Paris Tips: Summertime, Summertime at Printemps
Sale on at Printemps! Photos by Theadora Brack
Four Seasons by French sculptor Henri Chapu
By Theadora Brack
It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that Bling! So let’s hoof it to Printemps Haussmann in Paris for a little label-gazing!
But first, let’s look to Oscar Wilde for a little inspiration. After all, our favorite writer and clotheshorse was also the editor of The Woman’s World magazine way back in the original New Romantic 1880s.
Wearing a puffy shirt and breeches (he dismissed trousers as “boring tubes”), along with a smoking jacket and one green carnation, he quipped, “It is only the shallow people who do not judge by appearances.” Touché, Monsieur Wilde!
Printemps
And speaking of keeping up appearances, les Musées de Paris aren’t the only ones in the city getting “a little work done” these days. Following suit, even Printemps has been in the final phase of an extreme makeover.
Now sporting a chic-sleek modern look that nevertheless manages to pay homage to her expansive Belle Epoché days, the grand magasin’s new three-level atrium is worth a peek. In step with other department stores and shops worldwide, Printemps wears her starkness well!
Dream Team
On the case is the Canadian architectural firm Yabu Pushelberg. (Toronto duo George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg were also responsible for New York’s Tiffany & Co., Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman’s recent re-do’s.) No holds were barred, as beaucoup euros have been poured into the historic monument’s extensive interior and exterior revamping.
Just like heaven at Printemps
Shine on
Inside you’ll also be dazzled by the recently installed super-cool (and eco-friendly) LED lighting system that illuminates and opens up the heart of the store: the central atrium. Resembling an over-sized Lucite jewelry box, this pleasing eye candy is decked out in slick marble, sleek bands of iced chrome, and live trees that sprout multi-colored handbags. Ma joie!
Jutting out between the bustling, zigzagging escalators are towering cubbyholes (three stories high) stuffed with shiny fab accessories and fragrances, just enough out of reach to tantalize. Oh, la la. Heads-up! Featured collections rotate.
Tips: Looking for discounts? Shop during the two annual Big Sale periods in either January or June. This year’s summer sales launch on Wednesday, June 27, 2012.
Also, the grand magasins often coordinate free art exhibits. Recently the Cracking Art Group’s Bunnies and Mr. Brainwash ‘s King Kong rocked at Printemps, while Dior held court at Bon Marché.
Don’t skip the loo
While browsing, check out “the first luxury public toilets” by Point WC (as touted on their website). One euro buys you private seating in a water closet lit by rose-colored lights, and stocked with fluorescent toilet tissues in pinks, greens, and blues.
You can’t miss the €1800 price tag for the commode, but happily you don’t have to buy it to experience it! Cosmetics for touch-ups, souvenir rolls of toilet tissue, and even beverages are available at the Point WC welcome desk. Yes, life is good–and with flattering lighting to boot!
Need a break?
Feeling all peckish? I’ve got the spot! Located in between Gare Saint-Lazare and Printemps Homme, Café Triadou has been open since 1935. So what’s on the menu? I recommend going with the baguette jambon beurre Gruyère! It’s hearty and oh so satisfying without costing an arm and a leg! Café Triadou’s terrace is a prime people-watching spot. So come with a journal or sketchbook in hand. In the words of dapper Wilde, “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
Happy Hunting!
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New York Tips: Celebrating Art + Fashion on Fifth Avenue (Part 2)
30 Rock on Fifth Avenue Photos by Theadora Brack (Original by Anne Simpkins for Harper’s Bazaar, September 1943)
Pretzel time at New York Public Library at 42nd Street (Anne Simpkins, Harper’s Bazaar, September 1943)
By Theadora Brack
Let’s continue our window-shopping tour de force up Fifth Avenue. I’ll also include a few photographs taken by Anne Simpkins for Harper’s Bazaar in 1943. So grab your sunglasses, trainers and spare bills for salted pretzels and soda pops. Meet me at 30 Rock!
What’s new on the Avenue?
Here’s the squeal: Zara’s new flagship at 666 Fifth Avenue recently opened with a hi-tech, futuristic look, while Massimo Dutti will jump to Zara’s former 691 Fifth Avenue location. Meanwhile, the Elizabeth Arden Salon scooted to 663 Fifth Avenue, and MAC Cosmetics moved into E.A.’s former digs at 691 Fifth Avenue, across from the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Whew!
This is the very spa where Anaïs Nin wrote, “The church bells are ringing while I sit at Elizabeth Arden’s on Fifth Avenue with my face covered by a mask, and I almost come near God again.” Now that’s a beauty treatment!
1. Henri Bendel 712 5th Avenue (at 56th Street)
First stop! Henri Bendel and its “street of shops” made the Fifth Avenue scene in 1990. Now saddling two historic buildings (the Rizzoli Building and the Coty Building), classic French glass windows by René Jules Lalique were recently discovered during the redo. Commissioned by perfumer Francois Coty in 1908, don’t you dare walk by the three-story Art Nouveau masterpiece without a little glass gazing!
We have the late, great style icon (and store president for three decades) Geraldine Stutz to thank for giving Andy Warhol his first break when she hired him as a shoe illustrator. Stutz was also the first to feature European designers like Jean Muir and Sonia Rykiel.
Schiaparelli and Prada chitchat at Bergdorf Goodman
Fit for a king: Heck, even the Duke of Windsor shopped here! He also stored his New York wardrobe in the Bendel’s fur vault. Now that’s regal service!
As Stutz would often quip, “What is the difference between mere fashion and true style? Fashion says, me too. Style says, only me.”
2. Tiffany & Co. 727 5th Avenue (at 57th Street)
Golly, gee—glam! Get ready for your close-up because we’re approaching another sweet cinematic backdrop, perfect for your social media profile portraits. Created by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in 1837, Tiffany & Company made the big frog leap from 37th Street to 57th Street in 1940.
Here is where Holly Golightly bid farewell to the “mean reds,” while lingering over sticky buns and window-shopping. Fanatics of Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” book and flick still pay homage, so you might have to wait in line for the picture-perfect shot!
3. Bergdorf Goodman 54 5th Avenue (at 58th Street)
Overlooking Central Park, Herman Bergdorf and Edwin Goodman’s flagship opened during the 1920s. This season its vitrines salute the “Schiaparelli & Prada, Impossible Conversations” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Meet my favorite designer! Mad about Dada and Surrealism, Elsa Schiaparelli worked with artists like Jean Cocteau, Dali, and Man Ray. A publicity maven, Schiaparelli would launch her collections with circus performances, complete with prancing elephants and daredevil tightrope walkers outside her “Schiap” shop at Place Vendôme in Paris!
Tweeting at 30 Rock (Anne Simpkins, Harper’s Bazaar, September 1943)
Film buffs: Do keep your eyes peeled also for the Plaza Hotel at 750 5th Avenue and Central Park South. Located next to Bergdorf Goodman, “The Way We Were” is just one of the many movies to feature the photogenic hotel.
Wiping away the salty tears in my eyes, “Yes, Hubbell, your girl is lovely!” Just thinking of the film gets me all emotional!
After a much-needed crying jag (and pretzel break) at the “Abundance” fountain, let’s now hotfoot it to Barneys. Rebounding just got easier!
4. Barneys New York 660 Madison Avenue (at 61st Street)
Come hither! After Haberdasher Barney Pressman pawned off his wife’s engagement ring for $500 (with her consent!) and forty discounted suits, he opened Barneys during the roaring twenties.
“No Bunk, No Junk, No Imitations” was his shop’s slogan! A cross between P.T. Barnum and Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Barney hired barrel-clad gals to give away matchbooks stamped with the store’s logo and address.
Talk about a store-wide campaign with legs!
Keep on strolling!
Now let’s wind it back with Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada at Bergdorf Goodman. Created by the talented David Hoey (visual display guru!), the dreamy, surreal vitrines doff a “bachi” (French sailor hat) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s springtime Costume Institute exhibition. Both the windows and vitrines will shine through August 19, 2012.
Pinching once again from “Schiap,” “If the wind catches your hat and tantalizingly blows it farther and farther away, you must run quicker than the wind if you want to retrieve it!”
Okay, let’s get surreal!
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New York Tips: Fifth Avenue Window-Shopping Tour (Part 1)
Alexander McQueen by Sarah Burton at Saks Fifth Avenue Photos by Theadora Brack
Saks Fifth Avenue
By Theadora Brack in New York
Hold on to your hats because this week, we’re trekking to New York for some hazy, crazy summertime “window licking” ( faire du lèche-vitrine)!
While day tripping, time is precious, so I’ve created a Fifth Avenue tour for you. Yes, it is possible to visit most of New York’s centuries-old department stores in one day! I’ll also throw in a few historical and cinematic tidbits. Confession: I’ve been walking Fifth Avenue since the age of eight. I’m still mad about it.
Here’s how Anaïs Nin described New York City to Henry Miller: “I love the proportions, the amplitude, the brilliance, the polish, the solidity. I look up at Radio City insolently and love it. The vitality. Just bring your own contents, and you create a sparkle at the highest power.” All aboard? Let’s glow!
Miracle on 34th Street
We’ll kick-off our whirlwind jaunt outside Macy’s at Herald Square (34th Street and Broadway). After we’ve admired the vitrines, we’ll gaze up at the nearby Empire State Building, the closest thing to heaven in this city. It’s true! However, before crossing, do look both ways or else you, too, will have a star-crossed Affair to Remember. Besides, Cary Grant left the building years ago!
Heads-up! As you stroll, study how the vitrines mesh with the reflections of the surrounding cityscape. Providing seamless backgrounds, the trees and sky scrappers play nicely with the mannequins.
Summertime at Saks Fifth Avenue
1. Macy’s 151 West 34th Street (at Broadway)
Conceived by Rowland Hussey Macy in 1843, the “World’s Largest Store” moved to Herald Square in 1902. Curious about the store’s “star” logo? It’s a nod to the tattoo Macy got when he worked as a teen on a Nantucket whaling ship in the 1830s. Perhaps R.H. had Moby Dick in mind when he created his first whale of a sale?
Film buffs: Here outside Macy’s is where the Thanksgiving Parade in “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947) was shot. Reel it back! In the film, you’ll catch actual footage of that year’s parade in action (with Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle!). Macy’s has been putting on the Thanksgiving pageant glitz since 1924. Now, let’s form our own conga line, and hit the hill!
2. Lord & Taylor 424 5th Ave (at 38th Street)
Each time I spy the mile-high stacks of silky-smooth shirts as I make my way to the elevators, Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” pops to mind: “They’re such beautiful shirts, Daisy sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such beautiful shirts.’” Pass the tissues!
Launched in 1826 by Samuel Lord, “L&T” has been sitting pretty on Fifth Avenue since 1914. It was the first department store to embrace merchandising without merchandise. Artist James Bliss changed the window-dressing scene with his installation of mechanical bells. Soon shops worldwide followed suit! How’s that for pulling out all the props?
Head in the clouds at 30 Rock and Saks
3. BCBG 168 5th Avenue (at 40th Street)
In 1989, French designer Max Azria broke the mold with his BCBG line (“Bon Chic, Bon Genre,” slang for really groovy!). Who also digs BCBG? Fergie, Angelina Jolie and Alicia Keys, along with Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Kate Winslet. The recent collections were inspired by Bauhaus. Celebrating also constructivism and modernism, the gowns flaunt cut and color to the max!
Across the street from BCBG, you’ll find the New York Public Library. Making more than one dramatic cameo appearance in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” it’s worth a visit. Here you’ll find free exhibitions, along with a top-notch gift shop. Also, the steps are a great place for a picnic. Keep your eyes peeled for Holly and Paul ‘Fred’ Varjak!
4. Saks Fifth Avenue 611 5th Avenue (at 49th Street)
Now let’s make a bee-line to Saks. Fashioned by Andrew Saks in 1857 the store moved to its Fifth Avenue digs in 1924. Here’s the poop! Designed by architects Starrett & van Vleck, it’s another looker. Back in the day, dynamic duo Starrett and van Vleck were the gurus of grand magasin design. The pair also created stylish shops for Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale’s.
While at Saks, check out the AB FAB Alexander McQueen ball gowns by Sarah Burton. Rocking a futuristic vibe, I also dig the shiny sunglasses. Royalists, Sarah Burton created Kate Middleton’s wedding dress! Here you’ll also find a panoramic view of 30 Rock. Grab the camera. It’s another picture-perfect backdrop for your social media portraits, Liz Lemon!
That’s it, folks! Stay tuned for Part Two of the Fifth Avenue Window-Shopping Tour! Do you have a favorite department store or boutique in New York? Do spill!
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Paris Tips: Meet my friend Venus
Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Melos) X 2 Photos by Theadora Brack
Venus Paparazzi at the Louvre
By Theadora Brack
Whenever I’m having a challenging day, I hotfoot it over to the Louvre. Here I find peace and tranquility, while hobnobbing it with all my favorite Greeks—the solid marble kind, I mean! So for the love of exquisite inspiration, this week let’s celebrate Venus!
Here’s the scoop
First, let’s wind it back to the 18th century: the Greek revival style has already captured Europe’s fancy, especially in France. Classical Greek styling dominates music, architecture, art, and fashion. Illustrated travelogues are snatched up and bought as quickly as they are written. Globe trekkers and fashion enthusiasts of that day got their classical fix in salons and museums, and for the first time ever, art institutions have begun attracting visitors from all walks of life. The heart squeals!
Live to Tell
But like the Olympic Games ceremonies, every successful museum had to have classical showstoppers to attract the biggest crowds. Although Napoleon hadn’t been a hot lover of art, he’d considered it part of his role as conqueror to “collect” the best from every country he dominated. In fact, Louvre director Dominique-Vivant Denon often joined him in newly acquired territories, sometimes even scooping up masterpieces while the battles were still taking place. Imagine if eBay had existed back then.
I can see your halo
Oh, Venus
Then came Waterloo, and we all know what that means. France’s empire went into a tailspin, and her enemies reclaimed more than five thousand stolen works, including the prized Venus de Medici—until then, the toast of the town. “We are still rich,” insisted, Louis XVIII in 1816, but that didn’t change the fact that neither his museum nor the nation of France still owned a real Venus to call their own—or even a real classical Greek sculpture. Enter Venus de Milo in 1821, like a prayer!
The prequel
The Venus de Milo (also known in some circles as “Aphrodite of Melos”) had been lost for milennia in the underground world of the island of Melos before a local farmer and a French naval officer rediscovered her, deep in the ruins of an ancient Greek gymnasium.
A year later, she arrived at the Musée du Louvre in the dead of winter, dirt stained, and scarred from when her original niche had collapsed some two millennia earlier. Her nose was broken, a chunk of her wavy chiffon hair bun was missing, and according to some stories, her arms had gone missing during a scuffle when they were loading the boat to bring her to France. But after a thorough cleaning and a hip and foot restoration, the Goddess of Love made her debut when she was presented to the king and world as the epitome of classical Greek beauty. No one puts Venus in a corner!
Ava Gardner, One Touch of Venus (1948)
Go figure
“I’m a little bit this and a little bit that,” she might have said to her puzzled curators. Her perfectly proportioned head and upper torso—hallmarks of Classical Greece—didn’t jive with the sweep of her stomach or the weight of her heavily draped hips. Those were purely Hellenistic.
By now, of course, Hellenistic art is no longer considered substandard, and the truth about Venus’s background is out. Despite restoration work and occasional temporary moves due to wars or gallery repairs, her popularity has kept on growing.
What’s your desire?
By the late 19th century, souvenir postcards of the armless siren were already out-selling those of all stage actresses combined. Thousands of replicas made of marble, plaster, and terra cotta were mass-produced at a conveyor belt-breaking rate and sold, collected and coveted all over the world.
Shopping Tip! Want a Venus to call your own? I often spot her replica “Mini-Me” statues at the Paris flea markets and brocantes. Also, I recently scored a fine vintage bottle of “Secret de Venus” by Weil. Created in 1938, its hour-glass shape is also a stunner!
Venus still receives some eight million visitors a year—or 7,000,988, if you subtract my monthly pilgrimages. Of course she’s not the only Greek I visit. There’s also Atalanta, Psyche, Cupid, Diana of Versailles, and the equally famous Nike of Samothrace (Winged Victory)—just to name a few.
Stay tuned for more profiles!
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Paris Shopping Tips: Open Air Food Markets
Shopping on rue des Abbesses Photos by Theadora Brack
Heard it though the grapevine
By Theadora Brack
Open-air market shopping in Paris can look pretty intimidating, even to a shopping fanatic like myself. In fact, I used to stick instead to the safe predictability of the supermarché aisles.
But I’ve changed! I have seen tomates, aubergines, and haricots verts in a natural light, and I’m not going back to fluorescent. So to help out, here are a few tips. Grab your list and shopping bag. Let’s hit the stalls!
1. Create a plan
Throughout Paris, there are roving open-air markets (“marchés volants”) and covered markets. They don’t call them “marchés volants” for nothing. The “flying markets” appear only once or twice each week on their assigned market days, sell their goods, and then move on to another hood.
Ring-a-ding: The markets also carry wine and flowers. Being the perfect house or dinner guest just got easier!
2. Arrive early
Set your alarm clock! The open-air food markets typically open at 8 AM and close at 3 PM. Kick off your spree with a cup of fresh white goat cheese or a chocolate cravate!
Presentation is everything
3. Cash and carry
If you can, organize a small “till” the night before. I usually carry 20 euros in coins and small bills. Most street merchants don’t accept credit cards.
4. Buying the whole week or a picnic?
Better bring a marché caddie or “chariot” (rolling cart), “panier” (basket), or a sturdy sac. Most grocery stores sell them. Sporting vibrant colors, they’re also the perfect souvenir.
5. Social Bee
Julia Child mused that if a proprietor, “senses a visitor is delighted to be in his store, and takes a genuine interest in what is for sale, then he’ll just open up like a flower.” What’s more, your relationship with the vendors will really flourish if you give them repeat business. The locals value fidelity. Sometimes money can buy love or a sample!
6. Sell! Sell! Then bye-bye.
Time is money for the open-air merchant. Need to know your chicken’s pedigree or the soil temperature where your tomatoes grew? I’d take your browsing to a specialty shop or a “biologique” (organic) food market, such as Marché Batignolles (Métro: Place de Clichy).
Sunflower, Star Power
7. U can’t touch this (or can you?)
If plastic baskets or tubs are in reach, it’s usually okay to handle your own produce. An absence of these containers typically signals that the grocer will make the selections for you. Also, let them know exactly when you plan to eat it, and they’ll be able to figure out the ripeness with their eyes and fingertips. I love to watch them in action!
8. For every season turn, turn, turn
Think seasonally! In-season produce and “fromage” tastes better and costs less. Asparagus is best in the month of May, cherries ripen in July, and apples are at their tastiest in early autumn. Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled for those “soldes” (on sale) signs.
9. Follow your nose
Don’t let your shopping list call all the shots. You’re better off using all your senses, following your gut, and trying whatever you fancy. Try the young (and difficult to find outside France) cheeses. Don’t hold back. Some vendors offer samples, so by all means break one of my grandmother’s rules: shop while hungry!
10. No market close to your flat or hotel?
Don’t fret. Most arrondissements have bustling “rues commerçantes” (shopping districts) which have many of the same advantages, if not the same Old World atmosphere. Abbesses is one of my favorites. Flea market junkies: There’s a food market next to the Porte de Vanves Flea!
WWHD? (What would Hem do?)
Signing off with a favorite Hemingway “Moveable Feast” passage, “I knew several of the men who fished the fruitful parts of the Seine between the Île St. Louis and the Square du Vert Galent and sometimes, if the day was bright, I would buy a liter of wine and a piece of bread and some sausage and sit in the sun and read one of the books I had bought and watch the fishing.”
Now that’s a plan! But first, let’s trek it to the Marché Barbès (Métro: Barbès-Rochechouart) for more shopping. Happy Hunting!
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Paris Tips: Bouncing with the Clowns!
Église de la Sainte-Trinité de Paris Photos by Theadora Brack
Welcome to the Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada
By Theadora Brack
Aren’t we a pair? You’re in midair and I’m here at last on the ground—pinching from Joni Mitchell. Where are the clowns?
Let’s launch the week with a nod to a few of my favorite wits, clowns and puppets in Paris. (I’ve also included a pic of the Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada. I shot it during a recent jaunt to the state. I do love clowns.)
So without further adieu, let the show begin!
Beep-beep!
Trekking to Paris? During the fall and winter, warm-up with the clowns at the one-ring Cirque d’hiver Bouglione. Imagine! Degas, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec sat on these same red-velvet seats!
Tip! Stop by the nearby Clown Bar for a pre-show nibble. Its circus memorabilia-covered walls and frites will help get the party started. Pack your camera because there’s usually a photo-op with the troupe during intermission. For the love of Bozo, just do it!
Pleased as punch
During the warmer months, get all punchy with the 202-year-old puppet Guignol and his rowdy entourage at the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont’s Théâtre Guignol Anatole. Before moving to the park in 1867, this same theater worked the crowds into laughing frenzies over on the Champs Élysées.
Tip! There are more than a dozen puppet theaters in Paris. For current show listings, pick up a weekly entertainment guide at any newsstand or kiosk. Also, keep your eyes peeled for posters. Now send in the clowns!
Cirque d’hiver Bouglione
11th arrondissement (Métro: Filles du Calvaire Metro or Oberkampf)
Cirque d’hiver Bouglione
11th arrondissement (Métro: Filles du Calvaire Metro or Oberkampf)
Bargain Bins at Sympa on rue d'Orsel
18th arrondissement (Métro: Abbesses)
Abbesses
18th arrondissement (Métro Abbesses)
Mask by artist Gregos Passage des Abbesses
18th arrondissement (Métro Abbesses)
Porte de Vanves Flea Market
14th arrondissement (Métro Porte de Vanves)
BALLETS RUSSES VASLAV NIJINSKY, CIMETIÈRE DE MONTMARTRE
18TH ARRONDISSEMENT (MÉTRO: ABBESSES)
Candy Shack at Place Blanche
18th arrondissement (Métro Blanche)
Place des Abbesses
18th arrondissement (Métro: Abbesses)
Porte de Vanves Flea Market
14th arrondissement (Métro: Porte de Vanves)
The Haunting Hôtel Bellevue et du Charlot d’Or
3rd arrondissement (Métro: Réaumur-Sébastopol or Arts et Métiers)
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Paris Shopping Tips: Meet My New Favorite Big Cheese!
Marie France (May 1954) Cover by Denis Manceaux Photos by Theadora Brack
Love at first dreamy bite
By Theadora Brack
With the bright sun in my eyes, here’s a full confession. Lean in as I whisper, see. I’ve got a new favorite cheese in my life. Love is in the air. So grab a ball point pen. Hear my yarn!
Meet Brillat Savarin
Butter. Brillat. Butter. Brillat. That’s what he said.
Thank my cheese monger friend Ishai (extraordinaire!), for introducing us to this very velvety, voluptuous beauty. I’m a fool for fresh salted butter, so for me it was love at first bite. In fact, I squealed. Read my hips. This decadent triple cream cheese from Rouen contains a whopping 75% butterfat and about 40% fat overall.
Yes, this little piggy will be returning to the market for more. Tip! I recommend serving it with a sparkling wine or a palate-cleansing beer. The carbonation will cut the fat, while enhancing its milky mushroom flavor.
Marie France (August 1956) Cover by Denis Manceaux
Visiting Paris?
Sample Brillat Savarin as a fresh young’un. For the love of cream cheese or ice cream, you won’t be sorry. It tastes buddah!
What’s in a name?
Here are a few historical tidbits to help pump up your plateau de fromages and cocktail party conversation. Created in the 1930s by Henri Androuët, he named the cheese after 18th century French gastronomic guru, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.
A master of words and cuisine, B-S is responsible for such gems as: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are” and, “A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye.” (Huh?)
In the mood for love
Celebrating photographer Denis Manceaux, I’ve also included a few of his fab Marie France covers from the 1950s. His giddy work never fails to lift my spirits.
Pinching from Holly Golightly: If I could find a place to make me feel like the a Manceaux cover, then I’d buy some Ikea furniture and give the cat a name!
Here’s another little secret: I often find stacks of vintage magazines like Marie France, Elle, and Marie Claire at the Porte de Vanves Flea Market for just a few euros of pop. Smooth Sailing!
Marie France (September 1956) Cover by Denis Manceaux
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Paris Tips: Keeping Cool at the Wallace Fountains
Hot and Hazy Days at the Jardin des Tuileries Photos by Theadora Brack
BYOB to the Jardin des Tuileries
By Theadora Brack
Feeling all parched while you’re out and about in Paris? What to do? What to do? Follow my lead. I’ve got you covered!
Fortunately, there are 108 historic “fontaines Wallace“ and three functional “puits artésien” (artesian wells). Situated around the city’s busiest squares and at intersections in each arrondissement, the drinking water is free for sipping.
So grab an empty bottle!
Meet Sir Richard Wallace
Rewind! “Les fontaines Wallace” were named after the British philanthropist and art collector Sir Richard Wallace, who generously financed the installation of 50 fountains throughout Paris after the Franco-Prussian War left the city with almost no clean drinking water.
Get misty at Place des Abbesses
Brasserie des quatre femmes
Designed by Charles-Auguste Lebourg, these cast iron fountains in four versions remain iconic darlings of the Paris streetscape. Uniformly painted a deep emerald green, they’re easy to spot.
The largest model, nicknamed the “Brasserie des quatre femmes” (brewery of the four women), flaunts four fetching caryatids, symbolizing kindness, simplicity, charity, and sobriety. Curvacious stunners, the figures are draped in sinuous tunics that are pinned just-so to reveal a handsome knee. Oh, la la!
Fountain of Youth
My favorite “puit artésien” in Paris is located in Butte-aux-Cailles (Quail Hill) at Place Paul-Verlaine in the 13th arrondissement. This historic well has been gushing forth since 1866. It’s definitely worth a sip. My actor friend Nausicaa calls it her “fountain of youth.”
Tip! After topping off your bottle, check out the surrounding hilly, cobblestoned neighborhood. Once an infamous red light district (quail was slang for prostitute), Butte-aux-Cailles now offers an impressive number of cheap eats, bars, and shops. Hello, time travel.
Finally, here’s a cinematic tidbit: In the 2001 film “The fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain,” Amélie’s concierge in Abbesses was named “Madeleine Wallace” because she cried like a Wallace fountain!
Clipping from Francophile Ben Franklin, “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water, my friend.” Bottoms up!
Early Sunday Morning at Place des Abbesses
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Paris Tips: King Kong and the Bunnies on Parade
Bunnies by the Cracking Art Group at Printemps (2009) Photos by Theadora Brack
King Kong by Mr. Brainwash at the top of Printemps (2010)
By Theadora Brack
It’s prime time for a bunny pageant in Paris, so I rummaged through my files and found a few photographs from the fantastical 2009 Cracking Art Group’s Bunny exposition at Printemps.
Monster Mash
Tip! Often the grand magasins like Printemps, Galeries Lafayette and Bon Marché coordinate free art exhibits. Recently King Kong held court outside of Printemps. Created by Franco-American street pop artist Mr. Brainwash as a love note to New York City, the original Wild Thing was made of recycled tires and was two stories tall. Don’t hate him because he is beautiful!
Meanwhile, over at Bon Marché, Dior was also given a splashy nod. Decked out in the designer’s signature white and grey, the exhibit was made up of iconic “New Look” ensembles, photographs, and multimedia projections on oversized accessories like chairs, mannequins and hat boxes. It was a knockout!
Without further adieu, strike up the band. Hip hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip, hip hop!
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Paris Tips: Let’s Fall in Love at the Jardin du Luxembourg
"Venus" Water Mobile by Lotta Hannerz Photos by Theadora Brack
A hair before l'heure bleue
By Theadora Brack
With my pointy arrow, I feverishly pen this postcard from Paris. Confession: I have a new favorite park. There, I’ve said it. It’s true. I do! So with long looks and fiery chitchat, let’s roll on over to the Jardin du Luxembourg.
During the springtime, I usually head to Luxembourg after my big weekend hunts at the flea markets. Here at the park, there’s never a shortage of benches or shady trees. It’s another prime people-watching hotspot, but you’ll also find beaucoup hideaways, perfect for reading and whispering sweet nothings.
The hoedown
Created by Queen Marie de Médici and garden guru Boyeau de La Bareaudière with a fine Florentine twist during the 17th century, it launched in 1778.
Flaunting sixty-something lush acres, Luxembourg has played muse to photographers Atget, Brassaï, and Doisneau. Painter Watteau paid homage too. It also had a recurring role in Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Misérables” and Ernest Hemingway’s novels and short stories.
Moveable Feast
Here’s the poop! Rumor has it that in the years before Hemingway could afford to shoot lions in Africa, he hunted urban birdlife here by the Medici Fountain. Back in his salad days, Luxembourg was known for its voluptuous pigeons!
Food for thought
Hem wrote: “There was always a gendarme on duty, but I knew that about four o’clock he would go to a bar across from the park to have a glass of wine. That’s when I would appear with Mr. Bumby—and a pocketful of corn for the pigeons. I would sit on a bench, in my guise of buggy-pushing pigeon-lover, casing the flock for clarity of eye and plumpness.”
Later he added, “We got a little tired of pigeon that winter but they filled many a void.”
Garden of Eden
The Jardin du Luxembourg boasts a hefty collection of over 100 statues (celebrating former French queens and female saints), the Medici Fountain, the octagonal Grand Bassin pond surrounded by raised terraces, Bartholdi’s original Statue of Liberty prototype, a school for training bee keepers, and a théâtre des marionnettes!
A hive of activity, this long list of attributes continues. There are also apple and pear orchards, flowerbeds with oranges, dates, gillyflowers and dahlias, and pomegranate trees.
Let’s not forget sports like tennis, running, chess, toy boat racing, boules, petanque (the national game), donkey rides, and a carrousel where kiddies can try to spear golden rings with little lances from upon wooden horses!
A Literate Passion: Crash into me
So where to score reading material?
I recommend the San Francisco Bookshop for good used books in English. Located nearby at 17 Rue Monsieur le Prince (Metro Odéon), the cozy shop is where I recently picked up a well-loved copy of “A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller”). Talk about the ultimate starry-eyed read!
Henry wrote: “I have not dared until now to say what I think. But I am plunging—you have opened the void for me—there is no holding back. I am in a fever.” Oh, sigh!
Café, anyone?
La Brasserie Balzar is located at 49 Rue des Écoles, 5th arrondissement (Métro: Cluny-La Sorbonne). Try their signature profiteroles (mini pastries filled with ice cream)!
Le Grand Bassin: Pack a parapluie!
Café de la Mairie
Another favorite is the Café de la Mairie at 8 Place Saint-Sulpice, 6th arrondissement (Metro: Saint Sulpice or Rennes).
Located next to Église Saint-Sulpice, it was also a favorite literary haunt. Who else has found inspiration here? Besides Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, scribes like Saul Bellow, Fitzgerald and Djuna Barnes were often afoot. And let’s not forget James Joyce, Samuel Becket and Edward Hopper—just to name a few more!
What to order? I recommend trying their house Cantal jeune baguette and a pitcher of vin rouge. Then, sit out on the terrace and gaze up at the Église Saint-Sulpice!
Pinching from Henry Valentine Miller once again, “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware: joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware!”
More skinny
Jardin du Luxembourg, 6th arrondissement
Métro: Notre-Dame des Champs, Rennes or Vavin
Tips for the road: I recommend the Notre-Dame des Champs Métro station because as you make your way to the park, you’ll pass a string of funky shops. And runners, each lap around Luxembourg’s well-maintained running path is 1.25 miles. So pack your shoes!
Stealing Beauty at the Jardin du Luxembourg
