Down the rue Michel-Ange...
... and then left on the rue Molitor...
... past the intersection with the rue Boileau...
... to take the Métro at Chardon-Lagache.
Waiting for the Métro...
... to take me to meet a friend at La Motte-Picquet, where the Métro flies above the street.
And then, off to the Théâtre du Châtelet, where Diaghilev produced his first Parisian shows of the Ballets Russes...
... to see the amazing Novosibirsk Ballet dance Balanchine!
Last night, I was delighted to go to the Opéra Bastille to see the institution's ballet company performing Jiri Kylian's extraordinary Kaguyahime, inspired by an ancient Japanese legend. My favorite ballerina, Marie-Agnès Gillot, was regal as ever (but pictured above is the equally exquisite, emotional Agnès Letestu). An ensemble of traditional Japanese musicians played live, as Eastern tradition merged with Western modernism in its most graceful and poignant expression. It was a triumph.
Last week, I attended the opening of a new show at Venice's LA Louver gallery with my dear friend Spangler. I loved the gouache paintings by Sol LeWitt, as well as the sculpture above, by Joel Shapiro. It's magical how it seems to be falling, as if in motion, and how the lights multiply its shadows, like echos of light and darkness.
This made me reflect on how different LA and Paris are. LA, all angles and modern; Paris, voluptuous and old, as reflected in this sculpture by Antoine Bourdelle, in the garden of the Paris museum that bears his name.
From the café-restaurant Le Fumoir, a view on the rue de Rivoli's graceful arches.
Chez Chloé, a dear friend from my high school days, a gorgeous poster and some trinkets.
Birds flying around the lake in the Bois de Boulogne.
I gave out many Etsy presents for Christmas, and now the items are "living" in Paris - here are two friends in the métro with a LOVE pillow I just gave them, and little Arthur (remember him?) wearing his handmade mouse hat, which I bought from ElleGanT's shop.
The shop window at Guerlain on the rue de Passy...
An ancient shoe at a traditional cobbler's on the rue de Biot... A chocolate shoe in the window of a hip confectioner's on the rue de Seine.
The top floor of the Bon Marché - designer lamps under the old department store's splendid metal structure.
One of Paris's most famous department stores, Le Printemps is decorated with spectacular holiday lights.
Trying on some hats.
To illustrate what I wish us all for 2010, I thought I'd use images from exhibitions I've enjoyed these past 2 weeks in Paris. At the Pinacothèque, where masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age have been loaned by my dear Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), we can wish for many books, both enlightening and amusing... and for music, played by that graceful mandolin... Let's also wish for pooches and pets of all kinds, curled up on our beds...
Last summer, I posted about the Fleuriste Municipal, a botanical garden at the Porte d'Auteuil in Paris. I went there again this weekend, for a walk in its greenhouses - a tropical break in an otherwise bleakly cold winter day. There I saw graceful orchids and palm trees as well as carnivorous flowers that seemed rather creepy and hungry. Koi fish swam around impassively. Outside, all kinds of naked trees haunt the grounds but one in particular caught my attention, its white bark covered in something that looked like dashes - apparently, this tree is from the Himalayas.
Travel to Paris
Travel to Uruguay
Travel to London
Travel to Amsterdam
Travel to South-Western France
Travel to Los Angeles
Travel to New York
Travel to the Cannes Film Festival 08
and Cannes 07
... photography and dance 
... lived in Kenya as a child...
...and I'm a vegetarian.
Carolyn Brown
Emily Dickinson
Audrey and her pet deer Pippin
Sylvia Plath
Indira Gandhi
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