St. Germainer
Do you know? I remember when this place was filled with writers. I used to see Sartre and de Beauvoir here all the time, you tell your partner over a Ricard at Les Deux Magots. You remember your time at the Sorbonne as a student, of your nights on Mouffetard and chanting «étudiants, travailleurs, même combat!» Who could have guessed that old printing press you started to spread information about les maux sociaux would wind up publishing the first hardcopies of L’insurrection qui vient? These days you publish cutting edge art books, but culture needn’t be sacrificed for egalité, fraternité, liberté, n’est-ce pas? You lament the direction France has taken since those heady days of ’68, but in the galleries, shops, bakeries, and cafés of St-Germain-des- Près «la lutte continue». You bises your partner goodbye, ask her to stop by Le Bon Marché on the way home and pick up some Bordeaux from any year when Chirac was still in office. You hum Gainsbourg’s Requiem pour un con to yourself and contemplate whether it’s time to move on to champagne.
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
Posted on January 4, 2017 by VINGT EditorialWords: Tiffany Tang Image: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra Situated in the Louvre’s 19th-century Rohan and Marsan wings is the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, a museum of decorative art and design that houses over 150,000 objects, showcasing collections of antiquities and modern designs from the Middle Ages to the present day. The collections encompass a vast diversity of… Read more
Micro-quartier profile: Saint-Paul/Place des Vosges
Posted on February 22, 2015 by VINGT EditorialWords: Jill Pope The Marais, which spans the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, is far from a homogenous bloc, but a collection of neighbourhoods with their own character. The eastern part of the 4th arrondissement – that is, the ‘lower’ part of the Marais, with its feet still firmly on the rive droit, before you hit the Seine and the… Read more
Micro-quartier profile: Clignancourt-Jules Joffrin
Posted on February 22, 2015 by VINGT EditorialWords: Jill Pope Image: Aurélien Michaud There’s more to the 18th arrondissement than Montmartre and Pigalle! Head north from Sacre Coeur and discover the other side of the ‘butte’ – neighbourhoods like Clignancourt Jules Joffrin, huddled around metro stations Jules Joffrin, Lamarck-Caulaincourt and Marcadet-Poissoniers. In the 15th century, this part of the 18th arrondissement (which at the time… Read more
Astier de Villatte
Posted on March 18, 2011 by VINGT EditorialText: Aran Cravey Image: Yoon Viak Studio Beyond the basic plate/bowl/cup trio of everyday tableware, I’m a mere Simpleton when it comes to the subject of ceramics. The finer points of teapots and terrines are lost on my “form-follows-function” sensibilities, but even my plebeian sophistication took a double ooh là là upon seeing the treasures… Read more
Hermès – Rive Gauche
Posted on January 8, 2011 by VINGT EditorialText: Aran Cravey Image: Jennifer Vinopal The airy, tri-level store on Rue de Sèvres in the 6th arrondissement was originally created to house the swimming pool for the Hotel Lutetia during its grand dame era of the 1930’s. In keeping with the company’s proud reverence for the elegance of the past, architect Denis Montel and… Read more
