by eye prefer paris 

Tucked on a small street behind the Place des Victories, Lémoni Café (lémoni is Greek for lemon) serves inventive and delicious mostly vegetarian food. The cooking style is called Cretois and the premise is simple: fresh and dry vegetables cooked without butter or cream. Although the idea has been around for a while, it is fairly new to Paris restaurants.

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by eye prefer paris 

I strolled over the Ile St. Louis to the Arab Institute to see the Venise et l’Orient exhibit. I’ve been intrigued by the exotic and inviting poster that’s been on the metro and the streets of Paris in the last few months. I thought a Tuesday in January would be a good off day to go with no crowds. I was wrong - it was busy!

I charged past the huddled masses to view the exhibit in peace.

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by eye prefer paris 

Fish La Boissonnerie, a former fish shop, is now a lively, homey left bank bistro that qualifies as a first in Paris I believe: It’s the only all non-smoking restaurant.

When I walked in there was no smoke and all the staff spoke English. I immediately liked it.

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by eye prefer paris

Here's my Top 5, Eye Need To Do’s this month:
 
1. Doisneau: Paris en Liberté
Robert Doisneau’s “The Kiss at Hotel De Ville” is one of the most iconic and popular photos of Paris ever taken. A new exhibition of 280 of his black and white photos of Paris cityscapes is now on at the Hôtel De Ville.

To February 17, 2007
Hôtel de Ville, 5, rue Lobau, 75004
Open daily except Sundays, from 10am until 7pm
Free
Metro: Hotel de Ville
Note: Be prepared to stand in line for at least 30 minutes

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by eye prefer paris 

Vincent Gagliostro’s, Deleted Scenes (7) Verboten exhibit of photographs at NeC Gallery explores the predatory nature of the artist's eye, in this case, exploitive, vulnerable, and obsessively attracted to the promise of beauty.

Gagliostro, a former New Yorker now living in Paris, is an artist, filmmaker and graphic designer. On vacation in Munich in 2004, for him, the beautiful boys on the streets of Munich, became Munich, and with that, began a sort of propositioning of them with his camera. The result is a an arresting series of color and black & white photographs sensing the voyeuristic nature of the artist.

NeC Gallery started by Alain Chiglien (French) and Roger Nilsson (Swedish) in 2001, is a unique gallery that combines contemporary art and mid-century furniture, located in the chic northern part of the Marais.

Deleted Scenes (7) Verboten
Galerie NeC (Nilsson & Chiglien)
117 rue Vielle de Temple, 75003
Monday- Saturday 11AM-7: 30PM
Sunday-3PM-7PM
Through January 7th, 2007
Sunday-3PM-7PM
Tel 01 42 77 88 83
Metro: Filles du Calvaire

Watch the video that accompanies the show

by eye prefer paris 

As a Paris insider, I have an embarrassing admission to make: I’ve never been to The Panthéon. Quelle Horreur! Sunday afternoon I finally went, and the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s astounding installation was worth the wait.

The installation, inspired by a sea monster in the Book of Job, is a series of white fabric sculptures filled with tiny grains of white polystrene, where the shapes look like a combination of white tear drops, cow udders, and snow filled balloons. Words don’t do it justice and the pictures help, but it’s simply one of those things you have to experience in person. This installation jumps to the top of my Eye Need to Do List and absolutely don’t miss it.

Ernesto Neto’s Leviathan Thot at The Panthéon

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by eye prefer paris 

My first Paris play: Isabelle Huppert in “Quartett”, directed by Robert Wilson at the Odeon Theatre.

My friend Olivier generously invited me to the theater last night and what a stellar introduction it was with a performance by one of France’s greatest actresses at the most prestigious theater in Paris.

Officially titled the Odeon- Theatre of Europe, it was built in 1827 and was the first theater in France to present Shakespeare in English and introduced French audiences to Ibsen, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Stindberg. Its mission is “to foster joint work and projects by stage directors, actors, and writers for the purpose of presenting new original works and bringing life to the artistic heritage of Europe “. The theater, recently reopened after extensive renovations, is a beautiful formidable structure with creamy white columns outside, gorgeous sculptures and chandeliers in the lobby, and the theater itself a marvel of gold gilt and velvet.

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by sam baron

As a part of the Fabrica exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Fabrica Design Department created a temporary  store that will only last for five months. The store is a project exploring the process of creating a retail space using materials and local resources. 

Where is all this taking place? Artés 135, rue Saint Martin, 75003 Paris. And when? 6 October - 13 November 2006

The concept behind the store is this: Five designers had five days to make the space and 50 products to display. Each designer was involved in sharing their personal and cultural views on the retail experience. Concept, resourcing, organization, and execution was a collective effort.

Inside the store you'll find a shelving sculpture made out of metro shelving in the gallery space, a stock room of yellow customised products, a colors magazine reading room, as well as many Fabrica Features objects made specifically for the store.

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by eye prefer paris 

Walking through Galeries Lafayette today, I stumbled on Christian Dior, John Galliano, Kenzo, Christian Lacroix, Valentino, Versace couture fashions, but they were adorning big-eyed Blythe dolls.

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by the paris blog 

Bonjour Messieurs Dames!

It’s not hard to say. Sometime I say it to myself just for the heck of it. But it was so hard to get into the habit, when I first moved here, of singing it out every time I entered a bakery or a fruit shop. Chris at ParisLogue explains how crucial it is to utter the french version of “‘Sup?”:

Talk to a Parisian over dinner and in one breath he will adamantly oppose Le Pen and the anti-immigration policies of the National Front and in the second breath he will complain about the Asian and Arab immigrants failure to s’integrer into French life.

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by the paris blog 

Lazy weekend in the city? Perhaps it’s time to visit those places you hear about all the time but never manege the time to see. You know, the new museum. Or MK2. Eye Prefer Paris finds it’s not just the film selection to love here:

The MK2 Bibliotheque is cinephile’s dream come true, housed in a huge glass complex with 14 luxurious and comfortable theaters. There is also a café, a restaurant with good solid food, bookstore, DVD store with a superior collection of popular and hard to find DVDs, and a movie memorabilia store. I especially like the restaurant with its all-red modern spacious interior and hip diners.

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Break the piggy bank. Rick Owens, the Paris-based designer originally from Los Angeles, has quietly opened up a boutique at Palais Royal (130 Galerie de Valois). The space is both stark and cozy, with clothing hanging from simple metal racks, walls damaged with imperfections, and the flat carpet spotted and faded. Dark felt, one of the designer’s favorite materials, covers one wall, and pieces of chunky furniture he also designs fill out the store.

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by the paris blog 

I Prefer Paris has a peek at “Exhibition Artistes et Stars: A Collection of Photos by Paris Match” at The Musée Jacquemart-André. He writes:

The Paris Match photos were displayed in intimate, dark walled but well lit, rooms and they were small, jewel like portraits of artists, actors, dancers, writers, fashion designers, musicians, etc. It is one of those rare shows where every photo was meticulously shot and showed its subject (most who have been photographed hundreds of times before) in a unique way I had never seen before.

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by the paris blog 

Desperate times call for desperate (fashion) measures, observes Diary of an Adult Runaway:

Paris is much more prepared for the heat then they were 3 years ago when the canicule killed 15,000 nation-wide. I was here on vacation and that was hell. I see a lot more people carrying water bottles this time around, and people know to take it easy. Summer here always surprises me, though.

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