Little pictorial evidence exists of the original Theatre de Belleville, built in 1826 on the Cour Lesage off the Rue de Belleville, but by all accounts it was a magnificent building both inside and out. This was a time when Belleville was one of the suburbs of Paris, a place of leisure where Parisians went [...]
After seeing the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit, some friends and I strolled through the Luxembourg Gardens on a beautiful, crisp autumn day. The leaves had turned and surprisingly there were still colorful flowers surrounding the statues on the western side of the park. Someone cleverly dressed a statue in fall fauna and a small red rosebud. >more [...]
Daniel Rose, the American chef who achieved international acclaim with his first-ever restaurant Spring, has had a terrible year. When I interviewed him last December (see article here), he was full of optimism about a new space near the Louvre: We’ll add a lunch service so that people can come more spontaneously. And we’ll add [...]
What’s so special about mornings at a French café? Well, look at the photo. See the guy sitting by himself reading? What is he reading? A novel. Not a newspaper. Not a magazine. Not a computer screen. Look around the cafe (which, by the way, is Chez Prune just off the Canal Saint-Martin). Do you [...]
In Paris, it’s cold but too cold. In the morning when my alarm sounds I wake up to the sound of raindrops trickling down my window and all I want is to go back to sleep. More freezing rain, I think. Another day where I regret not wearing more layers, and then cursing myself in the [...]
The new expo at Musée d’Art Moderne casts a morbid eye on art with “Deadline,” an exhibition examining the last years of productivity of a handful of contemporary artists who have died in the past twenty years. Part graveyard, part gallery: it’s a provocative concept. But it’s also one that can imbue works of art with unneeded — [...]
Remember Tom Cruise in Cocktail? This activity is known as “flair bartending,” and this Sunday evening you will be able to see the 20 of the best bartenders in competition to become the Champion of France on the stage of Le Reservoir. It should be quite spectacular, and the venue is a nice place to go at [...]
It is like this all over Paris. Not exactly with stacks of wood and pumpkins, but with that soft fall light and people bundling up against the returning cold. I pour out of the metro and, since I am never too busy to look up, I soak in the sight of broken rays of sun [...]
All Saints, at 49 rue Marcel, has been around for a year, and talk is for a new store in the Marais soon. You enter into a huge, darkened space full of distressed metal and wood furnishings, everything in muted tones of beige, gray, black, navy and cream. The lighting is low, not clublike-low which [...]
Puerto Cacao is a fair-trade chocolate store and cafe in the 17th arrondissement, 53, rue de Tocqueville. Many chocolate stores in Paris feel like jewelry boutiques, pristine and full of glass vitrines and modern displays, with the chocolate costing almost as much. They are delightful to behold but Puerto Cacao feels more grounded, particularly with their [...]
