39Vaugirard

A little walk from Cimitiere Montparnass to Jardin du Luxumbourg made me stumble upon this new hotel. Hotel des Academies

Across the way, the Atelier of Mogdiliani is noted, and the hotel has a lovely tea room Charlotte.

I came upon Le flaneur des deux rives, a charming bookstore near Boulevard St. Michel and Rue de Vaugirard.  Beautiful lithographs and hard to find books line the window.  How lovely to see a line out of Guillame Apollinaire’s book as a name of a book store…

@Craigorama #macspeech – you’re a stronger man than I! I still find it a challenge. Amazing at first, yes, but hard to stay with.

Cafe Medicis at 19, rue de Vaugirard. Nice spot for a café gourmand « FIVE ONE EIGHT http://ow.ly/Zt8K

Cool. Gotta love how TweetDeck handles mulitple accounts. Easy as “tarte.”

33 years ago, I was this person, fresh off the boat (or 747), not knowing what to expect from a year in France (Rennes in my case).

Bonjour!

It is hard for me to believe that I am actually in France. At the moment, I am sitting in my bedroom in Nantes, home from a brief three day orientation trip with the IES Nantes group in Tours, France. This past week has truly flown by.

Tuesday feels like a month ago. My plane left from Charlotte and as I sat in the tiny blue airplane seat, fighting the stranger next to me for armrest room, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. I was a twenty-year old college student on an eight hour flight to Paris, France but I felt so much more like an eight year old headed to sleep away camp for the first time. Never before had I been on a plane alone so therefore I was very nervous. What if I missed my connection? What if I arrived in Paris and was incapable of finding the correct train to Nantes? Luckily, all of my worrying was for nothing. I made my connection in Newark with minutes to spare and arrived in Paris safely.

[From Bienvenue to me! | Inside IES Abroad]

I love this museum since it traces Picasso’s life with real examples of his work for each period. It’s here really that the non-art history student can really appreciate the greatness of Picasso’s work. Not just some guy who broke the mold and then rode the gravy train for the rest of his life (examples too numerous to mention), Picasso morphed throughout his life, making art whenever his hands weren’t busy with women, food or drink. The museum takes you through his life, world history and his art in chronological order rather than focusing solely on the great pieces. Now that I’ve whet your appetite, it’s a shame we’ll have to wait two years to see it again.

Feel free to shed a quiet tear from either of your unevenly spaced, asymmetrical eyes: the Picasso Museum in Paris closed its doors on Sunday and will not reopen them to visitors for more than two years as it undergoes an extensive renovation, The Associated Press reported. The 32,000-square-foot museum, which opened in 1985 in Paris’s Marais district, holds about 5,000 pieces of art by Picasso, including paintings, sculptures and sketches, but was only able to display between 250 and 300 at a time. During the renovation, which is expected to cost about $28 million and begin next year, the museum will be expanded and made more accessible, as well having electrical problems fixed. In the meantime, the museum will stop lending out its artworks as experts update its inventory, after which the works will be packaged and shipped to storerooms managed by France’s museum authority. The museum offered free admission to its visitors on Sunday, the last day before its renovations began.

[From Picasso Museum Closes for Two-Year Renovation - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com]

Finally visited the Hameau de Reine. Expected a small garden and of course, it’s fit for a Queen. It even has a little farm and a zoo. Lovely for kids to visit and the houses on the property are actually for normal people.

Be picked up anywhere in Paris and the parisian drivers of Paris Authentic take you for an unusual discovery of their city…Paris night tour, Paris romantic tour…an unsuspected tour in Paris to satisfy your curiosity!

[From Paris Tour in citroen 2CV by Paris Authentic Tour - The traditionnal french car tour]

Once the 2CV (or Deux Chevaux, as it’s known) was the Volkswagen Beetle for all of France. Now they are more rare, but you can still enjoy the ride in these tours organized by a group of French guys who enjoy showing off their city from the vantage point of a fun little car. Worth a try for those looking for a change from boring bus tours or long metro rides.

Worth a try if you’re looking for a different way to see Paris next time.

Here I’m sitting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, leafing through a local magazine and I see a dispatch from Paris. What do you know. People barely make US$600 on average here but they aspire to visit Paris.

Don’t we all.

Their recommendations are terrific, and I agree with most of them. And think, I had to go all the way to Cambodia to discover a few things in my own neighborhood. Such is the life of a global nomad.

Deyrolle, the 170 year old establishment on rue du Bac (near Blvd. St. Germain) that is the most extraordinary taxidermy shop, a realm of French institution. Deyrolle.com,

Sennelier, debuted in 1887, by a passionate chemist Guastave Sennelier, is located across from the Louvre and nearby l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It is an atelier of all things colors, pigments, and creations, for any palette created by an artist. 3, Quai Voltaire.

Galerie Martine Gossieaux, opened in 1992, has regular exhibitions of graphic artists of international fame: Savignac “affichiste”, Sempé, Steig, Chaval, André François, Ronald Searle, Benoît and Pierre Le Tan.They are all regular collaborators for different and important magazines around the world, such as “New Yorker”. 56, rue de l’Université.

Hotel Verneuil, has almost the perfect location, in the quartier antiquaire, right on the boundaries of sixiéme and septiéme arrondisements. The hotel is blushingly romantic, bathed in history and discreetly housed in a handsome 17th century building, and stylish in a way that weds the past (miles of printed fabrics from France’s old-guard textile houses) to the present (iron cube tables with a deliberately rusted finish). Some of the 26 guest rooms are a bit tight, but Flore and Deux Magots are your local cafés— complaining seems like bad manners. 8, rue de Verneuil.

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, is a must on a gourmet’s list. With a restaurant empire all over the world (Las Vegas, Macao, London, Tokyo, New York, and Monaco), Joel Robuchon this is chef and his Atelier is no ordinary dining experience. It’s a Michelin-star restaurant, in the Hotel du Port Royal, on rue Montalembert, in the tony septiéme. It’s a open kitchen concept, with only 36 seats, with tapa size beautiful food. No reservations are taken, so be strategic and get there early for a seat at the counter. It’s a favorite sport of chic Parisians to time a table just right. 5, rue de Montalembert, corner of rue de Bac.

La Hune, is an artist’s art bookstore. This place is part of the history of St. Germain des Prés with the likes of Max Ernst, André Breton and many other artists through the decades who have come to hang out here as well as Café de Flore which is next door. 170, Boulevard St Germain.

Astier et Villate, is the haute emporium of all that is beautiful about maison et objets of French china and things for the house. 173, rue St. Honoré.

Coton Doux, is a must if you’re stocking up on the most beautifully made, fantastic colors and design, in men’s shirts and pajamas. Boutiques throughout Paris. 68, rue Mazarine is in the neighborhood.

Leave it to the Cambodians in the know to reveal Paris to me.