I Prefer Paris

Etretat Houses And Gardens

While I was preparing for the Lupin tour for Facebook, I snapped photos of the charming houses and gardens in Etretat. The climbing rosebushes were doing a great job of decorating the facades of the houses and the lush shrubs and bushes blanketed the front and side yards. I also loved the various materials and details of the houses such as thatched roofs, brick, and half-timber. 

CLICK HERE to watch the Lupin 2 video from Etretat, in case you missed it. 

Vincent’s Birthday Celebration 2024

Vincent’s birthday is August 24, and every year since we moved to Paris, we travel somewhere to celebrate, since most of our friends are away, and most good restaurants are closed.  

This year we went to Versailles and were invited by the fabulous new hotel Les Lumières Versailles, to spend the night, and boy, did we get the VIP treatment. 

We arrived at 10:35 last Saturday, and they had a slick Mercedes limo pick us up at the station, even though it was a ten-minute walk to the hotel. 

When we approached the hotel, we realized it was just across from the palace entrance. It was a beautiful day, and the glass-enclosed, sun-drenched lobby with bamboo lounge chairs and velvet couches was so relaxing, we wanted to spend the day in the lobby. They gave us the top suite, which was named after the Montgolfier brothers, who invented the hot air balloon in the 1800s. The lovely living room was decorated in neutral shades, and I loved the gray walls with white molding. Our bed was extra cushy, and the TV was cleverly hidden inside a picture frame. The coolest thing about the room was a meditation device, a box that had different settings for sounds and music to meditate with. We wanted to try but we thought we would fall asleep the rest of the afternoon. 

The day manager, Thibaut, gave us a tour of the hotel and shared the history. It was originally a hotel de particulier given as a gift to Édouard Colbert and Antoine III de Gramont by King Louis XIV.  The gut renovation was finished in July and the hotel opened just in time for the equestrian Olympics in Versailles. Les Lumieres Versailles recently received Relais & Chateau status. The name, Les Lumieres, is derived from the Age of Enlightenment, the influential cultural, literary, and philosophical movement of the 17^th and 18^th centuries. 

The Library

The highlight of the hotel is the gorgeous ballroom on the second floor, which is now a Pierre Herme restaurant. The enormous, open space has pink velvet banquettes, crystal chandeliers I would kill to own, a beautifully patterned Oriental rug, and black bentwood chairs. We were seated at a table with a marvelous view of the palace and we each had simple Caesar salads, so we could indulge in a decadent, Pierre Herme dessert. Jardin Japonais is a pretty pink, shiny dome filled with lemon-flavored shortcake, lemon compote and Morello cherries, and had a little candle on top. Vincent quickly blew it out, and we annihilated it like it was going to be the last pastry we would ever eat. 

That afternoon we toured the gardens of the palace and saw and heard the musical fountains. At the Orangerie, which we’ve never visited before was a fantastic, immense tapestry by Eva Jospin. (I wrote about it on Monday this week, CLICK HERE if you missed it). 

Back at the hotel we had yummy mocktails at the impressive Philosophers' Bar, which only stocks drinks, spirits, and wines from France. 

The Table des Lumières restaurant where we had dinner that night, had an intriguing concept. Chef Erwan Le Thomas devised a vegetable-based menu with meat and fish served as a side dish, which was perfect, since Vincent primarily cooks vegetables and seafood at home.  Vincent had a plate with sliced carrots and carrot puree with a side of John Dory fish, and I had a plate with yellow and red beets, with a red beet sauce, accompanied by two slices of Wagyu beef. Once more, the restaurant topped our amazing peach éclair with a birthday candle, but the server remained discreet and thankfully didn’t sing happy birthday. 

Later that evening at 10:50, we returned to the palace to watch the fireworks, and the sky lit up with a dazzling light show. 

The next morning, we returned to our favorite room, the ballroom, for breakfast and had a super fluffy, cheese omelet, strong coffee, croissants, and pain au chocolats. 

We went to the huge food market, voted one of the best in France, and picked up cheeses, fruit, and herbs, all which were much less if we bought them in Paris.

5 rue Colbert, 78000 Versailles

https://www.leslumieres.com/en/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend in Deal, Kent

Vincent and I left Paris for the Olympics and spent time in the United Kingdom. On the last three days of our trip, we were invited by our friends to stay with them in Deal, Kent, which is a seaside village where the North Sea and the English Channel meet. It’s also 21 miles from Calais, France, and on a clear day, you can see Calais from the beach. 

Our friend picked us up at the train station, and even though it was only a 10-minute walk to his and his partner’s house, I was already charmed and enchanted by Deal. The village is dotted with 16^th and 17th-century cottage houses of brick and colored plaster and many of them had names, some of them humorous, such as Adelaide House, Cavendish House, Fanny’s Dilemma, Christmas House, Undaunted, and Cooks Cottage. Some of the houses had historic plaques and signs of notable people who lived in them. 

My friend’s house was a small, three-story cottage house from the 1700s with a working fireplace in the cozy living room, two bedrooms, and a finished attic. The biggest room was the kitchen, and our friend would cook delicious eggs every morning with either smoked salmon or mushroom, and at night he prepared two excellent dinners with homemade desserts. There was also a small backyard with a table and chairs, and we had drinks and dined out there a few times. The house was a former fish shop and behind the backyard is a storage room which was originally the smokehouse. 

We went to the beach on the first day, which was right around the corner from their house. Although the inviting blue water attracted me to dive in, the daunting, large rocks instead of sand were too hard to maneuver without rubber shoes, so I stayed ashore and enjoyed the pleasurable breeze. At one point I attempted to go in the water and got up to my knees, but it was too bone-chilling cold for me, so I gave up and parked myself on the beach again. 

The next two days we took long hikes to the surrounding villages, Sandwich, and Walmer. One of my friends was a tour guide in his earlier life, and he shared historic and sometimes juicy, gossipy stories about Deal and its residents. From Walmer, you can spot the white cliffs of Dover, which was the next town over. 

We had fantastic weather all three days with generous sunshine and clear skies with temperatures in the high 70s Fahrenheit.

The last evening of our stay, our friends invited two other British friends for dinner. One of the guests knew Vincent from many years ago, and they caught up like a house on fire.  It was a lively, fun, and stimulating evening with a great, three-course dinner, lots of wines and spirits, and went from 7pm till way after midnight. 

We had such a lovely time in Deal, we were sad to leave the next day. 

Deal is an hour and forty-minute train ride from Saint Pancras station in London. 

The white cliffs of Dover in the background

 

 

 

Chefchaouen, Morocco- The Blue City

 

In the past few years, photos of Chefchaouen, Morocco have been popping up in my social media accounts. The old part of the city is painted a gorgeous hue of blue and Chefchaouen has been on my travel must-see list. 

While doing research for my trip to Tangier, I discovered it was only 2.5 hours from Tangier, a very doable day trip. 

We hired a car and driver and as we drove, we passed through the Rif Mountain range along with small villages, and flat, desert-like land. 

Chefchaouen was founded in 1471, by Moulay Ali Ben Moussa, as a fortress to protect from invasions by the Portuguese and later in the century, it was settled by the Ghomara and Moriscos tribes, and the Jews. The main reason the city was painted blue was it represented the blue sky connecting to God and heaven when Jews fled to city during WWII to escape persecution from the Nazi occupation in Europe. Other reasons I read include the blue color repels mosquitoes, it keeps houses cooler from the heat, and it reminds them of the color of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The driver stopped at a bridge for us to get a panoramic view of the city, and we could see the blue dotting the hilly landscape. 

We walked through the town, climbing the twisting stairways, uncovering doorways, curved stone walls, and floors, painted in similar shades of blue. Merchants were selling handcrafted rugs, tapestries, jewelry, artworks, sculptures, and paint pigments. We bought a hand- painted ceramic tile. 

Once we decided to stay for lunch, we were aggressively courted by different restaurants to try their food, and we finally sat at a festive café in the town square, having a simple meal of cheese omelets, potatoes, and strong coffee for a ridiculous price of $10 for the both of us. 

 

 

 

Trip to Tangier, Morocco

 

Last month Vincent and I took a quick, three-day trip to Tangier, Morocco for a change of scenery and to escape the gray, winter days of Paris. 

It’s 2:45 minute flight from Paris, and when we arrived, it was warm and sunny, about 69 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The taxi driver stopped at the taxi stand, and walked us through the lively, narrow alleyways of the medina. We arrived at Riad Arous Chamel, an authentic, 200-year-old riad (bed and breakfast). The living area on the main floor had handsome, thick wood furniture, tall stone columns, and a beautiful marble floor in red and white marble. Our room was on the third floor and had mini-stained glass windows and Moroccan style carpets and a tapestry bedcover. Breakfast was on the rooftop with views of the entire city with uneven rooftops. The room rate was an incredible 50€ a night, including breakfast. 

The next few days we roamed the maze of the medina and its crafts, tapestry and rug shops, always losing our way home. We also toured the more modern part of the city, hung out in cafes and coffee houses, went to a museum and a few galleries, and feasted on Moroccan cuisine. Our first day, we had lunch at a worker’s restaurant, which served mounds of couscous and large tagines, with a bill for 12€ for the both of us. 

Tangiers is very hilly, and I climbed stairway after stairway, discovering hidden alleyways, and lots of cool doors. Spain is only an hour boat ride from Tangier, separated by the strait of Gibraltar and there’s beaches outside the city. 

We took a day trip to a very special place, which I will write about on Thursday. Stay tuned. 

Doors of the Month, November 2023: New Orleans

I took a four-day trip to New Orleans earlier this month, and believe it or not, I had never been before.

I went with a friend and the first day we explored and took a wonderful and informative tour of the French Quarter with Frank Perez, who shared its diverse and rich history. Some of the highlights were the William Faulkner bookshop and the house where Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire. The rest of the time we roamed the streets of the Bywater and Marigny, admiring the quirky cottage houses, and the Garden District with its historical mansions. We also ate well, tasting all the local foods including muffuletta, gumbo, and Po’boys. One night we went to Frenchmen Street, lined with the top blues and jazz clubs in New Orleans, and saw blues legend Little Freddie King at the DBA club.

I loved the colorful doors, stairways, and porches of the New Orleans houses with seasonal decorations for fall and Thanksgiving and some were already decorated for Christmas.

Do you have some favorites here?

Experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 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, Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, Emily in Paris tours, and Chocolate and pastry tours.

Tours start at 250 euros for up to 3 people, and 85 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 

 

Pilar and Joan Miro Foundation Mallorca

A friend invited me last month to visit him at his house in a village in Mallorca. After my visit, I spent the day in the capital city of Palma. My friend said a must-do was to visit Miro’s studio just outside the city. 

I took a taxi, which took about 20 minutes to get there and the foundation is on a quiet street in a residential neighborhood. 

In 1956, after traveling extensively, Joan Miro and his wife Pilar decided to settle down and build their dream house and studio in Mallorca. Miro had frequently visited Mallorca as a child and had fond memories. He commissioned his friend, the great architect Josep Lluís Sert to design the studio. Joan specified some practical functions for the studio, such as considering the weather and climate, a marked separation of the studio and storage spaces, and enough room to fit his larger canvases. 

In 1981, after Joan’s death, the studio was converted into the foundation, and he left artworks, documents, and objects with Pilar becoming the director. 

There are three buildings in the complex including a separate engraving and lithography studio. The main exhibition building was constructed in 1992 and designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. Today the foundation has archives of over 7,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects, ceramics, and drawings and includes Miro’s work and many other artists.  

The foundation offers printmaking classes inspired by Miro.

C/ de Saridakis, 29
07015 Palma

https://miromallorca.com/en/

 Experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 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, Shopping Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, Emily in Paris tours, and Chocolate and pastry tours.

Tours start at 250 euros for up to 3 people, and 85 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 

 

Art Nouveau Brussels: Fin de Siecle Museum and BELvue Museum

On my second day in Brussels, I went to two museums with Art Nouveau collections.

Inside the impressive, Beaux Arts style Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium (which houses six museums), the The Fin de Siecle Museum is dedicated to the early 1900s when Brussels became the capital city of Europe. The expansive museum, covering the bottom four floors, starts mostly with paintings and posters on the first two floors, and the last two floors have a gasp-worthy collection of quintessential Art Nouveau sculptures, paintings, furniture, art objects, drawings, and posters. The collection of magnificent vases, pitchers, and glassware was an artistic knockout.

 Beaux Arts style Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium Rue de la Régence/Regentschapsstraat 3
https://fine-arts-museum.be/en/museums/musee-fin-de-siecle-museum

Another architecturally impressive building around the corner from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium is the BELvue Museum, which tells the complex history of Belgium from 1830, when Belgium was established as a nation, to the present day. Participating in the Art Nouveau events around Brussels, the BELvue has gathered a collection of Art Nouveau pieces from 10 of the most influential Belgian architects and designers of the period. Beautifully curated, the show features furniture, ceramic tiles, jewelry, art posters, sculptures and book covers.

BELvue Museum Pl. des Palais 7 https://www.belvue.be/

 

Art Nouveau Brussels: Hotel Solvay, Horta Mansion, and Maison Hannon

When I learned about the Capital of Art Nouveau Brussels 2023, I booked my train tickets immediately. Capital of Art Nouveau Brussels is an extensive, yearlong program of Art Nouveau exhibitions, house visits, and other events around the city. I walked my tootsies off for two days, walking close to 40,000 steps to get in as many sights as I could. 

This is going to be a two-part blog, and today I am writing about three former, private houses, turned into museums, which displayed supreme examples of Art Nouveau. 

I checked into the Le Louise Hotel Brussels – MGallery Hotel Collection, which was ideally located, just 20 minutes or less by walking or by tram to all the attractions I visited. My spacious room on the sixth floor had a king-size bed and a picturesque city view. Best of all they gifted me a box of heavenly chocolates from a boutique chocolate shop, Elisabeth. 

Le Louise Hotel Brussels Av. de la Toison d'Or 40  https://www.le-louise-brussels.com/en

To give you some context, the start of the Art Nouveau movement in Brussels begins with the architect and interior designer Victor Horta. His first big project was the Tassel townhouse, built in 1893, and it was the launchpad of his career. He eventually designed some of the most iconic Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels including Hotel Aubecq, Hotel Solvay, Magasins Waucquez (a former department store that is now the Comic Book Center), Maison du Peuple (the headquarters for a political organization), \and finally, his most extended project was Brussels Central Train Station, which took 40 years to build. 

Hotel Solvay was about a 15-minute walk from the hotel, located in the upscale, Louise quarter lined with top designer boutiques. The son of industrialist Ernest Solvay, Armand Solvay, chose Horta to design a family home in 1894. With an unlimited budget, Horta took eight years to complete the construction of the house, designing every aspect including the outside, the furniture, and light fixtures, and he personally chose the marble, plus it was the first house in Belgium to have electricity.

The ground floor had practical rooms such as the kitchen, cloakroom, bathroom, and office. The magnificent gray and white marble staircase going up to the second floor had metal swirls and handsome, mahogany banisters and leading to a massive, Impressionist style painting by Belgian artist Theo Van Rysselberghe, followed by a stunning stained-glass awning, resembling butterfly wings, on the third floor.

The sumptuous reception rooms on the second floor included the salon/ smoking room, dining room, living room, billiard room, and music room, and most of them had the original furniture, artwork, carpets, and hand-painted canvas lining the walls. In between the second and third floors, the winter garden room was encased in Tiffany-like stained glass along with sofas and potted plants. A master bedroom on the third floor had wood-lined walls and a gorgeous, velvet chaise trimmed with satin fringe. 

Unfortunately, the Art Nouveau style went out of fashion in the 1950s, making way for the more contemporary and simpler mid-century period, and the Solvay family sold the house to couturiers, Louis and Berthe Wittamer-De- De Camps in 1958. They set up their atelier and showroom and the home is still owned and maintained by the next generation of the Wittamer family.

Note: Tickets are timed for a 40-minute visit at every hour and only 22 people are allowed per time slot, so reservations are highly recommended. I was required to put a covering over my shoes, and visitors are only allowed to take photos during the last 10 minutes of the visit. 

Hotel Solvay Av. Louise 224, 1000 https://hotelsolvay.be/en/

Next up was the Horta house and workshop in the Saint-Gilles quarter, where Horta bought two plots of land and built a five-story workshop and home, side by side, with 21 rooms, from 1898-1901.

Horta’s workshop on the ground floor was outfitted with simple furniture and bookcases, sculptures, and his desk. The grand, white marble staircase, a Horta signature architectural detail, unexpectedly has stained-glass windows imported from the United States. The layout of the rooms on the upper floors was typical of the time with a salon, music room, family room, smoking room, and boudoir, but in addition, there was another series of unique rooms such as a draftsman’s workshop, photo lab, and a sculpting studio.

I was very disappointed to learn that photos were prohibited, so I can't post any photos of Horta House. 

Like Hotel Solvay, tickets are timed for a 40-minute visit, and only 15 people are allowed per time slot.

Horta House Rue Americaine 27 https://www.hortamuseum.be/en/Welcome

Extending my Art Nouveau tour into the evening, I went to Brasserie La Porteuse d'Eau, an Art Nouveau gem, for dinner. I devoured a classic carbonadde flamande (a Belgian beef stew cooked in beer), served with the famous, double-fried, Belgian, frites, while swooning at the architecture of stained-glass windows, painted murals, dark wood, carved booths, and a handsome, winding staircase. 

 La Porteuse d'Eau Av. Jean Volders 48, 1060 Saint-Gilles https://laporteuse.eu/en

The next afternoon, the mansion tour continued with the piece de resistance, Maison Hannon in the Saint Gilles neighborhood. A lot smaller in scale and size, more like a townhouse, Maison Hannon was the home of brother and sister, Marie and Edouard Hannon, and Edouard was an engineer and photographer. It was designed by a friend of the family, architect Jules Brunfaut, and built between 1902 and 1904.

After passing through the heavy, velvet curtains, I gasped at the breathtaking staircase with a three-story, hand-painted fresco, depicting the Hannons as shepherds, and below the staircase is an intricate, circular-shaped mosaic floor. The airy, winter garden on the second-floor room has white marble and mosaic tile floors and stained-glass panels designed by glassmaker Raphael Evaldre, who was taught glassmaking by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Objects and furniture from some of the rooms were removed for a temporary, Art Nouveau exhibition with works, some never seen by the public before, from some of the top designers, artists, and sculptors of the time.

Maison Hannon Av. de la Jonction 1, 1060 Saint-Gilles https://maisonhannon.be/fr

After the exhibition I tooled around the side streets near the museum, discovering a slew of Art Nouveau doors, which I posted two weeks ago. CLICK HERE to view if you missed them.

 

Trip to Houlgate in Normandy

We took a quick, two-day trip to Houlgate in Normandy last Thursday and Friday for Vincent’s birthday. Houlgate is a 23-minute train ride from the Deauville train station, heading southwest, facing the English Channel.

We arrived at about 11:30 and it was raining, so we walked around the village admiring the quaint, gingerbread, and Norman-style houses with white picket fences and lovely gardens. We liked the feel of Houlgate, a lovely cross between the bourgeoisie of Deauville and the funky, bohemian spirit of Trouville. After studying the typical menus of crepes and heavier Normandy dishes at most of the cafes, we lunched at Aux Bains Fleuris, which has a lighter menu of salads, avocado toast, seafood, and fresh juices. We liked it so much, we returned for dinner the next night and I had a killer burger on a brioche bun with fresh-cut fries. Vincent had seabream with vegetables and salad, and for dessert, a perfect cheesecake (not too dense and not too airy) with a Speculoos crust and a swirl of raspberry sauce. 

We checked into Les Cabines, a clean, modest three-star hotel, which was a seven-minute walk from the train station and a block away from the beach and had a quiet room on the second floor facing a courtyard with a rooftop view. 

The weather cleared by about 3 pm and we put on our shorts and t-shirts and headed to the beach. When we first peaked at the beach that morning, it was a long distance from the sand to the sea, probably a good quarter of a mile, but by the time we arrived, the tide had come in. One of the things I love most about some of the Normandy villages are the vividly colored tents/cabanas you can rent for the day (Trouville has wonderful, wide-striped tents https://www.ipreferparis.net/2018/08/a-day-at-the-beach-in-trouville.html) and Houlgate beach was lined with the deep blue umbrellas and Sunkist orange tents. The temperature was a pleasant 74 degrees and we sat for a few hours reading (I read The Seine by Elaine Scolino, and Vincent read Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic, a fascinating account of the cult film). I dipped my toes in the water, but it was way too cold to take the plunge for a swim. 

For the birthday dinner, we went to Les Passantes, which was recommended by a friend who had recently visited Houlgate. The ambiance was modern and low-key with contemporary artworks on the wall and soft, atmospheric lighting, and the young staff was amiable. We feasted on marinated mackerel, duck breast with roasted apricots and creamy polenta, roasted codfish with local carrots, and a yummy fig tart.  

The next day the weather was as clear as a bell, with an azure sky that almost looked like it had been Photoshopped to get such a brilliant shade. Although it was beautiful out, it was in the low 60s and very windy, so much so that it was too cold to sit on the beach without bundling up, instead, we took a long walk on the beach and the wind brought out dozens of kite flyers whose bold colored kites dotted the horizon. 

My niece recently turned me on to the Spelling Bee word game from the New York Times, and I have been hooked ever since. Somedays I obsessively try to get to Genius level and spend hours feverishly figuring out the words. I now turned Vincent on to Spelling Bee, and he’s just as obsessed as I am, and we played on the train going home. 

Les Cabines

17 rue de Bains

https://www.lescabineshoulgate.com/

Aux Bains Fleuris

29 rue des Bains

Les Passantes

41 rue des Bains

https://www.les-passantes.fr/

Doors of the Month, August 2023: Brussels

I took a quick, two-day trip last week to Brussels for an Art Nouveau celebration with exhibitions and events around the city.

In between exhibitions, I discovered a bounty of doors, and today’s series focuses specifically on Art Nouveau doors.

I’ll post more about the sights I saw later.