Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: In Honor of The Royal Wedding

A wedding photo shoot on the Île Saint-Louis...

Jours of Our Lives: 21) AS DREAMERS DO

An ongoing series about uprooting our lives in America and moving to France. For what's happened before, see previous Jours of Our Lives entries here.

TESSA HAD ENCOURAGED us to see a real estate agent to learn more about the rental market here before we made a commitment to Gerard. We were already enthralled with both of Gerard’s apartments, though neither fit us perfectly. Frankly, we didn’t want to mess with a real estate agent, so we were going to blow it off. But Tessa’s concern got the best of us. Finding a place for the summer was what we’d planned on arranging all along, but where? After living in the same house for 13 years and hating in some ways to give it up, we suddenly felt hesitant about making a commitment for a few months. Traveling all the time is hard, but one of the great points about it is seeing and experiencing new places constantly. There’s no time to get bored. Choosing a place to stay for several months loomed large in our minds.

Open Window, Collioure by Henri Matisse (Image via Wikipedia)

Letter From Paris presents...Paris Fashion Report

Arco de la Victoria in Madrid, Image via Wikipedia

 

By Contributing Editor Philippe Perisse de Montchenu, Fashion Reporter and Consultant

 

TRIP TIPS – FROM MADRID TO NYC
 
April started pretty well for me.
 
First, I had to go to Madrid for work on Thursday and Friday, March 29th and 30th.  Of course, I stayed over for the entire week!  Then, for my week off, I flew directly flew from Madrid to NYC.
 
So for you sophisticated globetrotters, here are some good tips for trendy hotels, restaurants to discover, and finally shops or brands to visit. I’m sure you will easilly find all the classic tourist stuff to do … but some places need to be told in order to be found.

For a Madrid getaway...

Where to sleep ?

ROOM MATE HOTEL:  ÓSCAR
 

Letter From Paris: Wisteria Lane

On this Easter Sunday, I want to wish everyone peace and love, the wonder of change and renewal.  The mysteries of birth and death stay with us throughout our lives.  In this natural cycle, death must occur before a new life is born in whatever form it takes.

The gorgeous wisteria on my terrace shows the fragile grace of vivid life and beautiful death perfectly.  Two weeks ago, the blooms were glorious, and today they are fading and scattered in pots and on the marble floor. 

My Wisteria Lane....

Jours of Our LIves: 20) COUP DE FOUDRE

An ongoing series about uprooting our lives in America and moving to France. For what's happened before, see previous Jours of Our Lives entries here.

 

“DON’T LOOK,” I said, “but this is such an incredible view. Really amazing…but don’t look!”

Jim was winding around the dazzling and dramatic cliffs of the Costa Brava with villages nestled among mountains that fanned and dropped to the sea. As the road climbed higher and higher, the view got better and better, but it was one of those terrifying drives, spectacular and scary with no railing along the way. If I’d been steering the car and chanced a glance, I’d have swooned with vertigo. One slip and, well, you could be Princess Grace with or without stroke.

 Along the Costa Brava

 

Letter from Paris presents...The Sound Hunter

Image via Wikipedia

 

THE MARCHE D'ALIGRE

by Contributing Editor Des Coulam. Recording the street sounds of Paris attempting to capture that gratuitous, never-ending show for which no ticket is needed.

WHEN IT COMES to Paris markets, the Marché d’Aligre is about as lively as they come. Situated between rue de Charenton and rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine in the 12^th arrondissement, the market actually comprises two markets, the indoor Marché Couvert Beauvau and an outdoor street market.

Letter from Paris presents...Paris Art Market Buzz

By contributing editor Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts

 

CHROME AND GLASS WITH A SPLASH OF INTELLECTUAL ELITISM AT CHRISTIE'S , Part 2

Continued from Monday, April 11th.

 

Fritz Lang's Metropolis Cover via Amazon

THE EXHIBIT ALSO highlighted another critical aspect of the new aesthetic , the importance of electricity and hence lighting, on the creations of the time.  Since the harnessing of electricity in the late 19th century, the thematic signage explained,  architects and designers were fascinated by the use of light and its impact on space.  Starting in the Art Nouveau style (c.1900) light was enclosed into organic forms and muted within, but the bolder more modern vision of creators within Art Deco and the UAM movement sought to underline the source of light itself (the bulb) as well as the function of each part of the unit.  The impact of Fritz Lang’s classic film Metropolis  (1927) with its new use of light to create contrasting moods and atmospheres was enormous on architects and creators of the day.  An entire wing of the expo space was created around some very unusual light fixtures and I was mesmerized by their bold celebration of metal, glass and bright bulbs. Contrasting visions of different creators were displayed within a central black structure, allowing each piece to speak for itself.

 

Ceiling fixture by Francis Jourdain (c.1923) 

 

Jours of Our Lives: 19) THE HEALING LAND

An ongoing series about uprooting our lives in America and moving to France. For what's happened before, see previous Jours of Our Lives entries here.

 

TODAY WE STOPPED to be healed. “I said healed, brothers and sisters,” as the inimitable rooster Foghorn Leghorn might say. Having left St-Jean-de-Luz, we zipped along the main highway, but a short 25 kilometers away was Lourdes. It had nothing to do with Matisse, though he might well have made the trip himself. Who wouldn’t want to be healed? And when would we have another opportunity like this—to wash ourselves in restorative waters that might take our troubles away?  We aren’t Roman Catholics, but who cares? I was happy to take a shot at my own miracle, and I’d been working on healing myself for years through various spiritual endeavors. I was ready, willing, and open to the experience. Jim veered to the exit like a man on a mission.

The countryside was fresh and green with sheep and horses grazing in the pastures. The snow-capped peaks of the Pyrénées loomed above this little burg of 15,000 people—a town with 40,000 hotel rooms! What? I had no idea. Lourdes’s fame is well known, of course, and  I had seen the Hollywood movie The Song of Bernadette, with Jennifer Jones. But who knew this place attracted some five million visitors a year—the most-visited Christian pilgrimage site in the world?

 

 Disney-ish atmosphere with life-sized cutouts of crippled people and others who need healing on Esplanade des Processions at Lourdes

Letter from Paris Presents...Paris Art Market Buzz

Palais de Tokyo, Image via Wikipedia

 

By contributing editor Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts

 

CHROME AND GLASS WITH A SPLASH OF INTELLECTUAL ELITISM AT CHRISTIE'S 

 

AS I APPROACHED the Palais de Tokyo, a columned concrete edifice constructed for the International Exposition of 1937 (now housing the Paris Museum of Modern art and huge temporary exhibit space) for the vernissage to the Christie’s auction of the collections of the Château de Gourdon, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of nostalgia for the glamourous events held at the Grand Palais for the dispersion of the Yves Saint Laurent - Pierre Berge collection in February 2009.  True, there was a glossy five volume catalogue presented in a slip-box (for a mere €200), there was the media coverage (one French art magazine even coined the now infamous term “Sale of the Century”), and the special venue.  Nathalie Crinière designed the exhibition, the same architect creator who installed the Yves Saint Laurent collection. 

Nevertheless, there was something distinctly different about this collection and the event.  One small poster in its glass-covered frame (lodged between two others of current shows on offer at the venue) greeted visitors rather than the larger than life banner that had adorned the Grand Palais for the other event.  The austerity of the edifice was almost intimidating.  On further reflection, it became clear to me that to compare the two collections and events would be missing the point.  This was something quite unique. 

 

 

Entrance to Château de Gourdon Exhibit

Jours of Our Lives: 18) THE LIGHT OF THE SOUTH

An ongoing series about uprooting our lives in America and moving to France. For what's happened before, see previous Jours of Our Lives entries here.

 

WE'D BEEN IN Auray working for seven weeks (the owners of the house had graciously allowed us to extend our stay), but now it was time to leave for the light-filled South. Our final day at our borrowed home was frightful, trying to get work finished and to face cleaning the house and packing up. It was sad yet exhilarating to be leaving. We didn’t get through until late afternoon, lighting out for Nantes at 4 P.M. We would stop there to see a Matisse exhibit in the Musée des Beaux Arts. After that, we would spend a few days in Bordeaux with French friends who once lived in Little Rock!

Ultimately, though, we were bound for La Côte Basque.  Not via the barbs of Truman Capote writing about New York’s elite separate society in one of their favorite lairs…but the Southern journey of Matisse and his hideaway on the independently-minded French and Spanish Basque coast.  We were ready.  From here on out, it would be sun and sea, and the promise of color and light excited both of us.  It was the promise of illuminating ourselves. 

Jacques Henri Lartigue au Pays Basque, a book of wonderful photography of this region