Tag Archives | paris

Cabinet Curiosites

ok first of all – if i had a chance to go to Paris right now i would be willing to stay in a tiny room with no windows in the basement of a youth hostel. i don’t expect luxury when i travel, and i’m not in the habit of booking into boutique hotels or expecting perks like room service or egyptian cotton sheets (is that still considered luxurious? what’s desirable when it comes to sheets these days?)

BUT! i couldn’t help but getting lost in the website of La Maison Champs-Elysées, a 5 star boutique hotel located between the Avenue Montaigne, the Champs Elysées Roundabout and the Grand Palais, and boasting suites decorated by fashion designer Martin Margiela. There are many bright white rooms typical of boutiques like this, but the one that really caught my attention was the Curiosity Case Suite

Like a carbon cube, the walls are painted black and the parquet oak floor has been stained black. In the lounge, a wall is devoted to a curiosities case that displays various objects and texts. The dominance of black in this suite creates a delightful atmosphere that manages to be hushed & voluptuous at the same time.

this room just deepens my love for dark walls & bedrooms

 seen via design tripper

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Oh, Paris!

Oh Paris, I like to see you in the rain, pretty girls in black berets, reading books in in sad cafes… - Dent May

what! did we just go back in time to nine months ago? no, i’m just reminiscing about paris … as per usual. i think i still have about 1000+ unedited photos from my trip. it’s almost too sad to look at them now.

all photos by me.

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ballerinas in paris

ballerinas during a rehearsal for swan lake at the grand opera de paris in 1930

photos by alfred eisenstaedt, courtesy of life magazine.

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rose bakery

i would have liked to pop into rose bakery when i was in paris recently, which is a popular eatery for lunch & brunch on the weekends (the concept of which is apparently a newish institution amongst parisians.) i’ve read mixed reviews about it online, but i suppose with any really popular place you’re going to have your fair share of lovers and haters.

since i can’t actually go to rose bakery, i might buy their book – the food looks rustic & scrumptious. though i have to admit i’d buy the book based on the cover alone, which is probably not a surprise.

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sonia rykiel s/s 2011

i didn’t actually realise how beautiful the sonia rykiel collection was until i saw this video on garance

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valentino s/s 11

uuuuuh. fuck yeah! pretty much the perfect collection.

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art.

as you’re not allowed to take photos in the museé d’orsay anymore, i decided to write down every painting i liked. notice some of the silly lists i scribbled… (far more difficult to do when you’re copying the titles from french, i felt like a kid learning the alphabet for the first time)

these are just a few that made me stop in my tracks….

cuno amiet – snowy landscape (1904)this is AWESOME to see in person.  i wrote in brackets “HUGE!”

winslow homer – summer night (1890) – one of my favourite paintings of all time.

auguste renoir - fernand halphen as a boy (1880) - the red practically shines from across the room.

odilon redon – eve (1904)sheesh, his paintings are beautiful. difficult to pick a favourite.

louis anquetin – henri samary (1880) – wicked. possibly a new addition as i don’t recall seeing it before.

joseph granié – marguerite moreno (1899) - luminous would be the right word here.

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these are black and white photos

i wanted to take that statue home with me. more paris here. more black and white here.

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i ate a lot of cheese

i can get by in a foreign city on very little – and paris is no exception. i’m talking food, here. give me a baguette and some cheese and i’m pretty much good to go the entire day. actually, give me bread and cheese just in general and i’m good to go – forever.

the first thing people usually say when they talk about paris is, “it’s so expensive!” maybe, if you eat out all the time and really treat yourself – sure. but if you’re on a budget i find it the same as any other city, if not cheaper. you can buy a baguette for around a euro (let’s say about 10 ZAR) and the same goes for anything you want to put on it. plus the markets are great for food shopping, obviously.

(those are giant balls of cheese, by the way)

of course there’s nothing like actually sitting at a sidewalk café in paris. just stick to drinks… and linger over them.

if you want to splash out a bit, go to montmartre and visit aux bons vins – i had the best white wine i have ever tasted there (i also said this a number of times during lunch) and the food was superb.

also, i didn’t buy any macarons (sacrilege! sacrebleu! etc!) it was my last day in paris and i had just checked my credit card balance (thanks to clothes shopping, not food) when i stumbled upon a ladureé in st germain. went in, appreciated all the goodies, watched the parisians buying giant boxes of the tiny pastel macarons, saw the prices, walked out.

see more of paris at my flickr

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paris people

i wish i could have taken photos of every single rad and interesting person i saw in paris, but i didn’t want to be that creepy girl that took photos of strangers all day long. my paris memories are already starting to fade, this saddens me.

see the rest of the paris photos at my flickr

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