France Magazine #91 - Fall 2009 by France Magazine

the best of culture, tr avel & art de vivre

Fall 2 0 0 9

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No.91

SĂ&#x2C6;VRES at Hillwood

PARIS VERT: A Sustainable Feast

A Taste of LE FOODING

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Fall 2009

features 24 A Taste of Le Fooding Food + Feeling = a more relaxed version of la cuisine française by Renée Schettler

30 Sèvres Then and Now Hillwood Museum showcases extraordinary porcelain creations dating back to Madame de Pompadour by Roland Flamini

38 A Sustainable Feast A guide to Paris’s greenest hotels, restaurants, home décor and fashions by Amy Serafin and Heather Stimmler-Hall

• Made from organic oils and

other natural ingredients, tulipshaped soaps by Instant Balsamic are an elegant souvenir for the green shopper in Paris. Story page 38.

departments 5 The f: section Culture, Beaux Livres, Sons & Images, Bon Voyage, Nouveautés edited by Melissa Omerberg

16 Interview Christopher Hampton by Sara Romano

58 Calendrier French Cultural Events in North America by Tracy Kendrick

64 Temps Modernes Rebels With a Cause by Michel Faure

While editing Renée Schettler’s article on the exciting new generation of Paris chefs and food writers (“A Taste of Le Fooding,” page 24), a piece in The Washington Post by Zofia Smardz caught my eye. Just back from Paris, the author mourned the disappearance of a France she remembered from decades past, one where there was “wonderful, cheap food everywhere you went.” I couldn’t help but smile—like Smardz and so many others, I too had that impression of France when I first visited in the 1970s. But now I can’t help but wonder: Did such a “Pays de Cocagne” ever really exist? After all, back then, my idea of fromage was slices of American or Velveeta, pain was Wonder Bread, salade was iceberg lettuce. As for vin, well, Blue Nun was my entire repertoire (Robert Parker once told me that prior to going to France, Cold Duck was the only wine to have graced his discerning palate). Throw in the magic of being a student in Paris, and little wonder everything seemed miraculously delicious. As British playwright Christopher Hampton points out in his interview in this issue, Proust was probably right when artisan at the Manufacture •deAn Sèvres puts final touches on he said that “All paradises are paradises lost.” a charming biscuit porcelain Without a doubt, American palates are much more sculpture. Story page 30. discerning now, thanks to the incredible improvement in what we eat both at home and in restaurants. We take it for granted, but think about it: In the 1970s and even early 1980s, how many average supermarkets carried goat cheese and pâté, a dozen different olive oils, fresh endive, radicchio and cilantro? Who ate sushi or tapas or bought heirloom tomatoes and mesclun at farmers markets? And who would ever have imagined the Food Network? This amazing evolution is due in no small part to French chefs who came to the United States decades ago and taught us just how fascinating and wonderful food could be. One example is the late Jean-Louis Palladin, whose insistence on top-quality, seasonal ingredients contributed to a sea change in what is grown, produced and consumed in this country. Thanks to chefs like him as well as Julia Child, Alice Waters and so many others, Americans now arrive in France with infinitely more refined tastes; never have our expectations of French food and wine—or of food and wine in general—been so high. The downside of this new sophistication, of course, is that Smardz and other nostalgic visitors (including yours truly) no longer experience the cheap thrills of discovering “wonderful cheap food everywhere.” Now, we choose our restaurants when traveling as carefully as we choose those back home, relying on a range of trusted resources. But when I remember how enthusiastically I used to tuck into rather unspectacular croquemonsieurs, then think of the enlightened appreciation I can now bring to even the most edgy French cuisine, it’s a trade-off that I for one am delighted to have made. Karen Taylor

Editor

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France magazine Editor Karen Taylor

Senior Editor/Web Editor Melissa Omerberg

Associate Editor RACHEL BEAMER

Copy Editor lisa olson

Proofreader steve moyer

Art Director todd albertson

Production Manager Associate Art Director/Webmaster patrick nazer

Contributors MIchel faure, now

retired from L’Express, is pursuing a variety of journalistic ventures • ROLAND FLAMINI was for many years a Time Magazine correspondent; he now writes a foreign policy column for the Washingtonbased CQ Weekly and is a frequent contributor to France Magazine • TRACY KENDRICK is a freelance journalist who often writes about French culture • Sara romano covers French cultural topics for a number of publications • RENEE SCHETTLER is a freelance writer with a special interest in food; she has worked as editor and writer at Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple and The Washington Post • AMY SERAFIN, formerly editor of WHERE Paris, is a Paris-based freelance journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, National Public Radio, Departures and other media • Heather Stimmler-Hall is an author and a hotel and travel writer for Fodor's, Hotelier International and easyJet inflight magazine. EDITORIAL OFFICE

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ERRATUM in the summer 2009 issue ( no. 90), daniel boulud’s new restaurant was improperly identified ; the correct name is dbgb kitchen and bar. also in that issue, heather stimmler- hall was inadvertently omitted from the list of contributors.

Photo credits

AVANTAGES MEDIA Caroline Ducamin / Didier Cujives 99 route d’Espagne - Bâtiment A 31100 TOULOUSE Tel. 05/61-55-01-01 - Fax 05/61-53-90-94 Info @ avantagesmedia.com

A Taste of Le Fooding p. 24: ©alberto herraiz /so me, ©hélène builly/www.luebleylhine.com, ©zoé laugier, ©christoph niemann, ©jeanne verdoux, ©tim tomkinson, ©gianpaolo pagni ; p.

27: ©léa crespi ; pp. 28-29: photos

courtesy of danièle gerkens, julia sammut, clotilde dusoulier, kéda black and françois-régis gaudry.

Sèvres Then and Now pp. 30-31: Baxter Buck, ©réunion des musées nationaux /art resource, nyc; pp. 32-33: ed owen /hillwood museum

gardens-washington d.c., richard p. goodbody/private collection, national museum

of american history/smithsonian institution /kenneth e. behring center, the twinight collection ; pp.

34-35: ed & gardens-washington d.c., manufacture nationale de sèvres ; pp. 36-37: manufacture nationale de sèvres, ©réunion des musées nationaux /art resource, nyc. A Sustainable Feast p. 38: ©jacques guillard /scope ; pp. 40-41: ©david lefranc /office du tourisme de paris ; pp. 42-43: urban cab /paris, ©stephane cardinale /people aven, sophie robichon /mairie de paris, ©nicolas borel / musée du quai branly; pp. 44-45: serge ramelli, le jardin de cluny; pp. 46-47: best western premier regent’s gardens, ©a . schoenert/ bielsa , hôtel gavarni, le pain quotidien ; pp. 48-49: cojean, ©2009 le boulanger de monge ; p. 50: recycled by; pp. 52-53: pachacuti, lacoste, house of organic, numaru, ©2008 capucine bailly/ article 23, ekyog, g =9.8; pp. 54-55: chantal manoukian /la tonkinoise, louise fouin, matières à réflexion, mod8, etnies /colette, zaza factory; pp. 56-57: is b, honoré des prés, ©bruno cogez. owen /hillwood museum

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p h o t o c o u r t e s y o f L a R é s e r v e r a m at u e ll e

magazıne

f • The new Réserve

Ramatuelle on the French Riviera, a lovely fall destination. See Bon Voyage, page 14.

Edited by melissa omerberg

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Culture

Paris & the provinces

• “Death by Cotton Candy,”

part of Mexican artist Daniela Edburg’s “Drop Dead Gorgeous” series (2006), is featured in the biennial Photoquai festival.

paris

Buddhas of Shandong In 1996, construction workers in the city of Qingzhou, in China’s Shandong province, unearthed hundreds of stone Buddhist statues neatly arranged in a 645-square-foot pit— a discovery on a par with that of the First Emperor’s terra cotta warriors. Dating back to the 6th century, when Buddhist sculpture reached its apogee, they are particularly refined and sensuous; many still bear traces of gilding and painted details. The Musée Cernuschi offers a rare view of these works in Les Buddhas du Shandong, which includes stelae and freestanding figures, some monumental in size. Through Jan. 3, 2010; cernuschi.paris.fr. Tribute to Toulouse-Lautrec Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters conjure up the glory days of Belle Epoque Montmartre and its lively cabarets. In 2001, 100 graphic artists from around the world marked the centennial of Toulouse-Lautrec’s death with a “Nouveau

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Salon des Cent” that testified to the influence and originality of his vision. Hommages à Toulouse-Lautrec, Affichiste, at the Musée de la Publicité, displays these tributes along with some of the original posters that inspired them. Through Jan. 3, 2010; lesartsdecoratifs.fr. Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese During the second half of the 16th century, Venice’s artists were adapting the Mannerist style of painting popular in central Italy to suit their own, more naturalistic vision of the world. The Louvre compares and contrasts the work of the three greatest Venetian painters of this period in Titien, Tintoret, Véronèse… Rivalités à Venise, which, chronologically and thematically, explores the evolution of painting in the Most Serene Republic after 1540. Through Jan. 4, 2010; louvre.fr. Late Renoir In his seventies, Renoir declared that it had taken him 50 years of work before he began to understand how to paint. The Grand Palais’s Renoir au XXe siècle, the first monographic

study devoted to the artist since 1985, focuses on the final decades of the French master’s career, when he turned away from Impressionism and—through depictions of frolicking bathers, classical mythology and Mediterranean landscapes—embraced a more decorative, classical style. After Paris, the show travels to Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Through Jan. 4, 2010; grandpalais.fr. Brueghel, Memling, Van Eyck One of the most prestigious art collections of Central Europe, the Brukenthal Collection was assembled during the 18th century by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, a close advisor to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Brueghel, Memling, Van Eyck… La Collection Brukenthal,

on view at the Musée Jacquemart-André, features some 50 masterworks drawn from the collection. Spanning two centuries, they include portraits by Hans Memling and Jan van Eyck, landscapes by both Brueghels, still lifes by Jan Davidsz de Heem, genre scenes by David Teniers and mythological and religious paintings by Jacop Jordaens, as well as works

exhibits

by Titian and Lorenzo Lotto. Through Jan. 11, 2010; musee-jacquemart-andre.com. Pierre Soulages The Centre Pompidou presents a major retrospective devoted to one of France’s greatest living artists, Pierre Soulages. Known as the “painter of black and light,” Soulages is considered one of the major figures in postwar Abstraction; the show, which brings together more than 100 major works created since 1946, includes many recent paintings that have never before been displayed. Through Jan. 15, 2010; centrepompidou.fr. Surrealist Photography The Musée d’Orsay offers an exceptional overview of Surrealist photography in Subversion des Images: Surréalisme, photographie, film,

featuring some 400 works. The exhibit demonstrates the many ways in which the Surrealists used this medium: through magazine publications and artists’ books, advertising, assemblages, photo booth sessions, group photographs, the alteration of images and so on. As part of the show, the museum will also be screening a series of films and shorts directed by Luis Buñuel, Man Ray and Germaine Dulac. Through Jan. 15, 2010; centrepompidou.fr. Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany’s eye for color and composition, his love of glass and his flair for publicity made him a leader in American design. The Musée du Luxembourg’s Louis Comfort Tiffany: Couleurs et Lumière —the first French exhibit devoted to the artist since the 1900 Exposition Universelle—comprises some 160 pieces, among them his famous lamps, his exquisite stained-glass windows, glass vases in organic shapes, paintings and mosaics, and

the Louvre online The LOUVRE has just launched a free EnglishRI J K SMUSEUM , AMSTERDAM

language version of Atlas, its online collections database. Visitors to the museum’s Web site can now access information en anglais on some 22,000 works of art and can view high-res images of masterpieces—a boon for researchers, scholars, teachers, students and art lovers everywhere. louvre.fr.

original designs and period photographs. The show highlights Tiffany’s love of the exotic and his appreciation of rich ornamentation, his dedication to fine craftsmanship and his remarkable contributions to the design and technology of glass. Through Jan. 17, 2010; museeduluxembourg.fr. Fellini on Parade The Jeu de Paume focuses on one of Italy’s most revered film directors in Tutto Fellini: La Grande Parade. This multidisciplinary exhibit examines Fellini’s life, creative sources and prodigious cinematic output through photographs and film stills, drawings, posters, period articles and film clips. Oct. 20 through Jan. 17, 2010; jeudepaume.org. Turkey at the Louvre The Louvre celebrates La Saison de la Turquie en France with a trio of Turkish-themed exhibits. A la Cour du Grand Turc: Caftans du palais de Topkapi brings together lavishly embroidered caftans as well as jewelry and accessories that once belonged to the Ottoman rulers. Izmir, la Smyrne antique offers up a selection of ancient stone and terra cotta sculptures from Smyrna (modern-day Izmir), one of the most prominent cities of the Ionian coast. And Tombes princières d’Anatolie presents treasures from the necropolis of Alaca Hüyük, dating back to the third millennium BC. Through Jan. 18, 2010; louvre.fr. Madeleine Vionnet Considered a “designer’s designer” for her technical prowess and rigorous vision, Madeleine Vionnet is known for pioneering the bias cut, among other things. Inspired by ancient Greece, she also perfected the art of drapery, achieving an extraordinary purity of line.

to Jan Davidsz de Heem, “Still Life •withAttributed Flowers in a Glass” (c. 1675-1680) is on view at the Pinacothèque.

a major retrospective at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile, traces the career of this influential couturier whose rejection of the corset helped emancipate the female body. Through Jan. 24, 2010; lesartsdecoratif.fr. Madeleine Vionnet, Puriste de la Mode,

From Byzantium to Istanbul From the time it was founded, Byzantium, which became Constantinople and subsequently Istanbul, was a crossroads, a place where different cultures came together. Indeed, archeological evidence shows that there has been a port on the site for some 8,000 years. Byzance Istanbul: Un port pour deux continents,

at the Grand Palais, chronicles the history, evolution and culture of this ancient city through some 300 objects from Turkish, French and international collections. Oct. 10 through Jan. 25, 2010; grandpalais.fr. Art Nouveau Revival Overlooked and even discredited in the decades following its heyday, the Art Nouveau movement experienced periodic revivals— the Surrealists paid tribute to it in the 1930s, MoMA staged an “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition in 1940, and major exhibits were mounted in New York and Paris in 1959 and 1960—before it was finally rehabilitated in the 1960s. Art Nouveau Revival. Du design organique à l’affiche psychedélique.

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Culture Cherchez Les Femmes The Centre Pompidou is devoting its entire fourth floor and part of the fifth to female artists of the 20th century. Featuring more than 500 works drawn from the museum’s collection, elles@centrepompidou highlights the role of women in the artistic avant garde. A wide variety of media will be represented: painting, sculpture, photography, design, architecture, video, film…. Through May 24, 2010; centrepompidou.fr.

PROVINCES LE CATEAU-CAMBRÉSIS

Ubu’s Excellent Adventure Joan Miró appreciated poet and novelist Alfred Jarry’s verbal genius, subversive humor and burlesque characters. For him the monstrous Ubu, in particular, recalled Franco’s regime, and illustrating Ubu Roi offered him a satirical form of protest. Miró & Tériade, l’aventure d’Ubu, at the Musée Départemental Matisse, presents about 100 pieces by the Catalan artist, some of which were published by his friend Tériade. Among them are illustrated books, engravings, calligraphy, sculptures, stage sets and costumes, as well as photographs and films on Miró and Ubu. Oct. 25 through Jan. 31, 2010; cg59.fr/matisse.

• Titian’s “Venus with a Mirror” (c. 1555) is part of the Louvre’s “Titien, Tintoret, Véronese.” 1900 – 1933 – 1966 – 1974, at the Musée d’Orsay,

compares Art Nouveau creations with the works it inspired between 1950 and 1970 in such areas as furnishings, fashion, advertising, film and the graphics arts. Oct. 19 through Feb. 4, 2010; musee-orsay.org. James Ensor A key figure in the late 19th-century Belgian avant garde, James Ensor was an important forerunner of the Expressionist artists who emerged in the 20th century. The Musée d’Orsay’s monographic James Ensor explores this socially engaged painter’s innovative use of color and light, his scathing irony and his fascination with masks, disguises, role-playing and carnival. Oct. 20 through Feb. 4, 2010; musee-orsay.fr. 8

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From Rembrandt to Vermeer For the Dutch, the 17th century was a time of commercial growth and religious tolerance—a stark contrast with the rest of Europe, which was plagued by economic recession and intolerance. Amsterdam, a leading center of commerce and industry, drew writers and thinkers from all over the Continent, while newly rich businessmen vied to commission works of art that served as a symbol of their rise in society. The Pinacothèque de Paris looks at this period in L’Age d’Or Hollandais – De Rembrandt à Vermeer, which features more than 130 works and showcases in particular the importance of Rembrandt, the most influential artist of his era. Through Feb. 7, 2010; pinacotheque.com.

Cloud Cover The Musée Malraux’s rich collection of cloudscapes by Eugène Boudin inspired Les Nuages… là-bas…les merveilleux nuages! (the exhibition title is taken from a poem by Baudelaire). Some of Boudin’s paintings are even included in this show of cloud photography from the mid-19th century to today. But while he labored meticulously to capture the slightest atmospheric variation, many of the photographers whose work is represented in “Nuages” take a less literal, more playful and often poetic approach—witness Denis Olivier’s giraffe, whose long neck pierces the clouds, or Pierre et Gilles’s kitschy angel. Oct. 10 through Jan. 24, 2010; http://musee-malraux.ville-lehavre.fr. MARSEILLE

Art on Stage Painters as diverse as David, Delacroix, Moreau, Degas, Klimt, Toulouse-Lautrec and Vuillard shared a love for the stage. De la scène au tableau, at the Musée Cantini, analyzes the

N at i o n a l G a ll e r y o f A r t, W a s h i n g t o n , DC

LE HAVRE

ways in which theater and opera played a role in the creations of these and many other 18th- to early 20th-century masters, and how their work evolved as a consequence. Through Jan. 3, 2010; marseille.fr.

night at the opéra The big event of la rentrée is the Opéra Garnier production of Charles Gounod’s rarely staged “Mireille.” This tale of love and death in Provence is based on an epic poem by Frédéric Mistral and

RENNES

Tile Treasures Stunning Art Deco mosaics grace the façades and vestibules of many buildings in Rennes and other towns of western France. They were created by Odorico, a company founded by a family of Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. The Musée de Bretagne honors the artistry and talent of these master artisans in Odorico – Mosaïstes Art Déco, which presents intricate mosaic panels, objects, drawings, photographs, films—even a replica of a mosaic studio. Through Jan. 3, 2010; musee-bretagne.fr. SAINT-PAUL-DE-VENCE

Miró in His Garden A close friend of the Maeght family, Joan Miró was deeply involved in the creation of the Maeght Foundation and donated much of his work to that institution. Miró en son jardin includes 250 works by this 20th-century giant—from major paintings and sculptures to several pieces never before seen by the public— and occupies the entire museum and gardens. Through Nov. 8, fondation-maeght.com. VERSAILLES

Louis Louis For the first time ever, the Château de Versailles is devoting a large-scale exhibit to the man responsible for creating the vast palace and park. Louis XIV: L’Homme et le Roi delves

stars Inva Mula and Charles Castronovo (through Oct. 14). The Opéra’s BASTILLE venue too offers several new productions for the upcoming season: a much anticipated performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s hallucinatory “Die Tote Stadt” (Oct. 3 through Oct. 27); Umberto Giordano’s “Andréa Chenier” (Dec. 3 through Dec. 24); and Jules Massenet’s “Werther” (Jan. 14 through Feb. 4, 2010). Also of note: Natalie Dessay takes on her first Puccini role in the company’s production of “La Bohème,” singing the part of Musetta (Oct. 29 through Nov. 29). operadeparis.fr

into the monarch’s public image and personal tastes, painting a portrait of a passionate patron and connoisseur of the arts, including painting, theater, music, architecture and garden design. The château has amassed more than 300 ancien régime masterpieces—canvases, sculptures, furniture and objets—from collections worldwide. Oct. 20 through Feb. 7, 2010; chateauversailles.fr.

FESTIVALS FIAC The FIAC, Paris’s International Contemporary Art Fair, brings nearly 200 of the world’s finest modern and contemporary art galleries to the Grand Palais, the Louvre’s Cour Carrée and the Tuileries Gardens. Highlights include solo exhibitions of work

by Rachel Whiteread, George Condo, John A rmleder and Tony Cragg, as well as shows devoted to Italian Futurism, early 20th-century German Expressionism and major figures of the Dada movement. Accompanying the FIAC is a program of fringe events around the city. Oct. 22 through Oct. 25; fiac.com. Photoquai Photoquai, a biennial festival showcasing non-Western photography, takes over the Quai Branly opposite the eponymous museum this fall. Featuring some 50 contemporary photographers, the event is designed to highlight the work of artists who are still unknown or little known in Europe while encouraging dialogue and new ways of viewing the world. Each Friday throughout the festival, the museum across the street will host meetings and discussions with photographers and curators as well as lectures, films, roundtable discussions and other events. Sept. 22 through Nov. 22; photoquai.fr. Pompidou Festival The brand-new Festival Pompidou offers five weeks of exhibitions, shows, lectures, screenings, concerts, performances and live painting. Situated in and around the museum, the event also includes a component at the Conciergerie’s Hall of Weapons, where Christian Rizzo presents 60 artworks showing every facet of the human body. Among the many artists participating are Carsten Höller, Andreas Blum, Jorge Pardo, Boris Chamtz, Cécile Bart, Shary Boyle, Steven Gontarski and Ai Weiwei. Oct. 21 through Nov. 23; centrepompidou.fr.

bathroom mosaic •byAartist Isidore Odorico (1939), displayed at Rennes’s Musée de Bretagne.

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spotlight on... Lyon’s Biennale d’Art Contemporain If you’re an art lover, Lyon is clearly the place to be this fall. The city’s BIENNALE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN—accompanied by a slew of cuttingedge shows and happenings region-wide—runs for three months and has enough breadth and depth to satisfy the cravings of even the most hard-core culture vultures. Organizers tapped the Paris- and San-Francisco-based Hou Hanru to curate this 10th edition of the Biennale. With several groundbreaking exhibits and festivals to his name, Hou is hailed as one of the most innovative and dynamic young art critics and curators anywhere—and one of the first to examine such issues as globalization, mobility and identity. This year’s theme, “Le Spectacle du Quotidien,” explores, among other things, the “magical” transformation of everyday objects, situations and environments through art. Featuring some 60 painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers and installation artists from more than 25 countries, the festival also promotes interaction with its host city through “Vivons Ensemble,” a program of lectures, debates and performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In a similar vein, the festival’s VEDUTA project offers a window onto local life. As part of the program, several artists are living in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations, collaborating with residents and producing new works of art to be displayed at Biennale locations and in the neighborhoods themselves. On the sidelines of the official Biennale, some 80 galleries, cultural institutions, art centers and collectives are participating in RÉSONANCE, the traditional “off” festival with events throughout the Rhone-Alpes region. Look for theater and dance performances, concerts, film, exhibits, street shows and more. Making it easy to get around, river shuttles will link the four major festival venues every weekend during the Biennale. The ride is free for anyone with a Biennale ticket. Through Jan. 3, 2010; biennaledelyon.com.

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A n i ta K a n / C o ll e c t i o n Y e h R o n g J a i C u lt u r e & A r t F o u n d at i o n , Ta i w a n

Lee Mingwei explores cycles of destruction and creation in “Guernica in Sand,” coming to the Lyon Biennale. After replicating Picasso’s famous •painting, the artist sweeps over it, creating an ephemeral new work of abstract art.

Beaux Livres MADELEINE VIONNET

edited by Pamela Golbin, principal photography by Patrick Gries

As curator of the Vionnet exhibit currently on view in Paris, Golbin is probably the world’s top authority on the designer—an iconoclast who pioneered the bias cut, experimented with drapery and introduced social responsibility into the workplace. Along with an imaginary “interview” with Vionnet compiled from various unpublished texts, this stylish volume—a fashion “must”—serves up a dazzling array of frocks and evening gowns accompanied by original patterns and archival images. Rizzoli, $75.

JACQUES GRANGE INTERIORS

by Pierre Passebon

Considered one of the world’s most influential designers, Jacques Grange has created striking interiors for the international glitterati; his satisfied customers include Princess Caroline of Monaco and members of the Rothschild family. As we see in some 200 photographs taken in New York, Paris, London, Venice and Marrakech, Grange excels at blending North African and Western influences; his eclectic style, a delicate balance of understatement and rococo, is distinctly masculine. Flammarion, $75.

THE HISTORY OF PARIS IN PAINTING

edited by Georges Duby and Guy Lobrichon

This 15-pound tome traces the history of the French capital from medieval times to the present through stunningly reproduced canvases. A work of art in and of itself, this magnificent visual history combines instantly recognizable masterpieces with many other works that may be less familiar to non-art historians but offer an evocative view of Paris life through the centuries. Along with more than 300 color plates, it includes several spectacular two-page spreads and four-page foldouts. Abbeville Press, $235.

A DANGEROUS LIAISON

by Carole Seymour-Jones

Seymour-Jones examined new primary sources for this dual biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, conducting fresh interviews and delving into previously unavailable correspondence. The result is a page-turning account of the lifelong relationship between two of the 20th century’s most influential intellectuals against the backdrop of their wartime activities, their political and social engagement, and Sartre’s enduring blind spot vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. The Overlook Press, $35.

GEORGE BARBIER The Birth of Art Deco

edited by Barbara Martorelli

Born in Nantes, George Barbier (1882-1932) was eclipsed by many of his more renowned contemporaries—Erté, Poiret, Aubrey Beardsley—yet was a key figure in the Art Deco movement. Martorelli, who recently curated an exhibit on the artist in Venice, Italy, hopes to restore him to his rightful place. This new book, created for the exhibit, showcases Barbier’s fashion illustrations, his set and costume designs for theater and ballet, and his illustrations for books, magazines and posters. Universe, $50.

THE HEART OF BORDEAUX Crus Classés de Graves by Hugh Johnson, Michel Bettane, James Lawther Several of the most distinguished names in wine writing have joined forces with Bordeaux photographer Alain Benoit and 14 leading French chefs to create this luscious tribute to the Grands Crus Classés de Graves. Profiles of each of the classification’s 16 châteaux provide an intimate look at the land, the people and the history of these storied estates, while inspired—and inspiring—recipes give readers one more reason to indulge in these great wines. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $50.

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On Screen

Music

35 SHOTS OF RUM While the meaning of the titular 35 shots of rum may be obscure, the

Various Artists On n’est pas là pour se faire engueuler

loving bond between Lionel (Alex Descas), an RER train operator, and his college-aged daughter, Joséphine (Mati Diop), is clear from their first scene together. The warmth of their apartment and their end-of-the-day mealtime ritual contrasts sharply with the cold comings and goings of commuter trains from the opening sequence. Lionel has raised his daughter as a single parent, and while both are protective of their stable cocoon, their closeness is challenged by her deepening affection for their neighbor Noé (Grégoire Colin). In his sixth film by director Claire Denis, Colin brings vulnerability and comic relief to the role of Noé, a traveling businessman at a turning point. Slated Alex Descas stars release: September. in 35 Shots of Rum. (Cinema Guild)

•

PARIS Romain Duris is a familiar face in Cédric Klapisch’s films—they have collaborated

six times since the director’s career-making Le péril jeune. He stars in this newest work as Pierre, a cabaret dancer awaiting a heart transplant. Confined to contemplating the street below his apartment, his observations serve as neat segues into subplots that introduce other characters and show more of the city’s geography, putting more of Paris into Paris. Juliette Binoche co-stars as Pierre’s sister, a frazzled (but luminous as ever) social worker and single parent of three young children who moves her family into his apartment to keep him company. Slated release: September. (IFC Films)

new on dvd NÉNETTE + BONI (1996) Boni (Grégoire

Colin) is a deeply disturbed young man whose tender affection for his pet rabbit contrasts sharply with the violent sexual fantasies that he pens about the baker’s friendly wife (Valéria Bruni Tedeschi). When his streetwise, pregnant teenage sister, Nénette, arrives on his doorstep, Boni’s protective nature conquers his initial resentment. He accompanies his sister on her doctor’s visits and thwarts communication attempts from their abusive father. However, a sweet coming-of-age film this is not; its unnerving ending lingers long after the credits have rolled past. Directed by Claire Denis. (Strand Releasing) MÉNAGE (1986) While bickering in a soup kitchen, Antoine (Michel Blanc) and

Monique (Miou-Miou), a miserable married couple, cross paths with Bob (Gérard Dépardieu), a charismatic thief. Bob takes the fledgling robbers under his wing—in more ways than one—in this sexually charged ’80s comedy. Viewers should be prepared to see a lot of the colossal Dépardieu, who at one point appears clad in tight-fitting tiger-striped undies. Written and directed by Bertrand Blier with music by Serge Gainsbourg. (Koch Lorber) MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ (1981) Louis Malle’s unconventional film about a conversation is probably the only movie to have inspired both an Andy Kaufman spoof and a Simpsons video game. The plot—a two-hour discussion over quail and drinks between a struggling playwright, Wally (Wallace Shawn), and his friend André (André Gregory), a successful theater

Additional film and music reviews as well as sound clips are available on francemagazine.org.

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

A veritable Who’s Who of the French recording industry, from Jeanne Moreau to Olivia Ruiz, this tribute album celebrates the music of Boris Vian, 50 years after his death. The variety in this two-disc set testifies to the versatility of the jazz-loving musician, novelist, sculptor, actor and translator, who accomplished much in his brief 39 years. (AZ/Universal) Benjamin Biolay La Superbe

Musician and budding film star Benjamin Biolay has had a busy year—he provided the string arrangements for Carla Bruni’s Comme si de rien n’ était and earned a César nomination for his role in the film Stella. He somehow also found the time to record his fifth studio album, which explores his affection for the ’80s British music scene. (Naïve)

director—might be low on thrills, but it is quietly captivating. Surprisingly enough, this seemingly improvised, very New York film was actually meticulously scripted and filmed mostly on a set in Virginia. (Criterion Collection) REPULSION (1965) This psychologically terrifying second feature from Roman Polanski is a campy, low-budget flick (financed by porn producers) starring a fresh-faced Catherine Deneuve as Carol, a frigid, psychopathic manicurist. Left alone by her vacationing sister in their London apartment, Carol tumbles down a path of mental deterioration and murder that would make Hitchcock fans squirm in their seats. Extras include an informative behindthe-scenes look at the filming featuring interviews with Polanski and Deneuve. (Criterion Collection)

By RACHEL BEAMER

C a r o l e B e ll a ï c h e / u n i f r a n c e

Sons & Images

Bon Voyage

Notes for the savvy traveler ABRACADABRA

If one of your three wishes just happens to be a guided tour of a real working Paris bakery with The idyllic new La Réserve Ramatuelle. •Inset: a detail from the hotel spa.

the opportunity to roll up your sleeves

GRAND HOTELS

• La Réserve Ramatuelle, a stunning 23-room hotel and spa near Saint-Tropez, opened its doors this summer. Designed by renowned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the hilltop property combines a serene, contemporary décor with picture-postcard views of the Mediterranean. Its restaurant, Accueil, offers healthful, sophisticated cuisine with a local accent. From €400; lareserve-ramatuelle.com. • Hôtel Le Bristol inaugurates its seven-story addition this fall. The new wing’s façade preserves the Haussmanian style of the original structure while 26 rooms and suites feature classic Louis XV and Louis XVI furnishings. A new bistro offers the same high-caliber fare served at Alain Fréchon’s three-star restaurant gastronomique but in a less formal setting. lebristolparis.com • The Hôtel Cristal Champs-Elysées, a new boutique hotel just steps from Paris’s most famous boulevard, began welcoming guests in September. Designed by Mattia Bonetti, famed for his colorful baroque creations, the establishment features 26 rooms—each unique—spread over five floors surrounding a curved staircase; one story houses an entirely private apartment. The hotel gets its name from the profusion of crystal sprinkled through the décor. From €240; hotel-le-cristal.com.

own crusty baguette, buttery croissant and sweet pastry, My Genie in Paris can

make it happen. The three-hour tours are in French and English, with breakfast included.

paris pages

• Paris Secrets by Janelle McCulloch. Journalist McCulloch trains her lens on Paris’s architecture, interiors, neighborhoods and hidden corners in this beautifully designed volume; her seductive images capture the quintessential charm and ambiance of the City of Light. Images Publishing, $60. • Paris Postcards by Leonard Pitt. The invention of postcards in the 19th century revolutionized communications and sparked a worldwide collecting craze. The vintage views contained in this new book constitute a unique and sometimes quirky time capsule of early 20th-century life in the French capital. Counterpoint, $21.95. • Paris Underground by Mark Ovenden. Sure to appeal to transit buffs, this comprehensive history of the Paris Métro serves up informative anecdotes as well as a wealth of graphics including maps, diagrams, and historical and contemporary photographs. Penguin Paperback Original, $25.

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

€85 per person; Tel. 404/216-6217; mygenieinparis.com.

L a R é s e r v e r a m at u e ll e ; © V e r u s k a19 6 9 / f o t o l i a

(p)

and make your

Bon Voyage

Notes for the savvy traveler

TABLE TALK

Three new Paris restaurants, all at the top of the Paris buzz-o-meter: • For a gourmet meal with the best views in town, try snagging a seat at Art Home, a temporary glass and metal “concept” restaurant perched atop the Palais de Tokyo (opposite the Eiffel Tower) until July 2010. Designed to accommodate 12 people at a single table, Art Home offers an innovative menu that changes daily. €60 for lunch and €80 for dinner (includes wine and Champagne); book online a month in advance. art-home-electrolux.com.

• Art Home, the

hip and ephemeral restaurant atop the Palais de Tokyo.

PREPARING FOR TAKEOFF

Beginning on November 23, Air France’s new wide-bodied, doubledecker A380 will make two daily flights between New York and Paris (excluding Wednesdays). To mark the occasion, the carrier is auctioning off 380 seats on each of its inaugural flights; profits will fund three humanitarian projects

• Frenchie, an

unpretentious little bistro in the Sentier district, offers amazingly fresh ingredients prepared with signature flair by Chef Greg Marchand, nicknamed “Frenchie” when he worked at New York’s Gramercy Tavern. He also did a stint in London under Jamie Oliver, but in spite of those fine-dining creds, his three-course menu is surprisingly affordable. €19 for lunch and €33 for dinner; 5 rue du Nil, 2e; Tel. 33/1-40-39-96-19; frenchie-restaurant.com. • The most talked-about restaurant of all hasn’t even opened yet: This winter, Lyon’s Michelin-starred chef Nicolas Le Bec will bring a symphony of flavors to the Opéra Garnier when he launches a new gastronomic restaurant in the cultural landmark. Guests will enter the 200-seat establishment from rue Auber, under the Pavillon de l’Empereur. operadeparis.fr

benefiting children in southern France, South Africa and India. For information on bookings and the online auction, slated for October,

• River Reductions No matter how many times you’ve done it, a cruise on the Seine never loses its charm, especially if you go after sunset when the city looks like a movie set. For substantial savings, buy your cruise vouchers in advance online ( just €7 instead of €12 on the boat); they can be used anytime within a year of purchase. vedettesdupontneuf.fr • All that Jazz In an effort to make jazz music more accessible and attract new fans, several Parisian jazz clubs now offer free concerts on the weekends. They include the Duc des Lombards ( jam sessions Friday and Saturday from midnight; ducdeslombards.com), the Sunside/Sunset (Saturday and Sunday from 9 P.M.; sunset-sunside.com) and the Caveau des Oubliettes (all concerts free; caveaudesoubliettes.fr). • Wine and Song Get your authentic French chanson fix at Au Limonaire, a scruffy yet convivial bistro à vins et à chansons tucked away on a side street near the Grands Boulevards. Live shows by local and up-and-coming French singers and musicians are featured nightly, with donations collected in a hat at the end of the performance. Come earlier if you’d like to eat; reservations are a must. Tuesday through Saturday from 10 P.M.; http://limonaire.free.fr. 16

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

visit airfrance.us.

kl e i n e f e n n ; a i r b u s

Good deals

Nouveautés

What’s in store TOP DRAWER Tadao Hoshino’s playful aphrodite chest for Ligne Roset only looks precarious. In fact, this solid beech structure—whose cantilevered drawers can produce a variety of effects, depending on how far they’re opened or closed—is as stable as can be, thanks to the fixed bottom drawer with its heavy steel counterbalance. $4,435 for a five-drawer unit; $6,745 for eight drawers; ligne-roset-usa.com.

FEATS OF CLAY The talented young ceramic artist Clémentine Dupré, who opened her Paris studio last year, crafts limoges porcelain bowls, pitchers, cups and wall pieces. Some feature a pebbled texture created by applying individual drops of liquid porcelain by syringe. Sometimes graphic, often sculptural, her handmade works are always exquisite. €20 to €700; clementinedupre.com.

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

l i g n e r o s e t; l a c o s t e ; At e l i e r Cl é m e n t i n e D u p r é / a n t h o n y g i r a r d i

FOOT FETISH Zaha Hadid is considering a different sort of arch—not the kind on buildings, but on feet. The eminent architect’s ergonomic rubber footwear for Lacoste is based on a digital rendition of the company logo and forms a “graphic, undulating landscape” around the ankle and calf. €300 to €500; lacoste.com.

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE Anyone would feel in charge seated behind this big boss desk. Designed by Marco Zanuso, Jr., for Artelano, a French producer of highend contemporary furniture, this streamlined beauty—an urbanhipster relative of the campaign desk— comes in black- or white-lacquered MDF or in a wenge-stained oak veneer. $3,240; artelano.com.

NOTE WORTHY The iconic rhodia notepad fêtes its 75th birthday this year. On hand for the party: British fashion designer Paul Smith, who, it turns out, is never without his bloc-notes. The couturier has come up with a lighthearted series of limited-edition line drawings to adorn the pads—in black ink on an orange background, or white ink on a black background. Available in three sizes; $2.75 to $5.50. bloc-rhodia.com

a rtel a no ; e x acl air ; courtesy of a nne d e l a ja rtre ; Duend e Studio

PYRAMID SCHEMES

BUBBLE WHAMMY les bulles de nua are

the first in a new line of poetic objets by Marie Macon and Anne-Laure Lesquoy for Red Edition, a French furniture and design company. Made of nua bamboo and lacquered on the inside, they offer an original way to store treasures. Available in three sizes and three colors. €125 for the two smaller sizes, sold together; €185 for the large size. rededition.com

Statistics are made solid in Mathieu Lehanneur’s highconcept age of the world containers. Produced in Vallauris, these glossy black jars and urns are threedimensional representations of population pyramids, showing the distribution of age groups in various countries. From bottom to top there are 100 strata. Look for these slightly spooky ceramics at Issey Miyake (11 rue Royale) this October during fashion week; individual pieces may be commissioned after the show. mathieulehanneur.com

OBAÏBI BABY

The French children’s clothing store Obaïbi has just opened its very first freestanding boutique on this side of the Atlantic. Located on New York’s Upper East Side, the little shop—which caters to fashionable tots aged 0-5—features togs, accessories and layette items that are ethical, practical, fun and cute enough to eat. 1296 Madison Avenue; obaibi.fr. F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

Interview

Christopher Hampton

When superstar French playwright Yasmina Reza snagged a Tony Award this past June for God of Carnage, she told the audience that she shared the honor with “my dearest Christopher.” Indeed, Christopher Hampton, translator of God of Carnage and four of her other plays, has been integral to Reza’s international success.

A celebrated writer, Hampton has collected a few trophies of his own, including an Academy Award in 1989 for scripting Dangerous Liaisons. He has since written screenplays for such popular movies as Atonement (2007) and, earlier this year, Cheri. He has also penned a dozen plays, lyrics for two Broadway musicals and two opera librettos, and is currently working on another play about British colonialism as well as a screenplay about his childhood. In spite of these many endeavors, translation remains dear to the heart of this Oxford-educated artist. God of Carnage—starring James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and Marcia Gay Harden—centers around two couples who meet when one of their sons beats up the other’s son on the playground, breaking a few teeth. Their conversation is initially courteous and civilized but quickly degenerates, revealing just how thin a social veneer can be. The title refers to a line spoken by Alan (played by Jeff Daniels), the father of the assailant, who says that man’s natural inclination is to be brutal and violent, that little boys in Africa are taught to kill when they are only eight years old, and 20

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

that he believes in the god of carnage. The Broadway version represents the first time that Hampton has shifted the setting of a Reza play—in this case, from Paris to Brooklyn—in order to better connect with an American audience. France Magazine caught up with the long-haired Hampton on a rainy summer day in London to ask him about these and other challenges involved in translating Yasmina Reza.

First, tell us about your relationship with Yasmina Reza.

We have a very good relationship. We’ve known one another for more than 10 years now. So we know each other’s ways. She certainly isn’t afraid to express herself forcibly about what she thinks works and doesn’t work.

on the challenges and pleasures of translating yasmina reza by Sara Romano

a way that will suit an actor! In interviews, she sometimes says that she suffers when her plays are done in other languages. But you know, there is no alternative. How is her English?

It wasn’t so good when we first met, but unfortunately, it has gotten very good! [He chuckles.] So there’s nothing that gets past her. How did you come to meet her and work with her?

I had a wonderful agent named Margaret Ramsay. She was everybody’s agent—Vanessa Redgrave played her in the film Prick Up Your Ears. She used to send me things that she thought I might find interesting. In the ’80s, she sent me Conversations After a Burial, Yasmina’s first play. I read it, and with stage director Howard Davies, who had done my version of Liaisons Dangereuses, we tried to get various theaters to take a look at it because we thought it was an interesting play. But no one wanted to do it. It’s very hard to get foreign plays produced in London.

So she’s difficult?

No, she’s meticulous. That’s as it should be. Sometimes she becomes exasperated and says, “Well, English isn’t a very rich language, is it?” I have to point out that it’s actually incredibly rich. It’s just that there isn’t any way of saying this or that particular thing in

And why is that?

I think it’s because we’re very insular. You have to wonder whether we English believe that somehow, because of Shakespeare, our plays are more interesting than anyone else’s. There is all sorts of interesting work going

• Christopher Hampton set the Broadway version of Yasmina Reza’s Le Dieu du Carnage in Brooklyn rather than Paris. In this scene, the civil discussion

between two couples played by (left to right) Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini degenerates into aggressive confrontation.

on over in Europe, but you just can’t get anyone to do it here.

So how did you manage to finally work with Reza?

A few years later, I was staying in Paris, working on something or other, and I went out to get a sandwich. I walked past the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and saw that they were putting on this play called Art. Then I saw that it was by Yasmina. I went up to the box office to buy a ticket for that evening, but they were sold out for weeks to come. Aha, I thought, this is very interesting! That evening, I managed to find a return ticket and saw the play. I loved it. When I got back to London, I asked my agent to try to get the rights. He looked into

it and reported back to me that they belonged to Sean Connery. I told him, “Don’t be ridiculous.” A few days later, Sean Connery rang me up and asked me if I would like to translate it, and I said yes. What did Sean Connery do with the rights to that play?

audiences love. The plays are extremely elegant and economic; there’s not a word wasted. Everything is to the purpose. Art actually effected a change in the way people go to the theater. Her model of a 90minute performance and no intermission— everybody in and out in an hour and a half—audiences love that.

He made a lot of money. His wife Micheline, who’s French, had seen the play and told him about it. That’s how he became involved.

In the translation of Art, you kept all of the names in French.

What is it about Yasmina Reza that resonates so powerfully throughout the world?

People recognize the truth of the situations that she puts her characters in. Everybody has experienced those stresses and strains. There’s the comedy of recognition, which

We had a debate about that. I remember the very first meeting with Sean Connery and the other producers, it was in a restaurant in the West End. They asked me if I would set it in London, but I said no, because it is a very French play. I didn’t think that an audience would believe that three Englishmen would F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

get into a tremendous row over a painting. It just wouldn’t work. All of her plays that have been presented in London and New York exist in two versions: an English version and an American version. American is a different language, and you wind up making five or six changes per page. The sentences are constructed differently. Typically, we get together with the actors a few days before rehearsals, go through the play and translate it into American. They suggest the changes?

Well, no, I suggest them. I go in with the changes that I’ve made, then the actors tell me what modifications they want made, and what lines don’t sound comfortable to them. Eventually we get an American translation. When we got together just • Christopher Hampton, Yasmina Reza and Marcia Gay Harden at the 2009 Tonys, where Reza’s God of Carnage before Christmas, somebody—I picked up awards for Best Play, Best Lead Actress (Marcia Gay Harden) and Best Direction (Matthew Warchus). don’t quite remember who—said, Art is a great play. Do you think God of idiom is somehow closer to French than “Why don’t we set this one in English is. America?” At first, Yasmina and I both said, Carnage is as great a work? “Oh, no, no, no.” We automatically rejected Yes, I do. I think it absolutely nails somethe idea. Then both of us thought about thing about middle-class possessiveness and Because it’s more direct and less it, and realized that there isn’t actually any- pride and all the various competitive neuro- restrained? thing in this particular play that localizes it ses that people suffer from. I think it defines I don’t know what it is. She has said to me many times, “I’m always longing for my in France. If it were set in the United States, all of that very lucidly. plays to go to America, because I prefer what the actors would feel more comfortable, the Do you know what Reza is working on now? you do in America to what you do here in audiences would feel more comfortable. One of the actors lives in Brooklyn. We I don’t, actually. It’s always a nice surprise. I London.” I think she likes the informality of thought Brooklyn might work—it is a specif- just wait and see. By the same token, the first it more, the really gloves-off feeling that you ic area, the equivalent of the arrondissement time she saw the American version of God of get with American actors. where the play is set. We put in all the local Carnage was the night before the Tonys. Evreferences. So the flower shop at Mouton- eryone was very apprehensive, but she loved There’s a scene in the British version where

of her plays. She thinks the American idiom is somehow closer to French than English is.” Duvernet becomes a Korean deli. Instead of the Parc Montsouris, we have Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Park and Walt Whitman Park. Instead of the Métro, there is the El, and so on. 22

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

it, and everyone felt very relieved. I think I’m right in saying that she always prefers the American version to the English version. She thinks the American

No, sympathique means “nice” in English. But I used “sympathetic” because it sounds amusing. Yasmina and I often have this conversation. For some reason, audiences tend to laugh at her plays more in Great Britain or America than they do in France. This disturbs her a little bit. Initially, she thought I was slipping extra jokes into Art. But it has nothing to do with that. It is because a turn of phrase and the manipulation of turns of phrases just strikes an audience here or in America as more comic.

Bruce Glik as / FilmMagic

“I think that Yasmina always prefers the American to the English version

Alain says to Véronique: ‘You’re motivated by an educational impulse which is sympathetic.’ In French, the word is sympathique. Does that translate as “sympathetic”?

Comic or pretentious?

I don’t know, but I probably nudge her plays a little closer to being comic. When translated, French can seem pompous, don’t you think? Do you exaggerate that?

Yes, translated French can sound pompous, but no, I don’t exaggerate that. I think I always translate as accurately as I possibly can.

So Reza’s success is not a product of circumstance and luck?

I don’t think so. Because she’s been so successful, people tend to resent her. There’s something about success that people react against.

started out, they were quite interested in other cultures. Then at some point, sometime during the early 19th century, they changed to wanting to impose their own. So I’m very interested in that moment. Why is this particular play taking so long?

Let’s talk about you for a minute. You had an extraordinary childhood, growing up in different countries around the world.

Mostly in Egypt. From the ages of 5 to 10,

A play is such a difficult thing, and to get it absolutely right, it takes forever. When I was very young, I was writing a play every three years. Now, it takes me five or six years.

So you are translating, not adapting?

Oh, I never adapt. First of all, she wouldn’t let me, and secondly, I wouldn’t want to. They’re really separate philosophies. You are a very good writer yourself. You don’t find it frustrating to translate?

No, I love it. Translation uses completely different muscles than those you use when writing your own play. I sometimes say that it’s like going to the gym. I like to work with the language, I like to find the best ways of expressing what the author wanted to say. When I’m writing a play, it’s a slow process that can take many years. But I can finish a translation in a few weeks. Yasmina Reza doesn’t take several years to write her plays.

No, she doesn’t, she’s quicker than I am. She’s a phenomenon. I don’t know whether any other foreign writer has ever won a Tony. She’s won two—one for Art and another for God of Carnage. What she’s done is pretty extraordinary. We in Britain may be insular, we may be opposed to doing foreign plays, but Broadway is all that to the nth degree.

“Translation uses completely different muscles than those you

use when writing your own play. I sometimes say that it’s like going to the gym.” I lived in Alexandria, which is a place I absolutely love. My father was working for a company called Cable & Wireless, he was a radio engineer. And I was very unhappy when I had to come back to England. I have written a screenplay about my childhood, and I want to turn it into a film. What did you like about Alexandria?

It was very relaxed and cosmopolitan and Mediterranean and warm and friendly. You come here, and it’s the middle of summer, and everyone is walking around with umbrellas. [He points to the Londoners running in the August torrents.] It’s a weird country to suddenly land in at age 11. It’s like Proust said: All paradises are lost paradises. My lost paradise is Egypt, Alexandria.

Are you working on any movies?

I do get a lot of novels sent to me, but very rarely do I find one that seems right. I found Atonement myself; I read it and really wanted to do it. But there are a lot of very good novels that won’t make very good films; they just don’t have a dramatic shape. There’s a difference between the way a novel unfolds and what happens in a movie. In particular, there’s a difference between novels and what you need to deliver at the end of a movie. I like working on masterpieces. Cheri is a masterpiece, I think. I like working on books that I love, and a lot of the books I love are French. Why is that?

I’ve written a draft. I’m meeting with Colin Firth, I’ve asked him to play my dad. I don’t know him, I’ve never worked with him before, but he seems very keen. He likes the script very much.

That’s what I studied at university. I’ve always had a particular feeling for it. Liaisons is at the beginning of the period of literature that I really like, and Cheri is near the end. Between 1770 and 1920, there were 150 years of great French novels. I just adore Balzac and Flaubert and Zola and Proust.

So you were one of the catalysts of her international success?

What else are you working on now?

Although you haven’t done any of those.

I guess so. It really goes back to Peggy Ramsay. She said “Look, pay attention to this one.” God knows, there are a lot of plays produced in France every year. I read a lot of them, and some of them are very good. It’s finding the jewel that is the challenge.

There’s a play that I’ve been working on for a long time. It’s about the British in India. It takes place at the turn of the 19th century, the same era as Liaisons—around the time that the British first formulated the idea of colonialism and exploitation. When they

No, I haven’t. We talked with Stephen Frears about doing La Chartreuse de Parme, but it’s too big. I’ve also considered L’Education sentimentale. But it’s very very difficult to get people interested in these things. Even in France.

Could that be because she wrote Art when contemporary art was starting to explode in popularity?

No, I don’t think that it has anything to do with that. I think it has to do with the fact that, from the night the play opened in London, it was a phenomenon.

Is the movie of your life being made?

F r a nce • FA L L 20 09

Opposite page:

Le Fooding cultivates a youthful image by inviting edgy graphic designers to create artwork for its posters, menus, guidebooks and ads.

This fall, the first Fooding event was held stateside. The name may sound a bit confounding, but as New Yorkers discovered, it simply means that French cuisine is loosening up. By Renée Schettler

hundreds of strangers mingling outdoors, casually sipping Rhône wines and Champagne from plastic cups and sampling small plates of informal fare made by classically trained French chefs in makeshift tent kitchens? New Yorkers now know there’s only one name for it: le fooding. The term was coined in 1999 by French journalist Alexandre Cammas, who first used it in the hip Parisian monthly Nova. A melding of “food” and “feeling,” it was inspired by his encounters with chefs who were working tirelessly in some of the city’s most illustrious and ambitious kitchens yet were yearning to strike out on their own. These were professionals who had spent their entire careers aspiring to the

What do you call a gathering of

highest restaurant ratings but had come to realize, says Cammas, that they would be far happier if they could instead open a small, relaxed place down the street, surround themselves with friends and family, and cook what they wanted from one day to the next. Through this new term, he wanted to convey a new idea: When chefs are allowed “to think like they actually think and not like they are supposed to think,” they pour passion into their food. Later that year, Le Fooding also became the name of the organization that Cammas, then 28, founded with fellow journalist Emmanuel Rubin. Their intent was to support these chefs by introducing restaurant-goers to the altogether foreign notion that fine Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

French food didn’t have to be formal or formulaic. Nearly a decade later, Le Fooding continues to unapologetically upend notions of what French cuisine is—and is not. Its strategic weapons have included surprising streetside tastings, edgy restaurant guides, a flashy Web site and a series of shockingly informal celebrity chef events. “Le Fooding is all about freedom,” says Cammas. “It’s not about pizza or gourmet fare or any other single type of cooking. We support any cuisine that is made with sincerity, anything a chef puts his soul into.” Americans had the opportunity to experience the concept firsthand when Cammas and his crew staged “Le Fooding d’Amour Paris-New York” this past September. Perhaps best described as an urban picnic, the event took place over the course of two evenings at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens. It showcased a dozen chefs—six from Paris, six from New York—who are the organization’s current darlings, chosen not for their fame but for their inventive spirit. Among those dishing out platefuls of their trademark cuisine as well as a soupçon of their cooking philosophy were Yves Camdeborde, William Ledeuil, Inaki Aizpitarte, David Chang and Daniel Boulud. Complementing the food were custom cocktails by mixologists as well as Chapoutier wine and Veuve Clicquot Champagne. It was time, says Cammas, to demonstrate to Americans that French food is not, by definition, intimidating. Le Fooding had to convince the French of that. Cammas explains that unlike America, France was long in the grip of a rigid restaurant hierarchy that consisted essentially of two tiers: formal establishments that sought recognition from Michelin and other guides for their refined cuisine and near-clairvoyant service, and inexpensive brasseries and bistros with all the familiar trappings and fare. “There was nothing in between,” he says. Over the years, this rigid structure became a bit too predictable for many chefs and diners. Then in 1992, the beginnings of a quiet revolution were set in motion when chef Yves Camdeborde left the two-star Les Ambassadeurs at the Hôtel de Crillon to open a small restaurant in the 14th arrondissement. Christened La Régalade, it embraced the casual spirit of a bistro yet had the precisely executed cuisine of those most rarefied gastronomic experiences. “At Les Ambassadeurs, it was almost as if customers were going to a museum rather than a restaurant,” says Camdeborde. “They even seemed to enter with a sense of apprehension. I wanted to create something different, to give them the same quality of food but in a manner that conveyed some personality. And I wanted them to enjoy it in a more relaxed atmosphere.” In the nearly two decades since, dozens of other chefs BUt at First,

F r a n ce • f a l l 2009

“This kind of dining is what most people want when they go out with friends. They want good food, they want to have a good time, and they don’t want to be intimidated.”

have followed in Camdeborde’s nonconformist steps, applying their perfectly honed skills and pent-up imaginations to creating a new kind of restaurant experience: one that blends great food, convivial settings and prices that don’t require taking out a second mortgage. Le Fooding has been their biggest cheerleader. Initially, these renegade restaurants were relegated to the fringes of Paris, where rents were less expensive; now unconventional eateries permeate the city. Camdeborde currently runs Le Comptoir du Relais on the Left Bank, which offers an elegant bistro-inspired menu by day and an inventive five-course €50 menu by night. Other acolytes of this new freewheeling regime include chefs Ledeuil, Aizpitarte, Alain Passard, Guy Martin and Alberto Herráiz, to name just a few. Most embrace a simpler design aesthetic, one that reflects the sensibilities of their cooking, says Cammas. But if a chef wants to serve new-fangled food with reggae music, so be it. There are no rules. “It’s just a question of harmony,” says Cammas. Harmony on the plate. Harmony with the season. Harmony with the overall vibe. There are no absolutes—except, perhaps, for one. “No more velvet drapes,” deadpans Cammas. What has emerged is no less than a movement, one that was cheekily dubbed “bistronomie” by a group of French journalists several years after its start. Cammas emphasizes that bistronomie is not a specific type of cooking but rather a manner of thinking, one that can lead to all sorts of culinary creations. While chefs find these permissive parameters emancipating, some nonetheless fear that the essence of French cuisine will be lost. Others are unconcerned, focusing only on the future. François-Régis Gaudry, a former Fooding writer and now critic for L’Express newsweekly, sees both sides of the debate but can’t imagine that this trend will be reversed. He points out that bistronomie has already paved the way for countless other unconventional restaurants where giving everything you’ve got, showing what you are capable of, is all that matters. He cites new trattorias, Ethiopian “speakeasies” and boui-bouis with only 10 or 15 seats and unthinkably inexpensive €10 menus. All, he says, have made Paris a richer city for food lovers. It is no surprise that this evolution has been observed, lauded, bemoaned and at times exaggerated by the media, from the sedate

columns of The New Yorker and The New York Times to the glossy pages of Gourmet and Food & Wine. And it’s still making news. Last spring brought the publication of Michael Steinberger’s ominously titled Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France, in which he dissects the demise of his love affair with French cuisine. Yet these recent developments are clearly not unwelcome— witness the crowded tables and reservations that are often booked months in advance. “This kind of dining is what most people want when they go out with friends,” says Clotilde Dusoulier, author of the award-winning blog chocolateandzucchini.com and one of Le Fooding’s Paris restaurant reviewers. “They want good food, they want to have a good time, and they don’t want to be intimidated.” Restaurant criticism has evolved along with the restaurants, with reviewers proliferating in number and in style. This summer, Le Figaro drew the inevitable comparison between old guard and new in an article titled Michelin Contre Le Fooding: Le Match. Cammas is quick to point out, however, that Le Fooding is not opposed to traditional French restaurants or other guides. Instead, it simply seeks to usher in a new category of dining, one that can exist alongside and in harmony with temples of haute cuisine, cozy bistros and classic brasseries. A Michelin spokesperson adds that all the attention paid to its famed star system has at times obscured the fact that it too is adapting to the evolving French restaurant scene. Of the more than 2,400 dining establishments reviewed in this year’s iconic red book, only 548 are starred; another 527 Alexandre are classified Bib Gourmand, a category created in Cammas, co-founder of 1997 to denote a considerable value for the money Le Fooding, (less than €35). The company is also reaching out works to give to younger diners, who can now download guides contemporary French cuisine from iTunes, reserve a restaurant from their iPhone, a sexy, vibrant even share their opinions following a meal at image through viamichelin.com. Now celebrating its 100th edition, hip happenings, jazzy the Red Guide sees such efforts simply as part of its publications ongoing development. and a dynamic Web site.

In its early days, Le Fooding operated on a shoestring, but Cammas and his cohorts made up in creativity what they lacked in financial resources. They drew attention to the chefs they rallied around by enlisting their help to surprise and seduce unsuspecting Parisians. The first Semaine du Fooding, in December 2000, staged cooking demonstrations at Bon Marché’s Grande Epicerie. Two years later, it brought together such celebrity chefs as Guy Martin, Alain Passard and Pierre Gagnaire, who handed out free cups of soup to passersby at locations throughout Paris. The following summer, Le Fooding hosted its first iconoclastic picnic to benefit anti-hunger charities, with chefs hunched over Weber grills, volunteers pouring copious amounts of wine, upbeat music piped over loudspeakers and a phenomenal turnout of Parisians spread out on blankets along the Seine. Now a tradition—and the inspiration for the New York event—the summer picnic draws more than 1,000 attendees; it is but one of several events that are part of the Semaine du Fooding, which has now spread from Paris to Nice, Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille and Toulouse.

Le Fooding’s annual restaurant guide strives to be as unconventional as the establishments it critiques. This year’s edition, which weighs in at more than 200 pages and 800 restaurants, boasts sharply written entries and categories such as Voir et Se Faire Voir (See and Be Seen). Visuals reinforce the message that this is not your father’s restaurant guide: New Yorker-style cartoons and Dali-esque drawings pepper its pages, and the cover illustration shows King Kong about to devour a tiny diner plucked from a table decked out in white linen. Although Le Fooding claims not to discriminate with regard to the age of its readers, the opening pages to the Paris portion of the guide—an artist’s rendering of a Pac-Man-inspired Paris, with plates of food dotting the streets and wide-eyed ghosts peeping out beneath toques—clearly speaks to its core audience. Even ads for sponsors are designed by carefully selected artists. The result is vibrant, attention-grabbing plugs for Pellegrino and the TGV that are unlike any you’ve seen before. The Web site, too, is designed to intrigue on several levels, with bold colors, strong graphics, and something for literally everyone, whether it’s a video on making a vinaigrette with Alain Passard, a list of celebrities’ restos préferés, book reviews or a barrage of upcoming food-related events. There’s even a blog dedicated to answering questions from home cooks. One thing is certain: Le Fooding has never been discreet about drawing attention to its ambitions or those of the chefs it champions. In the process, it has become an incubator of sorts for a new generation of food writers. “In the past, there was a pat formula for food criticism,” says Cammas. “No more.” Le Fooding tends to draw upon gourmands rather than gourmets, and their collective writing style is perceptive, evocative, irreverent and, on occasion, quirky. Cammas recruits some writers and culls others from the hundreds of volunteers that apply on the Web site; contributors have included bloggers, Sciences Po grads, cookbook authors and moms, many of whom have gone on to carve out their own niche in culinary commentary, in print or online or both (see profiles, page 28). Cammas currently works with some 40 freelancers in addition to his staff of seven. What he cares about most, he says, is whether a potential contributor understands the spirit of Le Fooding and can convey it concisely and uniquely, broadening the organization’s perspective as well as those of its readers. “I created Le Fooding to prove that French gastronomy is not closed, that it can be openminded, open to the temperament and taste of the times, whatever they may be,” he says. “That is why Le Fooding will still be edgy 20 or 30 years from now.” Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

Julia Sammut

Coping with culinary DNA

It seems only fitting that a new generation of restaurants would give rise to a new generation of reviewers. Like the chefs they cover, many of France’s most prolific young food writers at one point found themselves dissatisfied with mainstream careers, seeking a more inspired manner of expressing themselves and their passion for food. Le Fooding was just the ticket, and it has served as a springboard for an eclectic array of culinary scribes. Here are the profiles of several writers—all age 35 or younger—who are adding fresh voices to France’s lively conversation about food.

Danièle Gerkens By Food Obsessed

“Completely neurotic!” is how Danièle Gerkens good-naturedly describes her childhood—at least when it came to food. At the age of four, she was cooking scrambled eggs; as a Girl Scout, she made gourmet dinners for 50. Now a food and lifestyle writer for ELLE in Paris, Gerkens concedes that such behavior is still completely normal for her. “If I’m not eating, I’m cooking,” she says. “Or buying ingredients or reading about cooking or speaking with friends about what we’re going to have for lunch.” For a few years, she really did try to do something else—she studied art history in college then dabbled in advertising. Before long, however, she found herself convincing chef Alain Passard to grant her a yearlong internship in his kitchen at L’Arpège. At the end of her stage, she took over Le Fooding’s communications operations, then moved on to ELLE. For the past four years, she has shared her passion, knowledge and inquisitiveness with readers by writing about the myriad ways in which food and lifestyle intersect. Each week, she artfully balances a recent restaurant infatuation, a profile—an artisanal chocolate maker, a home cook from Senegal—and recipes that readers can make at home, from gussied-up anniversary cakes to unexpected approaches to quinoa. Indeed, she seems to be doing for home cooks what Le Fooding has done for restaurant-goers: communicating her passion for trying new things and, in so doing, making the intimidating approachable, even fun. 28

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Like many teenagers, Julia Sammut rebelled against the idea of taking up the family business. After le bac, she packed for Paris rather than staying in Provence, where her mother, Reine Sammut, had earned a Michelin star at L’Auberge de la Fenière for her transcendent way with local ingredients. “I spent my entire childhood in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother,” says Sammut. “It was a dream. But at 18, you don’t want to do what your parents do.” So she enrolled in journalism school. On the second day of classes, she was surprised to hear herself persuading the professor to let her choose “the cultivation of olive trees in Japan” as her research topic. Subsequent projects were also “all about food and food and food,” she says. “I guess I had it in my blood.” Sammut sought out mentors, among them Guillaume Crouzet, then a restaurant critic for Le Monde. He introduced her to Alexandre Cammas of Le Fooding, and she spent the next several years helping him build the organization from the ground up, working to organize events and promote chefs, all the while honing her writing skills. After several years, she returned to Provence as a food writer. Based in Marseille, she now reports on an array of topics for Maison Côté Sud and ELLE, writing in her characteristic perky yet perceptive style. “The reason I write is to meet the people behind the food,” she says. “I love to learn about what they make and why they make it.” She also has an entrepreneurial spirit, and last year launched roadfoodbook.com, an online concierge service for traveling gourmands. And she still covers restaurants for Le Fooding’s annual guide. “I am not a journalist really,” she insists. “I’m just a fan of food.” If her work is any indication, the two are far from mutually exclusive.

Clotilde Dusoulier La bloggeuse

“I always wanted to write,” says Clotilde Dusoulier. “I just never knew what to write about.” That changed when she moved to California. On her own for the first time, she came to appreciate French home cooking in a way that comes only from being deprived of it. Each trip to the grocery store, each restaurant outing became an adventure in the culture surrounding food. Her curiosity persisted even after returning to Paris two years later, and she found herself spending more and more time wondering “why we eat the things we eat and cook the things we cook.” So she did what most any other twenty-something would do: She started posting her musings online, creating one of the first food blogs. Dubbed Chocolate & Zucchini after two of her favorite ingredients, it still serves as a forum for her Alice in Wonderland-like approach to culinary discoveries. Her plainspoken writing—in English and French—runs the gamut from recipes inspired by her daily experiences to mentions of favorite greenmarkets. She even demystifyies French food-related idioms such as “ménager la chèvre et le chou” (literally “to accommodate the goat and the cabbage,” it means trying to please two irreconcilable parties). She has written for countless publications, including Le Fooding, and has authored two books: a cookbook (Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen) and a guide to restaurants and pâtisseries (Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris). In her spare time, she has translated and updated the 1932 French classic Je Sais Cuisinier (I Know How to Cook) for non-French home cooks, to be published this October by Phaidon. She is also collaborating on a TV project for an American public network. She remains, however, firmly grounded in Paris—and more than a little modest about the chord she has struck with followers around the world. “A cook is naturally connected to the environment he or she happens to be in. You just breathe the air, and it inevitably comes out in your writing.”

Kéda Black

The go-to girl for home cooks When home cooks in France have a recipe question, they turn to Kéda. Actually, they click on the bloggiboulga blog on Le Fooding’s Web site (the name implies a playful mishmash of ingredients—it’s a takeoff on Gloubi-boulga, Casimir the dinosaur’s favorite meal on the French version of Sesame Street). Kéda Black is the voice behind the blog, and she’s garnered a tremendous following since its launch a little more than two years ago. Something of a Dear Abby-meets-Patricia Wells for the Gen X crowd, she responds to each and every query with charm and ease as well as patience, authority, wit, quiet encouragement and even, in a post explaining American breakfast fare,

hand-drawn sketches of bagels and muffins. She has rescued countless soufflés as well as far more mundane weeknight meals. “The most common requests are for recipes that are good and easy and don’t take much time,” she says. Black started cooking for herself and friends out of necessity while studying library science. She immersed herself in American and English cookbooks, which she preferred for their “simple, straightforward explanations.” Then in 2002, while working at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, she entered a cooking contest at a Fooding event on a whim. Her English trifle won the contest, but it was her way with words that earned her a spot writing restaurant reviews and short, ingredient-driven articles, first for the Fooding guide, then for Marie Claire Maison, Biba and Glamour. She’s since penned half a dozen cookbooks—her first, a slim volume on cheesecakes, sold nearly 40,000 copies—and she has two more on the way. Black’s cooking style is defined by quality ingredients and has a sensibility that calls to mind la cuisine bourgeoise but is far less traditional in its flavorings. Now the mother of three children under the age of five, she embraces simple cooking more than ever. “Cooking today has to be straightforward and not too complicated,” she says. “It has to fit into real life.”

FrançoisRégis Gaudry Giving L’Express a new voice Sometimes we find our vocations, other times they find us. Unlike many in his generation, François-Régis Gaudry grew up in a family where his mother and grandmother cooked traditional French food for nearly every meal, and family vacations invariably included Michelin-starred restaurants. “I was intuitively interested in good food,” recalls Gaudry. At one point during his studies at Sciences Po, he called up the editor of Le Guide du Routard, the selfproclaimed “hippie guide” for world travelers, and before long found himself traveling to Africa and Asia, updating entries and discovering eateries that expanded his previous definition of fine dining. Somewhere along the way, he realized that he might as well do this for a living. “The food critic is actually a French invention,” says Gaudry. “And food writing is extremely competitive in France.” Undeterred, he convinced Routard to do a Paris restaurant guide, which came out in 1998. He then began contributing reviews to the Fooding guide and other publications, and penned Mémoires du Restaurant, Histoire illustrée d’une invention française. Four years ago, Gaudry broke into the big leagues when he was hired to write weekly restaurant reviews for L’Express, replacing the influential critic Jean-Luc Petitrenaud. He now takes great pleasure in introducing readers to all manner of fine restaurants, from the corner trattoria to the little Ethiopian speakeasy with superlative cuisine in the not-so-nice neighborhood. “I try not to pass judgment on a restaurant but rather to present a snapshot of a particular moment,” he says. Typically, he will describe the service, the atmosphere, the day’s dessert as he experienced them rather than make any sweeping statements about the restaurant in general. “It’s a little hard to develop your own style of writing,” Gaudry says. “More than anything else, I try to be as sincere, as objective and as reliable as I can be for my readers.”

Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

SĂ¨vres

then

Marjorie Merriweather Post had a lifelong passion for SĂ¨vres porcelain, amassing one of the most outstanding collections in the world. Now, a major exhibit at Hillwood Museum shows her pieces alongside others from international museums, giving visitors a rare overview of 250 years of production by the legendary French factory.

By Roland Flamini

and

now Innovative design and exquisite craftsmanship have been hallmarks of Sèvres porcelain since its founding in 1740. Left A gilded egg-shaped, soft-paste vase with a medallion of Queen Marie Antoinette (c. 1774). Right: The fanciful soft-paste “Shrimp” teapot designed by American ceramic artist Adrian Saxe, decorated by Gilles Bouttaz (1991).

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Post’s fortune may have come from such mundane grocery items as Postum and Post Toasties, but she lived in such grand style that Queen Maud of Norway once remarked, “Why, you live like a queen, don’t you?” Perhaps not quite a queen but at least surrounded by the treasured possessions of former queens—to say nothing of emperors, kings and assorted aristocrats. Her 19th-century Aubusson rug once belonged to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico—a gift to him from Napoleon III. She had 90 works by Fabergé, including a large pink-and-gold egg with diamonds that Czar Nicholas II gave to his mother in 1914. Much of the furniture and objets d’art came from royal or aristocratic collections. Even the ivy in the garden at Hillwood, her Washington DC home, was from Buckingham Palace. Sèvres porcelain ranked high among Post’s passions. She began acquiring pieces in the 1920s, and by the time she moved to the nation’s capital in the 1950s, she had one of the leading American collections

of 18th-century creations from the famous French factory. As Washington’s hostess with the mostest, her various Sèvres table services were in frequent use for lavish dinner parties and other social gatherings. It was said that the discerning dinner guest at her 25-acre estate could tell where he or she stood in Post’s social pecking order by the porcelain she used—the most honored visitors were treated to the magnificent Bleu Céleste service that once belonged to Cardinal Prince Louis de Rohan, a powerful 18th-century French bishop and aristocrat. When the four-times married heiress died in 1973, she left an estate worth $200 million (almost a billion dollars in today’s money). In accordance with her wishes, Hillwood was turned into a museum celebrating the most refined decorative arts from France and Russia (the latter resulted from a stint in Moscow as the wife of the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union). Post was a collector in the tradition of William Randolph Hearst, the California newspaper baron whose life was an epic quest for the best in European art and artifacts. Thanks to her vision, some 50,000 visitors now tour the Post estate on the edge of Rock Creek Park each year, taking in a dazzling array of masterpieces by renowned European artists, cabinet-makers, ceramists and goldsmiths. Her Sèvres porcelain collection is normally spread strategically throughout the house: a dinner service laid out on the dining room table, individual pieces shown in glass cases in the main drawing room, others displayed elsewhere. But this October, the museum goes further, mounting a Sèvres retrospective that places the Post

Tureen and Platter (1754). Tureens were the most expensive part of a dinner service; their French name, pot à oille du roi, derived from the Spanish olla, a type of stew that became popular in France following Louis XIV’s marriage to the daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Boasting a unique turquoise color created by factory chemist Jean Hellot, this piece may have been created for Louis XV.

Waterleaf Ewer and Bowl (1759-1760). With its graceful lines, brilliant hues, dynamic starburst motifs and stylized water droplets, this rococo piece charmingly illustrates Sèvres’s extraordinary craftsmanship during its early years. The Kakiemon-style painting is almost certainly by Charles-Nicholas Dodin; one of the factory’s finest figure painters, he regularly decorated pieces for such prestigious clients as Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.

arjorie Merriweather

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collection in the context of the entire history of Sèvres production, leaving no doubt that it contains some of the best examples of the renowned factory’s craft. “Sèvres Then and Now: Tradition and Innovation in Porcelain, 1750-2000” brings together nearly 90 spectacular pieces, including 10 from Hillwood. “Mrs. Post had very clear ideas of what she liked,” says Liana Paredes Arend, the show’s organizer. “Her collection has a lot of personality, but it also has gaps.” When it comes to color, for example, she had a distinct preference for turquoise and pink. So in the exhibition, the core of Hillwood pieces will be buttressed by a wide Marjorie Merriweather selection of items from the Post Sèvres factory, the Musée National de Céramique-

Sèvres and other museums. There will also be pieces from private collections that are being displayed publicly for the first time. Paredes says that “Sèvres Then and Now” is a first in terms of the time frame it covers. She points out that the “then” of Sèvres porcelain has been showcased in earlier exhibitions, which have focused on the more traditional 18th-century pieces that characterize the unmistakable French style—luminescent, brightly painted grounds with areas of white and lavish gilding. The “now,” however, has rarely been highlighted in the United States. As Senior Curator of Western European Art at Hillwood, Paredes oversees the museum’s permanent collection of 730 Sèvres objects, which she fondly refers to as “my babies.” She says the Hillwood show will vividly demonstrate “the sustained creativity and unparalleled innovation that unifies the factory’s output over time, all the way to the 21st century.” Indeed, visitors will discover some surprising cutting-edge works that the porcelain maker has commissioned from leading modern artists, several of them Americans.

As Washington’s hostess with the mostest, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Sèvres table services were in frequent use for lavish dinner parties and other social gatherings.

Plate from the Egyptian service (1804). The sepia-toned images of this service were based on Vivant Denon’s engravings made during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign and published in Voyage dans la Basse et Haute Egypte (1802). His illustrations documented the Emperor’s exploits and depicted scenes from daily life, launching a wave of Egyptomania in France. No fewer than seven such services were created between 1804-1845.

“Brewery” plate from the Arts Industriels service (1827). The Industrial Revolution was just taking off during this period, and Louis-Philippe was proud of France’s achievements. Seeing a market opportunity, Sèvres director Alexandre Brongniart decided to create this service. Rather than having images copied from prints as was traditional, he sent the well-known genre painter Jean-Charles Develly to factories around Paris to document their activities. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

Vase with African Birds (1822). SĂ¨vres enlisted Madame Knipâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an accomplished ornithological painter with two books to her nameâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to create the art on this stunning vase. Typically, such illustrations would be copied from books; for this project, however, she headed over to the Jardin du Roi, selected birds and drew them from life. This is one of three identical vases; all also required the talents of a designer, ornament painter and gilder.

t was Madame de Pompadour, King

Louis XV’s mistress, who initially urged the monarch to take an interest in French porcelain production. By 1756, demand had increased to the point where the manufactory in Vincennes, founded in 1740, was moved to larger quarters in the Paris suburb of Sèvres; in 1759, it was placed under royal protection. From the outset, the king’s aim was clear: to compete with and surpass Meissen porcelain, then the established market leader under the patronage of Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony. The French king served notice to his Saxon counterpart that German porcelain makers now had a formidable rival by publicly displaying in a prominent Paris shop a dinner service produced by what was soon to become the celebrated Manufacture Royale de Porcelaine de Sèvres. It was later delivered to Versailles for use at the king’s table. Louis XV and eventually his heir, the ill-fated Louis XVI, backed Sèvres heavily with cash as well as patronage. To protect his investment, Louis XV introduced regulations that severely restricted other porcelain producers in France; for example, figure painting was proscribed and gilding was prohibited. These constraints handed Sèvres a near monopoly, and the king even became chief salesman for the porcelain house. Every New Year’s Day, the best items from the manufactory were put on display in the king’s apartments at Versailles, and members of the court were “invited” to make their purchases—an invitation few dared refuse. Madame de Pompadour let it be known that supporting Sèvres was a patriotic duty; her association with the company was so strong that porcelain dealers later dubbed the company’s classic pink color “Rose de Pompadour.”

Sèvres Savoir-Faire Marjorie Merriweather Post showed a distinct preference for soft-paste porcelain over hard-paste porcelain, a difference discernible only to connoisseurs. Because deposits of kaolin—a white china clay that when fired at high temperatures produces an impermeable, glossy ceramic surface known as hard paste (pâte dure)—were not found in France until the 1760s, the earliest Sèvres products were made

from a formula blending white clay, sand and ground glass. The resulting ceramics were called pâte tendre, or soft paste, because the surface could be easily scratched by steel. They had an aesthetic advantage, however, as their low firing temperature made it possible to use a wider palette of colors. The Daffodil Yellow, Celestial Blue, Pompadour Pink and other signature colors from Sèvres’s early history are thus coveted by collectors. Today, traditional production methods, skilled craftsmanship and a bit of modern technology combine to perpetuate the Sèvres legend. The process remains lengthy and demanding, involving the expertise of the factory’s 120 ceramists and their 30 different specializations. From the first shaping on a specially made mold to the artist’s finishing touches of painted scenes or other decorations, each object is fired at least eight times at different temperatures. The process for making a hard-

The king was also highly instrumental in promoting Sèvres abroad through lavish gifts to foreign rulers. Soon, royal French porcelain was in demand from the Russian Empire to the young United States of America. Most of the Sèvres items now in the White House were procured by George Washington and John Adams. The latter purchased at least two Sèvres dinner services while in Paris as minister of foreign affairs in 1780, and the Blue Cornflower service is widely believed to have been used as the state china when Adams was president. The White House porcelain collection also includes a Sèvres bust of Thomas Jefferson copied from the original made by French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. Its popularity and prestige notwithstanding, Sèvres always seemed to be in dire financial straits, probably as a result of its vocation as a purveyor of high-priced luxe items with a limited high-end market. Each individual table setting consisted of five or more items—dinner plate, side plate and so on—and some services contained hundreds of pieces (900 in the case of the Cameo service delivered to Catherine the Great in 1786) and took years to complete. Given that Sèvres was such a high-profile symbol of France’s ancien régime—its double-L mark stood for Louis XV and Louis XVI—it was hardly surprising that revolutionary mobs invading royal châteaux made a point of smashing the fine china. The factory somehow managed to survive the decade of revolutionary turmoil but only barely— by 1798, when it became the property of the French government, it was on the verge of collapse. A new era began in 1800 with the appointment of 30-year-old Alexandre Brongniart, who would head the factory for the next 47 years. Brongniart’s tremendous influence was chronicled in a major exhibition at New York’s Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in 1997-1998. Catalogue essays recount that he initially revived the manufacture by selling off blank and decorated seconds to other European porcelain makers and becoming an advocate for

paste plate typically begins with a calibrated design and then the shaping, or jiggering, of a ball of paste into the required form on three rotating wheels. The first turns the paste into a round, evenly flat surface known as a croûte; this is transferred to a second wheel where the moist paste is fitted to a mold and excess material is trimmed off from the spinning surface. The third wheel refines the shape, creating a uniform thickness, and a specialist known as a découpeuse cuts any decorative edges and other embellishments. The plate is then fired at 980˚ C before being dipped in a mineralbased, colorless glaze solution of pegmatite and quartz, left to dry for 48 hours and then fired again, usually at around 1,380˚ C. It emerges white and translucent. The decorating process begins with the distinctive Sèvres base colors—enamel paints applied in three layers with time for drying between each application—followed

by two firings. If a gold frieze is called for, a copper plate is made of the design, and powdered gold mixed with oil is used to print it on silk paper. The paper is then moistened, and the decoration is carefully transferred onto the porcelain with a felt-covered roller. The object goes back into the kiln at 840 ˚C, after which it is ready for the artist to paint scenes directly onto the plate. Two further firings produce a finished product. Sèvres has carefully preserved the molds and designs of most objects produced throughout its history (its archives include 90,000 molds, 3,000 drawings and 20,000 samples of illustrations that had been painted on earlier creations). Just as important, it has preserved the rare savoir-faire accumulated through the generations. The result is that the factory can both reproduce old designs and work with contemporary artists on new creations, using either soft-paste or hard-paste techniques. —RF Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

No less a luminary than Auguste Rodin was among the manufactory’s guest artists, a tradition that had begun with François Boucher in 1749.

employees, many of whom had not been paid for a long time. Little by little, aristocrats returned to their sacked châteaux and ordered replacement services; meanwhile, the emerging bourgeoisie embraced Sèvres, which they saw as the ultimate status symbol. It was Napoleon, however, who really gave the porcelain maker a new lease on life, changing the name to Manufacture Nationale, then to Manufacture Impériale, and using Sèvres to articulate the imperial identity. The company produced service after elaborate service depicting his victories and the landmarks of his rise to power. A highlight of the Hillwood show is the tea and coffee set (1804) celebrating the

Emperor’s Egyptian Campaign. At once intricate and handsome, they feature images of ancient Egypt set against a cloudless sky and hieroglyphics along the gold encrusted borders. During his long tenure, Brongniart introduced important technological and design innovations and adapted to numerous changes in regimes and aesthetics. Among his greatest contributions was the founding in 1824 of the Musée National de Céramique, an encyclopedic collection of more than 3,000 objects, equipment, clay samples and other materials ranging from pre-Columbian times to the present day (it now boasts some 50,000 pieces). Evidence of his vision and scientific spirit can be seen in the fact that he encouraged even rival porcelain makers to visit and learn all they could. Sèvres continued to thrive after Brongniart’s death, producing designs that reflected the eclectic tastes of the period. Biscuit

Ruhlmann Vase No. 2 (1926-1927). Sèvres experienced a renewal in the 1920s, modernizing production methods and engaging such talents as Félix Aubert, Henri Rapin and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann to create more angular, geometric forms in keeping with the popular new Art Deco aesthetic. Indeed, the Manufactory scored a major success at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs Modernes.

“Diane” Plate (1969-70). In the 20th century, Sèvres commissioned works from international artists ranging from Jean Arp to Jim Dine. When Alexander Calder was invited to create a collection, he took a traditional Sèvres form known as the “Diane” and adorned an entire service with brightly colored balloon-like shapes. Since each plate is different, a different “painting” appears on the table whenever guests sit down to dinner.

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porcelain sculptures enjoyed renewed popularity, as did ancien régime motifs. No less a luminary than Auguste Rodin was among the manufactory’s guest artists, a tradition that had begun with François Boucher in 1749. This practice would become increasingly common in the 20th century, when artists and designers from Hector Guimard and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann to Jean Arp, Alexander Calder and Louise Bourgeois would come to the manufactory to explore and redefine ceramics. Some of them worked at the Atelier Expérimental de Recherche et de Création, set up in 1983 to keep the factory in touch with the latest currents in contemporary art. A 1984 piece by Adrian Saxe, the Atelier’s first fellow, is part of the Hillwood exhibit; the whimsical gold-handled teapot looks like something Alice might have seen at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, creating an amusing contrast with Paulina Bonaparte’s exquisitely refined service à thé (1805), also in the show. Today half of Sèvres’s production is contemporary, half is reproductions. The manufactory is still owned by the state (it is part of the Ministry of Culture), and the government accounts for a third of its business; the rest comes from sales at galleries located in the museum and downtown Paris. “Sèvres remains unparalleled in terms of know-how,” says director David Caméo, who believes his mission is to combine these skills with the talents of international artists “to create the forms and functions of the future.”

“Reform” Vase (1995). The noted Argentinean set designer/painter/decorator Richard Peduzzi, creator of this vase, is among the artists who have worked with the Atelier Experimental de Recherches et de Création, established in 1983 to foster collaboration between Sèvres and the most cutting-edge contemporary designers. Technically challenging, his geometric piece features the luminous colors typical of soft-paste porcelain.

o tour the Hillwood exhibition is

to take a stroll through French history. More than 20 pieces date from pre-Revolutionary times, including several that were made at the original factory in Vincennes. A charming collection of soft-paste porcelain flowers (ca. 1750) vividly illustrates how the company caught the eye of Madame de Pompadour, who had a special passion for roses. It is said that she once decorated her garden with porcelain flowers and scented the air with perfume in anticipation of a visit from the king. Among other royal ceramics are a cup and saucer from a service created for Marie Antoinette’s “pleasure dairy” at Rambouillet (1786-1787). While some of the laiteries d’agrément popular in the 18th century were actually working dairies where ladies could tend to cows, make butter and cheese and enjoy nature, this one was more of a thematic showplace adorned with the finest in French decorative arts. The Sèvres service features Etruscan-inspired shapes and designs as well as goat and cow motifs. The Revolution prevented the queen from ever seeing the finished dairy or, probably, the porcelain service commissioned for it. The show also features a teapot from 1795, demonstrating the factory’s savvy shift to Revolutionary iconography, along with several pieces from 1800 to 1850, when Brongniart oversaw Sèvres’s development. Emblematic of this period are services illustrating specific themes, such as the cultivation of cacao or scenes from France’s départements, the administrative units created by Napoleon. The exhibition presents several examples of this genre, including the “Dance on Tahiti” plate from a series devoted to foreign countries and the “Brewery” plate, one of a set devoted to the industrial arts. A particularly arresting display is the single surviving plate from the Lily service; decorated with a single bright pink flower, it was delivered to the Tuileries Palace around 1821 for use at King Louis XVIII’s table. A recent Hillwood acquisition, it serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of these objects and how miraculous it is that the delicate pieces in this exhibition have survived. The “Sèvres Now” section of the show begins in the 1950s and comprises 16 unique pieces signed by such diverse talents as Calder, Arp, Betty Woodman and Ettore Sottsass. The exhibition closes with plates created by Spanish sculptor and designer Jaume Plensa for the “Millennium” table service commissioned by the Elysée Palace—their graphic motif may be very 21st-century, but they are as elegant as any of the rococo pieces created for the royals. Paredes has a private hope that when visitors get an up-close-andpersonal look at these objects, they will be better able to distinguish between forgeries and the real thing. Inevitably, Sèvres has attracted imitators almost from the start, and their copies have made their way into collections and the market. Like all genuine specialists, Paredes gets animated about the work of forgers, which she regards as desecration: “What many think of as Sèvres is actually pretty ghastly imitations, heavy with gold and garish colors,” she says. “My hope is that this exhibition will dispel some of these misconceptions.” “Sèvres Then and Now: Tradition and Innovation in Porcelain, 1750-2000” runs from October 20, 2009, through May 30, 2010, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20008; Tel. 202/686-5807; hillwoodmuseum.org. Funding is provided by The Richard C. von Hess Foundation, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and International Humanities. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

立 Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the colorful organic market on boulevard Raspail has grown into a major event drawing regulars and visitors alike.

P A ris Vert

Home Décor

Perfume Hotels

A Sustainable Feast Ω

Cosmetics

By Amy Serafin and Heather Stimmler-Hall

Accessories PAR

B&Bs

Restaurants Apparel

Ω Outdoor Markets

Skin Care

Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

It may be true

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of Copenhagen or Vancouver, but “green” isn’t the first adjective that springs to mind when one thinks of Paris. That may soon change, says French journalist and tourism consultant Josette Sicsic, sitting on a café terrace overlooking a row of newly planted trees on the Place d’Italie. “The French always take a long time to be convinced of something. We have a rebellious nature. Then all of a sudden, there’s a collective intelligence. Ecological awareness has been a long time coming, but in less than two years, we’ve caught up; now we’re as mindful of the problem as the Scandinavians or Germans.” Here as in other parts of the world, scientists and environmentalists are finally getting their message across. Since 1990, TV personality and veteran ecologist Nicolas Hulot has run a foundation that has doggedly labored to modify individual and collective behaviors. A shift in public attitudes was evident during the 2007 presidential campaign when Hulot circulated a “Pacte Ecologique” pledging to make the environment a priority. It was signed not only by some 733,359 citizens but also by all the major candidates. Other national environmental milestones have included the French government’s introduction in 2004 of its “Plan Climat” to reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Kyoto protocol agreement, and the 2008 passage of the “Grenelle de l’environnement,” a bill based on a series of roundtable discussions about environmental policy and sustainable development. This past June, the well-organized Europe Ecologie party received more than 16 percent of the French vote during the European Parliamentary elections (Parisians gave them 28 percent of their vote), and the save-the-planet documentary Home by French aerial photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand filled big and small screens around the world, quickly topping the list of best-selling DVDs in France. 40

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Located on the site of a former auto factory, the modernist Parc André Citroën reflects Paris’s commitment to making green spaces an integral part of contemporary city life.

from left: Urban-Cab is part of a growing fleet of pedicabs that offer a fun clean way to see

Paris; Sting visibly enjoys taking his Velib’ for a spin around the Palais Royal courtyard; new “contraceptive birdhouses” help control the city’s pigeon population; the lush vertical garden at the Musée du Quai Branly, an inspiration for similar plantings throughout the city.

On the municipal level, Paris has been going green ever since the 2001 election of Bertrand Delanoë, a Socialist who became mayor thanks to an alliance with Les Verts (he was re-elected in 2008). In 2005, the French capital established its own Plan Climat, pledging a 30 percent reduction in emissions and energy consumption of public buildings by 2020. The city has also given the label “Agenda 21” to a number of local projects, signifying that they respect a U.N. blueprint for sustainable development. These initiatives run the gamut from future éco-quartiers, or green neighborhoods, to issuing uniforms made from fairtrade cotton to sanitation workers. The difference is already visible. Sicsic gestures at the greenery all around her. “Here on the avenue des Gobelins, cars were parked on the sidewalk just 10 years ago. Since then, the city has widened the pavement and created an alley of trees; it’s completely different now.” Paris is one of the most densely treed cities in Europe, with new plantings and old growths totaling some 485,000 in all. More than half are in the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes; 36,500 are in parks and gardens, and another 96,500 line the streets. Resident associations are also contributing to the greening of their city by creating community 42

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gardens with the help of City Hall. And Parisians can write to the mayor’s office and suggest blank walls as candidates for vertical gardens, the hippest thing in horticulture since the Musée du Quai Branly created its dramatic mur végétal. “Our biggest efforts by far have been in the area of transportation,” says Catherine Calmet, chief of staff to Denis Baupin, who serves as the Mayor’s advisor on environmental issues. “Between 2001 and 2007, we managed to reduce automobile traffic by 20 percent. We have widened sidewalks, opened bike lanes and improved public transportation—all of this has made Paris much more appealing to visitors as well as residents.” Indeed, the city’s excellent public transport system has gotten even better: Now that Métro hours have been extended on Fridays, Saturdays and nights before holidays to 2:15 A.M., night-owls no longer have to either drive, take a cab or dash out of parties like Cinderella at midnight. And since December 2006, a new system of clean electric tramways has been spreading on the outskirts of the city; riders now glide silently along eight kilometers of tracks set in a carpet of green grass; by 2012, 20 kilometers are expected to be in service. Even the Seine has become a viable

transportation route, thanks to the Batobus and the year-old Voguéo. The first “waterway Métro,” the Voguéo leaves every 20 to 30 minutes and runs from the Gare d’Austerlitz eastward to Maisons-Alfort year-round, with five stops in between. A single Métro ticket books passage. Perhaps the most remarkable innovation is Velib’, the self-service bicycle rental system that has transformed the city since its arrival in July 2007. Paris now boasts about 230 miles of bike lanes (some shared with buses), and 125 more are planned for 2010. “Lyon was the first city to install such a system, but Paris’s is the largest,” says Calmet. “There are 20,000 bikes available at 1,500 stations. So far, subscribers have used Velib’ for more than 50 million trips.” This spring, the city also started offering subsidies to Parisians who buy silent, non-polluting electric scooters and began installing new recharging stations in addition to the 300 currently available. Yet everyone agrees that more needs to be done. There are still too many cars, and city buses are not electric. City Hall is encouraging cab drivers to switch to hybrids, and one new car service, Verture, already uses only Toyota Priuses (Tel. 33/1-48-00-91-91; verture.fr). For shorter distances and a two-passenger max, bicycle taxi companies Cyclobulle (cyclobulle.com) and Urban-Cab (urban-cab. com) offer a Phnom Penh experience. Recently, Urban-Cab expanded from people to packages, entering a partnership with FedEx,

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Perhaps the most remarkable innovation is Velib’, the self-service bicycle rental system. which found that the final two miles of each delivery pollute the air the most. Since January 2009, Urban-Cab has made FedEx deliveries in the 6th arrondissement using electric cars and tricycles; the two companies plan to extend the venture to other districts soon. Getting buildings to curb energy consumption is also a priority. Starting in 2010, all new French construction will have to meet strict new standards; architects recently showed how it can be done when they unveiled the first “passive house” in Paris, which requires practically no energy for its heating and cooling systems. “One of our more innovative initiatives is generating renewable energy right in town,” says Calmet. “Typically, you associate that with rural areas, where there is space for wind turbines or other devices. But we have decided to put up solar panels throughout the city—by 2014, we intend to have some 200,000 square meters in place.” Meanwhile, the city’s Plan Climat is tackling the carbon footprint of existing public buildings. “The biggest component is the schools,” says Calmet. “We are currently working with the Clinton Foundation to refit 600 of them. That should make a significant impact.” As an aside, she adds that students will also be eating healthier meals: By 2012, 30 percent of the food served in public schools will be organic or at least of very high quality. “We think that generating such a large demand for healthy food will create a virtuous cycle with producers.”

industry is also showing a new sensitivity to the environment. Hotels and restaurants can obtain ecolabels when they meet certain environmental standards, though only a few Paris establishments make the grade so far. “There are policies to encourage this, and I think there will be many more a decade from now,” says journalist Sicsic. Meanwhile, there are 600 chambres d’hôtes in the city, where residents rent rooms to tourists, thereby diminishing the need for construction of new hotels in the suburbs. Paris also offers visitors an ever-growing number of ways to eat, dress and shop responsibly, from organic cotton dresses to biodynamic wines to recycled plastic furniture. If you’re looking for organic or fair-trade food, there are outdoor markets, specialized stores and a budding crop of cafés and restaurants. For skincare, cosmetics companies small and large are diving into the business of organics. (L’Oréal is even supporting the Union Nationale de l’Apiculture in their efforts to save the bees.) As for fashion, designers are going beyond the Birkenstock aesthetic to something you could conceivably wear to the opera. After long dragging their beautifully shod feet, companies from the luxury industry are finally catching on too. According to a 2007 World Wildlife Fund report, they don’t have much of a choice: “Many luxury consumers are part of an affluent, global elite that is increasingly well educated and concerned about social and environmental issues.” In 2010, The city’s tourism

LVMH wrote an environmental charter encouraging their subsidiaries to adopt best ecological practices such as carbon inventories, green buildings or products like Louis Vuitton’s “Extraordinary Bag” for men, made of horsehair and fish leather. The luxury group also recently bought a minority stake in Edun, the environmentally friendly clothing company founded by the singer Bono and his wife in 2005. Not to be outdone, the retail giant PPR opened its own social and environmental responsibility department in 2007 and donated €10 million to produce the documentary Home. Many jewelers on the Place Vendôme are members of the Responsible Jewellery Council, an international nonprofit that oversees the supply chain of diamonds and gold. And the first annual Sustainable Luxury Fair took place in Paris last May. You can see the change in little things throughout the city—residents carrying reusable shopping bags in the baskets of their Velib’ bicycles, long lines at the natural-food store and a hand-printed sign outside the deepdiscount supermarket chain Ed proclaiming, “We sell organic here too!” Environmentalism has finally become a serious trend, says Sicsic, with 10 percent of French people true converts and another 30 percent on their way. The numbers indicate an undeniable momentum, she says. City Hall may be committed to greening Paris, but many businesses and individuals aren’t waiting for official directives to do their part. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

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Natural, handcrafted materials are used throughout the new Hidden Hotel, creating a restful retreat in the heart of the city.

PARIS VERT

Eco Drea ms

H o t e ls

The first eco-hotels were typically rustic lodges nestled in unspoiled ∫ tropical settings. Now, a handful of Parisian hotels have joined the eco-

tourism movement, doing their part to clean up the urban jungle by providing more environmentally friendly places for visitors to rest their heads. Many hotels have already taken on a shade of green out of economic necessity, making efficient use of small spaces, using compact fluorescent bulbs and sensors for hall lighting, asking guests to reuse towels and linens, installing low-flow water fixtures and toilets, and refitting older buildings for energy efficiency. Others go a step further by greening their interior décor and brand image to differentiate themselves and catch the attention of eco-conscious consumers. Hotels that meet the strictest environmental standards and practices are awarded the European Union Eco-label (eco-label.com), created in 2003. The cheerful flower logo tells guests that these properties use non-toxic cleaning products and energy-saving appliances, implement aggressive recycling and waste-reduction practices, and offer organic breakfast menus. All four Eco-label properties in Paris are among the addresses listed below; more are in the application phase.

The Jardin de Cluny, one of three Best Western hotels in the capital to boast the EU Eco-label.

Hôtel Gabriel Hôtel Gabriel’s 41 rooms—all stocked with detoxifying treatments and Korres natural toiletries—have an eco-zen aesthetic. Guests who need help catching up on their Zzzs are in for a special treat: Nestled in their luxury linens, they can drift off to dreamland with the help of the NightCove® Sleep System; co-created by designer Patrick Jouin and sleep-disorder specialist Damien Léger, it includes just the right mix of ambient music and lighting. The copious breakfast features organic goodies, and the lounge/bar serves up antioxidant drinks and herbal teas for a healthy mid-afternoon break. The wellness theme continues in the “detox room,” where customized beauty treatments feature organic Bioo products—each monitored, certified and numbered. All that and flatscreen TVs, iPods and WiFi access too. 25 rue du Grand-Prieuré, 11e; Tel. 33/1-47-00-13-38; hotel-gabrielparis.com. Doubles from €240. Hôtel Gavarni Located in a chic residential district near the Eiffel Tower, the Hôtel Gavarni has maintained its classic Parisian atmosphere since 1908. But there’s nothing oldfashioned about its environmental practices. In 2008, it became the first independent hotel in Paris to receive the Eco-label. In addition to offsetting its carbon footprint through Action Carbone (actioncarbone.org), the hotel pays for its employees to come to work using public transportation or bicycles, gets 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, and refurbishes or refashions its old furnishings when remodeling. The hotel even maintains a separate Web site (greenhotelparis.com) dedicated to everything green, with information on “eco-friendly Paris” (from boutiques and eateries to an eco-hair salon) and links to the latest environmental news for consumers and travelers. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

LEFT:

Set in a mansion built by Napoleon III, the Premier Regent’s Garden Hotel combines history and environmental awareness. BELOW:

The Hôtel Gabriel (top), with its eco-zen aesthetic, and the Hôtel Gavarni (bottom), the first independent Paris hotel to receive the Eco-label.

In French and English. 5 rue Gavarni, 16e; Tel. 33/1-45-24-52-82; gavarni. com. Doubles from €160. Hidden Hotel Respect for the environment permeates every corner of this newly opened boutique hotel near the Arc de Triomphe. While the Hidden doesn’t claim to be an “organic” hotel, it was carefully constructed using natural, handcrafted materials such as rough-hewn wood, stone, glass and ceramics. Rooms feature open-plan bathrooms in black slate and marble, organic toiletries in recycled packaging, and gourmet breakfasts with health-conscious guests in mind. Best of all are the beds: Heavenly Coco-Mat mattresses made from 100 percent organic materials provide isometric body support, and pure linen sheets add a touch of luxe for a blissful night’s sleep. 28 rue de l’Arc de Triomphe, 17e; Tel. 33/1-4055-03-57; hidden-hotel.com. Doubles from €240. Best Western Hotels Nine of the 42 Eco-label hotels in France are part of the Best Western group, and three of them are located in Paris (see below). Each member property is independently owned and operated, but Best Western enthusiastically assists them in making the changes and upgrades 46

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needed for certification. According to the chain’s spokesperson, several more are in the process of qualifying. > Best Western Hôtel Le Jardin de Cluny A contemporary three-star hotel in the heart of the historic Latin Quarter, Le Jardin de Cluny features 40 air-conditioned and soundproofed rooms, free WiFi and breakfast served in the ancient vaulted stone cellar. 9 rue du Sommerard, 5e; Tel. 33/1-4354-22-66; hoteljardindecluny.com. Doubles from €199. > Best Western Hôtel Etoile Saint-Honoré This stylish four-star hotel in the luxury shopping and gallery district near the Champs-Elysées has 80 rooms in two styles: One is classic country French with white wood furniture, plush carpeting and elegant fabrics; the other is contemporary with black-and-white photo-

graphs, dark wood floors and lots of chrome and leather. 214 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, 8e; Tel. 33/142-25-26-27; etoile-saint-honore. com. Doubles from €139. > Best Western Premier Regent’s Garden Hotel Spacious rooms with large beds, luxurious amenities and a private garden give this historic mansion built by Napoleon III its “Premier” designation. Rooms have sleek bathrooms and a contemporary décor, with air conditioning, free WiFi and a minibar stocked with complimentary beverages; suites are equipped with their own espresso machines and home cinemas. Located near the Arc de Triomphe and Palais des Congrès. 6 rue Pierre-Demours, 17e; Tel 33/145-74-07-30; bestwestern-regents. com. Doubles from €390.

B Ed & B r e akfas t s B&Bs are relatively new in Paris, but with the encouragement of the Paris Tourism Office and City Hall, the professional organization Authentic B&B (authenticbandbparis.com) has already embraced the green movement with its own eco-friendly stamp of approval. Its 25 criteria cover five areas: water savings, energy consumption, food, health, and environmental and visitor education. The B&Bs with high marks are awarded an “Eco-friendly B&B” rating consisting of three to five “leaves.” There are currently four companies listing the handful of B&Bs with such ratings (doubles are from €59): Alcôve & Agapes The new (bed-and-breakfast-in-paris.com), France Lodge (francelodge.fr), Good Morning “Eco-friendly Paris (goodmorningparis.fr), Une Chambre en Ville (une-chambre-en-ville.com). B&B” label.

At Le Pain Quotidien, a tempting snack of organic ham, ricotta cheese, cream of artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, olive paste and Parmesan shavings.

PARIS VERT

Eatin g Y o u r Gre en s ∫

Nowhere in Paris are the varying shades of green more apparent than in food, where the definition of what’s healthy (for the planet and its people) ranges from fresh, homemade and locally grown to vegetarian, fair-trade and certified organic. Health food stores and organic markets have been operating on the fringes for years, but now even quinoa soups, wheat-grass shots and veggie burgers are practically mainstream. This means that whether visitors are looking for a gourmet meal or a quick bite, they can now indulge in all sorts of palate-pleasing options sans guilt. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

This page, left to right: Cojean is Paris’s premier

chain of healthy fast-food eateries. Items such as wraps, sandwiches and salads can be bought to go or consumed in one of 15 bright, chic restaurants.

R e s t auran t s

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Cojean When Alain Cojean ended his corporate career with McDonald’s, he dreamed of opening a place where healthy and inventive fast food would be served in a cheerful, upbeat atmosphere that would appeal to both clients and employees. His first restaurant, opened in 2001, quickly became a destination for chic and hungry Parisians on the go; now there are 15 locations throughout Paris, including outposts in the Bon Marché and Printemps department stores. The natural, often organic cuisine is made fresh each morning at a central kitchen in the 15th arrondissement, and menus change monthly. Favorites include homemade granola, pumpkin-vanilla soup and salads of poached eggs, 48

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parmesan and green beans. Très design dining rooms offer free newspapers and fashion magazines in French and English, and there is a takeout counter. 3 place du Louvre, 1er; Tel 33/1-40-13-06-80. 14 other locations in Paris; cojean.fr. Lunch and dinner from €10. Bioboa This sleek, minimalist lunch spot near the Opéra Garnier specializes in healthy fast food, with an emphasis on organic, often vegetarian dishes such as the juicy tofu burger with organic ketchup and soft-boiled eggs with sweet roasted autumn vegetables or more traditional fare such as grilled chicken breast with rice. There are also salads, soups, desserts and fresh juices for takeout. 3 rue Danielle-Casanova, 1er; Tel. 33/1-42-61-17-67. From €15. Victoire Suprême du Coeur Vegans looking for creative dishes full of flavor will find happiness at this casual restaurant in the Marais dis-

trict. The bright and cheerful dining room, with its extra-large windows overlooking the street, is filled with plants and plenty of good vibes. With the exception of those made with honey, all dishes are 100 percent vegan, often gluten-free and devoid of genetically modified (GM) ingredients. House favorites include Grandma’s mushroom roast with blackberry and ginger sauce, the vegetarian “chicken” with shallot sauce, and rose-flavored tiramisu. Diners will also find a large selection of fresh-squeezed juices, a smoothie of the day, and organic wines, Champagne and non-alcoholic beer. Open daily, with a popular Sunday brunch menu. 27-31 rue Bourg Tibourg, 4e; Tel. 33/1-40-41-95-03; vscoeur.com. Lunch and dinner menus from €19. Le Phyto Bar / La Nature à Paris La Nature à Paris is a shoeboxsized shop packed with everything from Bach’s flower essences and gluten-free pasta to organic milk

and produce. Next door is its colorful and laid-back bistro, Le Phyto Bar, where diners indulge in healthy, predominantly organic cuisine such as noodles with tofu, eggplant caviar, seaweed tartare, vegetarian spring rolls and even steaks and homemade chocolate mousse. The late hours (daily from noon until 11 P.M.), glassed-in terrace and large selection of organic wines, beer and freshsqueezed juices make it a popular Latin Quarter watering hole. 47 bd Saint-Germain, 5e; Tel. 33/1-44-07-3699. Lunch and dinner menus from €19. Naked Located just a few blocks from the Champs-Elysées, this Britishowned café serves quick, healthy and affordable dishes made on site daily without any preservatives or additives. Soups, fresh-squeezed juices and hearty plats du jour such as lamb curry and rice are served at long tables in a rustic setting with woodpaneling and a vertical garden. Those in a hurry can grab sandwiches,

wraps, salads, desserts and bottled waters from the refrigerated shelves for convenient takeout. Open weekdays 7:30 A.M. to 6 P.M. 40 rue du Colisée, 8e; Tel 33/1-43-59-03-24; getnaked.fr. A la carte from €12. Super Nature Hidden on a quiet street a few blocks from the frenzied Grands Boulevards, this unpretentious Parisian eatery stands out with its immaculate whitewashed façade and potted plants. The interior is bright and spare, with industrial lamps, mismatched tables and chairs, and white walls decorated with a few oversized pastoral photographs. Healthy, locally grown, seasonal, ethical and organic products dominate the ever-changing menu, with dishes such as ginger pumpkin soup, organic penne pasta gratin with mushrooms, sprouted veggie cheeseburgers, eggplant curry and fish tagines. Wheat-grass shot apéritifs are de rigueur, and those in a hurry can order whatever they like to go. Open for lunch, dinner, afternoon tea (don’t miss the carrot cake) and Sunday brunch. 12 rue de Trévise, 9e; Tel. 33/1-47-70-21-03; supernature.fr. Lunch menu from €11, dinner menu from €18. Alter Mundi Café Opened in 2006, the café belonging to the Alter Mundi boutique chain (see page 51) is appropriately located in an upand-coming bourgeois-bohemian neighborhood near the Place de la République. The fair-trade (and often organic) cuisine is served in an upstairs dining room decorated with whimsical wrought-iron furniture and stone walls punctuated with bright pops of lime, orange and fuchsia. House specialties include duck parmentier, vegetarian lasagna, organic sea bream and Brazilian steak. There are also tapas-style dishes, organic cheeses and cold cuts, and creative desserts such as green tea crème brûlée. Fair-trade juices, teas and

coffees, organic wines, and a selection of cocktails made from Brazilian cachaça are served at the bar throughout the night, and a small boutique sells a selection of exotic products. Open weekdays for lunch and Tuesday through Saturday night until 2 A.M. for dinner or drinks. 4 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 11e; Tel. 33/148-06-15-29; altermundi.com/café. Lunch menu from €10, à la carte from €10. BioArt Paris’s only certified organic restaurant is located in the dynamic 13th arrondissement, facing the Seine at the foot of the contemporary Bibliothèque Nationale. Housed in a custom-designed, environmentally friendly building, BioArt is an upscale, gastronomic restaurant that meets the highest green standards in every way. The second-floor dining room, perfectly insulated from the urban noise, has a modern décor framed by sweeping views through floorto-ceiling windows. In this tranquil setting, guests dine on innovative and classic dishes such as Cognac risotto and mushrooms, steamed sea bass and spring vegetables, Provençal chicken in a cast-iron pot, or fennel tartare with calamari. There is also a large selection of organic wines and Champagnes and freshsqueezed juices. Many Parisian establishments claim to be 100 percent organic, but BioArt is the only one officially certified by Ecocert (ecocert. fr). 3 quai François Mauriac, 13e; Tel. 33/1-45-85-66-88; restaurantbioart. fr. Lunch menu from €28, dinner menu from €36. Meating Restaurateur Robert Bouchard didn’t set out to go green when he opened his popular steakhouse near Paris’s Palais des Congrès, he just wanted to serve the juicy, tender Black Angus beef he had tasted while visiting the United States. That led him to partner with Creekstone Farm in Nebraska, one

of a handful of American producers whose humanely raised, hormonefree and antibiotic-free cattle meet the strict European Union standards for quality and traceability. And to make sure his chef would be able to replicate the proper cooking process to seal in the juices, Bouchard also imported what he believes is the only American Garland broiler in France. The investment has paid off: Meating’s cozy, semi-formal dining room is filled nightly with a loyal following of chic locals and business travelers. Reserve a spot on the terrace when the weather is pleasant. 122 av des Villiers, 17e; Tel. 33/1-43-80-10-10; restaurantmeating.com. Lunch menu from €27, dinner menu from €34. Rose Bakery Both locations of this English-owned bakery-deli-café attract a loyal following of young Parisian hipsters addicted to homemade, healthy foods with a British touch: scones, muffins, cakes and warm rice pudding, as well as organic salmon with scrambled eggs, zucchini and bacon omelettes, poached chicken with quinoa, Poujauran bread, and fruit and vegetable juices. But don’t expect a “cozy British tearoom”—this place is more “unadorned utilitarian,” with a few wooden tables and chairs squeezed in. Sunday brunches are the busiest, and the full menu is available for takeout. 30 rue Debelleyme, 3e and 46 rue des Martyrs, 9e; Tel. 33/1-42-82-12-80. Menu from €25. EXKi The motto of this Belgian chain is “natural, fresh & ready.” Its two locations at Charles de Gaulle airport are convenient for travelers looking for a healthy breakfast of organic yogurt and breads, homemade jams, fresh-squeezed juices and fair-trade coffee. At lunch they serve salads, soups, vegetarian tarts and quiches. Repeat visitors may request a loyalty card. 118 av de France, 13e; Tel. 33/1-57-27-01-25; Roissy-CDG Airport, terminal 2E and 2F; exki.fr.

B ak e ri e s Several bakeries offer handmade organic breads, including Le Pain Quotidien and the Boulangerie Moisan, both with several locations around Paris. The Boulangerie du Monge is worth a trip across town (and an inevitable wait in line) for its line of inventive breads made with unrefined sea salt, fresh yeast and 100 percent organic grains. In addition to fig, walnut, rye, spelt, multigrain and chestnut loaves, their “Ile-de-France” loaf is made exclusively of organic ingredients from the Paris region. > le boulanger de Monge 123 rue Monge, 5e; Tel. 33/1-43-37-54-20. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 7 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. leboulangerdemonge.com > Moisan Boulangerie Eight locations including the Aligre market (5 place d’Aligre, 12e; Tel. 33/1-43-45-46-60, closed Mondays) and Mouffetard market (2 rue des Bazeilles, 5e; Tel. 33/1-47-07-35-40, closed Thursdays). painmoisan.fr > Le Pain Quotidien Four locations including 18 place du Marché St. Honoré, 1er; Tel. 33/1-42-96-31-70; lepainquotidien.com/fr/.

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M ark e t s

Food shops The availability of organic products has exploded in France during the past decade. Organic supermarkets such as BioCoop and Naturalia can be found in neighborhoods throughout Paris, offering organic packaged foods, fresh breads, cheeses, meats and produce, vitamins and beauty products, baby supplies, even pet food. Mainstream supermarkets (Carrefour, Monoprix, Franprix, Auchan, Casino) have brought out their own line of organic products, as has the popular frozen-food chain Picard. Be sure to look for the official green-and-white “AB” label certifying “Agriculture Biologique.” Naturalia: 29 locations in Paris; naturalia.fr. Bio-Coop: 9 locations in Paris; biocoop.fr. Outdoor Markets Most open-air markets now have at least one organic, or bio, stand, but only the popular Marché Biologique, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in October 2009, is completely dedicated to organic and fair-trade foods and products. Every Sunday, crowds of well-heeled locals, foodies and curious tourists visit the stands of the original location on the boulevard Raspail for organic fruits and veggies, meats and cheeses, grains and beans in bulk bins, beauty creams and health aids, Provençal linens, exotic salts and herbs, wheat-grass shots, dried wakame, roast chickens and a pasta stand churning out fresh tagliatelle made from semi-whole wheat flour. A second market takes place Saturdays in the 17th, and a much smaller one on Saturdays in the 14th. Although sticker shock is almost guaranteed if you’re used to shopping in non-organic markets, the engaging stall owners are usually more than happy to explain in detail what makes their products—often locally sourced—worth every euro. Boulevard Raspail, from rue de Rennes to rue du Cherche Midi, 6e; Sundays 9 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Place Constantin-Brancusi,14e; Saturdays 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. Boulevard des Batignolles, from Métro Rome to Place Clichy, 17e; Saturdays 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

≈ To celebrate the launch of the new “Recycled By” label, photographer Claire Riou did a photo shoot of models wearing the eco-friendly clothes in woodland settings.

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Fashionable Footprints ∫

Shopping in Paris has always been fabulous, with options ranging from storied grands magasins and hip discount stores to chic boutiques and purveyors of custom-made goods. Now, while you are indulging your style cravings, you can also help provide clean drinking water in Madagascar, educate poor children in India and create jobs for Burmese refugees in Kuala Lumpur. It’s all part of outfitting the planet in the most fashion-forward color there is: green.

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Organic or fair-trade clothing seems a perfect fit for Berkeley but a little fashion-deficient for the streets of Paris. Stereotypically hippy-dippy, loose-fitting—even, dare we say, ugly—green clothing is finally becoming competitive for reasons of style, not just conscience. Most eco-friendly clothing is made of organic cotton, an especially desirable alternative when you know that conventional cotton uses more insecticides than practically any other crop worldwide. Other materials include jute, organic linen, bamboo and microfiber made from tree pulp.

Dalia and Rose Former fashion model Clélia Moretton is now a model of responsible commerce with her new ethical luxury concept store, Dalia and Rose, which opened this fall. The tiny boutique stocks organic and handcrafted clothing and accessories by a variety of brands: tunics by Swedish designer Camilla Norrback, organic dresses by France’s LeAF, fair-trade Panama hats by the Ecuadorian brand Pachacuti and more. 9 rue du Marché St-Honoré, 1er; Tel. 33/1-40-20-49-58; daliaandrose.fr. Alter Mundi This six-year-old company boasts a dozen stores throughout France and a new concept store opening this November across from the Cirque d’Hiver. Alter Mundi sells ethical and fair-trade clothing, accessories, furniture and cosmetics by a variety of labels. Much, though not all, is organic. There are Nu jeans, Veja sneakers and comfortable urban wear—fitted shirts, blazers, V-neck sweaters, pleated trousers—for men and women by Article 23 (the brand takes its name from the article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promising equal pay for equal work). T-shirts to stand out in a crowd come from Monsieur Poulet, a brand that combines ecological, fair-trade cotton from West Africa with graphics contributed by clients. Go online (monsieurpoulet.com), submit your design, and if enough people vote for it, the company will print it and

sell it. The winners receive €2 for every T-shirt sold—and that’s about as fair as trade gets. Four Paris locations; altermundi.com. Recyled By In 2008, Brazilian blogger and former dancer Rosanna de Sordi opened L’Espace des Créateurs, a new boutique in the Marais to showcase the work of up-and-coming designers, many of them devoted to éco-responsabilité. This year, Sordi launched Recycled By, a collection of apparel and accessories crafted from pre-existing materials (vintage clothing, surplus fabric and ribbons) to create items that are as unique as they are chic. 7 rue Commines, 3e; Tel. 33/1-42-78-44-63. House of Organic Originally from Sweden, this boutique for organic apparel, accessories and design now has a shop in the Marais. The clothing, by various emerging and established designers, is as fashion-conscious as it is eco-friendly: woven organic cotton tops by Camilla Norrback, black-and-white dresses of silk and cotton by Danish label Noir, children’s underwear from the new French label ADRI, with sayings such as “culotte de princesse” (princess panties) and “slip anti-fessée” (anti-spanking underpants). They also carry soft and stylish tunics and tees by LeAF, based in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, and babies’ onesies, jackets and leggings made of Japanese organic steam-woven

cotton for the French company Victoria Christmas. Accessories include salad tongs shaped like trees, crafted from sustainable beech wood by France’s Reine Mère. This year, the Fall/Winter collection has expanded menswear offerings too. 7 rue Malher, 4e; Tel. 33/9-50-22-91-27; houseoforganic.com. Numanu This French womenswear brand was born three years ago, and co-founder Emmanuel Walliser still sounds amazed that they won the Ethical Fashion Show award in 2006. “We had only been around for two weeks,” he laughs. Numanu bills itself as a “label of love,” and there is much to love in their organic collections combining style and sustainability. Garments are made of cotton, artisanal silks or wools by a company in northern India that supports education efforts for impoverished children. The cottons are either organic or inconversion, meaning they come from farmers making the costly transition to organic. Numanu’s store near the Place des Vosges sells sophisticated items with a certain sex appeal that’s still missing from many organic brands—embroidered tops, flared trousers, even miniskirts. 8 rue de Turenne, 4e; Tel. 33/1-42-74-30-84; numanu.com. Commuun The two Japanese designers behind the Paris-based label Commuun have come as close as Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

anyone to finding the elusive formula for womenswear that is both luxuriously chic and environmentally sustainable. Kaito Hori (formerly at Balenciaga) and Iku Furudate (an alumnus of Central Saint Martins in London) created Commuun in 2005, and two years later won a prestigious ANDAM fashion award. Their designs are inspired by nature, exhibiting a minimalist, avant-garde aesthetic with draped and layered fabrics, asymmetrical hems and unexpected silhouettes. They use organic cottons and linens, vegetable pigments, sometimes even Japanese paper. Generally about a fourth of their collection is organic, though for the 2010 Spring pre-collection, they’ve bumped that figure up to 100 percent. Sold at L’Eclaireur, 10 rue Boissy d’Anglas, 8e; Tel. 33/1-53-43-80-12; commuun.com and leclaireur.com Lacoste + Campana Brothers The Campana brothers are a natural fit for the French crocodile brand—the Brazilian design duo once made an “Alligator Chair” mimicking how the beasts pile up in mud beds during the dry season. For Lacoste’s 2010 Holiday Collector’s Series, the brothers have come up with variations on the iconic polo. A special edition of 20,000 features a single cluster of crocs, while limited editions of 125 show other variations on the theme. The project gives work to poor craftswomen at the Coopa-Roca cooperative in a favela of Rio de Janeiro. Part of the proceeds goes to the Save Your Logo initiative, which Lacoste supports by contributing money to protect endangered crocs and alligators. 93-95 avenue des ChampsElysées, 8e; Tel. 33/1-47-23-39-26; lacoste.com. G = 9.8 Sophie Young left architecture to design eco-friendly bras and boxers four years ago and named her company in the Paris suburbs after the symbol for the force of the Earth’s gravitational field. She uses textiles made from

CLoCkWISe fRom toP Left: Clothing that says you love mother

Nature: a Pachacuti Panama hat, a Campana Brothers design for Lacoste, menswear by Article 23, a chic little dress from Numanu, an assortment of merchandise at the House of organic.

American white pines, transformed into microfiber fabrics in France and sewn together in a small village in Angers. All fabrics are certified OekoTex® Standard 100, meaning they are harmless to even the most sensitive skins and free of allergens. Her fall collection offers burgundy camisoles, cassis-colored low-cut panties, sporty

bras and shorties in ocean blue with white trim, socks and thigh-high stockings. Available online at g98.fr and at retailers listed on the site. Monoprix The French supermarket chain has long been a great place to pick up quality clothes on a budget. In 2003 they added eco-friendly garments

BIO FROM BRIttANY Six years ago, an attractive young couple from Brittany created Ekyog, an organic clothing company; today it counts six stores in Paris and more than 20 throughout France. They produce clothing for women and babies using organic cotton raised without pesticides, GMOs or chemical fertilizers. Their fabrics come from a socially responsible factory in India and a company in Madagascar that also works to provide clean drinking water for the local population. Fashion-conscious, reasonably priced and comfortable, the collections feature long cardigan/shawls, floaty blouses and dresses, jackets with draped necklines, soft sweaters, yoga wear and lingerie in neutral shades. They also make organic massage oils, face cream, lip balm and a fragrance called Voile de Coton, with almond, rose, white lotus and mimosa. Some addresses: 1 rue Montmartre, 1er; Tel. 33/1-42-21-46-01. 23 rue des FrancsBourgeois, 4e; Tel. 33/1-42-78-22-60. Marché Saint Germain, 3 rue Clément, 6e; Tel. 33/1-40-46-87-30. 30 rue Tronchet, 9e; Tel. 33/1-42-66-19-07. ekyog.com 52

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to the mix: T-shirts, tops, pants and underwear made of fair-trade, organic cotton in India and Tanzania. Though organics still represent a small portion of Monoprix’s offerings, they increased their production by 80 percent in 2007 and another 20 percent last year. You’ll find them hanging among the regular collections in the departments for men, women, kids and babies. Locations throughout Paris; monoprix.fr. Petit Bateau This brand’s famously soft cotton tees and separates have made it a must for French kids and mamans too. It recently launched a capsule collection in 100 percent organic cotton that also meets the international Oeko-Tex® Standard 100. For babies, there are cream-colored onesies, sleepers and infant sleeping bags, while women can find undies and tank tops in the same neutral shade. Instead of a scratchy label, the logo is silkscreened inside the fabric. Ten Paris locations; petit-bateau.fr.

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Now you can be an environmentalist right down to your underwear, thanks to Sophie Young’s new G=9.8 label, which uses microfibers made from American pines.

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ACCeSSORIeS Paris offers a wealth of products both “ethical” and stylish. CLoCkWISe fRom Left: Repurposed bijoux from La tonkinoise; a Louise fouin brooch, made from plastic bags; a leather bag from matières à Réflexion; mod8’s ekomik kid’s shoe.

everybody knows that accessories make an outfit, and it seems you can never have too many bags, belts or shoes (especially if they’re french). You may not be able to kick the habit, but at least you can support it sustainably. eco-friendly companies are using leather tanned with tree bark rather than chrome and choosing hides from animals raised organically and humanely. they’re opting for natural rubber, some of it made from the milk of hevea trees. even gold is getting a closer look, to ensure it has been extracted in an environmentally conscious way. 54

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Jewelry Ethical Luxury (JEL) Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t made a movie about gold mining yet, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem. Since gold is melted down, it’s almost impossible to trace its origins, and miners often use mercury and cyanide in the extraction of the metal, which is awful for the environment. Young French entrepreneur Erwan Le Louer has founded JEL ( j-e-l.fr), working with small open-air mines in western Colombia that never use chemicals or contaminants. The gold travels to a company in the Vosges where it’s turned into delicate 18-carat pendants, earrings and bracelets. JEL’s

“Infini” collection is sold at Colette, 213 rue Saint-Honoré, 1er; colette.fr. Moyi ekolo Moyi ekolo means “citizen” in Lingala, a language spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is, however, a French fair-trade company making women’s footwear in the Drôme region, whose famous shoemaking industry is in decline. Derbies, gladiators and low boots feature natural rubber soles made of hevea tree milk, Nepalese wool and Spanish leather tanned with tree bark. The look is intriguing, often roughhewn. The company has also created

a production workshop and sales network in Namibia, providing work in a country where unemployment is close to 40 percent. Sold at Kenka, 56 bis rue du Louvre, 2e; Tel. 33/1-45-0845-15; kenka.fr. Kenka Shoe addicts (and you know who you are) are generally aware of the destruction their habit can wreak on their wallets, but they may not know that shoemaking messes up the planet too. Fortunately, there’s a brand-new store in Paris selling a variety of environmentally friendly shoes from Europe and beyond. Materials

etnies’ first collection of 100 percent carbonneutral sneakers is made from renewable materials; the whimsical footwear is sold by the über-hip Colette.

include organic cotton, hemp and linen, natural rubber or recycled tires, cork and bamboo. Leather is tanned using tree bark rather than chemicals and is dyed without heavy metals. It might be hard to imagine running into Carrie Bradshaw here, but the selection is surprisingly attractive nonetheless. Converse lovers can find the equivalent in the brand Ethletic, which shares profits with producers in Sri Lanka. There are also caramelcolored vinyl-like boots and sandals by Plasticana, and the relaunched French brand Pataugas now offers a few styles with chrome-free leather. 56 bis rue du Louvre, 2e; Tel. 33/145-08-45-15; kenka.fr. Matières à réflexion Vintage leather jackets find new lives as handbags, while Army surplus clothes become canvas sacks at this boutique in the

Upper Marais. The workshop in the back gets most of its stock from Emmaus and Le Relais, the local equivalents of Goodwill, and each handmade piece is unique. The shop also sells jewelry by La Tonkinoise made from repurposed charms and timepieces. 19 rue de Poitou, 3e; Tel. 33/1-42-7216-31; matieresareflexion.com and latonkinoiseaparis.com. Jérôme dreyfuss Sometimes a woman’s best friend is her handbag, all the more irresistible when it comes with a name (Robert, Billy, Lucien) and the spot-on style of Jérôme Dreyfuss. In 2006 the young French designer created his own “agricouture” label to describe his ecological commitment to his clients. It’s not entirely green— leather never is—but it is environmentally conscious. The animals he uses are raised with space to roam, the

ZAZA FACtORY With a marketing degree, a love of travel and boundless enthusiasm, Isabelle Grandval built a workshop for craftswomen in Myanmar and launched Zaza Factory, her French accessories brand, in 2005. Since then she has opened workshops in India, Bénin and most recently Kuala Lumpur, with a project for Burmese refugees there. Many of her materials are recycled or environmentally friendly, and the women who work for her all receive a decent wage. Grandval’s collection features an eclectic range of items: blown-glass jewelry, Bolivian cashlama ponchos and fantastic handbags, from chic little clutches to roomy bags of recycled leather. Her products are so groovy that the French brand Agnès B. has joined forces with Zaza Factory to release mini-collections of bags, scarves and wool caps. Sold at nearly 40 boutiques, department stores and specialty shops throughout Paris. zazafactory.com

leather is tanned without chemicals and with recycled water, and artisans hail from small workshops in Europe and North Africa. 1 rue Jacob, 6e; Tel. 33/1-43-54-70-93; jerome-dreyfuss. com. Also sold at Merci, 111 bd Beaumarchais, 3e; Tel. 33/1-42-7700-33; merci-merci.com.

ink. The Fall/Winter collection, available at various Paris locations, comes with laces or straps, in grey, taupe, rust and brown. At Chaussures Tavernier (99 rue Mouffetard, 5e; Tel. 33/147-07-21-90) and Chupi Boots (114 rue de la Roquette, 11e; Tel. 33/1-4009-00-02). mod8.com

Mod8 Toddlers concerned about their carbon footprint can now take their first steps in ecologically friendly shoes by the excellent French children’s footwear company Mod8. They consist of organically tanned leather uppers, organic cotton insoles, bamboo fiber laces and natural rubber soles and straps handcrafted from the milk of hevea trees, grown in controlled tropical plantations. Air cushions in the soles act as natural shock absorbers. Even the box is made of recycled cardboard with biodegradable

Veja Veja sneakers are designed in France and made by small cooperatives in Brazil with organic cotton, renewable wild Amazonian rubber and leather tanned with vegetal extracts. What’s best, with their fun colors and “V” logo on the side, they look really cool. There are collections for men, women, kids and babies; the company is also introducing a new line of eco-friendly handbags plus the latest sneaker model, the limited-edition SPMA (Sao Paolo mon amour). Sold at Kiliwatch (men’s and women’s shoes, including SPMA), 62 rue Tiquetonne, 2e; Tel. 33/1-42-21-17-37. Alter Mundi, 5 bd du Temple, 3e. Le Bon Marché, 24 rue de Sèvres, 7e; Tel. 33/1-44-39-80-00. veja.fr Elise Fouin Where most people see a crumpled-up supermarket bag, designer Elise Fouin sees jewelry. The 30-year-old Parisian, a graduate of the prestigious Boulle design school, always starts her creative process with materials, turning cash register rolls into paper lamps, leftover pieces of wood into coat racks, aluminum shavings into necklaces, and supermarket bags into bright flower brooches. Images of Elise Fouin’s creations are available on her site, elisefouin.com. Orders may be made via e-mail: contact@elisefouin.com. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

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COSMetICS, SKINCARe & PeRFUMe

egyptian basil, Breton cider apples, sweet almond oil, apricots—the ingredients in organic skincare products sound way more delicious than parabens and phthalates. Note, however, that it’s easy to confuse natural with organic. In france, most organic cosmetics are certified by ecocert, with the term “écologique et biologique” guaranteeing they contain at least 10 percent organic ingredients and

95 percent natural ingredients— and that 95 percent of the natural ingredients (not including water) are organic. (the exact percentages should also be noted on the label.) the organic skincare industry has been growing 25 to 30 percent annually in recent years and now represents about 3 to 4 percent of the french market. that’s still a small fraction, but new companies are springing up all the time, the most famous names in skincare are snapping up organic brands, and sales are expected to double during the next five years. Here’s a sampling of what’s in store, from parapharmacies to luxury boutiques. Bio-Beauté by Nuxe One of the most appealing mid-priced skincare lines on French pharmacy shelves, Nuxe is run by Aliza Jabès (her sister is Terry de Gunzburg, of the high-end By Terry make-up brand). Bio-Beauté contains close to 100 percent organic products, including a high concentration of fruit extracts, and is free of all

the undesirables—silicone, petrochemicals, synthetic coloring agents, GMOs, parabens, etc. There is a full line for face and body with ingredients such as daisy oil, hazelnut oil, apricots and caramelized peaches. Yum. Available at most parapharmacies. Cattier This family-run French skincare company was created in 1968 by Pierre Cattier, one of the fathers of the French mouvement harmoniste espousing natural medicine. Cattier’s original products were clay-based. In 1987 a pharmacist-cosmetologist bought the brand and took it in an increasingly natural, organic direction. Today, with a factory outside Paris, Cattier makes about a hundred products including cleansing baby gel with sweet almond and orange blossom; yogurt shampoo; face masks in pink, green, white or yellow clay; six different perfumes; even insect repellent. The products are reasonably priced and sold in pharmacies and at Naturalia, Monoprix, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.

fresh from Brittany, Is B’s line of unisex creams, scrubs and serums incorporates organic cider apples, a source of antioxidants.

Honoré des Prés The French niche parfumeur now offers five scents made with 100 percent organic natural extracts, free of chemicals, coloring agents and phthalates. Cult perfumer Olivia Giacobetti created four of the five, including the enticing Chaman’s Party, with vetiver, Egyptian basil and Madagascar cloves. The others are Bonté’s Bloom, Nu Green, Sexy Angelic and Honoré’s Trip. At Printemps de la Beauté Scent Room, 64 boulevard Haussmann, 9e; printemps. com. Calligrane, 6 rue du Pont Louis Philippe, 4e; honoredespres.com. Is B Bordeaux gave us skincare products made from grapes, and now Brittany responds with a line made with organic cider apples. Both fruits contain polyphenols, valued for their antioxidant properties. The Lecoq-Gadby eco-friendly spa hotel in Rennes is behind the new cosmetics label (the unusual name comes from a Celtic legend), with six products for the body and face. All are suitable for women, children and men—three-star chef Alain Passard swears by the balm as a pre-shave oil. There are creams, serums and oils for draining, firming and moisturizing, plus a signature scrub that comes with ground seeds so clients can adjust the texture as they wish. Is B is available at three of the By Terry luxury makeup boutiques; you’ll find them in the new space for emerging brands called L.A.B. de Marques. By Terry: 36 passage Véro Dodat, 1er; Tel. 33/1-44-76-00-76. 30 rue de la Trémoille, 8e; Tel. 33/144-43-04-04. 10 avenue Victor Hugo, 16e; Tel. 33/1-55-73-00-73. La Falaise This Normandy-based bath line offers solid and liquid soaps, salts and gels made with a high concentration of organic and natural products, without parabens, GMOs or synthetic chemicals. The ingredients sound good enough to eat—there’s organic honey with macadamia, green tea with Muscat rose, calendula and sweet almond oil. Available at Biocoop (biocoop.fr) and Boutique Nature (boutique-nature.fr) shops throughout Paris as well as at pharmacies and parapharmacies. savonlafalaise.fr Left:

Chaman’s Party, part of Honoré des Prés’s new line of perfumes made with 100 percent organic natural extracts.

F r a n ce • F a l l 2 0 0 9

LEFT: Alain Gilles’s “Kylie” armchair, at Merci, is made from recycled plastic bottle caps; ABOVE: the plant-filled “Bel Air” air filter.

and housewares. Downstairs, ecological party planners can find disposable plates made from sugarcane pulp by Japanese company Wasara that are both attractive and biodegradable. In the design section, the blue “Kylie” armchair by Alain Gilles is speckled with colors from recycled plastic bottle caps. In the clothing section, you can find organic cotton jeans for women by the French company Nu and Jérôme Dreyfuss’s agricouture bags. 111 bd Beaumarchais, 3e; Tel. 33/1-42-7700-33; merci-merci.com.

PARIS VERT

D e sign & H om e D é cor

Greening your home used to mean buying a few potted plants. Now it means chairs made from recycled plastic, rice-powder guest soaps and biodegradable dinner plates. One day, you may even find yourself shopping for your own personal wind turbine, like the model designer Philippe Starck showed in Milan last year (to be sold at some point in the near future—watch for info on the manufacturer’s Web site: pramac.com).

Bel-Air / Andrea From the paint on our walls to the chemicals in our kids’ toys, our environment is slowly poisoning us. In 2007, French industrial designer Mathieu Lehanneur and American scientist David Edwards used the results of a NASA study to invent “Bel Air,” a filter vaguely resembling a food processor with plants inside. Lehanneur says it removes the “toxic ghosts” from our surroundings. Named “Invention of the Year” by Popular Science magazine in 2008, the “Bel-Air” is offered for €13,500 at Paris’s LaboShop (a commercial version called “Andrea” is available for €149). LaboShop sells prototypes, limited-editions and other innovative products created by Laboratoire, which fosters collaborations between international scientists and artists. 4 rue du Bouloi, 1er; Tel. 33/1-78-0949-63; laboshop.fr.

Les Fées Among the carefully curated decorative items in this charming little shop are Corsican company Testa Maura’s organic candles incorporating essential oils from the island and available in scents such as rosemary and bay leaf. Other items that slip easily into a suitcase include beautiful soaps by the French company Instant Balsamic; made of organic oils, shea butter, rice powder and beeswax, they are sculpted into delicately scented roses, tulips or blocks of “marble.” 19 rue Charlot, 3e; Tel. 33/1-43-70-14-76; testamaura. com and instantbalsamic.fr. Merci The most buzzed-about store opening of the year, Merci has an ethical approach—donating its profits to the impoverished children of Madagascar—and several green items for sale among its fantastic and everchanging selection of clothes, design

Floating Garden The French industrial designer Benjamin Graindorge has created a fish tank with a completely natural filtration system; based on hydroponics, it has a cushion of sand and plants adapted to each model. The system, which works best when there are three or four fish rather than zillions, eliminates pesky water changes. All that is needed is a top-up from time to time and a swipe of the sponge over the façade. The prototype, which came out this spring, is being sold in a limited-edition series for €5,000. The manufacturer, Duende Studio, is planning to market a less expensive model to the general public next year. Order prototype at Forum Diffusion, 55 rue Pierre Demours, 17e; forumdiffusion.fr. As’Art As’Art was born 18 years ago when two French world travelers met and opened a business in Paris specializing in African crafts. Now the duo stocks galleries in Montorgeuil and the Marais with treasures from artisans, cooperatives and NGOs working in various African countries. The recycling ingenuity is striking: plastic scrap becomes chickens, ostriches and giraffes; metal cans are turned into colorful little cars; and sardine labels are transformed into papier-mâché bowls by HIV-positive women in South Africa. 3 passage du Grand Cerf, 2e and 35 rue St-Paul, 4e; Tel. 33/1-44-8890-40; asart.fr. Fran c e • Fall 2 0 0 9

Calendrier September-December 2009

• Watteau’s “Mezzetin” (c. 1718-1720), at the Met, serenades an invisible amour.

season highlights Belying his humble provincial origins as a roofer’s son, Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) established a decidedly aristocratic genre of painting: the fête galante, in which elegant men and women dance, flirt and otherwise amuse themselves in bucolic surroundings. The theatrical quality of these scenes may be traced in part to his stint in the studio of Claude Gillot, an artist and stage designer with a particular fondness for the commedia dell’arte. The painting above depicts Mezzetin, a stock character of that improvisational form of stage comedy. Eyes cast upward, perhaps toward a balcony or window, he appears to be serenading his beloved; the turned back of the statue behind him suggests that his ardor is not reciprocated. This work is one of some 60 displayed in W atteau , M usic , and T heater , which combines paintings and drawings with musical instruments, gold boxes and porcelain figures. Through Nov. 29 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; metmuseum.org.

F r a nce • fa l l 20 09

T h e M e t r o p o l i ta n M u s eu m o f A r t, M u n s e y F u n d

French Cultural Events in North America

exhibits Los Angeles CAPTURING NATURE’S BEAUTY

The 17th-century artists Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, friends who sketched together in the Roman countryside, are both credited with elevating the landscape genre through their classical compositions. They are just two of the many masters represented in Capturing Nature’s Beauty: Three Centuries of French Landscapes, which brings together drawings dating from the 1600s to the 1800s and reflects a wide range of styles and purposes. Through Nov. 1 at the Getty Center; getty.edu.

Philadelphia

THE J . PAUL GETTY M USEU M , LOS ANGELES ; © M a n R ay T r u s t / A r t i s t s R i g h t s S o c i e t y ( ARS ) , NY / ADAGP, Pa r i s

ETANT DONNÉS

Marcel Duchamp: Etant donnés marks the 40th anniversary of the public debut of the artist’s swan song, discovered in his studio after his death in 1968. Described by fellow artist Jasper Johns as “the strangest work of art in any museum,” the multimedia assemblage features a wooden door pierced by two peepholes; peering through these, the viewer spies a nude woman reclining on a bed of twigs and holding up a gas lamp, a waterfall in the background. The exhibition sheds light on the genesis, construction, reception and legacy of the piece by placing it in the context of some 80 other works of art, as well as documentary photographs. Through Nov. 1 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; philamuseum.org.

as Fragonard, Boucher and David, the show reveals how the shift from rococo exuberance to Neoclassical austerity reflected the dramatic social and political changes occurring in French society at large. Through Jan. 3, 2010, at The Morgan Library & Museum; themorgan.org.

Minneapolis LOUVRE AND MASTERPIECEs

The Louvre and the Masterpiece presents sculptures, paintings, drawings and decorative items drawn from all eight curatorial departments of the venerable French institution. Spanning four millennia, the works illustrate how taste, connoisseurship and the definition of “masterpiece” have evolved over the ages. Acknowledged chef d’oeuvres are displayed alongside similar but lesser objects to allow viewers a glimpse through the eye of the trained beholder. Oct. 18 through Jan. 10, 2010, at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; artsmia.org.

Baltimore MATISSE PRINTS

Matisse as Printmaker brings together some 150 works completed over five decades and representing every technique the artist employed, from lithography to linocut. The show explores the importance of serial imagery in Matisse’s oeuvre by highlighting such recurring motifs as the reclining nude. A complementary selection of paintings and sculptures illustrates how thoroughly the artist integrated his thematic interests into every medium he embraced. Oct. 25 through Jan. 3, 2010, at the Baltimore Museum of Art; artbma.org.

Montclair, NJ CÉZANNE AND

New York

AMERICAN MODERNISM

WATTEAU TO DEGAS

Cézanne and American Modernism, the first show to delve deeply into the subject, opens with a selection of the paintings and works on paper through which American artists at home and abroad first became acquainted with the French master, along with archival materials documenting the landmark exhibitions involved. What follows is a testament to Cézanne’s profound influence—stylistic, philosophical and thematic—on American artists from 1907 to 1930, with pieces by Marsden Hartley, Man Ray, Arshile Gorky and some 30 others. Through Jan. 3, 2010, at the Montclair Art Museum; montclair-art.org.

The Dutch connoisseur Frits Lugts (1884–1970) is best known for his painstaking compilations of art sales catalogs and collector’s marks, which remain essential works of reference in the field. He also assembled a collection of some 36,000 works of art and established the

New York ROCOCO AND REVOLUTION

Rococo and Revolution: EighteenthCentury French Drawings traces the evolution of artistic style in France from the end of the reign of Louis XIV to the collapse of the ancien régime. Through more than 80 works by such luminaries

Fondation Custodia, now housed in an 18th-century mansion in Paris, to ensure its preservation. Watteau to Degas: French Drawings from the Frits Lugt Collection presents 60 of the finest 18th- and 19th-century French pieces in this trove. Oct. 6 through Jan. 10, 2010, at The Frick Collection; frick.org.

Baltimore ILLUSTRATING POE

When Stéphane Mallarmé tackled a new translation of Poe’s The Raven (following in the footsteps of Baudelaire), he asked his friend Edouard Manet to provide illustrations. Dating from 1875, these images are among the rarely Léon Bonvin’s “Landscape with a Bare Tree and a seen prints, drawings Plowman” (1864), on view at the Getty. and illustrated books on view in Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon; other prominent collection of French Old Master drawings, 19th- and 20th-century artists reprethe 120 pieces on view—many significant recent acquisitions—have never before sented include Gauguin and Matisse. been assembled for display. Through Jan. Commemorating the bicentennial of the 31, 2010, at the National Gallery of Art; author’s birth, the show brings to visual nga.gov. life such classic tales as The Tell-tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum. Oct. 4 through Jan. 17, 2010, at the New York Baltimore Museum of Art; artbma.org. MONET’S WATER LILIES Celebrating some of the most internationally beloved works in its collection, Cleveland the Museum of Modern Art presents PAUL GAUGUIN: PARIS, 1889 During the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Monet’s Water Lilies. The show brings Paris, Gauguin and members of his circle together MoMA’s complete holdings organized a sort of Salon des Refusés from the artist’s late period, during which he devoted himself to painting the garat a nearby café. Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889 reunites for the first time many of dens of his home in Giverny. A highlight the 100-odd works in that show, notaof these highlights is the iconic 42-footbly the artist’s first set of prints. Oct. 4 wide triptych “Reflections of Clouds on through Jan. 18, 2010, at The Cleveland the Water-Lily Pond.” Through April 12 at Museum of Art; clevelandart.org. the Museum of Modern Art; moma.org.

•

Washington, DC

New York

RENAISSANCE TO REVOLUTION

CHRONOTOPES & DIORAMAS

Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500–1800 serves as a Who’s Who of three centuries’ worth of French artists and their foreign contemporaries working in France, including Benvenuto Cellini, Jacques Callot, Claude Lorrain, François Boucher and Jacques-Louis David. The cream of the institution’s renowned

Dia at the Hispanic Society presents chronotopes & dioramas, the first major U.S. solo exhibition for Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, one of the leading French figures on the international contemporary art scene. The site-specific installation complements the Hispanic Society of America’s impressive research library, which contains the most extensive manuscript collection of its kind outside Spain but more limited contemporary holdings. Gonzalez-Foerster’s 40-footwide “annex” presents the books of some

•

Marcel Duchamp’s “Tonsure” (1919) is part of “Marcel Duchamp: Etant donnés.”

F r a nce • fa l l 20 09

title character. Oct. 19 at Friedberg Hall; peabodyopera.org.

New York GOD OF CARNAGE

After a summer hiatus, Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage returns to the stage with its original New York cast: Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. See related article page 20. Through Nov. 14 at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre; godofcarnage.com.

recent motion pictures. This year’s edition of New French Films includes films as varied as Alain Cavalier’s Irène, the director’s intimate reflection on the death of his wife more than 35 years ago; Emmanuel Mouret’s slapstick romantic comedy Please, Please Me!; and François Ozon’s Ricky, about a working-class couple whose baby has supernatural powers. Nov. 11 through 15 at BAM Rose Cinemas; bam.org.

New Orleans

of the 2009 New Wave Festival.

40 20th-century authors as “indigenous inhabitants” of three different terrains rendered in natural history-style dioramas. Through April 18, 2010, Dia at the Hispanic Society; diaart.org/hindex.html.

Washington, DC SÈVRES PORCELAIN

In the first U.S. retrospective of its kind, Sèvres Then and Now: Tradition and Innovation in Porcelain, 1750–2000 (see related article, p. 30) brings together some 90 pieces ranging from an elaborately staged 18th-century dessert service to biomorphic ceramics designed by Jean Arp. Oct. 20 through May 30, 2010, at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens; hillwoodmuseum.org.

performing arts Washington, DC LES ARTS FLORISSANTS

The period instrument ensemble Opera

Lafayette performs Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants (1685), an allegorical chamber opera in which Music, Poetry, Architecture and Painting come under threat from Discord; fortunately, Peace prevails. The concert performance with dance stars soprano Ah Young Hong as Music and baritone William Sharp as Discord. Oct. 19 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater; operalafayette.org.

Baltimore OPERA IN FRENCH

The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University presents One-act Operas in French, a trio of works by composers of different nationalities. The program features Rameau’s “Adonis” (1748), complete with baroque orchestra, followed by two comic operas sung with piano accompaniment: Gluck’s “L’ivrogne corrigé” (1760), in which a drunkard’s wife and niece concoct a plan to scare him sober, and Donizetti’s “Rita” (1860), about two men trying to escape their matrimonial ties to the

ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

QUARTETT

The New Orleans Opera performs Roméo et Juliette, Charles Gounod’s take on Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy. Dispensing with the play’s minor characters, the piece focuses so closely on the star-crossed lovers that it has been called “a love duet with occasional interruptions.” With Paul Groves and Nicole Cabell in the title roles. Nov. 20 and 22 at Mahalia Jackson Theater; neworleansopera.org.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music hosts the U.S. premiere of Robert Wilson’s new production of Quartett, featuring the avant-garde American director’s signature spare, visually intense aesthetic (he designed both the sets and the lighting). The play is based on the German dramatist Heiner Müller’s 12-page distillation of the 18th-century epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, by Choderlos de Laclos. The protean French actress Isabelle Huppert headlines as Madame de Merteuil opposite Ariel Garcia Valdès as Monsieur de Valmont. In French with English surtitles. Nov. 4 through 7 and 10 through 14 at BAM Harvey Theater; bam.org.

East Coast Tour PARIS PIANO TRIO

Each a successful soloist in his own right, violinist Régis Pasquier, cellist Roland Pidoux and pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier regularly perform together as the acclaimed Paris Piano Trio. This fall, the ensemble makes a six-stop East Coast tour, playing works by Ravel, Schubert and Rachmaninov, among others. Nov. 8 through 15; for dates and venues, visit instantencore.com/Core/ Contributor.aspx?CId=5112015.

Henri Matisse’s “Patitcha” (1947), featured in “Matisse as Printmaker.”

New York

NEW FRENCH FILMS

LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN

Each fall, BAMcinématek showcases some of the finest of France’s most

The Metropolitan Opera stages a new production of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, a psychological fantasy in which the title character tells the tales of his three lost loves—all different facets of the same woman, just as the villains who caused his romantic undoing are one and the same man. Created by Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher, with James Levine conducting, the show stars Joseph Calleja as Hoffmann, Alan Held as his nemesis and Anna Netrebko as his beloved Stella. Dec. 3 through Jan. 2 at the Metropolitan Opera House; metopera.org.

Memoirs of a Star Leslie Caron was just 16 when Gene Kelly saw her perform with Roland Petit’s Ballets des ChampsElysées. She so impressed him that two years later he asked her to audition as his co-star in An American in Paris (1951), the role that won her international fame. In Thank Heaven:

F r a nce • fa l l 20 09

A Memoir (Viking, $25.95; on sale Nov. 30), Caron recounts her life before, during and after her time in the Hollywood spotlight: growing up in war-torn France with her American mother and French father, starring in Gigi (1958), garnering two Academy Award nominations, becoming romantically involved with Warren Beatty during the second of her four marriages, overcoming alcoholism and depression to become one of a handful of actresses who

are still working in their 70s…. In conjunction with the release of Thank Heaven, Caron will make personal appearances in New York City (Dec. 1, Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center), Philadelphia (Dec. 2, The Free Library and gala dinner with French Ambassador Pierre Vimont, alliancefrancaisephiladelphia.com), and Los Angeles (Dec. 5, Borders, Westwood), where she will also receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Dec. 4).

•

—Tracy Kendrick For a regularly updated listing of cultural events, go to francemagazine.org.

Pa s c a l V i c t o r ; © 2 0 0 7 S u cc e s s i o n H . M at i s s e , Pa r i s / A r t i s t s R i g h t s S o c i e t y ( ARS ) , N e w Y o r k

• Isabelle Huppert plays the toxic Marquise de Merteuil in “Quartett,” part

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Rebels With a Cause by MICHEL FAURE

They called it the New Wave, and it swept

away everything in its path. From virtually one day to the next, French cinema discovered new faces and voices, a new tone, new manners, new stories and new budgets. Two films—François Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups and Jean-Luc Godard’s A Bout de Souffle— revolutionized the way that movies were made and watched. One of the many things they had in common was the year they came out: 1959. In May of that year, The 400 Blows won acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival; that December, Breathless left Parisian movie-goers, well, breathless. Fifty years later, we’re still riding that wave. We still expect movies to tell us about life using real-life language. We still feel that film is a young art whose lightness of tone is part of its appeal. And • François Truffaut we still embrace the auteur on the set of Les Deux Anglaises et le theory—the idea that a film Continent (1970). director is the “author” of his work, just like a writer and his novel. Truffaut, Godard and their friends—Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, Alain Resnais, Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda, to name but a few—took their movie cameras out of the studios and into the street. They cast young people that audiences had never seen before and told everyday stories whose dialogues seemed improvised rather than scripted. They didn’t have much money—the charm and inventiveness of their films derived in part from their tiny budgets—but their work conveyed so much pleasure, energy and spontaneity that you could compare it to rock ’n’ roll, which appeared around the same time and similarly transformed the way we make and listen to music. The expression “New Wave” had already been floating around before it was applied to movies. In a world that was slowly recovering from the traumas of WWII, everything was supposed to be new: Christian Dior’s “New Look”; the Salon des Arts Ménagers, which ushered in a new age of consumer goods; the futuristic Citroën DS. Today we associate the term with French cinema, but it was first used two years earlier by L’Express in an article about young people and their desire for societal change. According to Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana, co-authors of an excellent 1996 biography of Truffaut, it was the critic Pierre Billard who first applied the expression to the cinema. The movement’s leading exponent and theoretician was Truffaut. As a young reviewer writing for two influential magazines, Arts and Les Cahiers 64

F r a nce • Fa l l 20 09

du Cinéma, he was ruthless toward his eminent predecessors (with the exception of Jean Renoir, whom he revered), accusing them of academicism. He had equally harsh words for the actors whose performances he considered stagey, disconnected from real life. Truffaut later dismissed them all as “la vieille vague.” The old guard was scandalized by these upstarts (who of course were tickled by their elders’ disapproval). “Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire dégueulasse?” Jean Seberg, a young American who hawks the Herald Tribune on the Champs-Elysées, artlessly asks her lover, Jean-Paul Belmondo, a cool young thug who steals cars and pees in the sink at his girlfriend’s chambre de bonne. Amateurism, vulgarity, intellectualism, pretentiousness and poor manners—look what these young people are guilty of, the Old Wave groused. But the newcomers, absorbed by life and film, brushed off such complaints. Truffaut and Godard were the New Wave’s most famous poster children, but their early friendship turned to loathing over the years, and their filmmaking styles eventually diverged as well. Prosperous, popular and consumed by his métier, the anarchistic Truffaut crafted tales that were generally melancholy with a moral edge. Godard was a perpetually rebellious intellectual whose work grew increasingly obscure as he became more and more immersed in activism and video experimentation. Soon the onceunited group of young filmmakers was nothing but a memory. Each one followed his or her own path, but all of them—Chabrol, Rivette, Varda, Demy—became French cinema legends. Some critics accused them of becoming part of the system, of betraying the New Wave. I disagree. If they became part of the system, it was only because the system had changed, thanks to them. They remained true to showing life—real life—on the big screen. Throughout his career, Truffaut shared with us nothing less than the story of his life: first his childhood, which was unhappy; then his love affairs, which were numerous (he always fell in love with his actresses). He showed us how life, love and cinema were intertwined (La Nuit Américaine), and he left behind not only some extraordinary films but his prolific writings and his memorable interviews with Alfred Hitchcock. The fact that French cinema now has a distinct identity and enjoys an international reputation is largely due to Truffaut—something that we should all remember with gratitude, every year ending in nine. f

Temps Modernes