovations were done to upgrade the facilities, including the addition of a spa. The reopening was supposed to happen in 2021 but was delayed to May of this year. The owners renamed the hotel Maison Tatin, to make the guests feel more at home than at a hotel. 

The outside looked quaint with handsome, new awnings in midnight blue canvas along with a brick and plaster façade. Inside, the newly designed restaurant looked inviting with plush, velvet dining chairs in jewel tone colors, a pink marble fireplace mantle, milk chocolate color banquettes, and a quirky carpet pattern made to look like a wood parquet floor. 

My cozy attic room on the third floor had slanted ceilings and a nice view of the weeping willow trees in the garden area behind the hotel. The queen size bed was super comfy, and the air conditioning was so cool, I had to lower the temperature on the thermostat. 

That evening I had dinner in the lovely garden in the rear of the hotel under the weeping willow trees. My first course was a refreshing dorade ceviche, dotted with colorful edible flowers, followed by an excellent dish of an updated version of a Shepherd’s but with a much lighter lamb ragout, topped with a thin, crispy layer of a potato crepe. As much as I enjoyed the meal, I was full of anticipation about the grand finale, which I had been dreaming about since I got off the train early that morning. The tarte Tatin was served unadorned but elegantly on a large white plate, with just a whisper of caramel swirled on it. Taking the first bite, the intense, smoky flavor of the caramel and apples titillated my palate and the light, cookie like crust was just the right accompaniment. It also wasn’t too sweet and or sticky like some tart Tatin’s I’ve had in the past. It definitely lived up to its legendary status.

The next day after the video was over, I indulged in another slice of heaven. 

Maison Tatin has 14 rooms on three floors (no elevator), and two have wheelchair access. Prices start at a mere 75€ a night for a smaller room. 

Next week I will post about the three chateaux I visited in the area.

Maison Tatin

5 rue de Vierzon

41600 Lamotte Beuvron 

https://www.lamaisontatin.fr/en/

Tel. +33 2 54 88 00 03 

Excellent local red wine

The Star of the Show!