By Sylvia Sabes

If you’ve ever been to a large bookstore on a Saturday afternoon in Paris, you’ve seen teens strewn across the floor, folded up into every available nook and even perched precariously on the odd bookshelf. Whatever is going on? Comics! And if you head through the bookstore to the comics section (often the largest section in the store) you’ll see that there is someone, often an adult, taking up the floor space in front of every bookshelf. The French are serious about their comics. They consider comics to be the ninth art. Which is why you’ll find comic art in museum exhibitions. There is a really fantastic one running until November 28, at Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine. And I’d advise you to run there if you are at all interested in French art and culture.

"Archi & BD: La Ville Dessinée" is the name of the show. "Archi" because the exhibition explores architecture in comics and how the one has influenced the other. It is also a play on words. "Archi" is teenspeak for "très," as in, “Mom, you are archi-nul.” or “Gaston, your jean is archi-chic.” "BD" is the abbreviation for bande dessinée, which translates to "illustrated strips," the term for comics.

Comics as large as life.

The exhibition is impressive. The layout of the pieces, the presentation of the work, the collection itself, the explanations (in English, too) and the interactive area at the end make for a great museum experience for everyone. Grandparents and toddlers and everyone in between can find something they like. Even if you are not a comic book fan, the illustrations on display are so diverse that it would be hard not to find something worthwhile. There is a Superman cartoon (in English) for the little kids to enjoy while the older ones make their way through 350 works from 150 of the best comic book artists in the world. From the first funny-paper illustrators, such as the American Winsor McCay, to the Belgian political commentators like Hervé to the contemporary citizen of the world Joost Swarte, it's all there.

An exhibition for kids who are museumed out.

And the word is out, because there are actually lines at Cité de l’Architecture these days, which is remarkably rare. The museum has a stunning collection of architectural bits from across the globe, but when you live in the shadow of Notre Dame, it is hard to get excited about their display of Gothic structures. Which means the museum is usually empty, despite the café's stunning views of the Eiffel Tower and its private terrace, where visitors can sit and soak it all in peacefully, just inches from the tourist jumble. A tip for avoiding the lines: don’t go on a Sunday.

If you find yourself looking for something to do on a rainy day, or if it is scorching hot out and you’d like a break from shopping, this is the place to head. If your kids are simply museumed out, you can take them to "Archi & BD" and they’ll think you are archi-cool.

Editor's note: For do-it-yourself insider tours of Paris, download our Girls’ Guide Tours.

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By Cynthia Rose

In Paris the one fail-proof cure for summer heat and humidity is the July couture shows. These magical three days involve a marathon of taxis, exotic locations and elaborate settings—all cooled and fueled by an ocean of Evian. This year Karl Lagerfeld’s giant gold lion towered over us in the Grand Palais, a garden of Christian Dior dresses bloomed in a tent behind the Musée Rodin and, in the 1863 splendor of the Hôtel le Marois, one of fashion's most famous-ever houses staged a comeback. That house was WORTH, one of the most influential labels in the history or Paris.

Just like Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, its founder, Charles Frederick Worth, was born in England. But there ends the similarity for, without Worth, there might never even have been couture. After all, this was the man who, from 1858, created those traditions, which eventually defined it. (One of his sons, Gaston, also founded its governing body, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture.) Worth père was the first to sew a “house” label in each creation, the first to show separate collections intended for different seasons and the first to create experimental previews of each design in muslin. By using live models to show his work to clients, Worth even invented what we now know as the catwalk.

Now the eminent label is back, in the second collection by Giovanni Bedin. This designer, 35, trained with both Thierry Mugler and Lagerfeld. For WORTH, Bedin has shown two looks, both with tiny waists, stiff collars and hourglass shapes that evoke high Victorian femininity. Each aspect also recalls the opulent, theatrical touches favored by WORTH’s founder. Bedin says he “wanted to emphasize the essential—which, to Monsieur Worth, was always l’élégance.”

Bedin pays special homage to Worth’s mastery of detailing, with delicious lace furbelows bursting out of period silhouettes, handmade enamel buttons arrayed down feminine jackets and flirty curves derived from those ladies’ riding jackets once worn throughout the Bois de Boulogne.

WORTH had another special announcement at its show: it has “remixed” Je Reviens, the maison’s signature perfume. This scent, whose name means “I’ll be back,” was once reserved for celebrity clients. Then, in 1895, Worth died and the house was taken over by his sons Gaston and Jean-Philippe. They released Je Reviens to the public, and it soon became the ultimate Paris souvenir. During both world wars, soldiers gave bottles to their sweethearts and mothers; Je Reviens became so famous that a mass-market version continued into the 1990s.

The new “heritage version” will be uncorked on August 28. In London, it will feature at the Harrods “Perfume Diaries” exhibition (August 28–October 2); here, in Paris, it will sell in exclusive "heritage box editions." The new Je Reviens retains its celebrated bottle, a classic blue whose ridged shape dates from its very first incarnation.

Couture-wise, there’s more to come. A WORTH prêt-à-porter collection will debut in September, followed by lingerie and fine-jewelry collections. Until then, of course, we’re free to commission from Bedin’s couture; prices are rumored to start around $8,000, and Lady Gaga is already a customer.

Editor's note: Try the Girls' Guide's downloadable DIY shopping and walking tours of Paris.

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By Robin Locker

Hôtel le Canal.

New Hotels

Hôtel le Canal
Located in the 19th Arrondissement, near both the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l'Est, the Hôtel le Canal has been recently renovated. This boutique hotel was designed to be sustainable, producing its own heat and hot water, thanks to solar energy. The decor of its 36 comfortable bedrooms (2 are accessible to guests with disabilities) is inspired by cinema themes, and includes wood floors, soothing blue walls, earth-toned accents and relaxing lighting. Each guest room also comes with a desk, telephone and flat-screen television. Rooms start at 63 euros.

New Museums and Exhibitions

Suite Elle Décoration
For the third consecutive year, the former apartment of Jacques Carlu (architect of the Palais de Chaillot) will be in the hands of another great designer. This time Jean Paul Gaultier has re-created the space, which will be on view until October 2011. Gaultier's signature nautical theme of blue stripes on a white background is present throughout the apartment, and the lounge has been transformed into an indoor garden, with green vegetation gracing the walls and furnishings. Visits are limited to Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and cost 3 euros. The space can even be rented out for private events.

Paris in Love
You still have time to catch the “Paris d'Amour” photo exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville. Through July 31 about 100 photos taken at weddings and civil unions in Paris by photographer Gérard Uféras will be on display, showcasing weddings and couples celebrating in the City of Light. The exhibition is open from Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Antoine Watteau’s Engravings
The Musée du Louvre is hosting the exhibition “Antoine Watteau and the Art of Engraving”  until October 11. The show will include about 100 Watteau works, illustrating the art of engraving during the 18th century. Admission is included in the museum ticket.

Hot Shopping

Desigual Shop, the atypical Spanish brand, opened a flagship store in the 9th Arrondissement, steps from the Opéra Garnier. Clothing for men, women and kids, as well as hip accessories, are on offer at affordable prices.

A brand new vintage boutique called Goldymama has opened on rue Surmelin, in the 20th Arrondissement. Funky vintage prints, evening wear, designer items, handbags, hats and jewelry at bargain prices make this a fun place to shop. You can even shop online!

Known for luxe and unique cashmere, Lucien Pellat-Finet has opened a two-story boutique on rue St.-Honoré, in the 1st Arrondissement. The sparkling, bright white interior shows off his high-priced lines for men, women and children, as well as home furnishings.

Hot Happenings

Fête Foraine du Jardin des Tuileries
Through August 22 this annual funfair is enjoyed by children and adults, making it one of the biggest events of summer. For two months the Tuileries gardens is transformed into a carnival, with fairground rides, colored balloons, food and more. Don't miss the Ferris wheel, which offers up stunning views of Paris both day and night.

Open-Air Cinema Festival
From July 17 through August 22, locals and visitors alike will flock to the Parc de la Villette for Cinéma en Plein Air, the annual open-air cinema festival. Bring a blanket, stake out your slice of lawn and watch 1 of 36 different films projected onto the big outdoor screen. Some may even be in English. The best part is that admission is free!

New for Jet-setters

Follow the Parisians and head out of town to the French Riviera for your summer vacation. Head to St.-Tropez, where Louis Vuitton recently opened a renovated boutique on rue François Sibilli, which resembles a lavish Mediterranean villa with a beach. There you'll find stylish resort wear to don during your visit. The inner courtyard boasts fragrant orange and jasmine trees.

Hot Paris Reads

A new, alternative guidebook has made an appearance on the Paris radar. 24 Hours Paris, by Marsha Moore, groups content by time, rather than by activity. The book offers a fresh look at exploring hidden areas of the city, and it’s receiving rave reviews.

Editor's note: For Girls’ Guide handpicked hotels and tours, see our Book It page.

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By Cynthia Rose

Graffiti portrait on a fence, blvd Raspail, 2009, by Pedrô.

Paris, the capital of la vie de bohème! The city where artists love and starve together, shock the bourgeoisie, then die tragically young. These myths were set in motion in 1843 by a magazine series called “Scenes from a Bohemian Life.” They were tales from a hard-up poet named Henri Murger that revealed his own daily struggles as well as those of his friends.

Murger’s stories became a book as well as a hit play (one that later inspired Puccini’s opera La Bohème), and their popularity brought Paris a wave of would-be artists. By the mid-1800s students had flooded into the capital, each determined to become a “bohemian.” One of them, however, did more than outstrip Murger’s models—he completely redefined youthful decadence. This was Arthur Rimbaud, the subject of a trendy Marais exhibition, “Rimbaudmania: The Eternity of an Icon,” at the Galerie des Bibliothèques, in the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris.

In 1871, at the age of 17, this well-schooled Catholic boy made a beeline for Paris. He was keen to reject both family and sobriety, and his search for urban experience led to stormy affairs (most notably with the poet Paul Verlaine, who left his wife and child for Rimbaud, whom he fought with and shot at). But despite his dissolute life, Rimbaud penned sentiments that caused no less than Victor Hugo to call him “an infant Shakespeare.” Rimbaud’s volumes The Drunken Boat, A Season in Hell and Illuminations endure as cornerstones of his bad-boy philosophy: art requires a “systematic derangement of the senses.”

Rimbaud mugs by CafePress.

At the age of 20 Rimbaud renounced writing forever. He spent the rest of his days traveling to Indonesia, Cyprus, Africa and the Middle East. By 37 his restless soul was gone—consumed by exotic locations, lovers of both sexes and adventures that included arms dealing.

“Rimbaudmania” begins with a clutch of manuscripts, handwritten letters and rare photos, all that remains of the man. Yet the exhibition proves his legend is truly worldwide, one that spans pop and opera, comics and fashion, painting and adverts. You can hear Rimbaud’s poetry in a dozen tongues, then see versions told as bandes dessinées (graphic novels) and Japanese manga.

One room is devoted to Rimbaud’s influence on music and film, and it’s striking to see the role he played in 1970s punk. Protopunk musician Richard Hell took his name from the poet, while guitarist Tom Verlaine baptized himself after Rimbaud’s lover. One of Rimbaud’s greatest fans has always been Patti Smith, who began her career singing “Go, Rimbaud, go!” There are many others to hear and see: the Clash, Yves Montand, Barbara Hendricks, Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison. Leonardo DiCaprio played Rimbaud on-screen, and there is a “Season in Hell” photo series by Robert Mapplethorpe. The exhibition features visual art from many genres, including works by Cocteau, Picasso and Giacometti, as well as graffiti portraits ripped from Paris boulevards.

Among the "fetish objects" in the show is this brooch with a picture
of Rimbaud, by Jodi Bloom.

The show’s intrepid curator, Claude Jeancolas, author of 17 books on the poet, has even filled a room with “fetish objects” evoking Rimbaud. These range from key rings and pins to furniture and fashion. One contributor to the collection is Jodi Bloom, a jewelry maker, who lives in Washington, D.C. She explains, “Claude ordered a Rimbaud rosary from my website. . . . When I emailed to say thank-you and give the delivery time frame, he wrote back and said my piece would be in the show.”

Such discoveries typify the eternal rebel who is, according to Jeancolas, “omnipresent in the arts. He is everywhere and, certainly, in cyberspace—home to some of our most unexpected, poetic encounters.”

“Rimbaudmania: The Eternity of an Icon” is on view at the Galerie des Bibliothèques through August 1. From September 15 to December 15, the exhibition will be at the Musée Arthur Rimbaud, in the poet’s hometown, Charleville-Mézières (Champagne-Ardennes).

Want more?

You can watch a virtual preview of the exhibition here. To learn about the history of the French bohemian lifestyle (in English), click here.

Editor's note: To find the best hotel to suit your particular tastes and interests, click here.

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By Cynthia Rose

Design by Thierry Mugler. Photo by Guy Marineau/
Courtesy the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Just in case you can’t afford the latest haute couture (the shows run through Thursday, July 8), Paris has the perfect quick fix for any fashion fanatic. Even if you have already drooled over the YSL retrospective, you’ll find yet more vintage style at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. There, until October 10, you can view the best of European fashion from the 1970s through ’80s. "The Ideal History of Contemporary Fashion" boasts such names as Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Kenzo, Thierry Mugler and Yohji Yamamoto.

Design by Chanel. Photo by Dominique Maitre/
Courtesy the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

This show is the first installment of an ambitious “complete history” that has been curated by the expert Olivier Saillard. (Part two, covering the years 1990–2010, will open on November 25.) Saillard, head of fashion exhibitions at the Arts Décoratifs since 2002, was recently appointed director of the formidable Musée Galliera, the fashion museum of Paris. Although closed for restoration until 2011, the Musée Galliera has made cameos in films like Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada.

This exhibition gives us a taste of what the talented Saillard will do there. In it, to outline the progress of modern style, he mobilizes “key pieces from twenty years of creation,” augmented by 200 documents, films and video.

Design by Azzedine Alaïa. Photo by
Dominique Maitre/Courtesy the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs.

All of it is framed by two events in couture. The first is the 1971 premiere of Yves Saint Laurent’s “Scandal” show, an event that launched platform shoes, padded shoulders and 1940s retro. The other is “Rap-Pieuses,” or “Religious Rappers,” a collection shown by Jean Paul Gaultier in 1990. Both merged a new look with a social moment, but each pointed fashion in a different way. Saillard deliberately arranged his show with these two “bad boys” to illustrate how modern couture became so involved with celebrity.

Design by Thierry Mugler. Photo by Dominique
Maitre/Courtesy the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

The show also includes triumphs by less well-remembered names like Madame Grès, Azzedine Alaïa, Dorothée Bis and Claude Montana. Special treats include early Issey Miyake, as well as archive pieces by Comme de Garçons and Ter et Bantine (a label run by Chantal Thomass between 1967 and 1975).

Above all, the exhibition puts current couture in context. Today, for instance, “Kaiser Karl” Lagerfeld seems to be everywhere. (Recently he “re-designed” an issue of the French newspaper Libération, drawing even the ads.) This show helps you see how he emerged and changed, from his early designs at Chloé to his first work at Chanel. The same is true of Christian Lacroix. He’s shown both as the designer behind the Jean Patou label, then, under his own name, as the king of late-’80s luxury.

Design by Jean Paul Gaultier. Photo by
Dominique Maitre/Courtesy the Musée des
Arts Décoratifs.

In 2009, before he mounted this show, Saillard published his research as a luscious book that is still available. You may not want to lug home Histoire idéale de la mode contemporaine, but this, the perfect souvenir, is easily ordered online from Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr or FNAC.

"The Ideal History of Contemporary Fashion" is at the Arts Décoratifs through October 10. There are a wide range of activities and guided visits related to the exhibition, and the museum has even created electronic postcards for you to send.

Editor's note: Try the Girls' Guide's handpicked fabulous French fashion tours.

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By Amy Barnard

An André Kertész retrospective will be on view this fall at the Jeu de Paume.

Here are a few current and upcoming exhibitions in Paris that I’m getting excited about, ranging from painting to photography to music. I hope that you’ll all feel inspired, too! The first two are closing soon, so get hopping.

Edvard Munch
Pinacothèque
Through August 8
Think of Edvard Munch, and his famous Scream is likely the first image that pops up, overshadowing much of his other work. This exhibition focuses on Munch’s early blurring of the lines between mediums and processes, and on his importance to modernism.

“Les Promesses du Passé”
Pompidou Center
Through July 19
This exhibition examines the former European divide as well as our understanding of art history. It spotlights some 50 artists from the former Eastern Europe, looking at their influence on a new generation of international artists. 

Russia and Romanticism
Musée de la Vie Romantique 
September 28, 2010–January 16, 2011
Part of the Russia-France project, this exhibition will document paintings, sculptures and objets d’art produced during the Romantic movement in 18th-century Russia.

André Kertész
Jeu de Paume
September 28, 2010–Feb 6, 2011
This will be the first European retrospective dedicated to the lengthy career of photographer André Kertész, whose images appear strikingly modern. The exhibition will present how Kertész developed “a true photographic language,” while exploring his most persistent themes of distortion and loneliness.

Music under Lenin and Stalin
Cité de la Musique
October 12, 2010–January 16, 2011
The topics of artistic freedom and the place of the artist in society are at the core of this exhibition, which looks at the role artists played during the Communist period of Lenin and Stalin. It questions whether artistic expression can coexist with political aggression.

Editor's note: For hotels and tours handpicked by the Girls' Guide, consult our Book-It page.

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By Cynthia Rose

Musée de la Monnaie.

On Saturday, May 15, Parisians will celebrate the sixth European Night of Museums, during which cultural sites are open for free until midnight. This EU-wide festival offers dazzling choices: wander the Louvre as darkness falls, explore unusual places (such as the Museum of Relief Maps) or try peeking into usually hidden gardens. The funkier museums offer shorter waits and enticing programs, but seeing a blockbuster show at twilight can also be amazing. All info is on the Nuit des Musées website. Search it by location or interest, but remember: you won't be alone.

On this occasion, there's really something for everyone. If you have impaired sight, there's a tactile fashion show by fashion students at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Serious about swords and sorcery? You can see how medieval sculptors worked at the Museum of the Middle Ages. A few more details and suggestions follow.

For Fashionistas

Enjoy free admission to the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective (with activities for kids and teens, plus a screening of Visconti's The Leopard) at the Musée du Petit Palais. Or see "An Ideal History of Contemporary Fashion, 1970–1980," at the Musée des Arts de la Mode et du Textile (Guided visits: 6 p.m.–midnight).

For Garden Lovers

Head to Musée Rodin, Musée Bourdelle, or the Centre Culturel Suisse and Institut Suédois. The last two boast one of Paris's most beautiful gardens. Their expos (including a homage to design star Sigvard Bernadotte) will be open until 10 p.m.

From 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., the Institut will also host performance art by Infr’action Paris. You can even make a weekend of it by meeting Infr’action Paris once again at 11:00 a.m. Sunday at the Marché d'Aligre—one of the liveliest of the city's morning markets.

Musée Rodin.

For All Lovers of Paris

Musée Carnavalet
View the collection and enjoy music in the garden. But most of all see talk-of-the-town expo "Impossible Photography: Paris Prisons, 1851–2010." Whether your reference is French film noir, last year's Oscar-nominated movie Un Prophète or Vincent Cassel as Jacques Mesrine, it's a must. Only one of the prisons pictured, La Santé, remains. Plus, you'll see rarities from Charles Marville and criminologist Alphonse Bertillon. From 7 p.m. to midnight. Music: 7:30–8:00.

Museum of the Middle Ages
Free tours of the current expo "Paris, Radiant City," plus stonemason Benedict Bocciarelli's medieval carving techniques in the museum courtyard. Special opening of the museum gardens, with landscaping by contemporary masters Eric and Arnaud Ossart Maurières. 7:30–11:45 p.m.

Musée de l’Orangerie
Monet's Water Lilies, plus video art concerning water and the body (including Bill Viola's Angel's Gate), and, beginning at 8:30 p.m., a concert created for the space by Louis Dandrel.

Maison de Victor Hugo
Hugo's former home, decorated to evoke the author's fascination with the Orient (6:00–11:00 p.m.). From 8:00 to 9:15 p.m., Public Clamor will perform poetry in French and sign language. At 9:30 p.m., a half-hour for families: "The Art of Being a Grandfather."

For Something Totally Different

Visit the Musée de l'Armée for a full program of guided visits, animations, concerts and talks (last year they attracted more visitors than the Musée d'Orsay and Musée du Quai Branly combined).

Or try the Musée de l’Assistance Publique, Hôpitaux de Paris to see the exhibition "Humanizing the Hospital," with dance and choral presentations (7:30 p.m.–midnight). And from 9:30 to 11:00 you can sample a "healthy broth" devised in the 19th century by Paris hospitals.

INFO

Marché d’Aligre
Place d’Aligre, bet. ave Daumesnil and rue du Faubourg St. Antoine, in the 12th.
Mon and Sat, 8–3:30 and 5:30–8:30 p.m.

Editor’s note: After so much culture, you'll be ready for something else. Try some of our picks for interesting tours—a cooking class, shopping tour or wine tasting, perhaps?

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By Cynthia Rose

Lucian Freud, Leigh under the Skylight,
1994. Oil on canvas. © Lucian Freud
Photo © DR

In Paris the artist’s studio holds eternal fascination. Onetime workplaces turned into museums fill the city, and every week lifestyle magazines offer us peeks into new ateliers. Thus it’s no surprise that the Pompidou's current show by Lucian Freud—at 88, considered by many the world’s greatest living artist—has been organized around its subject’s studio.

Many blockbuster exhibitions have celebrated this artist’s classic yet controversial portraits. But by focusing on the intimate world in which Freud makes them, "Lucian Freud: L'Atelier," curated by Cécile Debray, helps us understand how he sees. Her decision also refreshes the fundamental story of how an artist captures what it means to be human. The show, which is on view through July 19, assumes this English eccentric belongs to Europe—and that he is equal to names such as Matisse, Velázquez, Ingres or Titian. All are masters at facing a sitter in the studio.

David Dawson, Naked Admirer, 2004. Photograph.
© David Dawson, courtesy Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, Londres

Staged with great panache, the show is irresistible and has had Parisians queuing right along with the tourists. Some of their interest, however, is in Freud’s notoriety. The grandson of Sigmund Freud, this artist has created some of the most extreme, defiant nudes in the history of art. He is also a well-known Lothario who has fathered a number of illegitimate children.

Many of these progeny are prominent in English society, but their father always enjoyed his own social connections. These have allowed him to paint Britain’s Queen Elizabeth (not, however, in the nude), as well as celebrity artists from Christian Bérard to Francis Bacon—and models including Kate Moss and Jerry Hall. The exhibition’s final room is filled with giant portraits, many of fringe personalities such as Divine and Leigh Bowery.

David Dawson, Working at Night, 2005. Photograph.
© David Dawson, courtesy Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, Londres

Here one also finds Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, a painting that sent shock waves through the art world. It depicts plus-size Londoner Sue Tilley at rest on a couch, her ample flesh almost like an overwhelming force of nature. Tilley—a fixture of London’s nightclub scene in the early 1990s—is well known in Paris. (For a 2006 project at the Grand Palais, photographer Jacques Bosser created stunning, Kabuki-like portraits of her.) Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is also famous for setting a record for a work by a living artist; it fetched $33.6 million at auction in New York in 2008.

David Dawson, Painter’s Garden with Eli, 2006. Photograph.
© David Dawson, courtesy Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, Londres

His fame and the hefty value of his works aside, Freud’s life has always been centered in his studio. The first work in the show, The Painter’s Room, may explain why. This 1944 piece depicts a theatrical workspace, occupied only by a couch, a plant, a drape and an old top hat. A zebra pokes its head unexpectedly through the window. The absent artist seems to be saying, “In this place, anything is possible.”

The paintings that follow challenge us to see people just as Freud does: carnal, complicated and anything but pretty. Yet the Pompidou’s wonderful lighting reveals the energy of his furious strokes and elaborate textures. At first glance, many of the bodies seem slightly grotesque—until Freud fills our eyes with just how alive they are. His portrait of Tilley sleeping already moved one critic to call it the equal of Manet’s Olympia. Since this Manet hangs in the Musée d’Orsay, why not visit both and see if you agree?

Lucian Freud, Reflection with Two Children (Self-Portrait), 1965. Oil on canvas.
Photo © José Loren, Museo Thyssen-Bornemiska, Madrid
© Lucian Freud 

Tip Sheet: Famous Parisian Ateliers to Visit

Le Bateau-Lavoir
As studio-home to Picasso and others, this former piano factory (its name means “the laundry barge”) saw the birth of Cubism—Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was painted here. The facade, on Place Emile-Goudeau, remains as it was; the rest of the building had to be reconstructed after a fire. It is a national landmark.

Musée Bourdelle
A museum, with wonderful gardens, created around the 1885 atelier of sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, who grew from Rodin’s apprentice into Giacometti’s teacher.

Musée National Eugène Delacroix
The studios, with garden, where the painter lived and worked from 1857 to 1863.

La Ruche
Nicknamed “the beehive,” this unique building was originally Gustave Eiffel’s wine pavilion for the 1900 Exposition. Rebuilt by Albert Boucher, La Ruche housed artists such as Chagall, Modigliani and Diego Rivera. With help from the likes of Sartre and Alexander Calder, it was restored for artists’ use in the 1970s.

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By Cynthia Rose

Anonymous, Obsession No. 1, ca. 1870. Photocollage, Musée d'Orsay.
© RMN (Musée d'Orsay)/Hervé Lewandowski.

“When artists turn their talent to crime . . . ” is one slogan advertising the Musée d’Orsay’s blockbuster show "Crime et Châtiment" (Crime and Punishment), on view through June 27. It’s a large exhibition (450 pieces) and a provocative one, but also fascinating. With a range of painters, from those we think of as academic—like Théodore Géricault and Edgar Degas—to Expressionists such as Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele, it reveals a fixation on crime equaling that of modern TV news. In addition to famous artists, you’ll meet famous criminals. Films have featured some of them, such as Violette Nozière (Isabelle Huppert plays the teenage poisoner) and Les Enfants du Paradis, which portrays poet-murderer Pierre-François Lacenaire—the inspiration behind Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

At the show’s center sits the ultimate femme fatale, an actual guillotine from 1872. Fourteen feet tall, slim and draped in a steel-gray veil, the Revolution’s notorious louisette appears strangely feminine. She is accompanied by a quote from Victor Hugo (“One can have a certain indifference to the death penalty as long as one has not seen a guillotine with one’s own eyes”). One of Andy Warhol’s famed “Electric Chair” prints also hangs nearby, a reminder that the fight against capital punishment has not been won everywhere.

Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry, Charlotte Corday, 13 juillet 1793 assassinat
de Marat, 1860. Oil on canvas. Nantes, musée des Beaux-Arts.
© RMN/Gérard Blot.

France abolished the death penalty in 1981, after a fight led by then–justice minister Robert Badinter. As a lawyer, M. Badinter witnessed his own client guillotined, a trauma that turned him into a fierce foe of capital punishment. As an adviser to the exhibition, he insisted on the guillotine: “It was impossible not to have her here. Because, at last, she is reduced to an object of curiosity, she is just another antique in a museum.”

Criminals started to feature in French art during the Revolution, when the revolutionary assembly opened trials to the public. Suddenly an artist could attend any hearing and watch the accused as the crime was being described. This experience, along with a growing tabloid press, helped transform many criminals into celebrities.

Jean-Joseph Weerts, Marat assassiné! 13 juillet 1793, 8h du soir, 1880. Oil on canvas.
Roubaix, La piscine, musée d'art et d'industrie © Photographie Arnaud Loubry.

One of the first was Charlotte Corday, the 24-year-old assassin of Jean-Paul Marat. Her 1793 story has plenty of drama—while the radical revolutionary Marat was one of the most famous men in Paris, Corday was a pretty unknown. She traveled from the country specifically to commit the murder, buying a knife in Paris, then hiding it in her corset. After convincing Marat’s dubious wife to let her see him, Corday plunged her stiletto into his chest. Her sex, youth and daring gave artists a perfect subject—but the exposition shows their different views of her character. Jacques-Louis David’s classic memorial carefully ignores her presence. But, in others, Corday is the central character. Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry shows her as driven yet fragile (above, middle), Jean-Joseph Weerts as overwhelmed by what she has done (above, bottom). To Munch, she is a villainess, the ultimate faithless female.

The show covers many themes, including Romantic petty criminals, Surrealist murder and 19th-century crime scene photos. You may not want to linger over everything. But look out for Victor Hugo’s moving drawings, Cézanne’s famous Murder and Van Gogh’s stunning Prisoner’s Patrol. In each of these, the artist’s own dread adds to a scary scenario—and, voyeuristic or not, each is wonderful art.

"Crime and Punishment" is on view at the Musée d’Orsay through June 27. The museum is offering a large selection of talks, events, movies and concerts connected with the exhibition. One is a five-part crime novel for 15- to 25-year-olds, written for mobile phones by Malika Ferdjoukh. Download it from SmartNovel.

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By Doni Belau

Discussed today on Martha Stewart’s Morning Living radio show.

La Mosquée de Paris.

1. Try a hammam. Hammams are Turkish spas, and they are very popular in Paris. For a true multicultural experience, visit the historic Mosquée de Paris, open on certain days for women only (for details, see the complete Girls’ Guide listing). After your steam and scrub, enjoy mint tea and couscous in a gorgeous authentic mosque from the 1920s. For a more modern experience with great massages, I like Les Bains du Marais.

A little painting on the wall of Hotel Chateaubriand’s room No. 2.

2. Stay at a secret hotel. On a recent trip to Paris I found several amazing hotels through Exclusive Hotels, a service I’d recommend to any discerning traveler. Hotel Chateaubriand is a secret hideaway in the 8th Arrondissement, just steps from the Champs-Élysées. Tastefully decorated with antiques and luxurious fabrics, this hotel bears the unique stamp of its doting owner, Romain Rio. In each room you’ll find a tiny painting of a Louis XIV scene, tucked away discreetly somewhere on the silk-covered walls. Absolutely adorable! Other hotels I loved were Hotel Gabriel, the well-known Pershing Hall and Hotel Keppler. For more, visit Exclusive Hotels.

3. Indulge at the Dior spa. Experience the truly spectacular Dior Spa at the Plaza Athénée, with its Greco-Roman feel, über-cool lounge and larger-than-life screen playing Dior’s greatest fashion shows. Try the double massage room for a mother-daughter or couples massage.

Duck confit at Le Cantine de Quentin.

4. Make Paris your foodie heaven. Paris is experiencing a revolution in its restaurant sector. The city’s best chefs are tossing off their Michelin stars to serve what they want in restaurants that are much more casual, more affordable and less fussy. Some of our favorites:

Le Chateaubriand serves just one set menu (with adjustments for allergies and veggies) and delivers some of the most interesting food in the capital. Plus, the waiters are terribly cute!

Le Passage is Alain Senderens’ second restaurant and bar, though it remains a bit of a secret—you have to ring a buzzer to get in. On a recent visit, the decor was modern (gold and silver) and the atmosphere relaxed. The food at Le Passage is divine, and much more moderately priced than at sibling resto Senderens. The lobster ravioli here is a masterpiece.

Le Cantine de Quentin is a casual wine bar, wine shop and eatery in the 10th, near the très kool Canal St. Martin area. This place serves a reasonably priced lunch—and only lunch. Come for the classic duck confit and the charming artsy atmosphere. It’s the perfect stop after a morning spent shopping at the stores and art-book shops in the ’hood.

5. Shop, shop, shop. Shopping in Paris is a delight for the senses. There are many areas to hit, but my favorite is the Marais. In the upper Marais you can find one-of-a-kind designer shops too numerous to mention here. But you can explore them all on our Walk and Shop the Marais and Bastille downloadable tour, which is chock-full of more than 60 stores, shops and ateliers. I am a big fan of the concept store Merci, where you can spend nearly the entire day. Other stores I frequent include Zadig et Voltaire, Paul and Joe, Isabel Marant, Autour du Monde and Le Bon Marché (of course!). For contact info for all, check out the roundup we did for our friends at Bonjour Paris.

6. Hit the sales. If you prefer to be smart and shop the incredible sales that occur each year in January (for fall/winter merchandise) and June–July (spring/summer), join us on our next Shop, Spa and Savor tour, this summer from June 26 to July 2.

Vespa tour with Left Bank Scooters.

7. Take an unusual tour. If the idea of a traditional tour guide and tour bus makes you sick, then try these one-of-a-kind outings. City Segway Tours is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for all ages, and a great way to see the main sights for first timers and veterans alike. After you learn how to use the Segway, you’ll ride around feeling quite young again, cruising at about 15 mph. You’ll see all the sights of central Paris, from the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre. You won’t want to give the thing back—I promise! If speed is more your style, I recommend the Vespa tour. Riding up the Champs-Élysées and around the Arc de Triomphe on a Vespa is NOT an everyday experience. Matt at Left Bank Scooters can teach anyone to ride these babies, and it’s a wonderful way to experience the city in true Parisian style. He also leads a trip out to Versailles!

Hôtel Recamier.

8. Stay on Place St. Sulpice. A very special new hotel (opened last year) that no one has written about in the US is the Hôtel Recamier, overlooking the famous St. Sulpice church. Decorated in a very posh style, this hideaway is the ideal spot for a romantic getaway or a girls’ trip. The place is run by veteran hotelier Sylvie de Lattre, who also owns the very successful Hôtel Thérèse and Hôtel Verneuil. I simply adore the busts of Madame Recamier on each floor, which pay homage to different artists—Christo being my favorite.

© Alexandre Guirkinger. Yves Saint Laurent's "Trapeze" dress,
from the spring 1958 Dior collection.

9. Visit the big museum shows. There are always blockbuster art shows going on in Paris, but this spring the city is teeming with beauty everywhere you look. Do not miss the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective at the Petit Palais, which presents Monsieur Laurent as truly the last great couturier. Also check out Lucian Freud at the Centre Pompidou and Edvard Munch at the Pinacothèque de Paris.

Chocolate eggs from Patrick Roger.

10. Be decadent! Buy shoes and chocolate. If all else fails, buy shoes and chocolate. Stroll down the best shoe-shopping street in the world, rue de Grenelle and buy something sexy for yourself, then pop over to Patrick Roger, the king of chocolatiers, on rue St.-Germain. Treat yourself and others to gifts wrapped up in his signature turquoise boxes. The Easter treats are nothing short of amazing, including a very real-looking fried egg made of chocolate—a humorous twist on the traditional. Oh la la!

Happy Travels!

By Cynthia Rose

Hermès. Photo: Steve Sampson.

In Paris, luxury fashion has always leaned on the arts. But this partnership was really forged after World War I, at the moment style changed because of jazz, fast cars and flapper fashions. Then it was Coco Chanel who truly seized the impulse for change. Amid the art boom, she started actively bankrolling artists—a gamble that helped her business gain a global profile.

Having used "functional" fabrics to create a revolution, “Mademoiselle” emerged from the war rich indeed. By 1920, she was supporting not just individuals (such as Jean Cocteau), but also funding ballet, concerts and theatre. If stage sets were by Picasso, Chanel would do the costumes, another strategy that kept her name on everyone’s lips.

Gaultier. Courtesy Fondation Cartier.

These days, through everything from the Internet to gallery spaces, French luxury brands are reviving her approach. The first modern Chanel was actually Agnès Troublé, better known as Agnès B. Troublé has been backing filmmakers since the 1980s (the bunnies in her Christmas windows were put there by Jonas Mekas). Since the mid-1990s, she has also run Galerie du Jour Agnès B. Currently the space is showing “Bonjour Monsieur Boltanski!”—a lively homage to the star of this year’s Monumenta that features 11 artists who work in different mediums.

The newly relaunched website Nowness takes Troublé’s formula literally: it offers an art creation du jour—every day—online. Formerly the “e-luxury” site for Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Nowness is the latest of the many ways LVMH links its products to art. Atop their Champs-Élysées store, for example, you can visit l’Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton. There’s both a great view and a fabulous expo on Chile. When you go, however, don’t miss the elevator; it’s a “spatial installation” by art star Olafur Eliasson.

From "Animal," on view at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs through November 30, 2011.
Photo: Jean Tholance, Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Rival house Hermès has its own art body, the epically wealthy Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès. It sponsors everything from artists, shows and renovations to research, talks and theatre. The Fondation is behind the massive new presentation Animal at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs—featuring more than 400 objects in a totally redesigned gallery, all exploring how artists have used animal imagery to create fashion, jewelry, textiles and toys.

Luxury jewelers Cartier are veteran art sponsors. In 1984 they opened the stunning Fondation Cartier to present artists from around the world. Offered a retrospective there in 2004, Jean Paul Gaultier instead gave them Pain Couture—a French costume fantasy created entirely with bread. This spring Cartier is showing "Gosse de Peintre" (Kid Painter), which features videos, paintings and toys by art celeb Takeshi Kitano. This expo also includes specially made Venetian vases—the kind of classy touch big brands can offer.

Fondation Cartier. Photo: Steve Sampson.

When a fancy label connects you with cutting-edge art, it seems both more modern and more accessible. It also reminds you that, as Chanel always insisted, “Fashion is in the sky and in the street . . . Fashion has to do with the way we live and what is happening.”

INFO

Bonjour Monsieur Boltanski! at Galerie du Jour Agnès B through April 3.

Chile behind the Scenes, at l’Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton through May 9.

Gosse de Peintre/Kid Painter, at Fondation Cartier through September 12.

Animal, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs through November 30, 2011.

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By Cynthia Rose

© Alexandre Guirkinger. Saint Laurent's "Trapeze" dress, from
the spring 1958 Dior collection. The year before, at age 21, Saint
Laurent took over the couture house after Dior's death.

There has been no other fashion talent like Yves Saint Laurent—yet, although he died only two years ago, most young people equate his name with a label on lipsticks and sunglasses. When “YSL” retired from fashion in 2002, however, he boldly stated, “I am the last couturier.” His epic new retrospective at the Petit Palais makes a pretty convincing case that he was correct.

On one level, it is a joyful, theatrical homage that includes audio, video, sketches and photographs. It starts you off chez Dior in 1958, just as Saint Laurent debuts his famous "Trapeze" dress—a bouffant cocktail confection shimmering in red, ivory and black. Concept after concept follows: his signature "Le Smoking" (the “woman’s tuxedo”); Saharan safari suits; sailor-suit chic; collections inspired by paintings, by the Ballets Russes, by India, by Russia, by opera.

© Pierre Boulat. Saint Laurent working in his studio.

All are displayed to highlight their immortality. Gender-bending pantsuits alight on formal gilt chairs; those sleek frocks inspired by Mondrian and Braque become art themselves, posed against the backdrop of gallery-like white walls. As you peek into muse Catherine Deneuve’s closet or gawk at Saint Laurent’s reassembled office, it seems undeniable that this is fashion history writ in capital letters.

© Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent.
The first tuxedo for women ("Le Smoking"),
designed by Saint Laurent in autumn 1966.

The spark that lit the eternal flame ignited in 1971, the year Saint Laurent was photographed nude (for a perfume ad) and the year of his famous Scandale collection. With tarty models in turbans, platform shoes and loud, short furs, it evoked both streetwalkers from the Bois de Boulogne and collaboration horizontale, or sexual relations with Nazi soldiers, during the Occupation. There was a hugely hostile reaction (comments and reviews appear blown up on the wall behind). Yet the collection proved Saint Laurent could take fashion wherever he wanted. He was unashamedly gay, the show was unabashedly camp and its retro impulse made fashion admit things had changed. Chanel had just died—after naming Yves her “heir”—and new names were transforming the arts. Picasso, Dalí and Cocteau were still alive, but the arts were now fixated on Warhol, David Hockney and Visconti.

© Alexandre Guirkinger. From the spring 1971 Saint Laurent collection,
which became known the Scandale collection.

YSL seized that moment to resculpt style, creating his legendary Saint Laurent shoulder. Coco Chanel had lifted and tightened the armhole of jerseys and jackets to create a long, clean line—but Saint Laurent went dramatically wider and sharper. As his life and business partner, Pierre Bergé, puts it, “Yves gave women power by slipping menswear onto their shoulders.”

From Proustian nostalgia to the vibrancy of his native North Africa, Saint Laurent burned through, and then returned to, inspirations. All are here, including a staircase crowded with wonderful bourgeois ball gowns. But everything is framed to support a central thesis—that YSL was more than a genius; he was in fact the total embodiment of haute couture. He was that supreme artist for whom all others had paved the way.

© Alexandre Guirkinger. A homage to painter Piet Mondrian
from the autumn 1965 Yves Saint Laurent collection.

One can certainly argue with this thesis (orchestrated, like YSL’s entire career, by the ever-resourceful Bergé). Nevertheless, Saint Laurent’s deep links with the Parisian soul support it. For Parisians, taste and discernment are fundamental to life itself. Even at his most daring, YSL paid homage to that—and the man one meets here is the perfect, the consummate Parisian.

The retrospective at the Petit Palais runs through August 29; booking ahead is essential (booking is also possible through FNAC).

Want more YSL?

In March 2004, the Saint Laurent maison reopened as the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent, which houses 5,000 pieces, 15,000 accessories and 150,000 sketches by YSL and hosts public exhibitions. Until May 9, the Fondation is showing The Last Maharajas: splendid costumes from the courts of India in the last days of the Raj.

The film Yves Saint Laurent–Pierre Bergé, l’Amour Fou, by Pierre Thoretton, opens September 29 in Parisian cinemas.

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By Amy Barnard

It’s not only the weather in Paris that’s taken cues from Eastern Europe at the moment—dance circles are abuzz over the centenary of legendary Russian choreographer and dancer Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet). The company debuted in Paris in 1910 amid a frenzy of press. Later ballets such as 1917's Scheherazade made him and costar Vaslav Nijinsky celebrities. The performances were so inventive for their time, and so different from French ballet; they captured the public’s imagination with timeless and spicy tales of love, jealousy, betrayal and general skulduggery.

Several Parisian institutions are paying homage this season. Now, I’m mad about dance but generally not a ballet fan. Dying swans bore me and I find myself wishing they’d hurry up and get on with it. I make an exception for the Ballets Russes, however, since they’re so vibrant and engaging.

The Opéra Garnier is holding an exhibition devoted to the Ballets Russes, including models of sets and costumes, through May 23. I thought I'd focus on this one, since there's a certain cachet to seeing the objects under the roof of the house where many of the ballets were performed. The exhibition is heavy on illustrations, and with good reason—there are costume designs by Matisse and Picasso! It’s interesting to see the shift in style displayed in the collection, from the first performances in the early 1900s through the late 1920s, from Art Nouveau to the beginnings of Cubism, which the company helped promote.

Look out for a telegram discussing artistic changes to be made to a performance, as well as Stravinsky’s notebook, with rough drafts of various scores for the ballets. Also notable are the photos of Nijinsky, for the way he has been captured inhabiting the roles of the faun and Krishna.

And, of course, there are the original costumes for Scheherazade, designed by Leon Bakst, the ones that almost single-handedly sparked the craze for orientalism in fashion and interior design—a trend that continued through the 1920s and inspired the designer Paul Poiret and many others. To see these costumes is to encounter an important piece of fashion history.

As with many museum shows in Paris, there’s no English information, but the individual tags contain the important names and dates, which are very hard to lose in translation.

Bonus: the Centre National de la Danse is also hosting an exhibition and a program of events devoted to the Ballets Russes, through April 10.

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By Sylvia Sabes

Photo by Marc Montméat, Paris Photo Jeune Talent SFR 2009.

It is below zero on a Wednesday morning, and the line at the Grand Palais is an hour long for ticket holders. Those without tickets will be standing in the cold even longer. And yet they stand: university students with a morning off, retirees, mothers who work only four days a week, lovers cashing in an RTT (floating days off), all of them locals and all of them waiting patiently in line to view art. Who is the artist and what was the incredible show that drew so many? I can't recall, and it really doesn't matter, because this is pretty much the scene every time I've attended a show here. From Klimt to Picasso, from Warhol to Rodin, the French love their art—which means there are great shows to attend throughout the year.

Current (and upcoming) shows include Yves Saint Laurent at the Petit Palais, Lucian Freud at the Centre Pompidou, Turner at the Grand Palais, Basquiat at the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Doisneau at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and photos of Versailles from 1850 to 2010 at the château itself.

If all this information seems rather rushed to you, you're right. That's because, in addition to these temporary events, there are several annual events that are worth the trip in their own right.

A sculpture at FIAC last fall.

Parcours des Mondes
Usually first week of September
This is one of the most important tribal arts shows in the world. Galleries specializing in tribal arts from across the globe borrow space from the St.-Germain-des-Prés galleries to exhibit pre-Columbian artifacts, Egyptian treasures and African sculptures. Much of the work is museum quality, and the people-watching is almost as fantastic as the art itself.

Biennale de Paris
Last weekend of September
Founded by André Malraux, this art and jewelry show attracts dealers from across the globe, with pieces hailing from ancient Rome and Persia, all the way up through contemporary art. The presence of some of the greatest jewelry houses in the world—Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, Cartier—ensures some serious eye candy, and the participants spare no expense in decorating the jewel-box venue of the Grand Palais.

FIAC
October 21 to 24
This contemporary art show is so huge that it requires two venues: the inner courtyard of the Louvre and the Grand Palais. And if that's not enough for you, the local galleries put on their star collections, hoping to attract the roving eyes of the hordes of international art collectors who head into town the week after visiting Frieze, the London contemporary art fair.

Even the public restrooms go arty for Paris Photo. A display of toilet paper in one restroom.

Paris Photo 
November 18 to 21
This year Central Europe is the guest of honor at Paris's annual photography show, held at the Carrousel du Louvre; Paris Photo features works from artists such as Man Ray and Henri Cartier-Bresson alongside images from Africa, Asia and the Americas. The star of last year's show was Marc Montméat, the winner of the phone company SFR's Young Talent Award—he sold every photo available in just two days.

Editor's note: Parcours des Mondes is an open event, but all the rest (exhibitions and shows) require tickets. Because the whole art world comes to Paris for these events, advance tickets are recommended. If the concierge at your hotel cannot help you, book them yourself online at FNAC.

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By Cynthia Rose

Courtesy Musée Bourdelle.

Isadora at the Musée Bourdelle

"Isadora Duncan: Une Sculpture Vivante" at the Musée Bourdelle is one of Paris’s most exuberant expos. But don’t plan to go unless you’ve got time to spend. From its rare costumes and photographs to wonderful paintings, films and sculptures, this show is as fascinating as its subject. Plus, if you don’t already know Isadora, this is a great way to meet one of the last century’s most notorious stars.

Step by step, you’ll participate in her rise—from humble American origins to the role of international legend. Isadora’s métier was “free,” or modern, dance, which, paired with her beauty and daring, proved her ticket to greatness. It’s utterly riveting to follow her ascent, complete with torrid love affairs, passionate politics and epic tragedies. (The dancer bore three children out of wedlock, none of whom survived, and she died when she was accidentally strangled by her scarf.)

The exhibition follows Isadora from dancing in drawing rooms to stardom, both across Europe and in Russia after the revolution. We see the Greek antiquities that first inspired her, then rare photos of her dancing on the Acropolis. More glamorous photographs by Druet and Steichen, as well as sculptures of Isadora by Bourdelle and Rodin (not to mention dresses by Paul Poiret and Fortuny), make it easy to understand just how famous she became. (Isadora inspired, among others, Russian theatre great Konstantin Stanislavsky, British playwright George Bernard Shaw and Ballets Russes stars Sergei Diaghilev, Anna Pavlova and Michel Fokine.)

Her stardom reverberates through rooms of magazine covers and features, books, love poems, letters and postcards, newspaper cuttings, watercolors, paintings, jewelry, murals and sketches—all are of Isadora or inspired by her. The toast of both Parisian art circles and high society, she is described by Colette as “a woman who would dance to her death, on naked feet.”

© Steve Sampson

The museum puts Isadora-mania into context, though, by including not just photos of her famous lovers, doomed children and dance schools (in Germany, France and Moscow). It also offers a solid perspective on the world she inhabited—as well as her teachers and competition, from other “experimental” dancers to legends such as Nijinsky.

There is a brief film of Isadora actually dancing, as well as filmed performances by her students, the “Isadorables.” A special contemporary movie, Carnet d’un rêveur (A Dreamer’s Notebook) features dancers from the Centre Chorégraphique National de Grenoble.

This museum is captivating on its own merits; it has long been a secret favorite among Parisians. Perhaps that is because, wandering its gardens and studios, one can truly sense the vanished Montparnasse. Jaw-dropping as Bourdelle’s great monuments are—and they enjoy their own specially built great hall—the site’s real attraction is that quiet sense of travel through time, back to a more intimate and bohemian Paris.

"Isadora Duncan: Une Sculpture Vivante" is at the Musée Bourdelle through March 14, 2010.

A Quick Tour of Isadora’s Paris

45, rue de Villiers, in the 17th Arrondissement
Isadora lived here, where she gave her first performances in Paris, for Rodin, Bourdelle and numerous artists and socialites.

9, rue Delambre, in the 14th
Isadora moved here to join the Montparnasse art scene, telling friends she danced in the Luxembourg Gardens every day at 5 a.m.

5, rue Danton, in the 5th
Isadora took two apartments here in 1909, living on the ground floor and teaching dance above.

108, rue de la Pompe, in the 16th
Isadora’s studio here was called Salle Beethoven. Visiting in the 1920s, Janet Flanner called her “without question the most famous American living in Paris.”

Père-Lachaise Cemetery
Final resting place of Isadora, who was cremated and buried next to her children on September 19, 1927.

Watch: The 1968 biopic Isadora, starring Vanessa Redgrave, who won Best Actress at Cannes for her portrayal.

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By Cynthia Rose

© Didier Plowy

Artist Christian Boltanski loves to shop at Paris flea markets. “I go,” he says, “I see a jacket that I like and I say, 'Take me, I’m yours!' I bring the jacket a whole new life, because love always gives life.”

Boltanski is discussing the impulses behind "Personnes," his new installation at the Grand Palais. "Personnes," which means either “people” or “nobodies,” is this year’s offering from Paris’s annual Monumenta exhibition. Every year, Monumenta gives a single artist access to all 145,000 square feet of the nave at the Grand Palais. Boltanski’s amazing piece has utterly transformed the space—and visitors to it become part of the spectacle.

Entering the vast hall, you first confront a monster wall. It’s made out of rusted biscuit tins, the kind used to hold family photographs or children’s treasures. For Boltanski, these tins have become a signature object—a symbol of our desire to remember. Walking around the wall, you enter a dreamlike vision. The huge floor holds a colossal field of empty clothes, spread flat into 69 giant squares. At the corners of each square are audio speakers on pillars, and each square booms out a real (recorded) heartbeat, echoing through the chilly air, amplified by the concrete floor. The show’s center is a towering mountain of secondhand clothing. Periodically the scarlet claw of a crane descends, wrests a bunch of clothes from this pile, then lifts those items to the top of the grand glass ceiling.

There they are released, to float slowly down through the air and back to the heap. The squeal and whine of the crane blends with the synchronized heartbeats until their strange music (as well as the cold) envelops you. Seen over and over, the moment of random free fall is stunning—simple clothing suddenly seems like souls, falling bodies or spirits.

© Didier Plowy

This is not conceptual art, where you have to “get the idea." It is an absorbing and strangely delicate experience. Someone stands beside you, listening intently to the same heartbeat, mesmerized just like you by the acres of clothes whose sleeves seem to gesture. The silent sense of sharing is powerful.

Boltanski says he wants all his art to reach everyone. “I place objects in relation to the subject—you. I also try to work with things that mean everyone knows what I’m doing," he explains. "Good art is like a machine where everything is useful. I try to be useful, not to make 'beautiful things.'”

At once truly spectacular and poetically simple, "Personnes" evokes surprising depths of feeling—thoughts about one’s family or about Haiti, the Holocaust, 9/11. Boltanski, whose own family was scarred by the occupation of France, says he strives to commemorate individual identities. “Because the big memory is already there in books. It’s the small memory that interests me: knowing the best place to get cake or knowing a certain joke. Those kinds of memory are the most easily lost. Each person is so important but, also, so fragile.”

To emphasize his point, all the elements of "Personnes" will be recycled when it concludes. The piece will be staged again this May in New York. But, says the artist, “we are sending nothing. It’s like a piece of music that must be reorchestrated.”

“For me,” he says, “exhibitions should function like musical scores. Tell your stories with light and sensations—then let the visitor finish them.”

"Personnes" is on view at the Grand Palais through February 21. Mon and Wed, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; Thurs–Sun, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Closed Tues. To answer questions, multilingual specialists are stationed throughout the space.

Ed. note: You can download a free Grand Palais app for your iPhone that tells you all about the landmark in either English or French. Interviewees include designer Karl Lagerfeld and artist Daniel Buren.

© Didier Plowy

Other Boltanski Works to See

Après
Contemporary Art Museum of Val-de-Marne
In tandem with Monumenta, Boltanski created this version of “afterlife" at the Contemporary Art Museum of Val-de-Marne. It is accessible by metro and bus or RER; the Grand Palais also provides a shuttle service.

The Inhabitants of the Hôtel Saint-Aignan in 1939
Museum of Judaic Art and History 
This fascinating museum (which includes artifacts of the Dreyfus affair as well as art by Chagall and Soutine) asked Boltanski to create its sole reference to the Holocaust. His permanent installation is in a small courtyard.

About the Artist

The son of a doctor and a novelist, Boltanski had a very strange childhood. During the Occupation, before his birth in 1944, his Jewish parents staged a quarrel, then divorced. Unbeknownst to his elder brothers—who thought their father had deserted the family—the doctor was living in a closet of their Paris apartment. Once the war ended, his parents remarried. But until Boltanski was 18, he says, his family was “ruled by a sense of instability”; every member slept in the same room (“for safety”). His mother, who had survived polio, used her sons as “canes” to walk—thus Boltanski was rarely at school. Instead he taught himself to paint and ran a small gallery. His real subject, installations that seek to rescue lost identities, emerged during the 1980s. Since then he has received many global awards and will represent France at the 2011 Venice Biennale. He is married to the French artist Annette Messager.

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By Amy Barnard

The Institut du Monde Arabe (Institute of the Arab World), in the 5th Arrondissement, is at once a museum, a library and a cultural center. I had been to concerts here once or twice before but hadn’t toured the museum.

I had come down to pick up the program for their current belly-dance shows (more on this later) and decided, while I was there, to check it out for your benefit and see their current exhibition, "Arts de l’Islam." The show starts with artifacts found across Central Asia and the Middle East from the pre-Islamic period, including many Greek-influenced objects and some beautiful mosaics from Roman Tunisia. It then moves into pottery styles, carpet and jewelry, though the stars of the museum collection are the illuminated manuscripts and calligraphy. It also includes medical and astronomical instruments, illustrating just how much more advanced in these areas the Arab world was in the pre-Renaissance period.

The exhibition is very worthwhile (especially if it would be your first experience with Arab art), as it is unusually broad. Normally such exhibitions are on a specific area—Ottoman Turkey, say, or Persia. Here I noticed pottery from North Africa, drawings from Mogul India, Turkish pieces and, possibly my favorite form, Persian miniatures. These tiny drawings are exquisite, worked in mind-boggling detail and controversial: they portray human forms, traditionally verboten in Islamic art (here’s not the place for the details on how they got away with it). The show also includes more calligraphy and beautiful geometric designs.

As with a lot of museums in Paris, there isn’t any written info in English . . . audio guide to the rescue! (5 euros.)

The Institut is holding a series of belly-dance shows until April—a great move, since Middle East cultural centers often shy away from this entertainment, which doesn’t help its image. If you’re feeling inspired, there are belly-dance drop-in classes available in Paris. No need to sign up. Just pay for your hour-and-a-half class at Centre de Danse du Marais or Centre Momboye when you get there.

Upcoming Belly-Dance Shows at IMA

Feb 13  Flowers . . . until the end of the earth 
Paola Ruggeri and Gul Hacer Torok

Mar 2  Oriental Cabaret 
Isabelle Delle Castelle and troupe

Apr 17  Oriental Lights 
Annaba Company

Tickets range from 19 to 26 euros and can be purchased online or at the ticket office at the Institut.

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By Amy Barnard

The Museum of Letters and Manuscripts
8, rue de Nesle, in the 6th Arrondissement.
Wed, 1–9 p.m; Tues and Thurs–Sun, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Closed Mon. Annual closure: Nov 1–Dec 10.*

I have a confession—I hate emails. As a way of doing business they're tolerable, a necessary evil. Second confession—I write letters. Just tell me you aren’t twice as thrilled to open an envelope addressed to you from a friend or lover as you are to open something in your inbox. Perhaps this is why I love the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts as much as I do.

Still, even if you’re not similarly inclined, there’s much at this tiny museum to amaze: more than 2,000 documents, by some pretty big names. Einstein’s brainwaves on the theory of relativity are recorded in scribbled notes to a friend. Baudelaire bitches about money. Catherine de Médicis writes to her housekeepers. (I half expected to find a line reading, "Leave the final seasoning to me.") A telegram from the Titanic reveals the utterly business-oriented arrangements of an upper-class marriage of the day.

The whole of the upper floor is devoted to Napoleon: letters in the man’s own hand detailing battle maneuvers to his generals, political edicts and such. But the letters of his I would most want to read, to Josephine, are not on display here. Call it voyeurism if you want, but I prefer to file it under "journalistic curiosity."

N.B. All information provided is in French only, though there are English leaflets available at the desk.

*Check the website before your visit; the museum is closing for part of spring 2010 in order to move to a new location on boulevard St.-Germain.

Fragonard Museum and Perfumery
On rue Scribe: 9, rue Scribe, in the 9th. 01 47 42 04 56.
Mon–Sat, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sun and holidays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
On blvd des Capucines: 39, blvd des Capucines, in the 2nd.
01 42 60 37 14. Mon–Sat, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

The Fragonard perfume house is also home to two small museums that explore the processes of perfume making and display collections of antique perfume flacons.These free museums (one on rue Scribe and the other on boulevard des Capucines) are a lovely way to spend half an hour or so. If you have time for only one of them, I’d recommend the larger rue Scribe location, with its beautiful 18th-century rooms, ornate moldings and gilt.

The different antique methods of extracting scent from flowers and herbs are documented, and there are different machines and contraptions, scales, vials and other apparatuses, all of which invite comparisons with alchemy. I always find myself amazed at this type of thing, thinking, What accident led to this discovery?

Also wonderful are the perfume bottles on display, including examples from some of the earliest civilizations up through the 1950s. There’s English Wedgwood from the 18th century, tiny travel toilette sets and miniature bottles designed to be pinned to clothing—so mind-bogglingly tiny it’s a marvel that anything could ever have been decanted into them. There’s also a small collection of "comedy" porcelain perfume bottles in human form with various holes . . . Well, you see where this is going.

There’s also an interactive element, a sensory guessing game where you can sniff pomades and try to identify the raw scent—orange or rosemary, for example. I pinched a little rose pomade from the pot to wear as perfume. A week later, my scarf still smells of it.

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By Cynthia Rose

© Roger Viollet.

If you saw the film Camille Claudel, with Isabelle Adjani, you know a flood almost drowned the artist in her studio—and Claudel was indeed rescued from her atelier (it was at 19, Quai Bourbon on the Île St.-Louis; the year was 1910). But the Great Paris Flood affected not only Rodin’s ex-mistress—it rendered more than 150,000 Parisians homeless. A quarter of the buildings in Paris were inundated, turning daily life in the city upside down for months. Now, the exhibition "Paris Inondé 1910" offers a fascinating portrait of how the citizens coped.

Those turn-of-the-century Parisians relished their city’s modernity. They were proud of their telephones, elevators, electricity, busy metros and train stations. Plus, they loved la poste pneumatique (an early instant-messaging system able to rocket paper notes through subterranean tubes).

It was all this progress, however, that created catastrophe. A wet summer was followed by heavy snows, saturating the ground itself. When it started raining on January 18, 1910, the Seine rose with unusual speed. Via the city's system of underground improvements, the water was able to infiltrate sewers, tunnels and underground caves. Soon it was rampaging through the metro and deluging railway stations. Within days, Paris turned into Venice.

Yet this grande crue (great flood) provoked an unexpected unity, and the exhibition shows us how Parisians struggled, improvised—and laughed—together. Amazingly, it’s clear they decided to enjoy the spectacle: “People go to see the floods,” writes one grand lady, “as if they were a revue.”

The early newsreels on view are especially dazzling (during my visit, a gang of French children was camped in front of them, pointing and exclaiming). But the whole show features photos of improbable charm. Determined to shop, for instance, women in furs descend homemade ladders into rowboats and gentlemen ogle ladies raising their skirts to totter on makeshift bridges. A crowd in the Jardin des Plantes gawks at a bear—named Martin—escaped from the zoo; a dog refuses to step on a raft and join his fleeing family. Things are desperate, but many in the photos are laughing.

Rue de Seine. © Albert Chevojon and Roger Viollet.

Of course, there are also stunning vistas of half-submerged landmarks. The poet Apollinaire steps out into the street where he lives and compares his neighborhood to “a charming little village in Holland.” Proust is caught grousing about repairs to his parquet floor. Paul Cambon, then French ambassador to London, fumes by letter that he cannot bear to “miss the fun.”

“Say what one will about this Parisian population,” he writes, observing that “nothing can please them but the extraordinary!” Even small ads from newspapers prove he was right. In one, a “gentleman philanthropist” offers “situations for girls and young female victims—all discretion assured.” Even Paris real estate agents refused to admit defeat. (“Ruined by the floods, our vendor sells at a massive reduction and, unlike him, his maison remains untouched by the waters!”)

Of course, Paris inundated was also Paris freezing and Paris paralyzed. “It’s like going back twenty years in time,” sniffs one resident to her neighbor. “No electricity, no elevators, no telephones!” (No public clocks, either; all of them failed at the same moment: 10:50 a.m. on January 21.) Yet, as "Paris Inondé" demonstrates, this was one disaster people faced with panache. Why? Because they were Parisians and they were modern! This irresistible exhibition gives us a real peek at their world.

"Paris Inondé 1910" runs from January 8 to March 28, at Galerie des Bibliothèques:

22, rue Malher, in the 4th Arrondissement, near the St.-Paul metro stop.
Mon–Sun, 1–7 p.m.; Thurs until 9.
Admission: 4 euros (reduced rate: 2 euros).

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By Amy Barnard

De Byzance à Istanbul
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
Through January 25

“De Byzance à Istanbul” is an ambitious exhibition chronicling the many faces of this incredible port city, from prehistoric to Roman civilization, from Byzantium to the Ottoman Empire. I was especially interested to see what they would come up with; having lived there myself, I have a strong attachment to the city.

Luckily, I was not at all disappointed. In the first room of the exhibition I spotted several items I had seen in situ, such as Byzantine floor mosaics, which have been perfectly transplanted to Paris. There are several Byzantine treasures on display, but the one that most caught my attention was something I’d never seen before. At the end of the room there’s a detailed sketch of a fort with notes in Italian—done by a Venetian spy.

As you walk upstairs to the Ottoman room, you encounter an innovative video, possibly my favorite part of the exhibition. A curved installation on the ceiling with projections gives you re-creations of the intricate paintings on the domes of Istanbul. It’s so beautifully done, so realistic, you could almost be there.

The Ottoman section is fantastic, with lots of exhibits taken straight from the sultan’s Topkapi Palace—the jewel-encrusted daily items are the stuff of legend. If I had one criticism, it would be that I felt there was too much space given at the end to the artifacts uncovered during the extension of the Istanbul metro. One prehistoric pottery shard looks much like another to the untrained eye . . .

Also see: “At the Court of the Great Turk: Kaftans from Topkapi Palace,” at the Louvre (through January 18). Yes, yes another Turkish exhibition—I’m biased, perhaps, but Paris is holding a Turkish cultural season until March. What could be better than to see the art of two great cultures in one place?

And while you’re at the Grand Palais, don’t miss “Renoir in the 20th Century” (through January 4).

“We Want Miles”
Cité de la Musique
Through January 17

Jazz giant Miles Davis is the subject of an extensive exhibition covering everything from his early work to his later funk incarnations. It’s a jazz lover/Miles enthusiast’s paradise. There’s plenty to listen to, obviously. The exhibition provides headphones at the entrance to use in the ‘‘plug and play’’ outlets, where you can hear other samples from the extensive collection and, later, interviews with the man himself. There’s plenty of memorabilia—keep your eyes peeled for the poem about the little boy by Miles in a music magazine. The sample of the sound track from Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud (Elevator to the Scaffold), starring Jeanne Moreau, is perfectly moody and atmospheric.

The exhibition is not very clearly structured or labeled, so make sure you look into every little nook and cranny and open closed doors, or you’ll miss half of it.

Also see: “Fellini,” at the Jeu de Paume (through January 17). Still shots from some of Fellini’s most treasured movies, including, of course, La Dolce Vita. The exhibition focuses on uncovering Fellini’s methods and processes in realizing his art form.