I dream of designing a magnificent vessel for Paris that symbolises France’s profound cultural vocation.
With these words, the famous architect, Frank Gehry, creator of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum (1997), gave his blessing to the opening in October 2014 of his masterpiece, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.
We were lucky enough to be in Paris that week and joined perhaps 10,000 others for its first open weekend.
In Paris during the Christmas/New Year season, we were thrilled to see the latest revival of this much-loved ballet at Opera Bastille. Choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev for the Vienna State Opera in 1966, his version was inspired by the original of Marius Petipa, Maître de Ballet of the Tsar’s Imperial Ballet, with music by Ludwig Minkus. ‘Don Quixote’ was first performed by the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, in December 1869.
On Sunday evening we attended the members’ free viewing of the ‘Lady and the Unicorn’ series of tapestries on loan from the Musée de Cluny in Paris to the Art Gallery of NSW. And what a visual treat it is!
If you could suddenly transport yourself to Paris in a few weeks, you would be in time to catch a most interesting fair, or Salon, Le Grand Salon d’Art Abordable (roughly translates as the Big Fair of Affordable Art), put together by the gloriously named Peacock Society.
We had been vaguely aware of a museum on la butte (hill) de Montmartre dedicated to the area, but somehow it had eluded us.
Not so long ago we came across an article announcing its re-opening after years of closure. Always keen to make new discoveries in Paris, and armed with our trusty Michelin street directory, we headed off to finally track it down.
