Chez Léon
Chipped-Formica Heaven The pot au feu was on its last legs. Paris has more restaurants named Chez Léon than you can shake a stick at, but one of them stands out from the crowd. Not for any reasons of culinary … Read More
Archive
Albert Marquet: Itinéraires Maritimes
Paris by the Sea “Sailboats in Sète” (1924). © Adagp, Paris 2008 What better way to spend a couple of hours on a winter day in Paris than looking at pretty pictures of the sea at the Musée National de … Read More
Beautiful Thing
Kitsch Coming Out Tadrina Hocking as Sandra and Simon Hubert as Tony. Beautiful Thing, Jonathan Harvey’s seminal work about the coming together and coming out of two teenage boys living in public housing in southeast London is something of an … Read More
Seventies: Le Choc de la Photographie Américaine
Seeing Is Believing “USA, Alabama, Anniston, Woman in Training” (1977) by Mary Ellen Mark. © Mary Ellen Mark The exhibition “Seventies: Le Choc de la Photographie Américaine,” in its final days at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, may tell us … Read More
Rapa Nui: Easter Island
Islanders Vindicated Moaï Papa. © Galerie Louise Leiris Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, has always exerted a strong fascination: a tiny “lost” island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 2,000 kilometers from the nearest land, it was home to … Read More
Les Délices de Shandong
Standout Antidote to Holiday Excesses During the Christmas and New Year holidays, the French traditionally live on a life-threatening diet of oysters, foie gras and smoked salmon, washed down with plentiful quantities of champagne and topped off with chocolates. During … Read More
L’Art de Lee Miller
Convulsive Beauty “Portrait of Space” (1937). © Lee Miller Archives, England 2008. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk What a life Lee Miller led! The exhibition now on at the Jeu de Paume tells us rather more about its fascinations than about … Read More
Jacques Prévert: Paris la Belle
A Boom in Préversions “Les Garçons de la Rue,” a collage by Jacques Prévert on a photo by Robert Doisneau. © Fatras, Succession Jacques Prévert/Collection privée Jacques Prévert Jacques Prévert reminds me of men I knew in childhood, the picture … Read More
Mollard
Frayed Beauty Awaits Savior The fabulous decor needs some tender, loving care, as does the food. Ask any Michelin inspector what a chef needs to get starred, and he will tell you that it’s almost as much about the decor … Read More
Ober-Salé & La Laiterie Sainte Clotilde
Two for the Price of One Ober-Salé, like La Laiterie Sainte Clotilde, has the simplest of decors. Restaurants are funny places. It’s that ritual of communal eating, people getting together to masticate. On off days, the thought of what happens … Read More