I overheard the most extraordinary conversation the other day while sitting behind a young couple on a bus. To pick a sample sentence more or less at random, at one point the woman said: “We need to go to the … Read More
As I have discovered in my wanderings around Paris, and discussed in a previous C’est Ironique, there are a lot of things here that seem to defy explanation. And, as I discovered in a recent wander around southern France, the … Read More
Building for Better Days Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) proved his talent as an innovative designer and builder over and over again during his long career, but he doesn’t seem to have received the respect and recognition he deserved from the French … Read More
Because the climate here is so temperate, thanks to the Gulf Stream, we North Americans tend to forget just how far north Paris is. The entire landmass of the contiguous United States lies further south on the globe than Paris. … Read More
This “French bakery” in the Bay Area was apparently styled after the other Paris – the one in Las Vegas. I just returned from a trip to California. Although I am still a mono-national citizen of the United States, I … Read More
Yes, it stinks. On the opposite sides of both the Seine and the curatorial value spectrum from the Louvre is the Musée des Egouts de Paris – the Paris Sewer Museum. The display space is part of the city’s actual … Read More
The Eccentric Eye of A Master of Color From Los Alamos Folio 1, Memphis (1965). © William Eggleston. Courtesy Wilson Centre for Photography. It is always interesting to take a look back at an artist’s first steps to understand how … Read More
Walter Benjamin’s passport photo, c. 1928. There are a fair number of reasons that you might be drawn to the Marais for the current exhibition at Le Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme. You’re the … Favorite
Taffeta sandals with wooden soles by Dunand, 1941. © E. Emo & S. Piera/Galliera/Roger-Viollet Who knew that there was a museum dedicated to the French Resistance and the Liberation of Paris in, of all places, the Gare Montparnasse? That … Read More
Taffeta sandals with wooden soles by Dunand, 1941. © E. Emo & S. Piera/Galliera/Roger-Viollet Who knew that there was a museum dedicated to the French Resistance and the Liberation of Paris in, of all places, the Gare Montparnasse? That surprise … Read More
