I Prefer Paris

Sunset on Place de la Concorde

I’ve posted many blogs in the past about Place de la Concorde, always capturing something different I hadn’t seen before. 

 My niece, Sarah and her daughter Avery were in Paris for a long weekend from New York. While walking across Place de la Concorde at sunset, we were astounded by the stunning sky blazing with hues of red, orange, pink, blue, gray, yellow. 

Sarah, Avery and I painted the town; We got all dressed up (I even wore a suit!) and went to see a fantastic Jerome Robbins dance performance at Opera Garnier on Saturday night. We also saw some great exhibits including Klimt at Ateliers des Lumieres, Picasso Bleu et Rose at the d’Orsay, Mucha at Musee de Luxembourg and Carte Blanche a Tomas Sacareno at Palais de Tokyo. Of course food was a major part of the weekend and we people watched having dinner at l’Avenue and at the hip Hotel National des Arts and Metiers. Sarah and Avery are fashion hounds and I picked out a YSL vintage hounds-tooth blazer for Avery for only 70€ at a flea market on Place Saint Sulpice. 

We had a blast and I already miss them. 

Avery, left, Sarah right 

All decked out for a night at the opera (yes! that's me in a suit)  

Fab YSL find at flea market 

I am so pleased to have Ann Mah as my guest this week at on A Bite of Paris. We went to Le Mistral, her favorite Paris bistro and had their signature dish, aligot, a rich, creamy mix of whipped potatoes and cheese from the Aveyron region.

Click here   or link below to watch Ann and I enjoy aligote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRHIW7Oitw&t=4s 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

 

FIAC Hors les Murs Tuileries 2018

Every year the international art fair FIAC/Faire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) presents an outdoor sculpture installation in the Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, Place Vendome and the garden at the Eugene Delacroix Museum. 

I was in the Tuileries yesterday to see the newest installation and below are photos with captions referring to the artists. 

FIAC 

October 18 – October 21

Grand Palais 

Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008

Metro: Champs Elysees-Clemenceau 

http://www.fiac.com/en/Home/

 

 

Franz West -Venus Over Manhattan
Henk Visch-Du Livre du Matin

Kohei Nawa- Scai The Bathhouse 

Robert Indiana- Art, (Blue Red) 

Vladimir Skoda- Sphere de Ciel 

Alicja Kwade- Revolution 

Tere Recarens- Faire l'Aventure

Pablo Reinoso- Le Cercle 

I am so pleased to have Ann Mah as my guest this week at on A Bite of Paris. We went to Le Mistral, her favorite Paris bistro and had their signature dish, aligot, a rich, creamy mix of whipped potatoes and cheese from the Aveyron region.

Click here   or link below to watch Ann and I enjoy aligote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRHIW7Oitw&t=4s 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Answer to Guess Where I Am Contest

Thanks for all of your answers to the Guess Where I Am Contest. Unfortunately, no one got the correct answer. The popular answers were Vernon, Villandry, and Giverny.

So here it is, (drumroll please). Le Vesinet.

Le Vesinet is a wealthy suburb of Paris with grand houses and mansions, beautifully landscaped gardens, lakes, parks, and tranquil wooded areas with streams.

I am house sitting for a friend for a few days while he is away and his home is spacious and warm with a lovely garden and outdoor patio. The weather over the weekend was delightful- warm and sunny with radiant blue skies. I took a long walk the other day and discovered a winding, wooded trail with a babbling brook.

Le Vesinet is only a 20-minute RER train ride from Paris, yet I feel as though I am in a French countryside village surrounded by verdant green space. It’s not really a vacation and i am still working but it’s a nice respite.

I also stayed in Le Vesinet in March and captured some terrific snow landscapes. Click here to view.

I am so pleased to have Ann Mah as my guest this week at on A Bite of Paris. We went to Le Mistral, her favorite Paris bistro and had their signature dish, aligot, a rich, creamy mix of whipped potatoes and cheese from the Aveyron region.

Click here   or link below to watch Ann and I enjoy aligote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRHIW7Oitw&t=4s 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

 

 

 

Guess Where I Am?

Ready to play a fun game? I’ve been spending the last few days away from my apartment but I won’t tell you where. Below are some photos of my location and would like you to guess where I am. Paris, New York, U.S., France? Singapore, Siam, Syosset?

The first person that correctly identifies where I am staying will receive a photo print of their choice from this series.

I will reveal my location on Thursday, so have fun guessing and I can’t wait to receive your answers.

Okay, just one hint: The name of the place starts with a V. Vermont, Venezuela, Victoria, Villandry?

You can leave your answer in the COMMENTS section @ www.eyepreferparis.com or email me at r.nahem@gmail.com

Paris

Couldn't resist posting this photo. It's Vincent and me in Paris in 1981! What do you think? 

I am so pleased to have Ann Mah as my guest this week at on A Bite of Paris. We went to Le Mistral, her favorite Paris bistro and had their signature dish, aligot, a rich, creamy mix of whipped potatoes and cheese from the Aveyron region.

Click here   or link below to watch Ann and I enjoy aligote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRHIW7Oitw&t=4s 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Paris Window Boxes 2018

It’s the time of the year again when window boxes are in full bloom and overflowing in Paris. Enjoy a snippet of summer in Paris with these photos.

Check out my latest episode of A Bite of Paris, where I visit Le Trois Chocolates a yummy chocolate shop 

Click here or link below to watch

https://youtu.be/XdJaECIf09E

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

 

 

Gardens of Thought at Chamount-Sur-Loire

Every year Chateau Chamount-Sur-Loire hosts a garden show with a theme. Now in its 27th edition, Gardens of Thought is the theme for 2018, celebrating the written word.

Twenty-five international landscape designers were given a plot of land to fulfill their vision, collaborating with a host of set designers, directors, graphic designers, an anthropologist, a geographer, and a cabinetmaker. Writers Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Octave Mirabeau, Marcel Proust and George Luis Borges are just some of the writers used for inspiration.

I have been to garden show twice before and have enjoyed it immensely. (Click here and here for links to my trip in 2012).

I took the train late last month from Gare Austerlitz to Onzain /Chaumont-sur-Loire station, a 90-minute ride. The chateau was about a scenic 25-minute walk partly along the Loire River from the train station. During July and August, there’s a shuttle that runs from between the chateau and train station.

It was a half sunny/half-cloudy day, giving me ample opportunity to photograph the gardens with the light constantly changing.

Standouts were the stunning crystal blue glass boulders fixed on a pond by American sculptor Dale Chilhuly, a Japanese meditation garden embellished with Yves Klein blue stones, and the whimsical Thought Bubbles Garden decorated with strands of colored yarn and thought-provoking phrases written on bubbles

In addition to Gardens of Thought, 2018 is a cultural landmark for Chateau de Chaumont-Sur-Loire, which is now commemorating the 10th anniversary of its program, Art Season. Since its inception in 2008, over 75 international prominent and upcoming artists have been commissioned to create and install an art project. The works are displayed in various structures on the property including the chateau and the royal apartments and ancillary buildings such as the horse stables, water tower, and donkey barn. This year’s invited artists include Sheila Hicks, Natahlie Nery, Klaus Pinter, and Fujiko Nakaya.

I will soon post photos from Art Season.

The 2018 edition of the Garden Show and Art Season runs until November 4 and is open every day. The chateau and gardens are open all year round.

http://www.domaine-chaumont.fr/en/international-garden-festival

Special thanks to all of you who made comments to win a copy of Everyday Monet.

 

Do you love cheese? I go for a cheese tasting at Beau et Fort, a restaurant and cheese shop in the 9th arr. on A Bite of Paris

Click here to watch or link below.

https://youtu.be/4SAKUoiuBoM

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

 

Best of Eye Prefer Paris: Leaf Photos from Italy

 I’m taking a blogging break this week, so enjoy my summer reruns.

Inspiration sometimes strikes in the most bizarre places and circumstances. When I was Italy last December I was staying with my friends Laurie and Blair, who live in a tiny mountaintop village Roccamalatina in the Emigilia Romagna province.  

One morning I went across the road to the supermarket to buy something. There was an early morning frost and as I was walking in the parking lot of the supermarket I noticed dead leaves on the ground encrusted with snow. There was something beautiful about the texture and color and I started to take photos. At a certain point, I picked up the leaves and placed them on the aluminum and plastic dumpsters alongside the supermarket.

I love the results and would love to get your feedback. Do you have any favorites? 

LINKS EYE PREFER

NY Times: At a Nostalgic Restaurant, Food Takes a Back Seat to Fun by Lindsey Tramuta

Click here to read or Link below

https://nyti.ms/2t6MvDZ

 

 

Do you love cheese? I go for a cheese tasting at Beau et Fort, a restaurant and cheese shop in the 9th arr. on A Bite of Paris

Click here to watch or link below.

https://youtu.be/4SAKUoiuBoM

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

Montparnasse Cemetery

 

In an ongoing photo exploration of the cemeteries of Paris, I visited Montparnasse Cemetery last month. It’s a personal favorite and I’ve visited the cemetery many times and include it in my Montparnasse tour. Although it’s the second largest cemetery in Paris, it feels smaller and more intimate than Pere Lachaise and the list of writers, poets, performers, actors and artists buried in it is stellar. Close to the main entrance is the shared tombstone of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre and if you walk through the remainder of the cemetery you will encounter the graves of Susan Sontag, Baudelaire, Nicki de St Phalle, Brancusi, Jean Seberg, Jacques Demy, Guy du Massapant, Marguerite Duras, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Charles Garnier (architect of Opera Garnier), and pop icon Serge Gainsbourg, whose grave is one of the most visited, rivaling Jim Morrison's grave in Pere Lachaise.

Opened in 1824, it was named Cimetière du Sud. It’s geometrically laid out on a 19-hectare lot. It contains 40,000 graves with over 750 trees and plants, making it one of the largest green spaces in the city. Divisions #5 and #30 are designated for Jewish burials.

Do you have some favorites in this series?

Thanks for your comments about (Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living by Mark Greenside and Kathleen Hurder is the lucky winner of our giveaway.

For episode 9 of A Bite of Paris, I went to Comme a Lisbonne, where they serve pastel de nata, an amazing custard tart from Portugal.

Click here or below to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g-07qy-Wc0&feature=youtu.be

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you, my insiders, Paris.

 Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com 

Chartres: Maison Picassiette

The highlight of my trip to Chartres last week besides Chartres en Lumieres was a visit to an enchanted cottage straight out of a storybook.

Maison Picassiette is an off the beaten path treasure about a ten-minute bus ride from the center of the old town. Its beginning is humble; Raymond Isidore, a local resident of Chartres born in 1900, purchased a small parcel of land in 1930 and built a modest house for his wife and family. A few years later while walking through a field, he discovered a junk pile of glass bottles, broken ceramic dishes, and bottle caps. Deciding that they shouldn’t be discarded and wasted, he started to adorn his house with his found objects in an artistic fashion. Isidore spent the next 24 years and 29,000 hours transforming his house into a mosaic heaven, using 15 tons of materials. Unfortunately, Isidore died in 1964 only two years after he completed the house. In 1983 it was landmarked as a historic monument and is now owned by the city of Chartres.

The name Picassiette is derived from pique-assiette (scavenger) and Picasso and his plates.

All the furniture in the house is made of mosaics and the chapel has superb murals in beautiful hues of blue, reminding me of a Matisse chapel I visited in the south of France. The garden was a spring delight of tulips, hydrangeas, and Queen Anne’s lace with mosaic sculptures including on the Eiffel Tower interspersed in between. Another wall had a replica of the rose stained glass window from Chartres Cathedral.

Another must visit place in Chartres.

22 Rue du Repos, 28000
Check link below for opening times
https://www.discover-chartres.com/maison-picassiette.html

Directions: Take Filibus line 4 direction La Madeleine from across the street from the train station and get off at Picassiette bus stop.

Lost in Frenchlation, the weekly film seires with current French films with English subtitles is giving away two free tickets for this weeks film.

*2x2 TICKETS GIVEAWAY* With 'Tout le Monde Debout', Franck Dubosc gets 'Everyone Standing'! The film previewed at the Alpe-d’Huez festival (International comedy film festival) and was a pure success hailed by an enthusiastic public. On Friday 11 May, Lost in Frenchlation will bring you this new French cheerful comedy with English subtitles, with a stand-up comedy show in English before the film! To enter the competition, just tag a friend you would like to go with in the comments below. Winners will be announced tomorrow at 6pm.☞ https://www.facebook.com/events/226817994736558/

Please click here to watch my latest episode of A Bite of Paris with my guest Adrian Leeds 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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 

 

Garden at Clinique Oudinot

A few Sundays ago I went to see an exhibition in the 7th arr. and decided to stroll around the area near rue Vaneau and rue Babylone. The narrow streets lined mostly with stately Hausmannian style buildings were nearly deserted as if it were August instead of mid-April. As many years as I lived here and as much of Paris I have covered and uncovered, there are always new surprises for which I am grateful for.

I stumbled upon a gem of a public garden attached to the sterile looking Clinique Oudinot, which is part of Fondation Saint Jean de Dieux.

The garden was still in the winter to spring transition, so the trees and plants in bloom and those that were still bare created an interesting visual contrast. I felt as though I was in a private garden in a French country estate and I was the only guest. It had the typical elements of French gardens that always makes them so attractive- low box hedges, symmetry, a pond, metal garden chairs, tall strategically placed trees, and gravel pathways. Inside a round pavilion flanked by wild vines was a statue of Mary, so perhaps it was a chapel.

Down a path were two limestone columns supporting a beam with a hanging metal bucket and where a well was before was a mound of dirt planted with spring pink flowers.

I left the garden, happy that I found another small place of serenity in Paris.

2 Rue Rousselet, 75007
Metro: Vaneau

Please click here to watch my latest episode of A Bite of Paris with my guest Adrian Leeds 

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Tours start at 225 euros for up to 3 people, and 75 euros for each additional person. 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