Put a Camellia on it, Chanel Auction/Bonhams Saint Cyr

 

ON ETSY
I missed out on Chanel at Fashion Week in January

So Yesterday I went to gawp

La Saga des Grands Magasins, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine

 

Yesterday I ran 🏃‍♀️ to see a new exhibit, The Department Stores. 

For ‘retail therapy’ at la Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine at Trocadero, as a distraction…

Shiny, bight Things (SOS), Carette

I was saying to Vicki (my NYC neighbor for 10 years)the other day, that I always seem to be chasing after some unobtainable carrot 🥕 

Vicki said, “But really, that’s already the basis of your blog, as you seek out and report on one “bright shiny object” after another (think macarons…)

Tea with Mary Cassatt

Friday I took tea with American artist, Mary Cassatt (I wish..) at MUSEE JACQUEMART ANDRÉ.

Cassatt (1844-1926) lived in France for 60 years, was mentored by Degas and the only American painter to exhibit work with the impressionists in Paris. If you need new china the museum's gift shop has beautiful tea sets.

Or stop in the tea salon to get in the right frame of mind.

Cassatt's oil portrait of her sister, Lydia taking tea is in the show.

I wish this painting from BOSTON was there. Look at that silver tea tray! 

Under the tutelage of Degas, Cassatt began to collect and study Japanese wood block prints.

And a Japanese exhibition in 1890 deeply influenced her work.

Closely cropped-in figures fill up the picture plane.

Large flat areas of color and simple diagonal patterns are reflected in her prints.

Cassatt's muted color palette is similar to this Hokusai floral print.

Figures become flattened 2-dimensional patterned shapes merging at an angle.

Like the French impressionists Cassatt loved to paint water.

Unusual to see some of Cassatt's loose watercolors in this retrospective of 50 pieces.

I left the Jacquemart longing to paint cups and teapots.

First the thumbnail studies over and over.

Then finally tackling my new/old watercolor paper. We have to get re-acquainted again.

Mary Cassatt is in 3rd from the left, with relatives at her Chateau Beaufresne. The exhibit is on through July. Go and have tea in the salon while you're there. 

Now I have so much paper I'm having a Spring watercolor sale on Etsy of some larger, older Paris views.

Thank you for reading Parisbreakfast. If you enjoyed this post, forward to a friend. Receive a Paris letter or map in your mailbox + souvenirs at ETSY.

Cheers Carolg

Place des Vosges with David Downie

 I could not spell nor find my way in la Place des Vosges at night till I took a turn round the square with author David Downie of Paris, Paris Journey into the City of Light.
 

 'Thirty-six identical pavilions...shifting light of the Paris sky....In the square's center...children oblivious to the backdrop play in sandboxes while au pairs chat on double-sided benches.'

 'Architects and art historians will assure you that Place des Vosges offers France's best example of early 17th century urbanism. Essentiallyit's a cross between Italianate Mannerism and late-Renaissance Dutch styles, neatly combining a gracious piazza and 4 sets of row houses.'
 

 'Unlike the bustling, coldly beautiful Place Vendome or Place de la Concorde...Place des Vosges has always been animated and lived in and ultimately that is what makes it a likeable spot.'
 

 You enter the square on rue pas du Mule coming in from rue de Turenne and turn right at cafe Ma Bourgogne.
 

 And so the arcades begin.
 

 David Downie easily points out vrais/faux restoration of the bricks overhead - I would never have noticed.
 

 We pass elegant Damman Freres tea shop.
 

 Further on peering through the window of another arcade shop David points out the courtyard leading to DSK's residence.

'If you wander aimlessly along the park's grilles of an evening you can catch tantalizing glimpses of painted ceilings, of rare and valuable pictures hanging high upon a wall.'
 

 The gates are always open to posh Hotel Pavillon du Reine (formerly a garage David tells me).'Some pavilions were split long ago into cheap, rent-controlled apartments.

Others are occupied to this day by descendants of once-rich dynasties now living in genteel penury, their cluttered apartments lifted from a Zola novel...'

 Other gates in the square are shut tight but that doesn't deter David from entering and leading me inside for a quick look. 'Many imporverished heirs have sold off apartments piecemeal over the past 40 years. Properties worth peanuts a few decades ago not fetch staggering sums. Etage noble flats ar the most valuable at up to $7,000,000'.

 Many of these courtyards once had factories of specialized artisans. 'Other pavilions have been 'nationalized' and taken over...like the Victor Hugo museum (one of my fav museums in Paris)'.

 'Framing its northern end is the Pavilion du Roi, built by Henri IV for his own use and therefore considerably larger than the square's other pavilions'.
 

 'Overnight, the Marais mushroomed with townhouses, a vogue that lasted until the end of the 17th century (when the Saint-Germain and Saint-Honore neighborhoods became the rage)'.
 

 'Given its age and the number of cataclysmic social events that have occurred around it - storming the Bastille, the Glorious revolution of July 1830, the Industrial Revolution, 2 world wars and rampant real estate speculartion - it's a miracle the Place survived at all'.
 

 You can take a tour with David Downie or read Paris, Paris Journey into the City of Light full of insightful, informative indepth essays on Paris. A good choice for the dad who loves architecture and history.

 If you want to know where to get the best macarons at la Place follow me to Carette salon de the.
 

Carette

I HEART Carette Trocadero big time.

I was browsing Sweet Paris , when I saw her post on Carette I melted - remembrances of Paris tea salons past.

Lots of French people like to go to Carette.

Lots of French pols or corporate types like to go to Carette.

BEAR likes to go to Carette and what BEAR likes, Bear gets.

We ordered a salade vegitarienne.

Next time we'll skip the demi-bouteille d'eau and buy some macarons - a la prochaine.

BEAR nudges me,

"Can we puleeze visit the pastry counter?"

Perfect irresistable macarons.

Lovely paintable petit fours say take us chez toi.

You can sit in the main tea salon or the enclosed cafe area at Carette.

Or you can sit outside.

Stacks of menu books at Carette - you will never lack reading material at this salon de the.

The 6/9 Metro entrance is right there at Carette, 4 Place du Trocadero 75016

Don't forget your box of irresistable macarons...

BONJOUR CARETTE!