Paris Magazine January/February 2010 by Paris Magazine

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Jan/Feb 2010

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CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS

4 LETTERS FROM READERS

12 INTERVIEW John Morris: the eye for the telling photo

6 NEWS BRIEFS McDonald’s infiltrates the Louvre Blanketing Paris with security cameras 10 IN THE CITY The men who light up the city

24 BOOK REVIEW Charles Glass’s Americans in Paris: Life and Death under the Nazi Occupation 26 FOOD The choicest olives on the market Christine Ferber, queen of jam

FEATURES

30 STYLE Low-key luxury in clothes and perfumes 42 EDITORIAL Putting Paris heritage on sale Why fast food and the Louvre don’t mix 50 POSTSCRIPT The last redoubt of an ancient game

14 PUTTING NATIONAL HERITAGE ON THE MARKET Why the state is selling some of its historic properties 20 BEST RESTAURANTS OF 2009 Last year’s top dining pleasures and this year’s trends

PARIS LIVING 32 CHILDREN’S PAGE Fun with ice rinks, jazz clubs and aquariums 34 AROUND TOWN Winter in Paris: art, theater, dance, music and events 43 COMMUNITY CALENDAR What’s on in the English-speaking community

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Contributors

Letters to the Editor As a longtime Paris correspondent, bureau chief and editor, having read many magazines about Paris life over the years, I had some doubts about yours – initially. Now, having read several issues and seen the steady, colorful, improvements, particularly to content and layout, I want to congratulate you on what strikes me as one of the city's best journalistic endeavors. It is an enjoyable, informative, useful editorial product and thus, I have just sent you my check for a year's subscription. Good luck!

Axel Krause Secretary General Anglo-American Press Association of Paris

Yours is a fine magazine – interesting, attractive and obviously written and put together by professionals who really know the Paris scene. But may I ask what a well-known food critic is doing at the Costes places? (What the Costes Brothers are Costing Paris, Sept/Oct 2009). Foodwise, they deserve one sentence: a posh, overpriced version of McDonald’s, same lack of imagination, same assembly-line cooking. End of statement on food. If they deserve no praise for what they are, they do for where they are. The choicest spots in town: on the top of the Pompidou Center, with the finest circular view of the city, smack in the geographic heart of Paris; three feet from the Seine, no cars, greenery, white parasols – the closest thing to St.Tropez's Tahiti Plage you'll find north of the Loire; in the middle of the rue Cler, one of the liveliest, most charming pedestrian food

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markets...and the list goes on and on. Forget about guidebooks, just follow the Costes trail and you'll see all the places which gave Paris its reputation as a unique, magic city. (More's the pity about the food.) Unfortunately the Costes brothers have also revived a tradition which has been slowly but noticeably diminishing over the years: the rude waiter. He is back in full force at at their establishments. Probably to make sure the breed won't die out, they gave him a female accomplice: the snotty, dolled-up hostess/waitress. Her ancestor used to reign supreme in the haute couture boutiques until the new owners caught on. If the Brothers Costes really wish to help save an endangered species, may I suggest the blue whale?

Ursula Naccache Paris

Your article on the ugly buildings that have been allowed to disfigure Paris (Invitation to a Wrecking Ball, November/December 2009) at last calls attention to a problem that has long been irritating Parisians and visitors alike. It has been evident for years that efforts to give the city a “modern” look have only marred the city’s classic skyline while adding nothing to its attractiveness or even its efficiency. It is baffling that successive administrations have allowed tasteless architects to disfigure a city so dependent on tourism. It’s time for the people of Paris to demand a halt to such projects, and to call for the elimination of past mistakes.

Bernard Parminter Paris

Jeffrey T. Iverson (Paris for Sale, p. 14) has been reporting from Paris for Time magazine since 2007. Alexander Lobrano (Best Paris Restaurants of 2009, p. 20) is the author of Hungry for Paris and was Gourmet magazine's European correspondent for ten years. Rudy Chelminski (Postscript, p. 50) was a Life magazine staffer for more than ten years. He has written six books, including several about French food and wine. Tobias Grey (Book Review, p. 24) writes cultural features for Variety, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, and book reviews for The Washington Post. Carolyn Pfaff (In the City, p. 10) is a veteran journalist with a special interest in urban issues. She has written for the International Herald Tribune and Time magazine. Cathy Nolan (Interview, p. 12) worked as the Paris bureau chief and correspondent for People magazine for over 20 years. Rosa Jackson (Food, p. 26) is a food critic and author of the award-winning guidebook Gourmet Paris. Virginia Power (News Briefs, p. 6) worked as a reporter and photo editor in the Paris bureau of Newsweek for 20 years. Tina Isaac (Style, p. 30) is the Paris correspondent for Travel + Leisure magazine. She also freelances for Women's Wear Daily and style.com. Corinne LaBalme (News Briefs, p. 6) has written freelance articles for i-D magazine and The New York Times travel section. Anna Brooke (Around Town, p. 34) has authored guidebooks about France and Paris for Frommer's, and writes regular listings for Time Out.

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NEWS BRIEFS

Fast Food at the Louvre don't make the distinction between the museum and the Carrousel, which is why we monitor carefully what happens there.” Officials who were involved during the creation of the Carrousel are now saying that there was no formal agreement and no obligation to keep certain shops out. “The Carrousel is an independent gallery,” says one, “and Unibail-Rodamco, who manages the space, decides which shops are accepted.” Bernard Hasquenoph, who created a website for museum visitors and keeps a close eye on the Louvre’s activities, says, “That is a total lie. The Carrousel is under the museum’s supervision. They don’t manage the day-to-day, but they still have veto power. There is even a sort of charter which talks about the quality of the businesses.” Hasquenoph suspects that it is simply a matter of money, explaining that the concessions give back to the Louvre.

PHOTO: MONTAGE

For the past 20 years, the world’s most visited museum has been thriving on controversy – first the uproar over I.M. Pei’s glass pyramids then the consternation over the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground mall. Both gambles seem to have paid off, continuing to draw record numbers of art lovers, tourists and shoppers. But the Louvre may not live down its latest addition: a McDonald’s restaurant in the Carrousel’s food court. When the Carrousel first opened, museum directors took care to reassure critics wary of mixing popular consumerism with some of France’s most precious art that the Louvre had veto power over down-market concessions. Among those specifically excluded from the Carrousel were discotheques, cinemas, art galleries and ‘fast-foods.’ In 2000, the Louvre museum’s administrator told The New York Times, “…we’re happy to have the mall there so long as it respects our guidelines,” and “People

by Virginia Power

“No one ever wants to admit that it’s about money, especially when culture is involved,” he says. “They should just own up to it.” In a country with over 1,135 McDonald’s restaurants, the chain’s biggest market outside of America, it remains to be seen whether the Carrousel du Louvre’s latest addition permanently tarnishes the museum’s image or if, like its past controversies, it simply draws more crowds.

Keeping an Eye on Parisians by Corinne Labalme If the Paris City Council has its way, Parisians will soon be under closer scrutiny. The council has approved a measure that would add 1,009 surveillance cameras to the 293 police cameras already in service in Paris. Despite doubts raised by the Green and the Communist

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parties concerning privacy issues and the efficiency of video-protection, a City Hall spokesman confirmed in early December that the project is “99.99 percent” certain to proceed. The additional cameras would be installed in 2011. Georges Sarre, Mayor Bertrand Delanoë’s deputy in charge of security, says the protests are “a lot of fuss for nothing,” noting that Parisians are already surveyed by an estimated 40,000 security cameras daily. Roughly 75 percent of these are privatelyoperated, mostly by shop owners. The

SNCF and the RATP alone account for 9,500 of these video cameras. To calm “Big Brother” fears, the Paris Prefecture and the Mayor’s office signed an accord on November 12 creating an independent, 11-member Ethics Committee presided by Roland Kessous, ex-legal counsellor to former Interior Minister Gaston Deferre, that will respond to queries and complaints from citizens concerning the expanded video-protection program. In order to insure transparency, all state/city camera locations will be posted on-line.

The Carrousel du Louvre underground mall next to the Louvre museum counts 8.3 million visitors a year

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IN THEBRIEFS FOOD NEWS CITY

Take the A(utomated) Train Work is at the half-way point on the RATP’s five-year, 629€ million project to equip the high-density Line 1 metro with driverless subway cars, similar to those used on the “Meteor” line 14, by 2012. The new system, which promises to ease congestion with higher speeds and faster reaction time to traffic demands, is expected to increase Line 1 frequency to one train every 85 seconds during rush hour. By the end of 2010, all 25 stations between Pont de Neuilly and Château de Vincennes will have transparent sliding doors on their platforms. These security doors will prevent public access to the tracks and allow trains to approach stations at higher speeds. The RATP estimates that 70 percent of rider-caused delays will be eliminated by the double-door system. The new subway cars will feature videosurveillance cameras and improved ventilation systems. Existing Line 1 rolling stock will

be transferred to Line 4 (Porte d’OrléansClignancourt). Line 1, Paris’s oldest subway, debuted at the 1900 World’s Fair with eight stations. It currently transports 213 million

passengers a year and includes five of the RATP’s 15 busiest hubs: La Défense, Etoile, Châtelet, Gare de Lyon and Nation. C.L.

Paris Under Cover - 2010 What tourist treasures will be hidden behind plastic screens in 2010… and which ones will emerge from their construction cocoons?

vamped Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie will re-open in February, and the Duchess’s Apartments in the Hôtel Sully should re-open by this spring.

Museums: The Musée d’Orsay’s Impressionist Wing and Aumont Pavilion closes this January for a year-long makeover that promises jewel-tinted walls, improved lighting, a flashier cafe, and easier access. Completely closed for renovation in 2010: The Palais Galliera (fashion) until 2011; the Picasso Museum and the Musée de l’Homme until 2012. Work continues on Frank Gehry’s Bois de Boulogne pavilion for Fondation Louis Vuitton to debut in 2012. The re-

Churches: If all goes according to plan, the north tower of the late-baroque Saint Sulpice Church, under wraps since 1999, will reveal its newly-solidified silhouette in September. Almost half of the 13th century stained-glass windows in the Sainte Chapelle will stay covered up until 2013.

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Culture: The Cité de la Mode et du Design on the Quai d’Austerlitz – a 1907 waterfront

An average station-to-station trip on the Paris Metro takes 58 seconds

warehouse draped in green steel and grass by architects Dominque Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane – will be unveiled this spring. The west facade of the Opéra Garnier will be hidden behind a plastic curtain until January 2012. Transport & Tourism: Modernization continues through 2011 at the Gare Saint Lazare to create easier transfers and access, shopping arcades and an underground parking lot. Two major hotel projects will emerge from scaffolding in spring 2010: the Shangri-la in the 1896 Roland Bonaparte mansion near Ièna and the 1928 Royal Monceau. C.L.

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IN THE CITY

Illuminating the City of Light A remarkable team of technicians creates the magical look of Paris by night by Carolyn Pfaff

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High above Paris, a technician installs the lights of the Eiffel Tower

the Lighting Section of the Roadworks department at City Hall. For over 25 years, this group of some 30 engineers and staff, along with the new breed of lighting engineers, has been in charge of re-thinking and updating the illumination of the city’s more than 300 historic monuments, 32 bridges and 109,138 street lights. “It’s no exaggeration to say we invented the profession,” says Michel Peret, who was a key member of the team that basically transformed the way Paris looks at night.

Today French urban lighting techniques are generally acknowledged to be the world standard. The majority of urban lighting architects are French and today they’re working all across the world. The leader of this remarkable team was François Jousse, recently retired, a brilliant engineer with no experience in lighting who soon became an expert. He co-opted Peret, also an engineer and professor of lighting at a top state engineering school. Experts from fields as di-

In Paris, more than 130,000 square meters of graffiti-covered walls must be cleaned each year

PHOTO: JEAN-MARC CHARLES

ost every evening in Paris, as the new hour approaches, crowds mass at the base of the Eiffel Tower and along the nearby Pont de l’Alma to begin the countdown. Three, two, one… Suddenly the Iron Lady’s 20,000 lights begin to sparkle like a giant Christmas tree, in what has become yet another star attraction for the City of Light. The sparkle was supposed to be a one-off for the Year 2000 celebrations, but tourist enthusiasm kept it going, so in June 2003, 25 mountain climbers were called in to install a permanent set-up. Now 352 projectors and 40 kilometers of light and electrical cords will help dazzle the people of Paris indefinitely, every hour on the hour for five minutes, until 12 pm on weekdays and 1pm on weekends. A little way upstream, the familiar glorious western facade of Notre Dame glows discreetly every evening in subdued white light. On the opposite banks of the Seine, floodlight projectors are hidden in imitation bookseller’s stalls and perched on top of the nearby Hôtel Dieu, all carefully trained to highlight the pillars, gargoyles and flying buttresses on the north and south facades. These ingenious effects are the work of a group largely unknown to the general public – the Direction de la Voirie, Section Eclairage, loosely translated as

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verse as cinema and architecture were brought in to experiment with new techniques and specialize in the field. The momentum for these innovations came with the election of Paris’s first official mayor, Jacques Chirac, later President of the Republic. Paris had finally been given its independence as a political entity separate from the state. There was plenty of money and a lot of enthusiasm. “François Jousse was the right man at the right time. He was lucky enough to have carte blanche to use his tremendous vision and talent as he saw fit,” says Alain Guilhot, a leading French architecte lumière from Lyon, whose latest commissions involve lighting 17 temples at Angkor in Cambodia and a project for the Valley of the Kings at Luxor. Under Mayor Chirac, and later under Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, one by one, the facades of Paris monuments were washed, renovated and dressed up by the lighting engineers. All of this was done under the watchful eyes of the Department of Historic Monuments’ architects, the Ministry of Culture, mayors from each arrondissement, and even the clergy, when churches were involved. When Jousse and Peret proposed in 1991 to light the famous stained glass rose windows of Notre Dame from within, the clergy were adamant. Since the light of God radiates down from on high, they said, it was symbolically unacceptable to light a church from the inside. The plan was reluctantly abandoned, but the team remained determined to light the great edifice. It took years of planning and three fourmonth periods of intense installation work, mostly done late at night and early in the morning so as not to interfere with the church’s schedule. No service was ever interrupted and no tourist group was ever turned away. Budgets were calculated to the last euro and expenses kept to a minimum. For example, the amount of electricity used to light the west facade is incredibly small, equal to the power of three house-

hold irons. The final cost of lighting Notre Dame was 444,112€ for the first phase, 754,450€ for the second phase, and 561,800€ for the third. The challenge of satisfying all parties and solving the technical hurdles, which Peret calls the most difficult of his career, came to a happy end only in 2007. Meanwhile, the team also had other major projects underway. In the early nineties, Mayor Delanoë decreed that the 32 bridges in central Paris must be renovated and lit in time for the year 2000 celebrations. The Jousse/Peret team handled the design for some of the bridges in-house, but faced with the amount of work and the lack of time, they farmed out some projects to outside architects. In each case, they chose the winning design, watched the budget and made sure the job got done.

No human hands are needed to turn on and off the 109,138 street lights “We finished lighting the last 25 bridges in one and a half years,” Peret remembers. He and his assistant, Jean Maller, recall overseeing the final work, night after night, from 11 pm to 7 am, sitting in barges under the bridges to help orient the projectors, or hoisted up in a cage to direct the placing of cables. “It was trial and error all the way, moving the lights just so to get the effect initially approved in mock-up form,” Peret explains. There is, of course, much more to running the lighting in Paris than taking care of monuments. No human hands are needed to turn on and off the 109,138 street lights. Instead, 14 sensors, each the size of a camera, send light readings from various parts of Paris back to a central calculator. The calculator has a seasonal schedule, but

the exact minute when all of Paris turns on or off its outdoor lights depends on the sensors. Who replaces the light bulbs? Every night a slow-moving Citroën van checks out a different part of Paris. Two black boxes front and back transmit light intensity levels to a computer inside, registering how many light bulbs are out. If the result falls below the stipulated light level, the company in charge of maintenance pays a fine. But very soon changing light bulbs will become a rarity. To save energy, cities like Paris have already changed to the new high-pressure sodium bulbs on most sidewalks and streets. The newest bulbs, yet to be installed, will be able to increase brightness 60 to 80 percent in rush hour or dim down to 35 percent where necessary, using the existing network of sensors. The Citroën van will no longer be needed, as bulb failures would be detected automatically. But the biggest challenge for the new management in Paris will come with the introduction of LED (Light Emitting Diodes) light bulbs. Where ordinary lights consume 15 watts, LEDs use only one watt. Their life span is 50,000 hours as opposed to the current 1,000. “It’s going to be a revolution and it will save energy and reduce operating costs as well,” says Peret. To install this new generation of lights, the city can turn to a unique research laboratory set up 28 years ago by Jousse and Peret. The lab’s 20 specialists have developed tests for lighting fixtures in all operating conditions – exceptional vibrations, wind speeds up to 180 kilometers per hour, heat resistance, fire hazard, dust, pollution and water damage. LEDs are being improved so rapidly, Peret points out, that by 2015, most cities across the world will want to start changing over. “Paris is going to need this lab,” he says, “because there’ll be so much new material to test.” When that happens, its Lighting Section will once again be in the forefront of urban illumination. n January/February | Paris 11

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INTERVIEW

Picking the Images that Symbolized an Era For five decades, John Morris brought pictures from the world’s great photographers to the public eye by Cathy Nolan

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“Thanks to Adolf Hitler, promotion came pretty fast,” he recalls, and by 1941 he was Life’s Hollywood correspondent: “Nothing like it, at age 24.” Then the war came, and in 1943, Morris was sent to London to prepare for the eventual Allied invasion, his mission to “get the pictures” for Life. On June 6, 1944, when D-Day finally dawned, “Robert Capa was the photographer everybody looked to.” The dashing Hungarian, who had made his reputation in the Spanish civil war, volunteered to go in with the first wave of infantry landing on Omaha Beach. Late the next day, four rolls of film from Capa arrived in London. In the rush to get them developed, past the censor and shipped out by deadline, an assistant nearly obliterated them. “A darkroom accident, too much heat. The first three rolls were pea soup. I found 11 faint images on the fourth roll. We printed them all. I used to take the blame for the accident, now I take credit for saving the pictures that were saved,” Morris recounts. “Those are the images by which we now remember D-Day.” Following Capa to France to cover D-Day’s aftermath (and hang out with Ernest Hemingway), Morris discovered his favorite city: “I’ve loved Paris since I first saw it, in 1944, a few days after the Germans left town. Two wives and 39 years later, I moved here.” He arrived

with his third wife, Tana Hoban, an author of children’s books, who died in 2006, leaving Morris a widower for the third time. He recently wrote a book as a “love letter” to his three wives and would like to see it published. Working with the bravest and best combat photographers down though the years has only deepened Morris’s anti-war convictions. “I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching about whether all the war coverage was worthwhile,” says Morris, “because it doesn’t seem to have put an end to war.” A pillar of the Paris chapter of Democrats Abroad, Morris is “devoting what’s left of my life to campaigning in support of Barack Obama, hoping that he will bring peace.” As for the future of photojournalism, Morris tries his best to be optimistic: “It’s the biggest crisis ever for newspapers and magazines. The internet destroyed print publishing. I still believe something good will come of it, but I’m not sure what.” Meanwhile, a documentary about his life is being produced. According to the synopsis, it will “explore one man’s effort to portray the truth as he sees it.” Morris approves: “It doesn’t say I found the truth, but I looked for it.” n * Get the Picture, A Personal History of Photojournalism (The University of Chicago Press, 2002)

PHOTO: DANA MAITEC

“T

he picture editor is the voyeur’s voyeur,” John G. Morris wrote in his 2002 memoirs*, describing his profession. “Picture editors find the representative picture, the image…they are the fixers of ‘reality’ and of ‘history’.” In his remarkable career, Morris spent five decades on the editorial front line of photojournalism. He edited pictures for Life magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, Magnum photo agency, The Washington Post, The New York Times and National Geographic. The photos he chose for publication, taken by the noblest names in the business, like Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith, shaped our vision of the 20th century. Morris received France’s highest distinction, the Legion of Honor, in 2009. In May 2010 he will go to New York to receive a lifetime achievement award from the International Center of Photography. Although he recently turned 93, he remains much in demand in professional photo circles. On his last visit to New York in October, Morris attended the 30th award ceremony of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, which he co-founded, and gave a talk to the Time-Life Alumni Society. Morris graduated from the University of Chicago and got his first job – office boy – at Life magazine in 1938.

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FEATURE

The Great Heritage Sale Strapped for cash, the French government is unloading its valuable real estate – to the dismay of Paris’s patrimony associations by Jeffrey T. Iverson

rance’s days as a world superpower may be long past, but the rich architectural heritage of Paris, with its grand palaces and stately hôtels particuliers, is a constant reminder of that former glory, drawing some 12 million visitors during the annual opening of the capital’s historic buildings, the Journées du Patrimoine. Take the Hôtel de la Marine on the place de la Concorde, built 1757-74 by the king’s architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel on one of the most illustrious squares in Paris. Once used to house the crown jewels and furniture collections, since the revolution the hôtel has been the seat of the French Naval Staff, and in the years France extended its reach across the globe, a vast colonial empire was effectively ruled from its gilded salons. 14 Paris | January/February

But last spring the Defense Ministry, in an effort to cut costs and rationalize its property holdings, announced that it will be selling buildings at 12 sites around Paris to regroup its services in a new Pentagone à la française in the 15th arrondissement. After 220 years, the French Naval staff will be moved out and the Hôtel de la Marine will be auctioned off to the highest bidder on a 99-year lease. Conservationists are outraged. “The economic crisis is one thing, but the French don’t want to be told we’re bankrupt to the point of having to abandon everything that constitutes their history,” says Olivier de Rohan-Chabot, president of the association Les Amis de l’Hôtel de la Marine. “Surely France can allow itself the luxury of keeping a few his-

toric monuments.” Yet the Hôtel de la Marine is but one sign of the changes unfolding across the Paris urban landscape as it feels the impact of a vast program of rationalization and modernization affecting nearly every branch of the government. Crippled by an ever-growing deficit, the state has ordered the Budget Ministry to bring coherence to its dispersed, 50€ billion real estate portfolio, and several ministries are now moving to new buildings on the outskirts of the capital. The result has been an unprecedented wave of sales of state real estate in Paris – some drab office buildings, but also opulent 18th century hôtel particuliers. In recent months, these sales have put heritage associations and politicians of all stripes at loggerheads

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with the government. Socialist senator Yves Dauge sounded the alarm over a policy of “economic recovery at the expense of heritage,” while conservative Philippe Séguin, president of France’s Court of Audit (Cour des Comptes), decried a “liquidation of the family jewels.” The Budget Minister, Eric Woerth, shot back in October, “We have a real estate policy, and this policy isn’t to sell the family jewels, it’s to sell useless real estate.”

But is that a fair description of a protected monument like the Hôtel de Montesquiou-Fezensac, at 20 rue Monsieur in the 7th arrondissement, built in 1781 by descendants of the first dynasty of French kings and sold by the Foreign Ministry to a Russian investor in 2007? For art historian Alexandre Gady, such hôtels “really are part of what constitutes the architectural character of Paris.” “These grand homes, with their gardens, courtyards, decors and elegant stair-

cases, are linked to history through events they witnessed and their famous past owners.” Conservationists charge the state is placing such buildings in danger, pointing to a wave of rich buyers with renovation projects reflecting demands for modern comforts they say threaten these centuries-old hôtels. “We need to find an equilibrium between addressing the economic challenges of our time and protecting our heritage, and that’s

The historic Salon Diplomatique of the Hôtel de la Marine

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FEATURE what the state doesn’t know how to do,” charges Pierre Housieaux, president of heritage defense association Paris Historique. And yet it all began with a good idea. State audits after 2000 had identified serious flaws in France’s real estate management: the government was suffering considerable financial losses and was troublingly ignorant of what its holdings actually were. Efforts were begun to inventory state property and develop a new management strategy. Then in September 2003, the government unveiled an ambitious program of rationalization and sales of state property, with 15 percent of the revenues earmarked for reducing the public deficit. By the end of 2007, France had off-loaded some 2.5€ billion of administrative buildings and historic hotels, particularly in Paris, no longer deemed fit for a 21st century government. The goal is “to have buildings that are more modern and functional, so that means we have been moved to sell property in

The Hôtel de la Marine on the place de la Concorde

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the center of the city to set ourselves up in buildings more on the periphery,” says Cédric de Lestrange, advisor to the Budget Minister charged with modernization of the state.

“We need to find an equilibrium between addressing our economic challenges and protecting our heritage” The government’s initial steps, however, were sometimes shaky. In November 2003, the Imprimerie Nationale buildings on the rue de la Convention were sold to the American investment firm Carlyle Group for 85€ million, only to be repurchased by the state in 2007 to regroup services of the Foreign Ministry – at the cost of 376.7€ million. Carlyle Group had put some 100€ million in renovations into the buildings, but their profit margin was

undeniably enormous, and critics decried a scandal of state ineptitude. A group of more than 20 senators called for an investigation into the affair, declaring: “It is obvious this constitutes a waste of public monies in total contradiction with the objectives of good management set by the state...” But as sales continued, concerns over hasty transactions gave way to fears among heritage lovers for what might become of 18th century Paris mansions such as the Hôtel de Montesquiou-Fezensac or the Hôtel Kinski at 53 rue Saint Dominique, sold by the Culture Ministry to a Qatari emir in 2006. “These buildings, beyond their financial value, are part of the historic and artistic patrimony of France and cannot be handed over to just anybody, and for just any use,” deputy Lionel Tardy chided the Culture Ministry during a 2007 parliamentary session. While such opposition may smack of xenophobia to some, conservationists insist that what they reject are the unreasonable comforts expected by

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the super-rich today. “I don’t mind if they are foreigners,” says Oliver de Monicault, president of the heritage defense association SOS Paris. “But there is a wave of buyers who have projects that don’t respect these ancient buildings and make harebrained demands of them.” Lestrange of the Budget Ministry says such worries are unjustified. “I think the people who criticize don’t understand that we will be able to protect these buildings with the historic monuments regulations in place,” he says. But conservationists say buyers are finding loopholes in the current legislation: existing laws don’t sufficiently address construction under protected buildings – such as the Hôtel Kinski, where underground parking is now planned, and the Hôtel de Senecterre at 24 rue de Université, built in 1685 and sold in 2007 to an investor who now plans to install underground parking lots and conference rooms. Such projects have led Paris Department of Architecture and Heritage chief Jean-Marc Blanchecotte to speak out on the urgent need to revise the city’s heritage protections to provide the legal means to oppose the frequent demands for underground construction at hôtels particuliers that have recently changed hands. “This wave must be stopped to avoid further excesses,” Blanchecotte told Le Monde in 2008. He repeated those concerns last June at a public meeting over the risks faced by the historic townhouses in the 7th arrondissement. Besides underground parking lots, saunas, jacuzzis, entertainment centers and work-out rooms, swimming pools have now become a ‘must have’ for new owners. An example is the 18th century Hôtel de Bérulle at 15 rue de Grenelle, where one is currently planned. “Our fear is that these buildings be permanently al-

tered,” says SOS Paris secretary general Jan Wyers. “People want to adapt these beautiful buildings of another era… and all this can affect their structural integrity and neighboring buildings.” While such projects may be objectionable, ministry officials insist their only responsibility is to inform buyers of all relevant heritage laws, not to see them enforced. However, while the government may be willing to weather a certain degree of conservationist ire, it clearly would like to avoid further embarrassments like the Imprimerie Nationale affair. Since 2007, the state has effectively stripped the individual administrations of their autonomy in real estate dealings, handing sole responsibility in state property management to the Budget Ministry, and creating France Domaine to represent the state sales and leases.

"Directing France’s nuclear fleet does not need to be done from an 18th century hôtel" Amidst the current real estate crisis, France Domaine has often postponed sales – such as that of the Hôtel de Seignelay at 80 rue de Lille – due to unsatisfactory offers, and in 2008 sales slowed to 397€ million. Nonetheless, 2009 saw record sales, although short of the 1.4€ billion objective, with an additional 900€ million planned for 2010. But even if the state demands fair prices for its properties, critics continue to challenge the program’s fiscal logic. “It’s clear that trying to reduce the deficit by selling a few Paris hôtels particuliers is like trying to empty the sea with a teaspoon,” says Gady. The metaphor isn’t lost on Daniel Dubost, head of France

Domaine. “Some could say that 15 percent for the deficit is like a drop of water compared to the size of the deficit, that’s obvious,” he says. But Dubost insists a streamlined portfolio will bring savings down the road. “When we reduce the total surfaces [of state holdings], by definition there is less rent, less maintenance and renovation costs, so that’s where the real savings come into play,” he says. “They don’t come in a day, but over the long term.” Indeed, as administrations consolidate and prepare to move out of central Paris, the total area occupied by the state has fallen sharply. After years of stable or rising total office space, French ministries saw their surface reduced by 137,530 square meters in 2007 and 2008 alone. And from now to 2011, says Lestrange, the plan is “to continue to accelerate.” Several projects in the works are designed to contribute to that goal. The Finance Ministries, having already left the Louvre for the considerably less charming Bercy complex near the edge of Paris’s 12th arrondissement, will soon have moved 55 percent of its personnel to sites outside of Paris. The giant Ecology Ministry has already begun selling property in Paris – including the Hôtel de Fleury at 28 rue des Saints Pères for a reported 61€ million – in preparation for a move to a tower it is planning at La Défense. And the Defense Ministry’s plans to relocate in the 15th arrondissement include the sale of the 18th century Pentemont Abbey at 104 rue de Grenelle, occupied by the French military since the Revolution. But it is the Defense Ministry’s move to transfer the French Naval Staff from the Hôtel de la Marine to the new Pentagone that has sparked some of the most virulent criticism of the state and its property management policies – even though techniJanuary/February | Paris 17

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FEATURE cally “the building will not be sold,” assures Lestrange. “It will be rented out on a long-term lease, as is done in Great Britain.” But that gives no comfort to Rohan-Chabot of Les Amis de l’Hôtel de la Marine, who sees little difference between a 99year lease and a sale. “It is unacceptable that the state let go of a building which was built for it, which it occupied since its creation, and which has conserved its original collections of furnishings,” says Rohan-Chabot. “It’s as if we were selling Notre Dame de Paris or Versailles, it’s complete madness.” As a former Navy captain, though, Rohan-Chabot admits he sees merits to the staff transfer. “Certainly, directing France’s nuclear fleet does not need to be done from an 18th

For while the media have reported on multiple projects being imagined for the hôtel, the most persistent rumors have been that hotel magnate Alexandre Allard, joint owner, with Qatari developer Barwa Real Estate, of the Royal Monceau, is favored by the state to turn the Hôtel de la Marine into a “21st century Medici Palace,” including a luxury hotel, exhibition spaces, artist residences and boutiques. The project even has an influential proponent in former Culture Minister Donnedieu de Vabres who, as his online resumé reads, has assumed the role of “adviser for strategy and development for Alexandre Allard.” De Vabres has begun to promote the Medici Palace project publicly and, as Le Figaro reports, in meetings

Historical Buildings on the Market

Hôtel Majestic (Centre Kléber) Hôtel de la Marine

Hôtel Kinski

Hôtel de Seignelay Hôtel de Senecterre

Pentemont Abbey

Hôtel de Fleury

Hôtel de Montesquiou de Fézensac Imprimerie Nationale

century hôtel on the place de la Concorde,” he says. “I just ask one thing – that it remain in the hands of the French state, and that it be occupied by the state.” But that is exactly why Rohan-Chabot and others are up in arms.

18 Paris | January/February

with members of parliament. Turning a historic monument into a luxury hotel may be reprehensible to some, but entrepreneurs like Allard have long argued that it is better to adapt to changing times than to see the life drain out of the City of

Light. “The French are great at creating fantastic things, provided they indulge their eccentricity,” he told the luxury lifestyle magazine Black Card in 2008 following a wild renovation launch-party for the Royal Monceau. “But this eccentricity has been overwhelmed by the heaviness of the beauty of Paris and by our sense of responsibility and history as cultural guardians. We have forgotten that Paris was built by the madness of Louis XIV...”

“Trying to reduce the deficit by selling a few hôtels particuliers is like trying to empty the sea with a teaspoon” Meanwhile, an opening of bidding originally planned for last autumn is currently on hold. An interministerial meeting was held in September to consider a study commissioned by an international law firm on the tricky problem of how to lease a building that is at once a historic monument and public property. “They’re a little stuck, because they’d need to remove the building from the public domain to be able to rent it for such a long lease,” explains Gady. “They need to find a legal solution, or create special legislation for the building so that it can remain in the public domain but still enter into a system of 99-year rental.” If such legislation passed, worries Gady, it could create a disastrous precedent. “With a symbolic building like this, it would be the affair that opened the floodgates,” he says. “We could sell anything.” However, even if an amicable conclusion is found for the Hôtel de la Marine, construction plans for the

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site in the 15th arrondissement Balard neighborhood where the future Pentagone will be built are also under attack. The project calls for demolishing buildings created between 1928 and 1956 by architects Auguste and Gustave Perret, whose designs for reconstructing Le Havre earned the city the status of UNESCO world heritage site. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë has condemned the demolition plans as “a direct attack on the protection of our Parisian heritage.” Clearly, the heated debate over

how to reconcile France’s economic challenges and the preservation of its heritage will not end anytime soon.

Mayor Delanoë has condemned the plan as “a direct attack on the protection of our heritage” France Domaine’s Dubost argues, “Putting in place a state real-estate policy doesn’t happen with the snap

of a finger. It’s a long and complicated process, where we propose different measures to enact in several stages.” But conservationists like Monicault of SOS Paris say they have little faith in policy or politicians, and stress that only the “power of public opinion” can “get results, improve state or city projects, or prevent scandalous renovations.” Meanwhile, whatever the final outcome, it seems that when the next Journées du Patrimoine come around, some French heritage may no longer have open doors. n

French Fiscal Follies In 2007, the Foreign Ministry sold the ex- Hotel Majestic for 404€ million to Qatari investors with plans to turn it into a luxury hotel. The Belle Epoque palace was most recently known as the Centre Kléber, the state’s international conference center. But deputy Christian Bataille charged last November that its sale “incurred costs clearly superior to the revenues,” as the Ministry’s relocation at [the Imprimerie Nationale] will cost more than 460€ million. Worse, Philippe Séguin president of the Court of Audit, noted that the absence of an international conference center in Paris forced the state to improvise a costly reorganization of the Grand Palais to be able to host the Mediterranean Union summit in July 2008. After several such summits, he pointed out, France will have paid more than if it had kept the Kléber center. The state has also had to rebut accusations of negligence in protecting its own property. Following a visit that left him

“horrified,” Jean-Jacques Aillagon, president of the Château de Versailles and former Minister of Culture, sounded the alarm in April over the state of the Hôpital Richaud in Versailles, a stunning domed royal hospital built in 1781 by order of Louis XVI. Empty for more than 15 years, it has been up for sale by the Justice Ministry since plans to install an appeals court there were abandoned. As Aillagon discovered, the building and its décors had in the meantime been damaged by fire, squatters and vandals. Art historian Didier Rykner was outraged. “You see the beauty of this extraordinary architecture, and the Ministry of Culture and the French government are allowing it to crumble to pieces.” It will crumble no longer, though: Eric Woerth personally intervened last November to settle the ongoing heritage fight and concluded Richaud’s sale to financier Norbert Dentressangle for 8€ million to accommodate a commercial and housing project.

The Hôpital Richaud in Versailles

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FEATURE

The Best Paris Restaurants of

2009 A look back at the pick of last year’s top tables reveals some interesting trends

hough reading too much runic meaning into restaurant menus is never a good idea, a look at the bills of fare in the best new Paris restaurants of 2009 reveals some intriguing and rather unexpected changes in the capital’s gastronomic landscape. Happily picking my way through a saucer of perfectly poached bulots (sea snails) with a stickpin at the copper-clad stone-faced bar of La Cave Beauvau the other night, it occurred to me that the French capital’s signature at the beginning of the 21st century probably won’t be any of those foaming and smoking high-tech molecular dishes that have been getting so much attention lately. Instead, it seems Parisians of all ages have an urgent new appreciation of the profoundly French hospitality and food to be found at wonderful old-fashioned bistros like this one. This doesn’t mean that Paris is going completely gastro retro, though. Some of 2009’s other best new tables – Yam’Tcha and KGB, for example – show off another important local trend, which is new cooking styles born of smart and delicious encounters between French bistro cooking and a foreign kitchen, in this case, Man20 Paris | January/February

Daniel Rose in his restaurant kitchen

darin Chinese and Thai, respectively. But since scarcity is the inevitable mother of luxury, it doesn’t surprise me that a place like La Cave Beauvau, a cozy, friendly 1950s vintage hole-in-the-wall just across the street from Chez Sarko, or the Elysées Palace, should have become so popular since it was taken over by Stéphane

Delleré, one of the best bistro-keepers in France (he previously ran both the legendary Le Gavroche in the 2nd arrondissement and more recently Le Duc de Richelieu in the 12th arrondissement before striking out on his own once again). “I see it every day,” says Delleré during a chat over a sublime glass of Cornas. “People are starved for food with a soul. I’m not going to pretend that La Cave Beauvau is gunning for a Michelin star, in fact this isn’t important to me, but what I aim to do is satisfy the very deep hunger that the people who come here have for France, for its wine, its cheese, its meat, the best of its cooking, which is often simple.” I ask Delleré for an example, and he picks up a big bone-handled knife and slices me a thick piece of his homemade terrine de campagne. He plates it with several cornichons, a smear of butter, and a hunk of good bread, and sets it on the bar. “Goûte (Taste),” he says. I do, and the coarse, earthy, piggy loaf sends me tumbling backwards to the first time I’d ever experienced such primal gastronomic pleasure, which was as an adolescent visiting Paris. When we crave bistro food, what we’re yearning for is cooking that takes time,

PHOTO: CHARITY LYNNE BURGGRAAF

by Alexander Lobrano

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cooking that’s consoling, maternal, caring and instinctive – honest wholesome food from a kitchen where the only reason anyone would glance at the clock is to make sure nothing is overdone. As Guillaume Delage, the chef at Jadis, in my opinion

PHOTO: JB RUSSELL

the best new Paris address of 2009, knows, the grande batterie of French cooking is stuffed with wisdom. The great chefs of the 19th and 20th centuries might not always have been able to explain the exact science of what they were doing in the kitchen, but they surely understood its gastronomic necessity. So any ambitious young chef ignores the past at his or her peril, which Delage admits with a telling quote at the bottom of his menu from the once renowned but now little-known 19th century French chef Edouard Nignon: “The chef who knows and understands the past well, who is inspired by it, will in turn become an innovator.” The lighthouse of Paris still attracts culinary talent not only from all over

Guillaume Delage’s restaurant Jadis

PHOTO: CHARITY LYNNE BURGGRAAF

Paris still attracts culinary talent not only from all over France but the world beyond

Gregory Marchand taking a break at Frenchie

France but the world beyond, a good example being Chicago-born chef Daniel Rose. His restaurant Spring, which relocates to the rue de Bailleul in the 1st arrondissement in March, is sure to be one of 2010’s major openings. In the meantime, I love what he’s done with the former premises of the restaurant in the 9th arrondissement. Now named La Table 28, it’s a friendly, cozy place with a big gas-fired rotisserie on which Rose or one of his collaborators cooks superb roast chicken and suckling pig, with other foods like duck and lobster in the wings.

“I wanted to create a place that was part of the neighborhood, a place where the locals could come to eat often and well,” says Rose, whose carefully sourced produce includes Coucou de Rennes chicken, a rare breed from Brittany. If Rose and Delleré privilege a certain Gallic authenticity in terms of both their produce and their cooking, chef William Ledeuil’s very popular new KGB, a standout opening in 2009 and the annex restaurant to his excellent Saint Germain des Prés table Ze Kitchen Galerie, has succeeded by suavely appealing to a contemporary Parisian desire to explore the food of other cultures and countries. “What I’m doing isn’t fusion – I don’t like that word, because it implies a blurring of identities,” says Ledeuil. “Instead, I like enlivening traditional French recipes with produce and tastes from foreign kitchens.” Delicious examples of Ledeuil’s global cuisine include capeletti (little pasta caps) with a fried quail’s egg, shavings of Mimolette cheese, greenolive tapenade and an Asian pesto sauce, and slow-cooked pork ribs with grilled potatoes in a hoisin-shoyu marinade. In a similar vein, talented young chef Adeline Grattard and her husband Chi Wah Chan have a hit on their hands with Yam’Tcha, a warming spot with exposed stone walls in an old street in Les Halles. January/February | Paris 21

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FEATURE orders as the new chef at Rech, a venerable seafood brasserie in the 17th arrondissement. “This is for reasons that are economic, gastronomic and ecological. The fish Parisians have long preferred – sole, cod, turbot, sea bass – are threatened by overfishing, so we need to eat everything that fishermen land, not just these so-called luxury fish,” says Maximin, who has added mullet, conger eel, mackerel and a variety of still abundant fish once perceived as “poor” to his menu. In a similar vein, most chefs at the best new restaurants to open in Paris in 2009 are ardently interested in serving local, seasonal produce, an imperative which explains why so many great new tables have short menus that change daily. “It’s more work, but it means better eating,” says Gregory Marchand, chef at Frenchie, a terrific

new bistro in a quiet cobbled street in the 2nd arrondissement’s Sentier neighborhood. Marchand’s menus change constantly, which allows him to scout out “the freshest local seasonal produce.” At L’Epigramme, a new cuisine du marché bistro on the Left Bank that is another of 2009’s best addresses, chef Aymeric Kraml also delights with a chalkboard menu that changes daily. During 2009, even the gilded precincts of Parisian haute cuisine began to respond to the locavore movement that has taken cities like London and San Francisco by storm, most notably three-star chef Yannick Alleno’s brilliant “Terroir Parisien” menu at Le Meurice, the restaurant of the Hotel Meurice. “A century ago, produce from the Ile de France fed Paris, which is why so many canonical recipes of the

Above: Aymeric Kraml at the door of L’Epigramme. Top right: Adeline Grattard and Chi Wah Chan. Bottom right: The warm, old-fashioned face of La Cave Beauvau

22 Paris | January/February

PHOTO: CHARITY LYNNE BURGGRAAF

Grattard previously cooked with Yannick Alleno at Le Meurice and Pascal Barbot at L’Astrance before spending two years in Hong Kong, which explains the elegant gastronomic rencontre between Gaul and Asia that she proposes through a regularly changing tasting menu. Highlights of a recent meal included a superb watercress soup with shaved chestnuts, razor clams with crosnes (Japanese artichokes), and veal breast with fermented black beans and girolles. Other notable new Paris tables reveal the extent to which the city’s chefs are realizing that a new part of their work is to entice food-loving locals to eat lower on the food chain. “What Ducasse asked me to do was to get Parisians to eat fish they’d never eaten before,” chef Jacques Maximin told me when I asked him about his marching

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French kitchen reference Parisian suburbs – Crécy always meant carrots, Montmorency, cherries, etc. Because of the way the Paris region was so heavily urbanized during the seventies and eighties, the local culture maraîchères has almost completely died out,” Alleno explains. “But there are still a few small producers around, so I’m sourcing as locally as I possibly can in the hope of not only keeping them in business but encouraging others to start up.” On the menu for 2010? The possibility of serving la poule de Houdon, a succulent race of almost extinct chickens produced in the Yvelines town of the same name. Two other highlights of Paris dining in 2009 were the ongoing move to authenticity in terms of the city’s foreign restaurants (the wonderful Caffè dei Cioppi could easily be found in a side street in Rome or Florence instead of a passage in the 11th arrondissement), and the acceleration of local awareness of sustainability issues, which is why it now comes as a shock to see red tuna on the menu of a place like the rather bogusly resurrected Jamin (an eighties flashback bistro, by the way, and nothing to do with the glory days of Joël Robuchon).

A welcome rebooting of the Parisian brasserie may be on the horizon In terms of what may be on the menu in 2010, I’m hoping for a revival of French regional cooking in Paris bistros, and maybe even the birth of a few new regional restaurants like Chez Maître Paul, the long-running Franc-Comtois table on the Left Bank. I also predict a new local popularity for Indian food, since that country is attracting growing numbers of French travelers who return home with a taste for its food, and the continuing proliferation of gourmet brand names (butter by Jean-Yves Bordier, vegetables by Joël Thiébault, etc.).

A welcome rebooting of the Parisian brasserie may be on the horizon, too, if Lyonnais chef Nicolas LeBec’s project at the Opera Garnier ever gets off the ground (FYI, his new Rue LeBec in Lyon, a sprawling new-style brasserie in an old salt warehouse, is terrific). 2010 will doubtless also see an accelerating and welcome French response to American-style fast food in a variety of formats, from Paris chef Yves Camdeborde’s wonderful new hors d’oeuvres bar

L’Avant Comptoir to Paul Bocuse’s new chain of French-style burger restaurants. I’m also looking forward to talented chef Jean-François Piège’s second restaurant (his first being a recent bling-bling makeover of the brasserie Thoumieux), in the hopes of rediscovering this chef’s wonderful culinary wit, and to brilliant meals prepared by cooks I haven’t yet heard of, since more than ever, Paris is where the world’s most ambitious young chefs want to hang out their first shingles. n

Top Paris Restaurants of 2009 La Cave Beauvau 4 rue des Saussaies 75008 Metro: Saint Augustin 01 42 65 24 90 Average price: 25€

Frenchie 5 rue du Nil 75002 Metro: Sentier 01 40 39 96 19 Average price: 35€

Yam'Tcha 4 rue Sauval 75001 Metro: Louvre 01 40 26 08 07 Average price: lunch 45€, dinner 65€

L’Epigramme 9 rue de l'Eperon 75006 Metro: Odéon 01 44 41 00 09 Average price: 30€

KGB 25 rue des Grand Augustins 75006 Metro: Saint Michel 01 46 33 00 85 Average price: 40€

Le Meurice 228 rue de Rivoli 75001 Metro: Concorde, Tuileries 01 44 58 1010 Average price: 78€

Jadis 208 rue de la Croix-Nivert 75015 Metro: Porte de Versailles 01 45 57 73 20 Average price: 45€

Caffè dei Cioppi 159 rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine 75011 Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny 01 43 46 10 14 Average price: 30€

La Table 28 28 rue de la Tour d'Auvergne 75009 Metro: Poissonnière, Anvers 06 42 87 79 64 Average price: 35€ Rech 62 avenue des Ternes 75017 Metro: Ternes, Argentine 01 45 72 41 60 Average price: 65€

L’Avant Comptoir 9 carrefour de l’Odéon 75006 Metro: Odéon No telephone Average price: 3€ – 6€ per hors d’oeuvre

Unless otherwise noted, prices are per person without wine.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Questions for Charles Glass Broadcaster, journalist, writer and Paris resident, Charles Glass has worked in journalism since his first posting in 1973 at the ABC News Beirut bureau with Peter Jennings. He was ABC News Chief Middle East correspondent from 1983 to 1993, during which time he was abducted and held hostage for two months before escaping from his Shiite Muslim captors. Since 1993 he has been a freelance writer, lecturer and author. His fifth book, reviewed here, has appeared in the UK and France and will be released in the US this January.

Americans in Paris Life and Death under Nazi Occupation 1940-44 by Charles Glass (Harper Collins, 2009) Average price: 26€ Available in paperback in February. by Tobias Grey

ne of the first things General Bogislav von Studnitz, commander of Germany’s 87th Infantry Division, did when he entered Paris on the morning of June 14 1940, was to put the clocks one hour ahead to Berlin time. There was no question of time standing still, or indeed of turning back the clock: the Occupation of Paris had begun in earnest. “What would I, as an American, have done?” asks Charles Glass, immediately thrusting the reader into a situation where the only moral compass available is the one you set yourself. “Would I have risked my life, or the lives of my family, by fighting for the Resistance?” he continues. “Or would I have waited patiently with the majority of Parisians for the German retreat?” 24 Paris | January/February

How did you decide to write this book? I was living in Paris and was regularly confronted with monuments to people who fell or were deported during the Occupation, and I often wondered how I would have reacted if I had been here at the time. Since I wasn’t French, I would have to think about how I would react as an American expatriate. Then it became obvious there must have been American expatriates here. I wondered what they did, and began the investigation which was the basis of the book. Also, there are a lot of books about Americans here in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘50s but there had never been one about the Occupation. It seemed the obvious thing to do. And war is always more interesting than peace. What was the most surprising thing you found about the people who stayed? The surprising thing was there did not seem to be any distinction about class, or wealth, or racial backgroud, that determined whether you would be for the resistance or for the collaboration. It seemed to be very much an individual choice, not easily explained. Some people, like the director of the American Hospital, took a moral position even though there was nothing in their history that would

require them to do that. I am just surprised that people made individual, very hard, moral choices and stuck by them. Did you make a conscious effort to focus on particular people or groups? I was looking for balance. I started investigating the lives of about 200 Americans who were here, narrowed it down to 50, narrowed it down to ten and ended up with four to focus on. I was also influenced by the amount of material in existence on the people. What are you working on now? A book called The Lost Army. It’s about the American and British soldiers who deserted from the armed forces during the second world war. There were 100,000 British soldiers and 40,000 American soldiers who deserted. I’m trying to find their motivations and the reasons why they did it. Some deserted because they had nervous breakdowns at the front. Some fought for months without a moment off, which is demoralizing for anybody. Others in the rear echelons never fought and never fired a shot in anger, and just got involved in the black market. There were even shootouts in the streets of Paris between American soldiers in uniform, deserters, and the Paris police.

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The fact that Glass, a war reporter of exemplary courage, needs to ask himself such questions drives home how desperately difficult living under an occupation must have been. According to Glass, the number of US citizens living in Paris had dwindled from about 5,000 in 1939 to roughly 2,000 by the spring of 1941. The fate of those who stayed behind was made increasingly precarious when Germany and Italy declared war on the US on December 11, 1941. Glass hails the Americans who did stay as “among the most eccentric, original and disparate collection of their countrymen anywhere.” And here’s the rub. Glass’ book is essentially a celebration of American resistance, finely nuanced, but a celebration nonetheless. There are unswerving resisters like the “Yankee Doctor” Sumner Jackson, who used the American Hospital in Paris (which refused to treat German patients) as a safe-harbor for Allied airman who had been shot down over France, or the tenacious bookseller Sylvia Beach, who closed down her legendary shop Shakespeare and Company rather than sell a copy of Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake to a German officer. Especially elating is the chapter on “The Adolescent Spy,” in which Dr. Jackson’s teenage son risks his life taking illicit photos of the Saint-Nazaire estuary. There are also more ambiguous characters, like the American-French industrialist Charles Bedaux, who allegedly used his business links with the Germans to hide his involvement in a plot to overthrow Hitler, or the aristocrat Clara Longworth de Chambrun, “a stalwart American matron of 66 years,” whose sympathy for the collaborationist premier Pierre Laval did not stop her from thwarting German attempts to conscript male employees working under her at the American Library in Paris. What there isn’t, however, is a balanced portrait of all those Americans who chose to stay in Paris under the Nazi Occupation, some of whom were collaborators out of conviction. The American

socialite Florence Jay Gould, whose famous literary soirees brought together collaborators of all stripes, is mentioned very briefly. But there is no attempt to scratch the surface or discuss how Gould sailed through the war on the coattails of her Nazi friends, before switching sides with the minimum of fuss. Glass does not tell the whole story, not by a long shot. However, Americans in Paris is elegantly written and exhilarating in parts, and provides an interesting take on the Occupation from an American perspective. n

Where Men Win Glory The Odyssey of Pat Tilman by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday, 2009) Average price: 23€ by John Mason

lthough released to mixed reviews, this is a terrific read, full of insightful observations about a former professional football

player turned Bush- era hero, Pat Tilman, who was accidently killed by his own troops in Afganistan. After the 9/11 attack, Tilman gave up a lucrative football career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the US Army Rangers. He neither sought nor wanted attention – he just wanted to do what he felt was right for himself and his country. But the Bush administration had other plans. After Tilman’s death, the administration sought to cover up the facts in order to turn him into a hero who died fighting the Taliban. Incredibly, the ultimate fault for his death lay in a system that required field commanders to take orders from a desk officer 7,000 miles away in the US, which led Tilman and his troops into an ambush. Instead of admitting this mistake, and the true cause of his death from friendly fire, the authorities covered up the facts, even to his family, in order to create a post- Abu Ghraib hero. Strangely, Tillman himself suspected that if he were killed, the Army might try to turn him into a poster boy. And he wanted no part of it. As Tillman told an Army friend: “I don’t want them to parade me through the streets.” Krakauer does a good job of exploring Tilman’s motivations and character, presenting him as a real human being with both faults and admirable qualities. A bonus in the book is a fine summary of the US involvement in Iraq and Afganistan: how it started, what mistakes were made and how Tilman viewed the situation (quite critically, it turns out). That Pat Tilman quit football, joined the Rangers and believed he was doing the right thing speaks to a man who searched for the truth. The irony is that in death, those qualities were submerged in the quest to turn him into an all-American hero, something Tilman did not want or seek. n January/February | Paris 25

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FOOD AT THE MARKET

The Man with the

Outsized Olives Dazzling variety and flavor make Jules Naouri’s stand a top stop for gourmet shoppers by Rosa Jackson

Paris, part of a long family tradition. For Jules, whose burly physique and big personality have made him the best-known Naouri, what has become a vocation started by accident. “I was supposed to be a professional soccer player,” he says, “but an injury put an end to that.” Though he had trained as a plumber

and spent his military service as a parachutist, Jules soon found himself following in his father’s footsteps. The elder Naouri, a (North African of French descent) who moved to France from Tunisia in the 1950s, worked in a Renault factory before setting up his first market stall in the Paris suburbs – a choice he made because his wife had

Jules Naouri greets customers with a scoop of olives and a smile

26 Paris | January/February

The Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysées is the second largest triumphal arch in the world, after the one in Pyongyang, Korea

PHOTO: CHARITY LYNNE BURGGRAAF

tanding behind a display of glistening olives, pillowy dried fruits and spices in every shade of ochre, rust and brown, the genial Jules Naouri is a familiar sight at the Paris markets. So familiar, in fact, that he seems to be everywhere. Actually, he is just one of many Naouris who populate the markets in and around

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family in the same business. “When he started out he didn’t have his driver’s license, and we used to take the metro with two big suitcases to buy the goods,” Naouri recalls. “I was a strong 11year-old, so I would help him.”

Once you have tried his basil tapenade, there is no turning back His father returned the favor by lending him a truck to set up his first market stalls in Melun and Fontainebleau, south of Paris. Jules worked in the Seine-et-Marne region for 20 years before making his name in Paris, where at the Saxe-Breteuil market he stands practically in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. His son and four brothers have also joined him in the business, working at other Paris markets including Place Monge and Bastille. It now takes him a good three hours to set up his 15-meter-long stall and another two to dismantle it, and he even spends

his two “days off” handling deliveries and accounting. But Jules is passionate about his job. “People come to us because they want beautiful products,” he says. “The advantage of having been in the business for 35 years is that our suppliers will call us when they have something special.” Among the treasures you might find at Naouri’s stall are jumbo-sized pistachios from Iran, rare XXL Medjoul dates from Israel, and the biggest Lucques olives from the Aude region. Perhaps not surprisingly for someone with a large presence, Naouri is most excited by substantial foods. “Our kalamata olives are half the size of my finger!” Most important to him, though, is flavor – which is why he is constantly inviting shoppers to taste his products. Many of his loyal customers know that once you have tried his basil tapenade, there is no turning back. Part of his stand’s appeal is also the variety: he sells more than 40 types of olives and 200 spices, always with an eye to keeping up with what customers want. “In summer, olives, tapenade and other dips account for 70 percent of our sales,

and in winter the dried fruits and legumes take over. Our customers travel more these days and often they will ask me for a particular spice. I do my best to find it, but there is a limit to what I can carry.” Jules has no soft spot for a specific food, finding pleasure instead in people’s satisfaction. “If my customers are happy, then I’m happy,” he says, thoughtfully crunching a pistachio. n

Jules Naouri Marché Raspail Boulevard Raspail, between the rue du Cherche Midi and the rue de Rennes, 75006 Metro: Rennes Tuesday and Friday, 8 am – 1 pm Marché Saxe-Breteuil Avenue de Saxe, between place de Breteuil and avenue de Ségur, 75007 Metro: Ségur Thursday and Saturday, 8 am – 1 pm

What’s Fresh at the Market Vegetables

of pungency after Christmas.

Beets/betteraves – Beets taste earthier in winter, when they’ve stayed longer in the soil. Most often sold pre-cooked, they can be found raw at organic stalls. Fennel/fenouil – Small, tender fennel bulbs appear in February. Parsnips/panais – This root vegetable grows even sweeter once the soil has frozen. It's easiest to find at organic stalls. Truffles/truffes – The black Périgord truffle reaches its peak

Fruit Kiwi/kiwi – The kiwi de l’Adour has a Label Rouge guaranteeing its origin and quality. Kumquats/kumquats – Available for a short period early in the year, kumquats can be eaten skin, seeds and all. Mandarins/mandarines – Tangy mandarins turn up at the markets when clementines are past their best. Oranges/oranges – Most

flavorful in winter; shiny skins are a sign they’ve been sprayed with chemicals. Pineapples/ananas (from the Ivory Coast and Reunion) – Sweetest and most abundant in winter. Cheese & Dairy Beaufort – Look for Beaufort d’Eté, made with summer milk and aged for at least 18 months. Ossau-Iraty – This slightly sharp sheep’s cheese is ready to eat in winter.

The smallest house in Paris is located at 39 rue du Château d'Eau, 9th arrondissement (1.2 metres wide and 5 metres tall)

Fish & Seafood Skate/raie – Although available all year, its the texture is at its finest during the winter months. Lemon sole /limande – Most abundant and affordable in winter; a good substitute for pricier sole. Meat & Poultry Duck/canard – Poultry fattened up for the Christmas season are still available in January. Rosa Jackson

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FOOD

Jams for Gourmet Palates T he most delicious jams in Paris come from a small village in Alsace that Christine Ferber, a fourth generation pastry chef, has turned into what food critic Gilles Pudlowski calls “the capital of confiture.” “I select fresh fruit from organic orchards,” explains Ferber, although for savory jams (green tomatoes, orange and gingerbread spices) I use vegetables and herbs from the Rungis market.” France’s queen of jam uses a traditional cooking technique that involves copper kettles and little or no pectin, because “when the fruit is in peak condition it is not necessary. I make small batches, always stay close to my products, and I check the jars before they are closed,” she adds.

The jams are showcased in Pierre Hermé’s gourmet Paris boutiques, alongside his signature chocolates and

macaroons. Friends for 30 years, the two confer and Ferber creates exclusive jams to complement each of his collections. “Exquisite flavor combinations such as lychee, rose and raspberry, combined with Christine's cooking technique, are the reason I sell them alongside my products,” says Hermé. Another fan is superchef Christian Constant, who uses them in his cafe and stocks a small quantity for customers who request them. They’re also the jam of choice at the Hôtel de Crillon. by Margaret Kemp

www.pierreherme.com Maison Ferber - Alsace 03.89.27.05.69 - for phone orders

Maille - Mustard Flavors for Connaisseurs

28 Paris | January/February

bring back for refills, a throwback to the 18th century (the shop has 20,000 refills a year). Depending on jar size and flavor, prices range from 8.20€ – 16.10€, refills from 1.70€ – 12.50€. Watch for the new collection of jarred flavors that comes out at the end of March. Founded in 1747 by Antoine Maille, condiment supplier to the royal courts of Europe, the shop also carries the brand's celebrated vinegars and pickles. 6 place de la Madeleine 75008 Metro: Madeleine 01 40 15 06 00 Open Monday to Saturday, 10 am – 7 pm

Notre Dame's largest bell weighs just over 13 tons, and is rung only on special occasions

PHOTOS: CHARITY LYNNE BURGGRAAF

ome of the most unusual mustards in Paris can be found at Boutique Maille, tucked away in a corner of the Place de la Madeleine. The shelves of this brightly lit, woodpaneled shop are neatly lined with jars of 40 different varieties, incluidng walnut/vanilla, pistachio/orange and almond/dried apricot. But what has people flocking here is the freshly prepared and preservative-free classic house blends – vin blanc, chablis, and chardonnay – that are available on tap and can be sampled at the long oak bar. Once a selection is made, the gold liquid is pumped into a ceramic jar that customers can

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STYLE

An Artist of

Low-Key Luxury The understated elegance of his designs has brought Martin Grant a faithful and prominent following by Tina Isaac

n a world that has all but surrendered to fast fashion, Martin Grant is a quiet iconoclast. Not for him the publicity, parties and celebrity games that are common currency in the business, although his loyalists are certainly A-list. Longtime supporters Lee Radziwill and Cate Blanchett are not just clients, they’ve become friends. “People of a certain caliber are attracted to the

clothes because of anonymity, so I don’t communicate about it,” he says. This aversion to flash has made Grant a go-to guy for class acts. “Dressing is about a connection that is intimate, direct and meant for women of character, not about designing for one muse, or a stick.” (That said, being svelte helps). It’s a slow-fashion philosophy that works: From a shared studio in Montmartre in the early nineties, Grant moved to a tiny boutique in the Marais, where his tailored trenches, pea coats and dresses caught the eye of editors and journalists. A bigger space followed, then quickly grew small. Today, Grant receives clients by appointment in a showroom on the rue Charlot in the 3rd arrondissement that also serves as his atelier.

For Grant, the lure of Paris was partly about an old-fashioned notion of luxury “It was a slow build, which really suits me,” notes the 42-year-old Australianborn designer. “I’d make one dress, then get enough money to make two dresses.” Private orders for coats, cocktail attire and bridal gowns allowed the business to gain traction without outside investors. Consulting deals, such as the

30 Paris | January/February

70-piece Private Label collection he has created for Barneys each season for the past several years, bolstered visibility and the bottom line. Grant doesn’t divulge numbers, but industry sources estimate that his signature brand now enjoys sales of 2.5€ million per year. Three weeks shy of his spring/summer 2010 presentation, Grant stood in his office draping pieces of poppy-colored taffeta on a stockman, a method he prefers to sketching. He is about halfway through the process, playing with line, shape and proportion – “taffeta’s not really drapey, it’s stiff and crunchy,” he notes, “I like that it’s different, and it holds.” When he’s satisfied he will run up a toile, make final adjustments and create a pattern. To maintain creative and quality control, production takes place on the outskirts of Paris, rather than abroad, which accounts in large part for the cost of the product (a cocktail dress retails for 900€). Years spent studying sculpture and a fondness for the technical side of men’s tailoring are threads that run from one collection to the next. Each season, for example, Grant offers a variation on his best-selling pea coat. “It reflects the evolution of a style I hope is mine,” he says, “one that is not so specifically associated with a period and time frame. For me the biggest compliment is when people say, ‘I have that coat and I still wear it!’.” A smattering of Christian Louboutin heels await run-throughs for the show,

The avenue de l'Opéra is the only treeless avenue in Paris so as not to spoil the view of the Opera Garnier

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but any thought of leather accessories stop there. “Luxury branding has become all-important, which is unfortunate because it loses the meaning of luxury and the anonymity that goes with it,” he observes. “True luxury is not available everywhere. It used to be that a handbag was treasured like a piece of jewelry. Now, it changes every five minutes and the girl next to you has the same one but in a different color – until it changes five minutes later.” For Grant, the lure of Paris was partly about an old-fashioned notion

of luxury, “even if you have to go back to the fifties to find it,” he notes. Not that he is against branching out. A year ago, he stumbled upon a new niche thanks to a last-minute styling twist, in which chains initially meant to be incorporated into dresses found new life as necklaces on the runway. Buyers clamored for them, and Grant produced six styles that sold briskly. Soon, copies cropped up everywhere. For spring/summer 2010, he has produced ten pieces, mainly necklaces made of silver-plated

bubbles on a silk fabric base that ties at the back. “It’s nice to work in a new medium, and it brings in an element of sculpture,” he says. And the elegant ladies who wear his clothes keep coming back for more. n

Martin Grant 10 rue Charlot 75003 Metro: Saint Sébastien Froissart 01 42 71 39 49 Open Monday to Friday, 10 am – 6 pm

Scents for Daily Pleasures

n indie star in the perfume world, Francis Kurkdjian is the nose behind such modern classics as Narcisco Rodriguez for Her (and Him), Acqua di Parma’s Iris Nobile and Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Mâle, to name but a few. Known for his versatil-

ity, he has lent his nose to national institutions, perfuming the fountains of Versailles and creating the roses de biscuit de porcelaine fragrance for the 250th anniversary of the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres. French of Armenian descent, Kurkdjian grew up studying piano and ballet, two disciplines that inform his work and his vision of luxury. In the perfumer's new jewel-box boutique, "everyday luxury" means discovering scents one cannot live without, in a variety of forms. “Perfume is not just something pretty in a crystal bottle,” he says, “It’s about emotions.” Although Kurkdjian likens those emotions to those that surround haute couture, his approach to the art – or what he prefers to call an art de vivre is eclectic and down-to-earth. It might take the form of detergent and softener (28€ each) or a leather bracelet (140€) that impart the clean smell of Aqua Universalis; pear- or mintscented bubbles created with his niece in mind (12€) or short collections of

colognes for day or evening (140€). A duo called Apom (A Piece of Myself) comes in an orange flower/ylang-ylang eau de parfum for her, and an amber eau de toilette for him (95€ and 85€). For those who can splurge, Kurkdjian also creates bespoke perfumes (from 8,000€, six-month delivery). But, as the artist notes, “Luxury does not have to be expensive, or even a name brand. Now, it’s much more linked to personal pleasure. Luxury is the right thing at the right time.” n T.I.

Francis Kurkdjian 5 rue d’Alger 75001 Metro: Tuileries 01 42 60 07 07 Open Monday to Friday, 11 am – 1:30 pm/2:30 pm – 7 pm and Saturday, 11 am – 7 pm www.franciskurkdjian.com

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CHILDREN ’ S PAGE

Ice-skating, plus great indoor activities for the winter months by Anna Brooke

Paris sur Glace “Paris on Ice” Until Mar 6 Paris turns into a winter wonderland for families again this year with its free openair patinoires (mini-ice rinks) in front of the Hôtel de Ville and the Gare Montparnasse. At the Hôtel de Ville, there's a small rink reserved just for kids and beginners. The rink at Montparnasse is equipped with synthetic “ice” which is a dry, slower moving surface so there's less risk – and fear – of taking a spill. Skates can be rented for 5€ (doublebladed skates are free for children with feet under size 27). Payment is in euros by cash or check. A photo ID is required. Children must be at least three years old and for safety reasons need to wear gloves. Free group lessons are offered for all ages on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am – 12 pm. Hôtel de Ville Place de l'Hôtel de Ville 75004 Metro: Hôtel de Ville Monday to Friday, 12 pm – 10 pm Weekends and holidays, 9 am – 10 pm Montparnasse Parvis de la Gare Montparnasse 75014 Metro: Montparnasse Bienvenue Monday to Friday, 12 pm – 8 pm Weekends and holidays, 9 am – 8 pm Paris also has two excellent municipal icerinks: Bercy’s Palais d’Omnisports, 75012 (www.bercy.fr) and the brand new Patinoire Pailleron, 75019 (www.pailleron19.com).

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Jazz & Goûter at the Sunside Jazz Club A taste of jazz: mini-concerts to enjoy as a family Every Sunday afternoon during the winter months, one of Paris's most venerable jazz clubs organizes concerts just for children and their parents. This innovative concept, which has proved to be a huge success, provides an opportunity for young listeners (from age two upward) to develop an awareness and appreciation of jazz. Children are invited to sit at the foot of the stage with their blankets and stuffed animals, while veteran musicians share their joy of playing all the great jazz standards. Each concert pays tribute to a jazz legend in the form of two sets of about thirty minutes each with a fifteen minute break in between. The musicians

answer any questions their young audience might have about jazz. During the break, a goûter (snack) of homemade pastries, candies, hot chocolate, tea and coffee is served. January concerts are dedicated to Tom Jobim (Jan 10), Bud Powell (Jan 17), Dexter Gordon (Jan 24) and Freddie Hubbard (Jan 31). February concerts pay homage to Ella Fitzgerald (Feb 7), Sara Vaughan (Feb 14), Charlie Parker (Feb 21) and McCoy Tyner (Feb 28). Every Sunday at 4 pm through April 25, including school holidays 5€ & 10€ 60 rue des Lombards 75001 Metro: Châtelet 01 40 26 84 41 www.sunset-sunside.com

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Barocco Théâtre National de Chaillot Jan 13 – 23 The Tuscany-based interactive children’s theatre company (TPO) comes to France for the first time with this successful contemporary dance show – a mix of movement, music and video art, which takes families on a journey inside an enchanted castle (inspired by the Château de Vaux-leVicomte), where each imaginary room reveals a different surprise. Age five upwards. Place du Trocadéro 75016 Metro: Trocadéro www.theatre-chaillot.fr 10€ – 27.50€

Centre Kapla Almost everyone has played with building blocks, but have they played with Kapla planks? In the relaxed, family atmosphere of the Kapla Center in the 11th arrondissement, children work in small teams to construct everything from two-meter high dragons to Gallic villages, moated castles to fleets of tall ships, using specially designed identical wooden planks – an hour and a half of non-stop creativity that requires imagination, manual dexterity, and discovering the laws of physics. Children are divided into groups according to age, their previous experience with Kapla, and what they would like to build. Under the guidance of a group

Cinéaqua Underneath the Trocadéro gardens, in a structure originally built for the 1878 World's Fair, lies Paris’ first ever ‘Ocean Entertainment Center’ – a hybrid aquarium-cinema complex that plunges children into the heart of ocean life with over 500 species of fish, squirming eels, seahorses and lobsters. Sure-fire hits are the

leader, they begin piling up the planks, step by step, until they've completed the chosen design. The planks are a great medium for children to develop their artistic creativity, concentration, coordination and intelligence. As Tom van der Bruggen, the creator of the planks says, “What counts is not to create something but the act of creativity. The child builds to build himself.” The Kapla center organizes birthday parties for children either at home or at the center, as well as parties for grownups.

Workshops: 10 € per child per session. Open Wednesdays and Saturdays during the school year, every day during school holidays Hours: 10:30 am – 12 pm, 2:30 pm – 4 pm, and 4:30 pm – 6 pm

27 rue de Montreuil 75011 Metro: Faidherbe Chaligny 01 43 56 13 38 www.kapla.com

fearsome looking sharks (over 30 of them), and touching pools, where children can stroke the carp and sturgeons. The gigantic tanks are interspersed with cinema screens, showing a stream of cartoons and animal documentaries (some in English or with English subtitles) and on weekends and Wednesdays, kids’ clubs (12 pm – 4 pm) entertain 3 to 12 yearolds with games, workshops and face

painting (daily during school holidays). 5 avenue Albert De Mun 75016 Metro: Trocadéro, Iéna 01 40 69 23 23 www.cineaqua.com Tickets: adults 19.50€, 3 – 12 yearolds 12.50€, 13 – 17 year-olds 15.50€, children under 3 free Open daily 10 am – 7 pm

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AROUND TOWN

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Around Town The best in art, theater, music and dance ART & EVENTS Les enfants modèles Musée de l’Orangerie Until Mar 8 This delightful exhibit takes a look at the many children who have posed for their artist parents or relatives, whether they were sculptors (Renoir, Belmondo, Chaput) or painters (Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso). Over 100 works are presented along with the children’s oral or written recollections. Jardin des Tuileries 75001 Metro: Concorde www.rmn.fr Tickets: 9.50€

Fauvists and Expressionists: From Van Dongen to Otto Dix Musée Marmottan Claude Monet Until Feb 20 A collection of 50 works from the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal, Germany traces the artistic movements leading up to Modernism: the Fauves, the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) movement, the Expressionists and the New Objectivity. An opportunity to see masterpieces by artists such as Vlaminck, Kandinsky, Dufy, Georges Braque, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde and George Grosz. 2 rue Louis Boilly 75016 Metro: La Muette www.marmottan.com Tickets: 9€

Monumenta 2010: Christian Boltanski Grand Palais Jan 13 – Feb 21 Following last year’s successful Monumenta exhibit, leading French artist Christian Boltanski will create Personnes, a gigantic animated installation in the nave of the Grand Palais that explores the meaning of human existence. avenue Winston Churchill 75008 Metro: Champs Élysées Clemenceau www.monumenta.com/2010/ monumenta Tickets: 4€

Charley Toorop Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Feb 19 – May 9 A retrospective of the Dutch painter Charley Toorop (1891-1955), who is known for her powerful, realistic style. The works she collected from her artist friends will also be on display – Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Bart van der Leck, Ossip Zadkine and more. 11 avenue du Président Wilson 75116 Metro: Alma Marceau www.mam.paris.fr Tickets: 9€

Arts de l'Islam Institut du Monde Arabe Until Mar 14 A rare opportunity to view over 500 works from the Nasser D. Khalili Islamic art collection, one of the finest and most comprehensive in the world. 1 rue des Fossés Saint Bernard 75005 Metro: Maubert-Mutualité www.imarabe.org Tickets: 7€ La Boxe, 1918, by Maurice Denis, at the Musée de l’Orangerie

34 Paris | January/February

An average of 500 films are shown in Paris cinemas each week

Matisse & Rodin Musée Rodin Until Feb 28 Despite the 30 years that separated these two creative geniuses, they shared a thematic and stylistic affinity. This exhibition highlights the sculptures of Matisse – a lesserknown aspect of his work – and how he was influenced by Rodin. 79 rue de Varenne 75007 Metro: Saint François Xavier, Varenne - Métro (8, 13) Invalides www.musee-rodin.fr Tickets: 10€

Patrick Jouin: Carnets et récits de design Feb 15 – June 24 Centre Georges Pompidou A fascinating look at the creative process of this major figure in contemporary design and the diverse projects his agency has worked on since it was founded a decade ago, such as the city's new automated public toilets, the Vélib’ docking stations, and Alain Ducasse's restaurants. 19 rue Beaubourg 75004 Metro: Rambuteau www.centrepompidou.fr Tickets: 10€ – 12€

C'est la vie! Vanities from Caravaggio to Damien Hirst Musée Maillol Feb 3 – June 28 The theme of this exhibit may sound macabre, but it offers a fascinating look at the depiction of the Vanities in art from Roman times to the present. The characteristic skull motif can be seen in some 160 works from Pompeii

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Louis XIV: The Man & the King Musée National du Château de Versailles Until Feb 7 For the first time, the Chateau de Versailles has organized a largescale exhibition about its most famous king. It explores the many facets of his private life and public image by looking at the works he loved – paintings, sculptures, jewels, architecture and objets d'art. Château de Versailles 78000 Versailles RER C: Versailles - Rive Gauche www.chateauversailles.fr Tickets: 13.50€

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927): A Living Sculpture Musée Bourdelle Until Mar 15 This exhibit pays tribute to the American dancer who pioneered modern dance. Her career and life in France are evoked through photographs, costumes, drawings, paintings and sculptures by artists who were inspired by her expressiveness – Boldini, Matisse, Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle. 16-18 rue Antoine Bourdelle 75015 Metro: Falguière www.bourdelle.paris.fr Tickets: 7€

Magic Lanterns and Painted Film: 400 Years of Cinema Cinémathèque Française Until Mar 28 Before the invention of the camera and film, small light boxes, called “magic lanterns,” were used to project images handpainted on glass slides. This exhibition showcases an exquisite selection dating from 1659 to the early 20th century, some of which haven't seen light for 300 years. 51 rue de Bercy 75012 Metro: Bercy www.cinematheque.fr Tickets: 7€

You can still catch these exhibits... Louis Comfort Tiffany – Musee du Luxembourg, until Jan 17 Miles Davis – Cite de la Musique, until Jan 17 Fernand Pelez, Parade of the Humble – Petit Palais, until Jan 17 Fellini, La Grande Parade – Jeu de Paume, until Jan 17 Dali d'Or et Bijoux de Gala – Espace Dali, until Jan 20 From Byzantium to Istanbul – Grand Palais, until Jan 25 Madeleine Vionnet, Puriste de la Mode – Musée de la Mode et du Textile, until Jan 31 Brigitte Bardot: Les Années “Insouciance” – Espace Landowski, until Jan 31 Art Nouveau Revival – Musee d'Orsay, until Feb 4 James Ensor – Musée d’Orsay, until Feb 4 L'Age d'Or Hollandais – Pinaccotheque de Paris, until Feb 7 Pierre Soulages – Centre Georges Pompidou, until Mar 8

Maison de Poupée (A Doll’s House) By Henrick Ibsen Théâtre de la Madeleine From Feb 16 In 19th-century Norway, Nora (Audrey Tautou) has a perfect house and a perfect family; yet stifled by her bourgeois lifestyle, she unwittingly leads herself and those around her into a web of blackmail, lies and scandal. Ibsen’s atmospheric masterpiece is a pertinent portrayal of human nature and as relevant today as when A Doll’s House first took Broadway by storm in 1889. 19 rue de Surène 75008 Metro: Madeleine www.theatremadeleine.com Tickets: 20€ – 47€

THEATER Figaro Divorce (Figaro Gets a Divorce) By Ödön von Horváth Comédie Française (Salle Richelieu) Until Feb 7 Austro-Hungarian von Horváth’s avant-garde 20th-century comedy picks up (some 150 years later) where Beaumarchais’s classic, The Marriage of Figaro, leaves off: Somewhere in 1930’s Europe, just weeks after Figaro and Suzanne’s wedding, revolution is in the air and the couple is forced to flee. Unable to adjust to their new lifestyle, they open a hair salon; but things don’t turn out as planned and Suzanne decides to divorce. Directly inspired by the political climate of the 1930’s, this poignant and sardonic play caricatures the preWWII bourgeoisie with an ingenious series of plot twists. 1 Place Colette 75001 Metro: Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre www.comedie-francaise.fr Tickets: 11€ – 37€

Audrey Tautou

La Cage aux Folles (Birds of a Feather) By Jean Poiret Théâtre Porte Saint-Martin Until Jan 31 Jean Poiret’s 1973 chef-d'oeuvre tells the uproarious, sequin-clad tale of George and Albin, the gay owners of a transvestite club in St Tropez (played to perfection by Christian Clavier and Didier Bourdon), whose lives are turned upside down when George’s son announces his plans to marry a politician’s daughter. 16 bd Saint-Martin 75010 Metro: Strasbourg St Denis www.portestmartin.com Tickets: 30.50€ – 70.50€

Face au Paradis By Nathalie Saugeon Théâtre Marigny Jan 26 – May 8 Director Rachida Branki unites ex-footballer Eric Cantona (her husband) and rising star Lorànt Deutsch for a touching, philosophical play about two men trapped beneath a fallen building. Cantona may be an adept of the silver screen, but this is his first ever role in the theatre – an event that promises to reel in the crowds, so book well ahead.

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AROUND TOWN

mosaics and medieval engravings, to Surrealist paintings and neo-Pop Art. Highlights include jewelry from the famous Codognato collection in Venice, shown in France for the first time, and a life-size diamond-studded skull created by famed British artist Damien Hirst. 61 rue de Grenelle 75007 Metro: Rue du Bac www.museemaillol.com Tickets: 11€

AROUND TOWN

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carré Marigny 75008 Metro: Champs Elysées Clémenceau www.theatremarigny.fr Tickets: 25€ – 45€

Misérables By Philippe Honoré Le Lucernaire Until Mar 20 Emerging director Philippe Person’s troupe offers a solid, somewhat atypical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables: an hour and a quarter of spoken theater, punctuated by original song (a world away from Boubil and Schönberg’s famous Broadway musical score), in a setting reminiscent of circus and cabaret. 53 rue Notre Dame des Champs 75006 Metro: Notre Dame des Champs www.lucernaire.fr Tickets: 30€

en Anglais company are performing William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (Jan 18 – 19), Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (Jan 19 – 20), and a well-crafted adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (Jan 2021), all in the Bard’s tongue. 50 boulevard Voltaire 75011 Metro: Oberkampf www.theatre.anglais.free.fr/ www.le-bataclan.com Tickets: From 12€

Java (105 rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75010 www.la-java.fr), where sidesplitting stand-up acts from the UK, Ireland and America play to crowds of laughter deprived Anglophones. The program is decided at the last minute, so check out www.anythingmatters.com for dates. Acts have previously included Greg Proops, Josie Long and Phil Kay.

Impro à la Carte

DANCE

Théâtre en Anglais

By The Improfessionals O’Sullivan’s By The Mill Jan 15, Feb 19 In their new show, Paris’ stalwart English-speaking improvisation troupe lets the audience choose (“à la carte”) the sketches they’d like to see performed. A few (un)lucky onlookers even get to participate, usually with hilarious consequences. 92 bd de Clichy 75018 Metro: Blanche www.improfessionals.com Tickets: 12€

Bataclan Jan 18 – 21 Catch two plays a night at the Bataclan, where the talented Théâtre

Also… Look out for Laughing Matters, presented by Karel Beer at the

And in English….

Béjart Ballet Lausanne By Maurice Béjart Jan 5 – 9 Four enchanting ballet tableaux (accompanied by the Ensemble Intercontemporain orchestra) highlight the late Franco-Swiss choreographer’s passion for 20th-century composition: Sonate à Trois (based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, with music by Bartok); Dialogue de l’Ombre Double (with music by Béjart’s longtime collaborator, Pierre Boulez); Opus V (music by Anton Webern);

A Little Night Music

Kristin Scott-Thomas

36 Paris | January/February

Théâtre du Châtelet Feb 15 – 20 Inspired by Smiles of a Summer Night (Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 movie), Stephen Sondheim's erotic, musical masterpiece (first staged on Broadway in 1973) comes to Paris with a star-studded cast that includes Kristin Scott-Thomas, Lambert Wilson and Leslie Caron. Music is performed by Radio France’s Orchestre Philharmonique. 1 place du Châtelet 75001 Metro: Châtelet www.chatelet-theatre.com Tickest: 10€ – 95€

and the Marteau sans Maître, based on an anthology by René Char, also set to music by Pierre Boulez. Place de l’Opéra 75009 Metro: Opéra/ RER Auber www.operadeparis.fr Tickets: 6€ - 87€

Solo – Solo By Dominique Dupuy Jan 27-30 Husband and wife duo Françoise and Dominique Dupuy (considered to be the precursors of modern dance in France) may be 84 and 79 years old respectively, but they are still very much on the cutting edge. With Solo-Solo, a thoughtprovoking, two-part program created by Dominique, Françoise explores the irony of time in Seule? Encore une Fois; followed by Wu Wu Wu, a study of Ying and Yang and masculinity and femininity interpreted by Chinese dance sensation Wu Zheng. Place du Trocadéro 75016 Metro: Trocadéro www.theatre-chaillot.fr Tickets: 12€ – 27.50€

Magic of the dance Théâtre Mogador Feb 1 This global smash hit (celebrating its ten-year anniversary) is a love story – a fight between good and bad and a metaphor for the history of Ireland - carried faultlessly by the explosive, almost ‘machine-gunlike’ tap numbers of some of the world’s best Irish dancers (allegedly the fastest tappers in the world). Visual effects are impressive (look out for the dancers’ shoes on fire) and sound-wise expect traditional Irish folk music, spiked with upbeat contemporary pop and classical music. 25 rue de Mogador 75009 Metro: Trinité www.magicofthedance.com/ www.mogador.net Tickets: 59.80€ – 79.60€

The underground lake of the Opera Garnier inspired Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera

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Tempest: Without a Africa Umoja Body Palais des Congrès de Paris Théâtre de la Ville Jan 27 – 30 The Polynesian Mau dance company (named after a Samoan independence movement) comes to France for the first time ever with this intriguingly poignant performance, inspired by both Shakespeare’s The Tempest and post 9/11 world politics. The 20 strong troupe of dancers includes the Maori activist Tama Iti. 2 Place du Châtelet 75004 Metro: Châtelet www.theatredelaville-paris.com Tickets: 12€-26€

MUSICALS AND OPERA Bharati Palais des Congrès de Paris Jan 22 – 24 Glittery costumes, spellbinding choreographies and music inspired by India’s favorite Bollywood movies all come together in this wonderful, fast-paced pilgrimage into the heart of Indian cinema and culture. 2 place de la Porte Maillot 75017 Metro: Porte Maillot www.palaisdescongres-paris.com Tickets: 33€ – 96.50€

Jan 1 – 3 After much acclaim last year, this loud, colorful and jubilant celebration of South African culture and history is back in Paris with yet more fancy footwork, jazz, gospel and tribal sound. It’s a wild spectacular that’ll make you want to get up and boogie! Palais des Congrès de Paris 2 place de la Porte Maillot 75017 Metro: Porte Maillot w w w. p a l a i s d e s c o n g re s paris.com Tickets: 49€ – 79€

Zorro Folies Bergère Jan 2 – 31 Expect decent singing, oodles of flamenco, sword fights, stunts, romance and some of the Gipsy Kings’ best-loved numbers in the new Zorro musical, adapted from Isabel Allende’s novel and directed by West-End and Broadway director Christopher Renshaw. 32 rue Richer 75009 Metro: Cadet, Grands Boulevards www.zorro-lemusical.fr Tickets: 24€ – 89€

Masque in five acts (based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is a colorful, musical journey into English pastoral tradition, and a fine opportunity to hear the Bard’s text performed in English. Christie’s worldrenowned Baroque ensemble provides the music and song. 5 rue Favart 75002 Metro: Quatre Septembre, Richelieu Drouot www.opera-comique.com Tickets: 6€ – 108€

Barbara Hendricks Château de Versailles Jan 8 - 10 The velveteen voice of SwedishAmerican soprano Barbara Hendricks fills the glorious Versailles Palace with two recitals (accompanied by the Drottningholm Baroque Orchestra): Perglolèse’s sacred Stabat Mater, performed in the splendid Chapelle Royale (Jan 8); followed by arias by Henry Purcell and Frederic Haendel inside the Sun King’s sublimely decorated Opéra Royal (Jan 9-10), only open to the public since September 2009. Chateau de Versailles 78000 Versailles RER C: Versailles – Rive Gauche www.chateauversaillesspectacles.fr Tickets: 90€ – 200€

CONCERTS Johnny Hallyday: Tour 66 Palais Omnisport de Paris Bercy Feb 9, 10 & 12 The rock legend’s gravelly beltvoice and ‘rock n’ roll attitude’ may still attract more crowds than any other French artist, but Johnny’s yearlong Tour 66 (named after Route 66, the American road that inspired much of his songwriting, and a wink to his age) is supposedly his last. Hurry, therefore, for the final leg of the tour – an ultimate jaunt down memory lane with hits from his 50-year long career including Que je t’Aime (How I Love You) and Et Maintenant (And Now). Palais Omnisport de Paris Bercy 8 boulevard de Bercy 75012 Metro: Bercy www.bercy.fr Tickets: 55€ – 120€

The Rabeats Le Grand Rex Jan 16 There are bootleg bands and there are The Rabeats, possibly the best Beatles tribute group around - a chance for you to indulge in early fa-

The Fairy Queen Opéra Comique Jan 16 – 24 Brought to life by directors William Christie (of Les Arts Florissants fame) and Jonathan Cohen, Henry Purcell’s 1692 baroque The Rabeats

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Béjart Ballet

AROUND TOWN

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vorites like Help, and Yesterday before revisiting the ‘studio’ years with numbers from the Sergeant Pepper album. Music is accompanied by original “Beatlemania” videos. 1 boulevard Poissonnière 75002 Metro: Bonne Nouvelle, Grands Boulevards www.legrandrex.com Tickets: 42€

Marc Lavoine Casino de Paris Jan 19 – 31 To mark the launch of his new album Volume 10 (a compilation reminiscent of 70s French Chanson) the pop heartthrob embarks on a tour around France, starting in Paris, with 13 consecutive nights at the Casino de Paris – a chance to hear new numbers like Reviens Mon Amour (Come Back my Love). 16 rue de Clichy 75009 Metro: Liège www.casinodeparis.fr Tickets: 40.80€

Swingin’ London, the Flower Power era and Woodstock (with timeless classics like Wild Thing, Mellow Yellow, San Francisco, California Dreaming and Purple Haze) will leave you wishing that you had. Foot-tapping is guaranteed, as is the feel-good factor (minus Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds bien sûr!). 15 rue du Retrait 75020 Metro: Gambetta http://menilmontant.free.fr and w w w. d e s t i n a t i o n woodstock.com Tickets: 20€

Air Casino de Paris Jan 11 - 12 The kings of electro-pop play their new album Love 2 on home turf for two nights only as part of

Charlie Winston Zenith de Paris Feb 2 After winning the Time “Best Artist of the Year” award in 2009, the charismatic British singersongwriter returns to Paris with more cool, feel-good pop creations such as Kick the Bucket and the tune that launched his career Like a Hobo. 211 avenue Jean Jaurès 75019 Metro: Porte de Pantin www.zenith-paris.com Tickets: 36€

their new European tour. Expect atmospheric, trip-hopping sound with a splash of rock and plenty of melody. 16 rue de Clichy 75009 Metro: Liège www.casinodeparis.fr Tickets: 39€

Kevin Costner La Cigale Feb 22 Hollywood actor Kevin Costner takes to the stage, guitar in tow, with his new band Modern West, proving that even megastars have talents we don’t know about (music was reportedly his first love). The result is quintessential Nashville countrystyle rock that’s well worth splurging on. 120 bd Rochechouart 75018

Metro: Pigalle www.lacigale.fr Tickets: 51€ – 73€

La Roux Le Bataclan Feb 26 After taking time out at the end of 2009 to ‘rest her voice’, the redhaired, Brit-chick is back on track with the Paris leg of her first world tour. Expect funky lighting, cheering crowds and oodles of her cool, neo-80’s electronica including Quicksand and In for the Kill. 50 bd Voltaire 75011 Metro: Oberkampf www.le-bataclan.fr Tickets: 26.40€

Patricia Kaas Casino de Paris Jan 8 – 10 As part of her European tour, the sexy, deep-voiced French singer presents Kabaret – an ode to 1930s cabaret with an Art Deco inspired set, contemporary choreography and a mix of songs old and new - a must for Kaas fans and lovers of Berlin-style musichall. 16 rue de Clichy 75009 Metro: Trinité www.casinodeparis.fr Tickets: 72€

Yaël Naïm Salle Pleyel Feb 25 Israeli “New Soul” singer Yaël (discovered in Élie Chouraqui and Pascal Obispo’s Ten Commandments musical) performs her signature acoustic jazz – cool, intimate music with a touch of folk and pop thrown in for good measure – sung in French, English and Hebrew. 252 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré 75008 Metro: Ternes www.sallepleyel.fr 30€ – 45€

Destination Woodstock Théâtre de Ménilmontant Jan 19, Feb 11 – 13, 25 - 26 If you didn’t live through the cultural revolution of the 60s, this musical journey into the heart of Kevin Costner

38 Paris | January/February

The Louvre Museum houses 35,000 works of art displayed in over 60,000 square meters of permanent exhibition space

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L'Olympia Feb 13 America’s most successful and critically acclaimed fusion jazz guitarist, renowned for his mindblowing progressive, post-pop and Latin-influenced sound, comes to Paris with his Grammy award-winning team, the Pat Metheny Group (aka pianist Lyle Mays, drummer Antionio Sanchez and double bassist Steve Rodby – all top musicians in their own right) as part of their worldwide Orchestrion Tour – an absolute must-see for jazz aficionados. 28 bd des Capucines 75009 Metro: Madeleine www.patmethenygroup.com/ www.olympiahall.com 62€ – 84€

Stereophonics L'Olympia Feb 4 After a short career break, the Welsh rock n’ roll band headed by Kelly Jones is back with a European Tour and a new album, Keep Calm and Carry On – a scalding opus brimming with easy-listening pop-rock tunes, performed at the mythical Olympia with their usual zeal. 28 bd des Capucines 75009 Metro: Madeleine w w w. s t e r e o p h o n i c s . c o m / www.olympiahall.com 35.20€ – 38.50€

Earth Wind & Fire, Maze & Frankie Beverly L'Olympia Feb 9 Frankie Beverly and his funk group Maze join 70’s boogie stars Earth, Wind and Fire (featuring the guitarist and singer Al McKay) for a wild celebration of 30 years of soul, jazz, funk and R’n’B. 28 bd des Capucines 75009

Metro: Madeleine www.olympiahall.com 49.50€ – 77€

FESTIVALS

ALSO AT THE… Bataclan – 50 boulevard Voltaire 75011; www.le-bataclan.fr Feb 3 – 6: Sanseverino – Gypsy jazz revisited with a modern twist (33€)

Les Nuits Manouche and Au Fil des Voix festivals

Palais Omnisport de Paris Bercy – 8 boulevard de Bercy 75012; www.bercy.fr Jan 19 – 20: Depeche Mode – the legendary electro group plays their new album Sounds of the Universe. (53€ – 64€) Casino de Paris – 16 rue de Clichy 75009; www.casinodeparis.fr Jan 8 – 10: Patricia Kaas – the sexy, deep-voiced singer present her best hits (72€) Jan 16 – 17: Emilie Simon – Heavily influenced by Kate Bush and Tori Amos, the French chansonière tries her hand at singing in English, and succeeds (36€ – 39€) Feb 5 – 6: Benjamin Biolé – the modern-day Gainsbourg takes to the stage with his fifth album La Superbe (35.90€) Salle Pleyel – 252 rue du faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008; www.sallepleyel.fr Jan 16: Joshua Redman Quartet – Lively jazz by one of the world’s leading saxophonists and his crew (30€ – 45€) Jan 23: King Arthur – Purcell’s semi-opera, adapted from a libretto by John Dryden and directed by Christophe Rousset (10€ – 60€) Jan 30: London Symphony Orchestra – Under the watchful eye of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Britain’s world-renowned orchestra plays Beethoven’s Concerto N° 2 for piano and Symphony N° 6 “Pastorale” (10€ – 95€) Feb 25: Yael Naim – the “New Soul” singer performs her signature acoustic jazz (30€ – 45€)

Alhambra Jan 19 – 30 and Feb 4 – 6, 11 – 13 It’s a double bill at the Alhambra for World music lovers: In January, Gipsy music fans flock to the Nuits Manouche festival (Jan 19 – 30) to see acts from around the world, including the Italian guitar-whizz Steeve Laffont (Jan 21), Flamenco guitarist Raphaël Fays (Jan 22) and rising Rom Jazz star Yorgui Loeffler (Jan 27); followed by the Fil des Voix World Music festival in February (Feb 4 – 6, 11 – 13), where artists such as Judeo-Spanish singer Yasmin Levey (hailed as the “superstar of World Music” for her capacity to transmit emotion) and La Chicana (an Argentinian Tango group) play over two long weekends. 21 rue Yves Toudic 75010 Metro: République or Jacques Bonsergent www.alhambra-paris.com 33€ (Nuits Manouche), 29€ (Fil des Voix)

“Les Befores” du Musée du Quai Branly Musée du Quai Branly Nov 7 2009 - Jun 5 2010 On the first Sat of each month, the museum’s Café Ethno opens its doors to 18 to 25 year-olds (6pm – 9pm) who come to rap, slam, dance, make music or display art, video installations and photography. It’s a fun, cultural ‘happening’ that incites the city’s youngsters to partake in Paris’s cultural life.

37 quai Branly (entrance Debilly) 75007 Metro: Iéna www.quaibranly.fr Free And Don’t Miss… Chinese New Year 2010 on Feb 14, when Paris’s Chinese community welcomes the New Year (the year of the Tiger) with a dragon parade and festivities in the streets in the 10th and 13th arrondissements (in the Chinese quarters around Place d’Italie and Belleville). Check the Mairie’s website for details www.mairie13.paris.fr and www.mairie10.paris.fr.

JAZZ CLUBS Rue des Lombards The rue des Lombards, in the 1st arrondissement, hosts four of the city's finest jazz clubs, where you’re sure to find a concert that suits your mood any night of the week.

Duc des Lombards 42 rue des Lombards 75001 Metro: Châtelet www.ducdeslombards.com This club is one of the classics, featuring everything from free jazz to more traditional forms like hard bop. Some greats who have played here recently include Ahmad Jamal, David Sanborn, Diane Schuur and Melody Gardot. Each night the same artist performs at 8 pm and 10 pm. Entry: 19€ – 28€. Every Friday and Saturday, free entry to jam sessions starting at midnight.

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AROUND TOWN

Pat Metheny

AROUND TOWN

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January highlights: Concerts at 8 pm & 10 pm Jan 6: Jérôme Sabbagh, New York-inspired contemporary jazz saxophonist, with Yoni Zelnik and Karl Jannuska Jan 25 & 26: Enrico Pieranunzi, the great Italian jazz pianist, with renowned French drummer André Ceccarelli, and award-winning bassist Darryl Hall Jan 27 & 28: Pura Fé – her signature rich vocals and slide guitar blend Native American influences with good old fashioned blues. Jan 29 & 30: The Jacques Schwarz-Bart & Sangoma Everett Quintet, with jazz vocalist Anne Ducros For full January/February programs please consult the club’s website.

Le Baiser Salé 58 rue des Lombards 75001 Metro: Châtelet www.lebaisersale.com This branché jazz fusion club has concerts nightly at 7:30 pm and 10 pm. Free jam sessions every Monday night at 10 pm. Free entry. One drink minimum, from 11€. Jan 1 & 2 at 10 pm: François Constantin Project Salsa – festive salsa jazz with lots of percussion. 12€ – 17€

Sunset

Jan 7 at 10 pm: Maison Klaus and pianist Benoit Widemann – R'n'B with touches of jazz and rock. 13€ – 18€ Jan 12 at 10 pm: The Fab Swing Trio “Swingin’ the Beatles” – melodies from the “Fab Four” like you've never heard them before. 12€ – 17€ Jan 21 at 10 pm: Grégory Privat and Nesrine Ghalmi – this piano/ voice duo is accompanied by double bass and drums for a vibrant mix of jazz, soul and Caribbean music. 12€ – 17€ Jan 28 at 10 pm: Orlando Poleo, the Venezuelan-born master congo player heads Chaworo, one of the best salsa jazz bands around. 13€ – 18€ Feb 6 at 7:30 pm: Happy Accident: Franck Sarriot and Vincent Payelle – inspired by American pop, folk and classic rock, this French duo sings their tunes in English. 10€ – 15€

Feb 25 at 10 pm: Orlando Poleo and his stellar salsa jazz band Chaworo, plus surprise guests. 13€ – 18€ Feb 26 at 10 pm: Desktops – this Motown revival band plays all the great hits from Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and more. 13€ – 18€

Sunset-Sunside 60 rue des Lombards 75001 Metro: Châtelet www.sunset-sunside.com The world-famous Sunset and Sunside clubs form a single complex offering two concerts every night. The Sunset is dedicated to electric jazz and world music, while the Sunside is devoted to acoustic jazz. For a complete concert schedule please visit the club’s website.

Django Reinhardt, a Jazz Great Remembered All four jazz clubs in the rue des Lombards are throwing a party on January 19th to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. One entry fee of 22€ is good for all four clubs. The concert line-up: Sunset: Christian Escoudé's Nouveau Trio Gitan (guitars), featuring David Reinhardt, grandson of Django Reinhardt Sunside: Rocky Gresset Quartet and guest Costel Nitescu Duc des Lombards: Daniel John Martin Quartet and guest Olivier Hutmann Baiser Salé: Noé Reinhardt Quartet For more information see www.parisjazzclub.net

40 Paris | January/February

Program highlights: Jan 1 & 2 at 10 pm: The Volunteered Slaves, “Tribute to Michael Jackson” – featuring tenor sax Olivier Temime – the King of Pop's tunes will be revisited in jazz funk style. 20€ – 22€ Jan 6 – 9 at 9:30 pm: Mederic Collignon – inspired by Miles Davis, this inventive horn player is considered one of jazz's great new artists. He and his trio Jus de Bocse pack a big band punch. Jan 6 & 7: 20-22€ / Jan 8 & 9: 22€ – 25€ Jan 28 at 10 pm: Jean-Loup Longnon Big Band – headed by one of Europe's greatest trumpeters, the band will celebrate the release of their new CD “Encore du bop.” 20€ – 22€ Jan 29 & 30 at 10 pm: Evan Parker / Barry Guy / Paul Lytton – on two consecutive nights, this celebrated trio of the European free jazz scene will be recording their CD “Live au Sunset.” 22€ – 25€ Feb 3 & 4 at 9 pm: Andy Sheppard – the saxophonist renowned for his lyric, improvisational style will perform with his quintet. 22€ – 25€ Feb 12 & 13 at 10 pm: No Jazz – the popular French electro band that borrows sounds from jazz and Cuban music. 20€ – 22€ Feb 18 & 19 at 9:30 pm: Neal Black – the electrifying style of this Texan-born guitarist/vocalist is a fusion of blues, rock, jazz and country. 20€ – 22€ Feb 20 at 10 pm: George Garzone, one of the jazz world’s most talented saxophonists, will perform with his trio The Fringe. 22€ – 25€

Sunside Program highlights: Jan 1 & 2 at 8 pm & 10 pm: Rhoda Scott, considered by many to be the top female jazz organist, will play hard bop and

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AROUND TOWN

soul jazz with her quartet. 20€ – 22€ Jan 20 & 21 at 9 pm: Eli Degibri – the young Israeli tenor saxophonist who’s played with Herbie Hancock and Al Foster, will perform at the club for the first time with his contemporary jazz quartet. 22€ – 25€ Jan 23 at 8 pm & 10 pm/ Jan 24 at 9 pm: Tigran Hamasyan – the young piano prodigy who mixes modern jazz with Armenian folk music will play with his quintet. 22€ – 25€ Feb 12 – 14 at 9 pm: China Moses (vocals) & Raphael Lemonier (piano), “Tribute to Dinah Washington” – Dee Dee Bridgewater’s daughter, a talented vocalist in her own right, sings standards of the “Queen of Blues.” 22€ – 25€ Feb 17 – 21 at 9 pm: Laurent de Wilde – the preeminent jazz pianist known for both his acoustic and electronic sounds. 20€ – 22€ Feb 25 at 9 pm: Tim Berne, the avant-garde jazz saxophonist, plays free improvisations with his group Buffalo collision. 25€

Caveau de la Huchette 5 rue de la Huchette 75005 Metro: Saint Michel www.caveaudelahuchette.fr This temple of swing jazz has hosted all the greats since its opening in 1947. The club opens at 9:30 pm. Concerts every night, 10:15 pm – 2:15 am. Entry: 12€ (Sun – Thurs) and 14€ (Fri & Sat).

Jan 1 & 2: Drew Davies, saxophonist Jan 5 & 7: Michel Pastre, saxophonist Jan 8 & 9: Gilda Solve, tribute to Peggy Lee Jan 10: Puissance Jazz Big Band Jan 11: Sweet system, trio of female jazz vocalists Jan 12 & 14: Nicolas Sabato quartet Jan 15: Brother D. Blue Band Jan 16 & 18: Christelle Pereira sings Ella Jan 19 & 20: Shrai Brunner, tribute to Sydney Bechet Jan 25 & 27: Patrick Bacqueville, trombone Jan 28 & 30: Marc Thomas, jazz vocalist Feb 2 – 6: Sweet Mama Feb 7 & 8: Blues de Paris Feb 9 – 13: Dixie Swing, dixieland Feb 14 – 17: Vincent Frade quartet Feb 18 – 20: Claude Tissendier, saxophonist Feb 21: Nicolas Dary and Luigi Grasso, saxophonists Feb 22: Sweet system, trio of female jazz vocalists Feb 23 & 24: Olivier Robin quartet Feb 25 & 28: Drew Davies, saxophonist

Caveau des Oubliettes 52 rue Galande 75005 Metro: Saint Michel www.caveaudesoubliettes.fr A great old-fashioned jazz venue in the Latin Quarter. Open every

day 5 pm – 4 am. Concerts or jam sessions every night, 10 pm – 2 am. Free entry – drinks from 6€. For a complete list of January/February concerts please see the club’s website. Jam sessions: Sundays: blues jam with Big Dez trio (Phil Dez, guitar) Mondays: pop rock jam with J.B Manis (guitar) Tuesdays: jazz jam with Jeff Hoffman trio Wednesdays: groove jam with Camouade trio Thursdays: funk fusion jam with Francois Faure (keyboards) trio Concerts: Jan 1: Francois Faure & Friends – fusion funk Jan 2: Moreno quartet – gypsy jazz Jan 8 & 9: Franck H. quartet – blues Jan 15: Natural Blues quintet – blues Jan 16: Guillaume Farley trio – funk Jan 22 & 23: Ostinato – fusion jazz Jan 29 & 30: Manuto trio – soul blues

La Rhumerie 166 bd Saint Germain 75006 Metro: Mabillon www.larhumerie.com The bar that serves the best rumbased cocktails in Paris also has free jazz every Sunday from 8 pm to midnight. Free entry. Drinks from 5€ – 10€.

For a complete concert line-up visit the club’s website. Click on the heading “Magazine,” then click “Le Jazz.” Program highlights: Jan 3: Gypsy jazz quartet Jan 10: Real Blue, quartet featuring Fabien Mary (trumpet) and David Sauzey (tenor sax and flute). Jan 17 & 31, Feb 21 & 28: Men in Bop – traditional jazz.

Chez Papa Jazz Club and Restaurant 3 rue Saint Benoit 75006 Metro: Saint Germain des Prés www.papajazzclub.com Listen to great live jazz over dinner or a drink: Tuesday to Thursday, 9 pm – 1 am/ Friday & Saturday, 9:30 pm – 1:30 am. Drinks 13€ – 20€. French singers often perform on weekends accompanied by piano and double bass. For a complete schedule of concerts, please consult the club’s website. Upcoming concerts: Jan 8 & 9: Rémi Toulon Trio – swing (piano, drums, saxophone) Jan 13 & 14: Bobby Few, the critically-acclaimed American pianist, and double bassist Harry Swift Jan 15 & 16: Alex Sanders (vocals and bass) accompanied by a pianist. February 12 & 13: Manuel Rocheman Trio – piano, double bass and drums. Compiled by Anna Brooke

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EDITORIAL

What Price Tag for Paris? The French government is selling off some of its most historically important and prestigious buildings to the highest bidder in order to pare down the national debt and raise revenue for the state (Paris for Sale, pages 14-19). This French heritage should remain with the state, for the benefit of all, for the simple reason that it belongs to all the people, not just hotel chains or wealthy individuals. It does make sense to move some of the ministries out of central Paris, but not to put up for auction national treasures like the Hôtel de la Marine on the place de la Concorde. If the buildings are truly no longer needed by the state, why not take the time to come up with a comprehensive plan that considers both the financial angle and the emotional issue of keeping these buildings to protect French heritage? Another problem with selling these buildings is the major alterations proposed for them, from elevators to swimming pools, that destroy the historical intergrity of these magnificant structures. This is a good example of moving too quickly, before the issues are fully debated or comprehensive plans developed. If the state needs to abandon these buildings, and there are sound arguments for that, then it needs a plan that not only benefits the people but protects the national heritage. n

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PARIS MAGAZINE 11 av. de l’Opéra, 75001 Paris Tél. 01.53.45.70.10 info@parismagazine.fr Publicité: Tél. 01.53.45.70.16 Published by JSW Group EURL Capital 9,000 euros 11 av. de l’Opéra, 75001 Paris 493831580 RCS Paris Executive Editor: John Flint Editor: Marie Puleo Art Director: Brian Wright at www.designlab7.com

42 Paris | January/February

The opening of the new McDonald’s at the Carrousel du Louvre is an insult to the image of the Louvre (News Briefs, page 6). It goes against all the promises that were made, when the Carrousel opened in 1993, to have tasteful businesses occupying the space, literally100 meters from the entrance to the world’s most prestigious museum. Up to now, the businesses at the Carrousel were well chosen, from the shops to the food court. Yes, it is an American-style shopping mall food court, but it was done with taste, with a variety of places to eat and no chain fast food outlets to sully the surroundings. As Louvre watcher Bernard Hasquenoph correctly points out, ‘it’s about the money,’ but surely the quest for money should not change the orginal promises made to exclude fast food chains from the Carrousel du Louvre. n

Advertising: Chealsy Choquette Directeur de la publication: William Martz Circulation and Marketing Director: Jane Blassel Writers: Anna Brooke, Tobias Grey, Tina Isaac, Jeffrey T. Iverson, Rosa Jackson, Corinne LaBalme, Alec Lobrano, Meredith Mullins, Lisa Nesselson, Cathy Nolan, Carolyn Pfaff, Virginia Power, Joe Ray, Annabel Simms, Thirza Vallois Photographers: Alison Harris, Meredith Mullins, JB Russell, Annabel Simms, Brian Wright Le numéro de CPPAP: 1011K89969. ISSN 2103-9011

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Great activities for the start of the year

LITERARY EVENTS

series explores how storytelling in words differs creatively from storytelling in films. Jan 12: Breakfast at Tiffany's – when a book’s ending is changed in order to please the film's audience. Feb 16: Brokeback Mountain – the process of lengthening and enhancing a short story to fill ninety minutes of screen time. @The Library events The Library joins with other nonprofit organizations to present its @The Library program.

American Library In Paris 10 rue du Général Camou 75007 Metro: Ecole Militaire, Alma Marceau 01 53 59 12 60 Unless otherwise noted, events take place at the library at 7:30 pm, and are open to the general public free of charge. Jan 6: Leslie Caron, Hollywood legend who starred in the film classics Gigi and An American in Paris will be discussing her memoir, Thank Heaven. Jan 13: Suzy Gershman, author of the Born to Shop series, offers shopping tips and discusses her memoir, C'est la Vie. Jan 20: Russian translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky discuss the translation process and their newest work on Doctor Zhivago. Feb 3: Michael Schuermann on his book, Paris Movie Walks. Other Events A Night at the Movies Presented by film school professor and consultant Judith Merians, this

Jan 19: WICE @The Library: Writers on Writing. Chip Martin will discuss American literary expatriation in Europe. Special Event Feb 9: Professor Monique Wells presents Black Paris and the myth of a colorblind France. Used Book Sale Jan 9 & Feb 6, 10 am – 7 pm Held on the first Saturday of every month, the Library's used book sales are an opportunity to find something great to read and in turn help the Library fund the purchase of new books.

WH Smith 248 rue de Rivoli 75001 Metro: Concorde 01 44 77 88 99 Author events take place at the bookshop at 7 pm and are open to the general public free of charge. Reservations are recommended. Jan 21: Peter Hicks, a historian at the Fondation Napoléon in Paris, will present his translation of the complete version of the novella Clisson and Eugénie, a tragic love story written by Napoleon Bona-

parte when he was 26. It offers a fascinating insight into how the young Napoleon viewed love, women and military life. Feb 4: Charles Glass discusses his book Americans in Paris, the story of the thousands of expatriate Americans who stayed in the French capital during the Nazi Occupation. See our review, p. 24

Shakespeare and Company 37 rue de la Bûcherie 75005 Metro: Saint Michel 01 43 25 40 93 Readings take place at the bookshop at 7 pm and are open to the public, free of charge. For an updated schedule please see www.shakespeareco.org Jan 4: Anita Michaels and Patricia Page (author of Clean Start) will read from a selection of fiction and poetry. Jan 11: Marilynne Hacker will read from her newly released book of poetry Names. Jan 18: A special reading from celebrated author and critic Luc Sante, who is in Paris for Christian Boltanski's Monumenta exhibit at the Grand Palais. He recently wrote the forward for The Possible Life of Christian Boltanski, a fascinating memoir of this major contemporary French artist. Jan 25: Margo Berdeshevsky will be reading from her new book of short stories Beautiful Soon Enough, set in locales from Paris to Cuba. Feb 1: Heather Hartley, Paris Editor of Tin House magazine, will read from her new poetry book Knock Knock.

Feb 8: Wendell Steavenson will read from her book, The Weight of a Mustard Seed, a portrait of an Iraqi general who served under Saddam Hussein. Feb 15: Janet Skeslien Charles will be reading from her new novel Moonlight in Odessa.

Village Voice 6 rue Princesse 75006 Metro: Mabillon 01 46 33 25 34 All events take place at the bookshop at 7 pm. They are open to the public, free of charge. For more details and an updated schedule visit: www.villagevoicebookshop.com Jan 12: Nam Le will read from The Boat, his highly acclaimed collection of stories that was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Jan 14: Constance Borde and Sheila MalovanyChevallier will present their new collaborative translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s landmark work, The Second Sex. Jan 21: Lorraine Liscio will speak about her book, Paris and Her Remarkable Women. Jan 28: Diane Johnson, bestselling novelist and essayist, will discuss the work of Leonard Michaels, whose collected stories & novel Sylvia have just been translated into French and published by Les Editions Christian Bourgois. Feb 4: Marc Amfreville, translator and professor of American Literature, discusses his book of essays on American Literature, Ecrits en Souffrance.

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Community Calendar

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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GOOD WEBSITES IN ENGLISH For the inside track on the Paris restaurant scene, visit the website of veteran food writer and Paris Magazine restaurant reviewer Alexander Lobrano. It’s even on the list of The New York Times’ top ten food websites. www.hungryforparis.com If you’ve ever tried navigating the SNCF website for train schedules, you know that there must be a better way, and there is. Try the SBB Englishlanguage train schedule website run by the Swiss railways: www.SBB.ch/en. It lists all trains running in Europe, including the connection times. For a terrific English-language website listing all the movies playing in Paris, go to Google and type in “Anglo Info movies Paris,” which will give you the link. You can search for a specific film, a day of showing or an arrondissement by the week. The list includes new releases, revival house films and times, all in an easy-touse format. Run by a long-time Paris resident and author of the excellent Paris Inside Out books, the website www.paris-anglo.com is a tremendous resource for a

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variety of things of interest to English-speakers in Paris. A fun and educational website to practice and learn French is French Word a Day. Go to Google and type in French Word a Day, then go to the website and sign up for a daily e-mail of a new French word and how to use it in context. One of the most popular blogs on the internet is from Paris-based pastry chef David Lebovitz. It's all about French food, cooking and life in Paris, with excellent photographs and a good dose of humor. Check it out at www.davidlebovitz.com. For all the latest ‘chic’ news on Paris fashion, beauty, parties and more, check out www.chicsetera.com, in both English and French. A fun website with lots of insider information. From the former editor of the International Herald Tribune and award-winning AP reporter, Mort Rosenblum, comes this very interesting and readable website dedicated to media discussion and world news. There is also a link to subscribe to the excellent dispatches quarterly magazine. www.mortrosenblum.net

JM Synge, Photographer

IRISH CULTURAL CENTER EVENTS Centre Culturel Irlandais 5 rue des Irlandais 75005 Metro: Cardinal Lemoine, Place Monge 01 58 52 10 30 All events are open to the public and, unless otherwise stated, are free of charge. Reservations are recommended.

Exhibits Jan 22 – Feb 25 (opening Jan 21, 6:30 pm – 8 pm) J. M. Synge, Photographer A collection of photographs taken between 1898 and 1905 by John Millington Synge, one of Ireland's most famous playwrights. They document scenes of daily life and reveal his talent for this new art form.

Jan 22 – Feb 25 (opening Jan 21, 6:30 pm – 8 pm) Kingship in Ireland and France A selection of books from the Old Library of the Irish College shows how Irish intellectuals of the 1600s borrowed extensively from French political philosophy. Hours for the above exhibits: Tuesday to Saturday, 2 pm – 6 pm (until 8 pm on Wednesday) and Sunday, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm Jan 28 at 7:30 pm At Sea - Gary Coyle An installation dedicated to the artist's photos and diaries that document his decade-long daily swimming ritual at the Forty Foot promontory in Dublin.

Cinema Feb 2 at 7:30 pm Man of Aran (1934) – Robert Flaherty's famous film about the daily hardships of premodern life on the remote Aran Islands.

Literary Encounters Feb 9 at 7:30 pm Leanne O’Sullivan & Roderick Ford The award-winning poets discuss their works. Reservations required.

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Worldwide moving specialists Weekly removal services between France and the UK Secure storage facilities

+33 (0)1 44 30 03 30 www.clarkandrose.co.uk www.clarkandrose.fr Email: paris@clarkandrose.co.uk

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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Theater Feb 16 at 7:30 pm Typhoid Mary – Written and performed by Eithne McGuinness. The captivating story of a brave Irish peasant who was accused of carrying typhoid fever and then imprisoned on an island. Tickets: 5 €

Concerts Feb 18 & 19 at 7:30 pm Judith Mok Hamsa Ensemble My Heart is in the East – The Dublin-based ensemble brings together widely different styles of music from Jewish and Islamic cultures.Tickets: 7€

tion, and Medieval Paris. Adults 12€, students (under 21) 10€ and children (under 15) 8€. 01 48 09 21 40 www.paris-walks.com

Context Tours In-depth themed walking seminars led by scholars and experts, including architects and art historians. Six people maximum per group. Prices range from 35€ per person for a Paris Orientation Walk to 200€ per person for a gastronomic tour that includes a three-course lunch. 01 72 81 36 35 www.contexttravel.com/paris/tours /complete-list

leave a donation. 8 pm – 11:00 pm. Call 01 43 27 17 67 or send an email to jim_haynes@wanadoo.fr

Buffet Time is Talktime Michael Muszlak holds buffet dinners every Saturday from 8 pm to 11 pm at his home near Notre Dame. A relaxed setting for a language exchange (1/2 time any language but French, 1/2 time only French). For more details call: 01 43 25 86 55 / 06 20 87 76 69 or e-mail: buffetime@muszlak.com

Conferences Feb 11 at 7:30 pm Nicholas Grene Synge of Paris: photographer, traveller, dramatist – Nicholas Grene, a specialist on modern Irish drama, discusses how J.M. Synge’s travels influenced his plays.

Guided Visit Feb 4 at 7 pm This visit provides a rare opportunity to see the patrimonial library of the cultural center and its illuminated manuscripts. Places limited. Reservations required.

CITY WALKING TOURS Paris Walks Tours in English are led every day by long-time resident expats. No need to reserve, just show up at the meeting point and pay in cash. Choose from a variety of themes, such as Hemingway’s Paris, the French Revolution, the Old Marais Quarter, Paris during the Occupa-

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SOCIAL EVENTS Sunday Dinner With Jim Haynes 83 rue de la Tombe Issoire 75014 Atelier A-2 Metro: Alesia Every Sunday for the last 33 years, American-born Jim Haynes has been having about 70 people to dinner at his converted artist's studio in the 14th arrondissement. Guests of all ages include artists, writers, scientists, locals, expats and travelers from all over the world. There's no charge, but guests may

Jan 17 and Feb 21 Walks in the woods: a 20 – 25 kilometer hike in the countryside around Paris. Bring a picnic lunch. For details, call the bookshop at 01 46 33 75 00 (or send an email to clubcanadaparis@wanadoo.fr).

CHURCH CONCERTS

Architecture Walks Paris-based American architect Michael Herrman has designed a series of self-led walks that explore the city’s architecture, from Gothic monuments to the emergence of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Modernism. The boxed set of 25 itineraries, entitled City Walks Architecture: Paris, is available at WH Smith for 19€ (248 rue de Rivoli 75001; tel. 01 44 77 88 99). www.michaelherrmanstudio.com

Monthly, on a Tuesday Cinéclub: meet at the bookshop around 6:30 pm for a drink, then everyone heads to a cinema in the Odeon area for the showing of the film that's been selected. Discussion of the film follows at a nearby pub. For the film title, call the bookshop at 01 46 33 75 00 (or email clubcanadaparis@wanadoo.fr).

American Cathedral Philosophy Café Café de Flore 172 boulevard Saint-Germain 75006 Metro: Saint Germain des Prés 01 45 48 55 26 On the first Wednesday of every month from 7pm to 9 pm, themed philosophical discussions in English take place at the Café de Flore. Topics are proposed by participants and chosen on the spot. Founded by an Anglophone philosopher, the “Café Philo” has been meeting on the upper floor of the cafe for almost a decade.

Films & Hikes The Abbey Bookshop 29 rue de la Parcheminerie 75005 Metro: Saint Michel, Cluny-La Sorbonne 01 46 33 16 24 The Abbey Bookshop regularly organizes hikes and movie outings that are open to everyone.

23 avenue George V 75008 Metro: George V, Alma Marceau 01 53 23 84 00 www.americancathedral.org All concerts take place at the Cathedral and, unless otherwise noted, are open to the public free of charge. Jan 1 at 4 pm Gospel Dream Tickets: 25€ and 30€ Information: 01 43 14 08 10 www.gospeldream.com Jan 7 at 12:30 pm Marquis Ensemble: Diane Winter Pyle, piano, Michelle Kim, violin, Igor Zubkovsky, cello, Jean-Francois Bescond, clarinet Jan 14 at 12:30 pm Jason Hawkins, piano Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Scriabin

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February 13 at 8 pm Michel Benhaïem, piano Lecture recital

Jan 16 & 30, Feb 13 & 27 at 8:30 pm Gospel Dream Tickets: 25€ and 30€ Information: 01 43 14 08 10 www.gospeldream.com Jan 21 at 12:30 pm Vérène Klein, soprano Thomas Malet, piano Schumann, Schubert, Mahler Jan 28 at 12:30 pm Galina Besner and Natalia Leontieva, piano Medtner, Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov Feb 4 at 12:30 pm Isabelle Durin, violin Marina Milinkovitch, piano Haendel, Mozart, Elgar Feb 11 at 12:30 pm Catherine Heugel, soprano Leonora Lopez-Cossani, piano Joachim Nin, Isaac Albeniz, Maurice Ravel Feb 18 at 12:30 pm Classical guitar recital Duo: Emilie Pelissier, Richard Niolas – South American romantic and contemporary music Feb 25 at 12:30 pm Marika Lombardi, oboe Didier Rousselle, tenor Matteo Carminati and Dora Cantella, piano Schumann

The Scots Kirk 17 rue Bayard 75008 Metro: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Champs Elysées-Clémenceau

01 40 70 09 59 www.scotskirkparis.com All concerts take place at the Church and, unless otherwise noted, are open to the public free of charge.

January 23 at 8 pm Ali Hireche, classical piano February 6 at 8 pm Arcana Quartet Schumann: String Quartet no. 1

February 27 at 8:30 pm Didier Rousselle, tenor Marika Lombardi, oboe Matteo Carminati, piano Schumann Entry: 15€ and 20€

THE LEGAL CORNER by Samuel Okoshken

Playing The Property Game Despite economic uncertainties and the weakening of the dollar and pound against the euro, the dream of owning a piece of France lives on. Who are the key players in this process? A property searcher and/or real estate agent, who will help you locate the property, is the first contact. Fees range from 1% – 2% for a property searcher to about 5% for a real estate agent. All real estate transactions must go through a notaire. This French official will draw up the necessary documents, including the initial purchase and sale agreement (promesse de vente or compromis de vente), and eventually the title deed (acte de vente), as well as searching title and performing the various required procedural steps. You, the buyer, pay all “notarial costs,” which include notarial fees (about 1% of the purchase price), transfer tax (about 5%) and sundry other costs (about 1%). Buyers should always insist on having their own notaire, despite a seller’s suggestion otherwise. Having your own notaire will not increase your cost, and will ensure you greater protection. A lawyer is also useful in a property trans-

action. He/she can advise on tax and inheritance implications of owning real estate, and can suggest structures to minimize wealth tax, income and capital gains taxes, and reduce inheritance concerns. He/she would vet the purchase and sale agreement, and suggest clauses that need to be deleted, changed or added. The lawyer works hand in hand with the notaire and acts as intermediary between the buyer and notaire. If you are looking for a mortgage, you might find one outside France, but normally you would approach a French bank. There are mortgage brokers who specialize in helping foreigners find the best deal, and who can also explain the various types of mortgage arrangements available (fixed interest, variable interest, termination clause, etc.). In such case, the purchase and sale agreement should contain a “financing back-out clause.” Caveat: Once you sign the promesse de vente or compromis de vente, the essential conditions of the deal are fixed, so have your notaire or lawyer analyze it thoroughly and explain it to you before you sign. Samuel Okoshken is a Paris-based American tax lawyer. You may contact him with legal or tax questions of general interest for publication at The.Legal.Corner@gmail.com

Opinions on legal matters are not reviewed substantively by the editors nor endorsed by them.

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR

op. 41, in A minor Bartók: String Quartet no. 4 (1928) Mozart: String Quartet K465 "Dissonance"

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POSTSCRIPT

The Last

Real Tennis Court in Paris The ancestor of today’s lawn tennis still survives in a corner of the city where it was born by Rudy Chelminski

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unique form of stylish aggression, all art and arcana, subtlety and polite stabs in the back, treacherous spins and changes of pace, from murderous forehand forces to back-spinning skidders to swoons that ex-

seen two or three meters from the ball, flailing madly in thin air. In lawn tennis, the object is simply to beat opponents, but jeu de paume offers a further advantage: you can humiliate them, too.

“Where did that ball go?” – players at the Société Sportive

pire in backhand corners where no amount of skill can dig them out. Unlike lawn tennis, jeu de paume has an infinite number of serves. There’s the boomerang, the bobble and the chandelle, the drop, the giraffe and the caterpillar, the drag, the railroad and the underarm hack and any other invention you care to try. After a felicitously executed serve, your opponent might be

The Société Sportive boasts 98 members, whose passion for the game keeps the last remaining jeu de paume in the city where tennis was born gloriously and anachronistically alive. Visitors are welcome, and you may even join the club, if you wish. The main qualification is to possess a twisted mind. Angus, the pro, will initiate you to the rules and encourage your fiendish instincts. n

After being driven out by a century of pollution in the Seine, Atlantic salmon are once again swimming through Paris

PHOTO: BRIAN WRIGHT DESIGNLAB7.COM

here’s a true sporting curiosity lurking behind the door of an otherwise ordinary building about halfway between the Etoile and Place du Trocadéro. The Société Sportive du Jeu de Paume et de Racquets at 74 ter rue Lauriston is the only extant vestige of the glory days when Paris was the world’s epicenter of tennis – real tennis, that is, not its grandchild, the grunting parvenu called lawn tennis. The French call it jeu de paume (“palm game”) because it was originally played like handball, but it evolved into a racquet game in the 14th century, and the spoonshaped wooden weapon is a real skullcracker, sending solid, hand-made balls at either terrifying speed or maddening slow motion, depending on the touch. The Brits call the game real tennis, the Aussies royal tennis and the Americans court tennis, but by any name it is a weird and wonderful thing, a combination of tennis, billiards and chess played in a vast indoor court with tiger stripes on the floor, a drooping net, slanted roofs to play off, complicated rules and a surrealistic terminology that sounds like a Monty Python sketch. The 1,800-plus jeu de paume courts that pre-revolutionary Paris boasted have now been reduced to the single facility on the rue Lauriston. The Société Sportive built it in 1908 to keep the French game alive after the Tuileries jeu de paume was converted into the eponymous art gallery that tourists visit today. The club is worth a visit, because jeu de paume offers a

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