I Prefer Paris

Carlos Cruz-Diaz Sculpture on Place de la Concorde

Another striking art installation from the FIAC/ Hors Les Murs 2019 is Environnement de Transchromie Circulaire by artist Carlos Cruz-Diaz. Located on the Tuileries side of Place de la Concorde, the circular structure from 2017 features overlapping, vertical multi-color panels made of transparent plexiglass. There’s an opening on one side of the sculpture and once I stepped in, it was a great opportunity to photograph the iconic Parisian sites through the myriad of the colored panels. 

Carlos Cruz-Diaz was born in Venezuela in1923 and died in Paris earlier this year. He was based in Paris since 1960 and his work is featured in the most prominent museums and galleries in the world including Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, Tate Modern, London, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne. 

Environnement de Transchromie Circulaire is standing until October 31. 

http://www.cruz-diez.com/

https://www.fiac.com/en/hors-les-murs/place-de-la-concorde/Carlos-Cruz-Diez/ 

LINKS EYE LIKE 

Checkout this article about the Davinci Exhibition at the Louvre in the N. Y. Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/arts/design/louvre-leonardo-exhibition.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Arts

In my latest  A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais. 

Click here to watch or link below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfIOVl7188&feature=youtu.be 

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

FIAC 2019 Hors Les Murs in the Tuileries

FIAC/ The International Contemporary Art Fair [Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain] is one of the top international fairs for contemporary and modern art and a major fall event in Paris, taking place over a four-day period in mid-October. 

Every year FIAC does an auxiliary showcase of art pieces and sculptures for public view at the Tuileries, Place Vendome, the Delacroix Museum and Place Concorde. 

The Tuileries has the largest concentration of art pieces and this year it was quite impressive. A sampling of international artists includes Alex Katz, Jenny Holzer, Cesar, Alex Calder, and Sylvie Fleury. 

My favorite piece was Nymphéas Post déluge II, 2019/ 500 umbrellas-Variable dimensions by Noel Dolla. Hundreds of umbrellas have submerged in the pond near to Place de la Concorde. When viewing the umbrellas, they are akin to Monet’s water lilies, free floating on the surface of the avocado green water. 

Below are more photos.

FIAC ended yesterday but the Hors Les Murs are up until October 31. 

https://www.fiac.com/en/hors-les-murs/

Cesar

In my latest  A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais. 

Click here to watch or link below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfIOVl7188&feature=youtu.be 

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

 

Meredith Mullins: The Fasting High

When you live in Paris—in the world of croissants, baguettes, Berthillon ice cream, wine, macarons, and fois gras (I could go on)—a cleanse every now and then is a good idea.

For this, I go to Lake Constance in Germany (also called Lake Bodensee). The Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic is a place to restore the body, as well as the mind. The fasting experience changes all perspectives, especially after Day 5 (the day of enlightenment, as some say). For me, this happens. An incredible lightness of being. And the expansive views of clouds and lake, as well as the intimate connection to nature take on a whole new meaning.

(For more info on the clinic, click here (and mention Meredith’s name if you reserve).

 Meredith Mullins is a fine art photographer, photography instructor, and writer for OIC Moments and Bonjour Paris.  Her work can be seen at www.meredithmullins.artspan.com, in her award-winning book, In A Paris Moment, or in this month’s issue of DESTIG magazine. She is available for private photography instruction/exploration in Paris and also teaches WICE photography classes. A new Creative Photography course begins November 4. For more information, contact her at meredithmullins@earthlink.net.

 

In my latest  A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais. 

Click here to watch or link below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfIOVl7188&feature=youtu.be 

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Lunch with Lynn/Under 20 Eats: Schwartz’s Hot Dogs

Growing up in a Jewish household, although we were not particularly religious, my mother still kept a kosher kitchen and every week she would go to the kosher butcher to select our meat. 

My mother didn’t cook on Sunday nights, so the big treat was going out to eat. My uncle had a famous kosher deli on Kings Highway in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Lou’s Deli. Sunday nights were busy at the deli and the front counter was bustling with demanding customers getting their meat sliced and their matzoh ball soup to go. 

We would always sit at the same table in the aggressively lit dining room. My parents did the ordering and a few minutes later, sky high piles of meat including corned beef, pastrami, tongue, brisket, and roast beef would come out. The platters would come with rye and pumpernickel bread along with a smattering of condiments and side dishes including coleslaw, potato salad, pickles, mustard, ketchup. 

As much as I liked the meats, I was really into hot dogs. Lou's Deli served Hebrew National kosher hot dogs, made with the highest quality meat. I liked mine well done, especially on the edges and topped with a big slathering of mustard. My actual favorite was hot dogs split in the middle and barbequed until they were practically burnt on the outside. 

I’ve outgrown this type of food in my adulthood, but every once in a while, I get a craving for a good, juicy hot dog. 

I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum of keeping kosher nowadays, and in fact challenging it by eating shrimp, pork, ham, and shamelessly mixing meat and milk together on decadent cheeseburgers. However, to this day I will only eat kosher hotdogs, and it’s not always easy to find one. 

Schwartz’s Deli opened about 10 years ago in the Marais, specializing in New York, Jewish style deli food, similar to Lou’s Deli. It was an instant hit and they now have a small chain of restaurants. 

I was walking on the rue des Archives a few months ago and noticed that Schwartz’s opened a hole-in-the-wall hot dog shop. I inquired about the hot dogs and to my pleasant surprise they were kosher. It was lunch time and I said why not give it a try. 

I had the formule of a hot dog topped with guacamole and coleslaw, side dish, and drink for 9.5€. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a hot dog, so when I bit into it, a rush of sweet nostalgia took over my senses; the distinct aroma of the meat, the plump juicy, texture, along with the nostril clearing mustard. My joyous food experience of my younger years came alive again in fill force. The brioche bun and the topping of caramelized onions made it even more memorable. I chose coleslaw as my side dish, and the taste was pretty close to the authentic one I used to have with the tartness of vinegar and a tad of sweetness. The only thing missing from the experience was a bottle of Dr. Brown’s cream soda. 

Other varieties of hotdogs include jalapeno, turkey, and cheddar. 

Schwartz’s Hot Dogs

15 Rue des Archives, 75004

Metro : Hotel de Ville 

http://krafthotdog.com/

Open everyday 

In my latest  A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais. 

Click here to watch or link below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfIOVl7188&feature=youtu.be 

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.

Jeff Koons Bouquet of Tulips

In November 0f 2016, New York artist Jeff Koons donated a work titled Bouquet of Tulips to the city of Paris as a remembrance of the terrorist attacks on 2015 and 2016. 

The towering sculpture measuring 41 feet in height, is fashioned from stainless steel, aluminum, and polychromed bronze, and resembles a large hand holding a bouquet of tulips. 

During the inaugural ceremony last week, Koons stated that the flowers are “a symbol that life moves forward”, adding that they “represent loss, rebirth, and the vitality of the human spirit”. 

The gift from Koons did not arrive without controversy. He was criticized for not donating the funds to install the sculpture, which came at a cost of approximately 4.3 million dollars. The gesture of the donation from Koons and its placement in Paris also came under fire. 

In January of 2018 a group of artists, museum workers, collectors and politicians, put their name to the letter declaring Koons’s gift symbolically inappropriate, undemocratic, and architecturally, patrimonially, artistically, financially, and technically “shocking.”

The sculpture was originally supposed to be placed in the plaza of the Palais de Tokyo but critics said the location wasn’t anywhere near the sites of the attacks geographically. 

Interestingly enough, Bouquet of Tulips has ended up in an obscure place behind Petite Palais in the gardens of the Champs Elysees, almost hidden and still far away from the sites of the attacks. 

In my latest  A Bite of Paris video, I've taken a break from food tasting to visit my friend Jessica at La Vaissellerie, my favorite tabletop, dish ware, and kitchen shop, located in the Marais. 

Click here to watch or link below 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfIOVl7188&feature=youtu.be 

Please remember to hit the LIKE button if you like it and SUBSCRIBE button to subscribe to my channel.

Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more.  In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tours, and Chocolate & Pastry tours.