After a two year hiatus for socio-economic reasons we are back on the annual trip to Paris. Same weekend every time: tail end of Fash week to catch some parties – or ‘ot fashion party‘ as my dear friend Marion sometimes refers to them. Oh yes we’ve had some crackers over the years – the naked-people-and-cats-in-a-club night was a corker. This year we were hanging in a flash private apartment let out for a couple of weekends of the year with various familiar fashiony suspects lurking about. The first Saturday of October each year is Nuit Blanche. Over the years we’ve seen some stunning installations – dotted about around the city. I’ll dig out some pics. Last night didn’t quite come upto par, it was simply mental everywhere so I’ll put that down to the heat.
So here’s a roll call of good Frenchy stuff:
Zaha Hadid installation/exhibition at the L’Insitut du Monde Arabe. Don’t think I could ever tire of Nouvel’s aperture carpet wall.
Lunch at Vagenende, 142 Blvd St Germain. Wow, gorgeous place. Artichoke carpaccio, tick! Pouilly Fume, tick! On that strip of classic St Germain brasseries.
Gaite Lyrique – new digital art gallery in an old theatre. Good.
Drinks at Le Baron Rouge, 1 Rue Théophile Roussel. Time to get busy!
Dinner at La Gazzetta, 29 Rue de Cotte – a lovely treat from Marion to celebrate 21 years since our french exchange, which must’ve been the most successful match-make across La Manche in history! Slightly experimental, but underplayed. Delicate dishes, glamorously retro interior. Resort ambience.
Le Bistro Paul Bert, 16 rue de Paul Bert, 1lth – great street for lurking about when hungry. Unless you haven’t booked in anywhere in which case you’ll be lurking, hungrily all night.
Hung out at the Pause Cafe to finish us off. Nice spot, kept thinking of swimming pools – was it the tiles? Why can’t we have lovely deep terraces outside like the French? Methinks its because we Brits get within a sniff of alcohol, get overexcited and ruin it for ourselves.
Ile Sequin, Pont de Sevres
Went to the end of the line to a restaurant on an island for Saturday lunch. Nice modern park – it had grass! Grass in a French park! Curious architecture.
Margiela Hotel – La Maison Champs Elysees
Hmm – we wanted a posh drink in a posh new hotel. It was a toss up between the Margiela one and the Royal Monceau, perhaps we made the wrong decision. I think you could soak up a little more ambience if you went to a Margiela boutique. Nice exploded tiles on the floor. Little bit of play on scale here and there. We wanted obscure Japanese fashion and strange glassware but no, nothing.
