Heidi Ellison
Doisneau et la Musique
Move Along: Plenty to See
Inspired by the great love of music of Robert Doisneau (1912-94), one of France‘s beloved humanist photographers, the Cité de la Musique is holding an exhibition of his photos on the theme. A child of the Paris suburbs (Gentilly, to be precise), … Read More
Picky Spring
Good News for Picky Eaters
When a friend had a party recently, she had it catered. The table was laden with round platters filled with what looked like Chinese spring rolls cut in half. Inside the translucent rice wraps, however, were very different ingredients from those … Read More
Tissage-Tressage
Hanging by a Thread
Long disrespected as a “women’s” craft, weaving is coming into its own as an art form, just as ceramics, also long considered a craft rather than an art, has in recent years. “Tissage-Tressage,” a wonderful (and free) exhibition at the … Read More
Vivian Maier: The Color Work
The Snap-Happy Nanny
For such a private person, Vivian Maier took an awful lot of self-portraits. That was one of the impressions I got from the current show of color and black-and-white images by the enigmatic street photographer/nanny now on at Les Douches … Read More
Simonetta Restaurant
New Culinary Life on the Canal
Time was you couldn’t find an authentic Italian pizza in Paris to save your soul. Just about every pizzeria, so many of them run by people without a drop of Italian blood, had identical lists of pizzas (margarita, quatre saisons, … Read More
Pablo Valbuena: Si le Temps Est un Lieu
Life After Death
The vast spaces and smaller enclosed rooms of the amazingly successful Centquatre, aka 104, the city of Paris’s former morgue, are used for every purpose imaginable. This “artistic and cultural factory” hosts shops, a restaurant and a café, concerts and other … Read More
Sérusier’s “Talisman”
How a Painting Lesson Changed Art History
The Musée d’Orsay has put together a sweet little exhibition focusing on a small painting by Paul Sérusier that is considered seminal for the development of 19th-century art. As the curators note, “Landscape in the Bois d’Amour” (aka “Le Talisman”) is … Read More
Variations Restaurant
Varied Dining Experiences
I have been to the restaurant Variations in Paris’s 11th arrondissement twice now, both times because a friend happened to walk past it, liked the look of the place and its menu, and suggested that we go. The restaurant’s handsome … Read More
L’Ordre des Médecins
Operating without a Scalpel
L’Ordre des Médecins (Breath of Life), the first feature film directed by David Roux, takes place almost entirely in the closed world of a French hospital. Simon, played by the handsome and always convincing Jérémie Renier, is a self-assured 37-year-old pulmonologist … Read More
DAU
Soviet Time Warp in the Heart of Paris
Although I had read plenty of articles about it before I went, I was still mystified and had no idea what to expect from DAU (pronounced da-o), the sprawling immersive-theater/film/installation project of Russian filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky, which is being held in … Read More