Ioo Flair
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Last month we visited the Bar Academy, a bartender training school in the Parisian suburb of Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, where we saw Ioo Flair practicing the art of flair bartending. Flair was vice-champion of France in 2010 and placed 8th in the Paris Flair Open in 2011.
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I blogged about Peggy and Jeff last June, just after the fabulous party they threw to celebrate the second anniversary of their Web site, Le Journal des Amoureux de Paris. Well, they are in the news again because they have just opened their B&B, situated in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.
The 130 ft² bedroom in their 840 ft² apartment can accommodate two persons. Check out the details (in French) at the following link. They have posted photos of the room, as well as photos of the apartment and the neighborhood. At 75€ per night, it sounds like a great deal!
For further details, contact them directly. They speak English.
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Le Coup de Grâce Wine Bar on Rue Berthollet
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
From about mid-July to the end of August, most Parisians go away on vacation. One of our neighbors said that he was leaving the city to spend time in the country “where he could breathe.” Ironically, these few weeks during the summer are the best time to be in Paris, because automobile circulation and pedestrian traffic are greatly reduced.
During this period, people gather in cafés and on sidewalks to savor the brief respite.
Here are some photos of people enjoying the sweet life of summer in Paris.
Sitting on a Balcony
on a Pleasant Summer Evening
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
Relaxing on a Summer Evening
on Rue Vauquelin
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net
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I received a profuse message of thanks from journalist David Jaggard for helping him research material for his column C’est Ironique! that appears in the on-line weekly guide called Paris Update. To view this nugget of gratitude, click here and scroll down the central column of the Web page to the end of the article. Oh yes, and take a moment to read his material—he’s got some interesting things to say!
Now, I wonder if Obama needs some help with his research…
Chef Chris Wright
(c) Discover Paris!
In November, we dined in a tiny establishment called Le Timbre, located in the 6th arrondissement. Owned and operated by Englishman Chris Wright, the restaurant serves French cuisine with his special touches. To learn why we recommend this restaurant as a great place to dine, read our review in this month’s Le Bon Goût.
Le Bon Goût is the restaurant feature that we include in our monthly newsletter Paris Insights. In it, we appraise a Parisian restaurant and give information about its chef.
Access to the newsletter is by paid subscription. Click here to read a brief summary of the December edition, and here to enter a subscription.
Bonne lecture!
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Pietra - A Corsican Beer
(c) Discover Paris!
Our friends Diane and Eric recently invited us to their place for dinner. While Diane was in the kitchen, Eric (who is Belgian), gave us a crash course on beer. When we later took our leave, Eric gave us a bottle of Pietra Corsican beer made with water, malted barley, hops, yeast, and…chestnut flour!
Upon pouring, the beer developed a nice head of foam. Lots of tiny bubbles kept rising from the depths of the glass to sustain the head. To my palate, the amber-colored beer was slightly sweet yet slightly bitter and refreshing. It had a soft, pillowy mouth feel. If we hadn’t known that it was brewed with chestnut flour, which has a mild flavor to begin with, we wouldn’t have tasted it in the beer. I think that the chestnut smooths out the bitterness that is normally found in such brews.
Diane left the corporate world to launch a career as a chef. Her blog, called “Girl Cook in Paris,” can be found at the following link http://girlcookinparis.blogspot.com.
McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School Students of New Orleans
Photograph courtesy of Banlieues Bleues
Twelve students from McDonogh 35 College Preparatory High School in New Orleans, their director, and a supporting cast of student musicians, singers, and dancers from conservatories and colleges of Paris and the Parisian suburbs gave a spectacular performance of Ain’t Misbehavin’ last weekend at the Banlieues Bleues festival in La Courneuve, a commune in the administrative département of Seine-Saint-Denis. Xavier Lemettre, director of the festival, wanted the musical—the first performed in Banlieues Bleues’ 27 years of existence—to inject new, artistic energy into the multi-week celebration. Based on what I saw at the performance, he greatly succeeded!
Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a tribute to song writer, musician, and composer Fats Waller and other musicians of the Harlem Renaissance. The show’s director, Troy Poplous, has extensive experience in directing stage plays and musical productions, including Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, as well as the musical version of this play. Among his current activities, he teaches Theatre Arts and Fine Arts at the McDonogh 35 High School. Funding for the American students’ trip to Paris was provided by the Consulate General of France of New Orleans.
Yves Saint Laurent Exhibition Photographer: A. McKenzie
Nearly two years after his death, French designer Yves Saint Laurent is still a major presence in the fashion world. Now, a retrospective exhibition of his creations is pulling in the crowds in Paris, proving that his designs have lasting relevance.
The show features more than 300 haute-couture and ready-to-wear garments, organized thematically. It includes Saint Laurent’s beginnings with Dior in 1957, and gives viewers a taste of his revolutionary early collections, including the famous trapeze dress and the pantsuit for women.
“It has often been said that Chanel freed women. This is true. Then years later Saint Laurent came along and further liberated women,” said Pierre Bergé, the designer’s lifelong partner who co-founded the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house in 1961.
“He took inspiration from the male wardrobe and gave women the trouser suit, the safari jacket and the smock suit,” Bergé told journalists. He added that Saint Laurent wanted to make sure that not only rich women could afford to wear his designs, so he also created special clothing for the ordinary working woman.
The exhibition covers 40 years of Saint Laurent’s work, and includes drawings, videos, and photographs of the designer and some of his famous clients such as actress Catherine Deneuve.
It is the first exposition of this kind at the Petit Palais (Paris’ Museum of Fine Arts), and organizers said that only someone of Saint Laurent’s stature could merit such an honor.
“In addition to being a fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent was a remarkable artist, and one whose oeuvre has a rightful place in the museum’s long series of exhibitions of the Masters,” said Gilles Chazal, director of the Petit Palais.
The clothing on display reveals that Saint Laurent himself was inspired by artists such as Van Gogh, Mondrian, Picasso, and Monet, among others. One of the first things that strikes museum-goers is his daring use of color and the artistic nature of the garments.
The exhibition runs until 29 Aug. 2010.
We wish to thank A. D. McKenzie for her contribution to the Paris Insights blog.
David Barnes
Founder of Spoken Word in Paris
(c) Discover Paris!
Much more than a book about crime in turn-of-the-20th-century Paris, The Crimes of Paris by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (New York: Little Brown and Company, 2009) is an absorbing cultural and social history about the City of Light during the period known as the Belle Epoque. In careful prose, the authors describe a number of important discoveries and achievements in science, technology, art, and literature, and recount the impact that these new forces had on those who lived during this era. As suggested by the book’s cover, murder, theft, and detection form the basis around which the authors weave their narrative, but they also develop other themes, including the public’s fascination with crime and with criminals who triumph over the forces of law and public order.
Readers who seek a good crime story that builds to a climactic denouement might feel frustrated with the seemingly deliberate, uneven manner by which the narrative unfolds. However, for those who have the patience to read through the chapters, their reward will be keen insight into the spirit of the age, before that world was swept away with the onslaught of WWI.
 | Tom Reeves - author of Paris Insights - An Anthology and Dining Out in Paris - What You Need to Know before You Get to the City of Light. |