Furniture and ceramics designers Ivan Pericoli and Benoît Astier de Villatte spent their childhood in the region of Rome–Benoît at the Villa Médicis, and Ivan in the countryside–and met at the Beaux Arts academy in Paris. Both paint portraits, draw and received prestigous prizes. In 1996, without knowing anything about “les arts de la table” [...]
I enjoyed a rare lunch with my husband at Le Taxi Jaune on rue Chapon in the 3rd arrondissement. The setting is simple: tile floors, ladderback chairs for maybe 20 people, and just a few choices on the blackboard. My husband had a hearty pea soup while I started with a light salad, and we [...]
“Seeing is Believing” is the title of a solo show by mounir fatmi opening tonight at Galerie Hussenot, 5 bis, rue Haudriettes, in the 3rd. This eagerly anticipated exhibition is fatmi’s first show with the gallery and his first solo show in Paris in nearly 2 years. “Seeing is Believing” continues fatmi’s exploration of the connectivity between large [...]
International Living has done its annual quality-of-life ranking of almost 200 countries. And the winner is (drum roll)…FRANCE! This comes as no surprise to anyone who saw the website’s winners for 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. Because France won for those years, too. France always nets high scores in most categories. But you don’t need [...]
In fashion it’s rare to create a hit as big as Von Dutch. To repeat that success with a new venture is harder still. Christian Audigier, however, introduced a style signature that became immediately recognizable: a tattoo print overlaid with metallic foil, lettering, and rhinestones. Using the shortened label name Ed Hardy, which he launched [...]
I ran into Xavier & Antoine on Wednesday night playing at the Bastille metro station, a particularly nice rendition of Roxanne. Nothing makes the metro commute more enjoyable than good music! Check out their little website for their “concert” schedule.
By tracing the origin of Art Nouveau in Paris and explaining how the movement developed and spread across the continent, the “Art Nouveau Revival” exhibition in Musée d’Orsay displays a collection of works that best epitomize the different phases of the movement. The Art Nouveau movement started at the turn of the nineteenth century, but it was [...]
On the facade of the Chemistry and Natural Science facility at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, two names stand out: the architects A & J Guilbert. They were a father and son whose work spanned the first half of the twentieth century and the many upheavals that this period brought. Their story is one of kinship and collaboration, but [...]
Two years ago I said that I loved les soldes, France’s biannual sales period. This year I’m calling it something à détester. Why? Because the government-sanctioned winter sales period begins after the holidays, once everyone has exchanged gifts and depleted their savings accounts. Because every year I swear that I will skip the event entirely, that I won’t be [...]
The rue de Turenne in the Marais is one of those streets built in the exact direction the wind blows. On a freezing evening in January with every wholesale fashion warehouse steel-shuttered, there’s no refuge from the gusts that bowl right along its length. About halfway down, I was so grateful to find the Café des Musées open on a [...]
