10 Things I Loved About Paris -- Yesterday

1. The screening room at the musée des Arts décoratifs filled with design-y chairs (I sat in the Eames lounge but was eying the Eero Aarnio Bubble Chair, like everyone else). They showed the most fabulous clips from super stylish movies from the sixties and seventies (Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?, 2001: A Space Odyssey, La Piscine, Casino Royale -- the first one!) and then, at the end, identified the design chairs that had been featured in each clip. Fun stuff.





2. And yes, I am still obsessed with all of the chairs there...



3. I also loved the exhibit, Assez Rouge Que Possible (as red as possible), which cleverly displayed red furniture and artworks of all eras together.




4. My snack at a cafe in the Palais Royal. When one must be pampered, one can't do much better than tea and gooey chocolate cake. And hey, I took a picture this time!



5. The Palais Royal itself, which, despite being a construction zone, still managed to be stunningly beautiful.




6. The Calder show at the Centre Pompidou. Which, somehow, I managed to miss when it was at the Whitney. Like most people, I have always identified Calder with his mobiles but not known much past that. But his wonderful circus, and spare yet somehow incredibly apt and cutting wire portraits, are really remarkable and I am glad that he is getting so much attention with this retrospective!

7. Also, I got a kick out of the fact that Calder's Paris studio, where he produced wire portraits of luminaries like Josephine Baker, and Kiki de Montparnasse, was on my tiny little street, two doors down from my apartment. Here's Kiki outside of the studio, with her portrait.



8. The Kandinsky exhibit was overwhelming. But stunning.

Présentation de l'exposition Kandinsky au Centre Pompidou
envoyé par centrepompidou. - Futurs lauréats du Sundance.

9. I was happy to go back to the exuberant Niki de Saint-Phalle fountain outside of the Pompidou...




10. ...And to end the day with a sunset walk along the Seine.