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House Hunting in France

There are many ways of finding homes for sale in France; the main methods are listed below:

– Newspapers & magazines – including the English-language publications, weekly French property newspapers such as De Particulier à Particulier, Le Journal des Particuliers, La Centrale des Particuliers and La Semaine Immobilière, national newspapers in your home country and France (if you’re looking for an expensive property), local magazines, papers and newssheets (which may have private property advertisements), property magazines published by the French estate agent chains (e.g. ORPI), and general retail publications (e.g. Daltons Weekly and Exchange & Mart in the UK);  Continue reading “House Hunting in France”

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Bars d’Hotels Parisiens

This excellent insiders bilingual guide to Paris’ most luxurious  and branché hotel bars is packed with hidden treasures and perfect for organizing a special rendezvous when you really want to impress. Over fifty mythic hotels listed ranging from the old world elegance of the Bar V at the Hotel Four Seasons George V to the ultra-contemporary trendy Bar Lounge du Murano near Republique to the English style Bar at the Hotel San Régis with its vintage furniture, fire place and winter garden, this is an opportunity (for only 14 Euros) to see how the other half relaxes. ((Parigramme, Gérard Bonos and Marie-Hélène Delettre; photographs: Sylvain Ageorges)

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Richard Avedon Paris Retrospective

Sandra Bennett,  from “In the American West” Richard Avedon, © 2008

A major retrospective of photographs taken by Richard Avedon from 1946 until his death in 2004 is exhibited this summer in Paris at the Jeu de Paume. It traces the photographer’s carrer  begininng with his early fashion work with Harper’s Bazaar in 1945 which revolutionized fashion photography by bringing models out of the studios and into the streets giving the impression that the pictures were intimate moments captured spontaneously. Continue reading “Richard Avedon Paris Retrospective”

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Valentino, Best of Italian Design

Valentino collection haute couture, autumn-winter 2007-2008, photo Jean Tholance

In the more than two decades of reporting on fashion collections, I have noticed that the most successful designers are those who turn a deaf ear to the ramblings of the press (both good and bad reviews),  while remaining faithful to the aesthetic needs and tastes of his clientele. This is especially true in the world of Haute Couture where the clothes cost a fortune and the number of women affording them a scant few. This also applies to a man whose name is synonymous with high fashion, a man who, for 45 years, embodies all that is great with Italian design….Valentino. Continue reading “Valentino, Best of Italian Design”

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“Paris Primitive” by the Seine

This new book  by Sally Price explores the story behind the creation of Paris’ newest museum  devoted to the so called “primitive arts.” The story begins in 1990 when Jacques Chirac, the future president of France and a passionate fan of non-European art, met Jacques Kerchache, a maverick art collector with the lifelong ambition of displaying African sculpture in the holy temple of French culture, the Louvre. Together they began laying plans, and ten years later African fetishes were on view under the same roof as the Mona Lisa. Then, in 2006, amidst a maelstrom of controversy and hype, Chirac presided over the opening of a new museum dedicated to primitive art in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower: the Musée du Quai Branly. Continue reading ““Paris Primitive” by the Seine”

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Homage to Yves Saint Laurent

The French press paid homage to the king of style with cover stories

Adieu to the King of Style —For many of us in fashion, today marks the end of an era. Yves Saint Laurent, the undisputed king of fashion, has been laid to rest and I, like many other style mavens on this planet, mourn the lost of this great fashion legend. Long before there were rebels like Jean Paul Gaultier with his signature conical bras, or innovators like Issey Miyake who transformed objet d’art into sculpted metal bustiers or even Phat Farm’s gritty, hip-hop, “streetwear, there was Yves Saint Laurent who introduced all of this and more to the world of high fashion. “I participated in the transformation of my era. I did it with clothes, which is surely less important than music, architecture, painting … but whatever it’s worth I did it,” the designer said in 2002 upon his retirement. Continue reading “Homage to Yves Saint Laurent”

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They’ve always had Paris…

Patricia Wells, long recognized as the leading American authority on French food, and her husband, Walter (former senior editor of the International Herald Tribune), live the life in France that many people have often fantasized about. Now the couple has put together a sort of “scrapbook” of their memories co-writting a new book “We’ve Always Had Paris… and Provence.” (Harper Collins) Continue reading “They’ve always had Paris…”