Latest from Parisian Blogs

I’m fed up of being pregnant. ‘I honestly feel like time has slowed to a crawl,’ I moan to The Boy as I toss and turn, trying to find a comfortable position in bed. ‘I swear, this has been the longest seven months of my entire life…’ ‘Not long to wait now,’ he replies, doing his [...]

Jack was finally born at 41 weeks and 4 days on Monday 2 November, on the night of the full moon. His birth was spookily similar to Tadpole’s. I found myself in the same salle d’accouchement at the Maternité des Lilas where my daughter had been born six year earlier and, like his [...]

I got an email from a reader the other day enquiring after my well-being and suddenly realised I hadn’t blogged in over a month. The truth of the matter is that I’m fine – indeed, we all are – but the inclination to blog, which has been on the wane for some time, seems to [...]

In honour of official ‘French Kissing’ publication day, I just wanted to answer a lot of the queries I’ve been receiving on facebook and by email about the novel’s availability abroad. As things currently stand, I only have a Doubleday Canada release date – March 2010. The Penguin UK version should be available [...]

#flickr_badge_icon {display:block !important; margin:0 !important; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0) !important;} #flickr_icon_td {padding:0 5px 0 0 !important;} .flickr_badge_image {text-align:center !important;} .flickr_badge_image img {border: 1px solid black !important;} #flickr_www {display:block; padding:0 10px 0 10px !important; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif !important; color:#3993ff !important;} #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:hover, #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:link, #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:active, #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:visited {text-decoration:none !important; background:inherit !important;color:#996633;} #flickr_badge_wrapper {} #flickr_badge_source {padding:0 !important; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, [...]

They should start serving CC stamped peanuts at the Chanel shows.  What hoopla!  The invite had a sketch by Karl of a polar bear, and then the set included a couple of whopping icebergs (imported from Sweden).  Karl’s Dr. Zhivago princesses walked on the sop of the iceberg’s melt, trailing long coats and making a wake with their fur boots.  While the icebergs were real, the fur apparently was fake.  At the end Karl minced around to “Say Captain, Say Wot”!   I thought that was a riot. (I suppose I should say: wot a riot.)

Afterwards, I headed up to Paris 8 at Saint Denis for a littérature comparée class.  I haven’t mentioned this previously on the blog, but I’m working on a master’s degree in literature.  We were studying travel diaries (récits de voyages) and Levi-Strauss’s Tristes Tropiques.  How did Tristes Tropiques change the field of the travel diary in 1955?  By postulating the death of exoticism, the end of travel, and the deconstruction of otherness – all this without abolishing the possibility of the travel diary.  The first line is “Je hais les voyages et les explorateurs.”  I came home from class to read Cathy Horyn’s review of the Chanel show:

“The Ice Hotel in Sweden provided inspiration. When asked backstage if he had ever visited the hotel, Mr. Lagerfeld, dressed in a Dior peacoat and bleached jeans with a vintage Cartier stickpin in his black tie, shivered and said no.”

Chanel F10 Finale from coquette on Vimeo.

Here are some random photos of architectural details inside and outside the museum. Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon were the designers of the museum and Italian architect Gae Aulenti oversaw the design of the conversion from 1980 to... richard nahem

Here are some random photos of architectural details inside and outside the museum.

Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon were the designers of the museum and Italian architect Gae Aulenti oversaw the design of the conversion from 1980 to 1986.

Musee Orsay

1 rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 7th arr.
Metro:Solferino
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html

Coming soon: Eye Prefer New York Tours

New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotte’s professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.

Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.

Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

Tours cost 195 euros for up to 3 people, and 65 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Yesterday, I went to the opening of the new website of the Albert Khan museum. Albert Khan (1860-1940) was a banker (I guess we could even call him a "trader"!), but also a philanthropist. Once he became rich, he decided to build the "archives of the planet". How? By photographing and filming everything he could (well, not him personally but with the help of photographers, like in this photo that I took in the museum) on the planet. Thanks to this crazy idea, the museum has now 72 000 shots (in fact autochromes) and hundreds of hours of movies. They started digitizing all this and bring it to the public on the new website. Truly amazing! (FYI: a pretty similar thing also existed in Great Britain (The Mitchell & Kenyon Collection).

Good news! The American Library in Paris, an expat membership  institution, has just launched Browser, a blog covering expat subjects and literary news and events (and not just ones at the Library itself). An inaugural post announces an event worth planning for: Since the mid-1990s the Library has been fortunate to ...

The other day, a busy and rainy Sunday afternoon, as Gui and I were leaving McDonald's to get on with the day, a young boy stopped me and asked me if I had a euro. We were still inside the McDonald's when the boy approached me, and I had to ...

Back in late 2009 my editors at Paris Magazine contacted me about writing an article on the Paris nightlife scene. My assignment? To write a sort of rebuttal to the flurry of articles that had recently appeared in the French and American press declaring that Paris was dead after dark. ...

Girl groups from the swinging 60's were a dime a dozen. Record labels paired songwriters with producers, handpicked the voices, and stylists went to work creating a palatable package ready for eager consumers. Parisian starlets The Plastiscines may not have been assembled by executives, but their rise in popularity comes from ...

Although Pink Flamingo Pizza offers many unusual and playful kinds of pizzas, La Ghandi, for example, is topped with sag paneer and baba ganoush, tahini, lemon and garlic, and La Che has marinated Cuban pork and fried plantains – we were more in the mood for a basic pizza, one that ...

Everyone who comes to Paris wants to hit the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, and the Pompidou. After that, there are still lots more choices (150 in all, I'm told) but just what qualifies as numbers 4 through 10 is a pretty subjective business. Still I'm willing to bet that of ...

Today, I was really craving Pinkberry, which, as you can probably guess, doesn’t exist in France. We do, however, have a curious knockoff called Myberry. There’s one not too far from my house, and I was considering trying it out, so in a moment of boredom I logged onto the Myberry ...

Nomiya is a temporary restaurant installation designed by artist Laurent Grasso atop the Palais de Tokyo, only open till July 2010. It's set in a glass box with sweeping views of the city and the food concept is almost like a private dinner party, except you share a communal table ...

As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris takes design very seriously. This attitude manifests itself in the boldness of its many architectural landmarks, as well as day-to-day things, such as the Métro or the ubiquitous newstands on the sidewalk. It’s easy to take for granted that ...

After years of complaining about the lack of pancakes in France, I’m at it again but this time to moan about pancakes attempting to infiltrate the palates of French people all across the Hexagon. I have mixed feelings about this, obviously. These were part of a freebie bag handed out from ...

Text: Rooksana Hossenally Photo: Kleinefenn. Art Home The Palais de Tokyo has teamed up with an unlikely partner to create Nomiya, a floating experience to be relished up close to the heavens amongst Paris’ unique skyline. Replacing the Everland hotel... VINGT Paris