Peggy Porschen, Chelsea in Bloom

I’ve been MIA. I went to London last Thursday c/o the Eurostar (at 7:30 am..so very short lines). 

 

London was absolutely bloomin’ 🌸 for the Queen’ Jubilee with moderate temperatures in the 80s. Especially in Chelsea, where I was staying.

 

Cafe Laperouse cups & Cats

 

Friday I went to buy more red, white and blue🇫🇷Bastille Day letter ribbons

Then Adele of @Sardineleloire added REAL Fireworks 🎇 to my letter art on Instagram!

 

Creating the Eiffel Tower cat letter

 

Imagine strawberry 🍓balloons floating around the Eiffel tower…even though Bonnie said,”Strawberries are so over” at least in VT

Boldini: Les Plaisirs et les Jours, Petit Palais

Last Friday I saw the Boldini exhibit held appropriately in the Belle Epoch museum, Petit Palais. The subtitle is from Proust’s first published book of poems, ‘Les Plaisirs et la Jours’. Proust and Boldini were contemporaries.

Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) known as the ‘master of swish’ for his explosive, energetic, electric brush strokes, was born in Ferrara and moved to Paris in 1871 where he took over John Singer Sargent’s grand studio.  

The 150 painting in the exhibit are lent from the Boldini museum in Ferrara.

Boldini and Marcel Proust moved in the same circles as aesthete and dandy, Count Robert de Montesquiou, here painted by Boldini with a haughty grandeur and vanity.

They went to the same soirees, attended the same salons. 

Many of the same glamorous, high society subjects of Boldini’s fashionable portraits

Inspired the characters in Proust’s 7 novels, In Search of Lost Times. Which is the reason I ran to see the Proust exhibit at MAHJ next day. 

And the reason I ate so many madeleines (why is there no emoji for madeleines but plenty for donuts 🍩 ?).

Boldini became the favorite and most sucessful portraitist of a rich and international clientele. 

Women dieted for months to fit into the tiny-waisted gowns lent by couturiers to Boldini for his sittings.

Among them Countess Greffulhe (Duchesse de Guermantes in Proust’s novel) and Madeleine Lemaire (Mme. Verdurin). 

Boldini’s drawings and watercolors are just as remarkable and reflect the swift, rhythmic brush strokes of his oils. 

The don’t-miss exhibit is on until 24 July. Go and immerse yourself in the 1900s. Boldini probably took a coffee ☕️  at divine Cafe de La Paix facing l’Opera Garnier. 

Solli and I went to immerse ourselves in the glam old-world style. 

Cafe de La Paix was  having their annual 1-week charity event, but we went full-Monty for the house signature china instead of paper cups + croissant 🥐

I wish I’d known about Boldini when I painted this Belle Epoch perfume letter…I might have gone more swishy… Paris is fortunately still full of very popular Belle Epoch architecture like in my Paris map on Etsy. Immersion in 1900s Paris is easy when you know where to look. Share PB with a friend and consider receiving Parisbreakfast letters in your real mailbox 💌📮 Bonne Monday❤️🍒🇫🇷

Marcel Proust, du coté de la Mère, MAHJ

  

I’ve been eating and painting madeleines for 2 days thanks to Marcel Proust, Maison Angelina, Mado Paris and Boulanger de la Tour. It feels like longer. 

I missed the  Marcel Proust exhibit at Carnavalet. I didn’t want to miss the exhibit at MAHJ (Marcel Proust, du coté de la Mère). It’s on till 28, August, 2022 in the Marais. 

The first segment focuses on Jeanne, Proust’s mamma, a woman of great culture, born into wealth and privilege and privately well-educated in all areas. Women were not allowed to attend school then. In many ways she educated her son, having him translate texts into English, traveling alone with him to Venice.

Wikipedia says: “Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel In Search of Lost Time, originally published in French in 7 volumes between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. 

The paintings in this exhibit are simply wonderful, lent from many sources. Monet was his favorite painter. There are several. 

Proust spent summers in the beach-side resorts of  Trouville-sur-mer. 

Deauville

And Cabourge, hobnobbing with other Parisian writers, musicians and artists of renown. These Normandie towns became the Balbec in ‘In Search of Lost Time’. 

The first loyal patron “At the Ritz, no one pushes you around," asserted Marcel Proust, explaining why the great Impressionist writer was so enamoured of the grand hotel. Present at the inauguration, he was invited to countless receptions and hosted many dinners of his own. 

You can too take tea at the Salon de Proust.Why not? 

The exhibit displays some of the 75 notebooks Proust scribbled his first drafts of his books into. His contemporaries thought him a snob, which he was, an effete, a charmer. No one wanted to publish his first book, Swan’s Way. It was turned down famously by Andre Gide, who had not even read it. (Later he apologized profusely and begged to publish the later books)!So Proust paid editors Grasset to publish it, just like writers are self-publishing today on Amazon. You can find the only bi-lingual version here. He won the Legion d’Honneur for the books.

I haven’t read all 7 books 📚 but I intend to start. I saw the movies, listened 2 times to the BBC dramatization and read the comic book. This doesn’t count. You’re supposed to read In Search of Lost Time at least 4 times in your life according to one expert (there are many opinions out there). 2022 is the centennial of Proust’s death. There will be another exhibit at BnF in October. Last year was the 150th anniversary of his birth. Have you read Proust?

I’ve definitely more than fulfilled my quota of Proustian madeleines. Though recently it was discovered in a first draft, the famously fluted cookie was originally a piece of toast with honey🍯. Fortunately for the cookie world, Proust changed that by the third draft👏 Thank you for reading Parisbreakfast☺️

Gift 🎁 yourself a Proustian madeleine, Paris letters 💌 & maps 🗺 in my Etsy shop. XOXO 🐻☺️❤️🍓