Heidi Ellison
Marquet: La Méditerranée, d’une Rive à l’Autre
Port-Hopping on the Med
What better place to see an exhibition of Albert Marquet’s paintings of Mediterranean ports than Sète, the fishing port he fell in love with while traveling with a group of friends in 1924. He liked it so much that he … Read More
Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings
Mystery and Meaning
Much to her regret, Sally Mann first became famous, or should I say infamous, with the photos she took of her young children in the 1980s and ‘90s as they ran around the family’s country property in the summer, often … Read More
La Bécane à Gaston Restaurant
Too Much Like Home
Another week, another slightly disappointing restaurant. This is getting tiresome. Once again, a friend and I had high hopes for a bistro, La Bécane à Gaston, based on word-of-mouth recommendations. Decor-wise, La Bécane resembles the restaurants I have reviewed in … Read More
Henry Wessel, Fil Noir, Marguerite Bornhauser
Dark Stories
American photographer Henry Wessel (1942-2018), the subject of the exhibition “Henry Wessel: A Dark Thread” at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), had the unusual habit of not looking at the contact sheets of his photos until a year had … Read More
Trois B
Juggling with Three Balls
I love meatballs. Who doesn’t? Well, vegetarians, I guess, but even they can eat at Trois B, a new restaurant in the 19th arrondissement specializing in “balls.” It is not the only one, however. The first one, reviewed here, had … Read More
Saint Petersburg
Finding France in Saint Petersburg
What’s so French about Saint Petersburg? Quite a lot, surprisingly. I was recently invited to visit the watery Russian city on the Gulf of Finland, with its canals, river and sea, and found it to be almost a museum of … Read More
Dora Maar
The Price of A-musing Picasso
Photographer and painter Dora Maar (1907-97), who was Picasso’s lover for eight years, beginning in 1936 (“I wasn’t his mistress,” she once said, “he was my master”), is probably best known today as “The Weeping Woman” in Picasso’s portraits of … Read More
Le Maquis
Taming the Maquis
Not much is happening gastronomically out near the northern edge of Paris, although there are some cool places like the eco-friendly café/restaurant the Recyclerie. Now, however, a modest little bistro with equally modest prices and above-average food has opened. It’s … Read More
Chambord, 1519-2019: Building Utopia
The 500th Birthday of Heaven on Earth
The Château de Chambord is probably the most extraordinary of the Loire Valley châteaux, its massive structure and dozens of mismatched rooftop turrets and chimneys rising dramatically from its flat setting. There has never been much to see inside, however, … Read More
Padam Padam
A Bit of This and a Bit of That
I had high hopes for the new Montmartre restaurant Padam Padam (presumably named after Édith Piaf’s famous song) after reading a highly complimentary review in a French magazine, Télérama, which noted that the cheffe, Marine Thomas, had previously worked with … Read More