je te manque

my darling paris -

please do not feel slighted by my absence. how i miss you so.

i was prepared to come and embrace you, to hold you in my arms, but alas, our love was foiled. not by another, but by SN brussels airlines.

you see, ma chere, i had devised an ingenious plan. on my way home from africa, i had intended to surprise you, in the wee hours of the morning. i would fly into bruxelles from kigali, and stealthily take the thalys, veering quickly into nord to take you by storm.

ahhh. to be together, even if for a brief 24 hours - long strolls, a glass of cabernet, some AOC cheese - and maybe even a movie at MK2. but the stars were not aligned. whilst dreaming of our moment together, even while tending to things in rwanda, the airline decided our time was not yet ripe. they abruptly terminated the flight, rescheduling it for the next day. caught between a roche and a dur place, what could i do? i needed to be home for my daughter's birthday - a priority of course - so i was forced to concede defeat and give up on you.

i am certain you will see how impossible this situation was for me, and will know in full confidence that i shall make amends shortly. soon i will be in your waiting arms again, feeling the warmth of your full bosom!

with love,

h

the thrilla' in manila

when in paris (frequently!), i always stop by IF on rue jacob, in the 6ieme. i love this little boutique on this little street in this little quarter. the store is chic, understated, and thoroughly pleasant. it also bears the same name as the store in new york where i purchased my richard tyler tuxedo for my wedding - so i have a good feeling about the spot.

just up the street from this store, at the intersection of rue jacob and rue bonaparte, is ladurée - always good for a 'snack'. there's also the hotel la villa, which our friend dani combed through to secure jane and i the perfect room in 1989 (we were relatively unversed in all that is paris back then, but willing pupils!).

so, back to IF. sweet. and this is where i pick up a copy of intramuros - design paris ... a great magazine, purporting the values of french design and art, architecture, and furniture trends in general. the intramuros design paris guide lists the newest shops and places of note by area, making it comprehensive and put together. i thumb through this guide continuously between visits, smiling at where i've been and thinking about where i'm going ...

unbeknownst to me, intramuros is also the name ('within the walls') of the original spanish settlement that comprised the city of manila, philippines. the district is one of the last authentic places in this metropolis that has not been touched by modern builders, for the most part.

if you find yourself at IF, do drop in an pick up a copy ...

h

euro-star-not-so-far

today heralds the beginning of a new and improved high-speed rail connection between london (st. pancras station) and paris. this trip shaves extra minutes off of the already speedy trip, reducing the traveling time between the two capitals to 2 hours, 15 minutes - incroyable!

so, you blaze across the channel, find yourself in france, and voila! you need to walk, scramble for bike, or beg to get to where you're going ... because there is practically no public transportation today ... rail and transit strike!

bad timing, unless you're on the bargaining end of the stick - resisting proposed reforms to the much beloved social services, brought to you by the government. will the pressure work? qui sait? but one thing's for certain - you probably won't be happy riding the eurostar from england knowing that you're hurtling towards a high-speed mess!

bonne chance,
h

constantinople

suppose for a moment that you were not totally enamoured with the work of constantin brancusi . a very strange thought indeed. a precursor to martin puryear, whose work is currently on exhibit at moma, mr. brancusi makes a convincing case for simplicity of form and a boldness of expression.

besides this, his prolific nature, released in his paris studio, left the planet with a profusion of great works, in my humble estimation. luckily for us, many of the maquettes for the pieces on view at world class institutions can be found at their final resting place, the atelier brancusi at the centre pompidou.

the plan is ingenious. encroach upon the near perfect plaza fronting this venerable institution. the sloping cobblestones draw one into the main building, and just off to the side lies a the aptly formed pavilion which wraps the work of this fantastic artist. the building, designed by renzo piano, is clad in stone, and literally leaves a strolling corridor around the glass enclosed studio rooms of brancusi, who bequeathed these works to the french capital upon his death.

it is both inspiring and fascinating to see the work in situ, along with the tools employed in the creation of the pieces.

i once was asked, by suzanne stephens (then home editor for the new york times) if i had been inspired by brancusi, sensing that there was something in my own designs which seemed to draw upon his attitudes - a resounding and delighted 'yes' was my most grateful reply!!!

a first rate exhibit space which should be at the top of the list of any visit to paris.

charlot & charlotte

charlot, my darling (and charlotte, my other darling)!

charlot one.
a lovely smallish street in paris, in the 3ieme arroundisement. just a bit 'up' from the marais, but really kind of an extension of this gentrified district. fine, elegant, around the corner from the musée picasso - so sweet, and so easy to bypass. it's charms do not bite, although to me they are plainly obvious. firstly, passage de retz. jacqueline frydman's terrific gallery perched on the courtyard side of a door off of the rue. a great space with a small but adorable canteen, a mini design store, a desk which serves as the lobby, and an always titillating array of modern and provocative art. further afield, up towards republique and oberkampf, this place continues to grow on me.

charlotte two.
gainsbourg. how sweet and fresh she is. almost died in a u.s. waterskiing accident? non! this we cannot allow! not our little impish charlotte, star of films too numerous to mention (but i can start with prete-moi ta main, l'un reste l'autre part, la science des reves). bared shoulders thrust forward, intense and flip at the same time. always sexy, always funny, always french, even in english! merci, charlotte, pour tous!

bon nuit,

h

voice les titres de ce journal - olivier galzi

ahhh, the joys of streaming.

when we first were married, jane and i decided, no, affirmed, that we would never have a television in our bedroom. closing in on 19 years later, we've stuck to this dogma - magazines (i don't read books), newspapers, jane's stack of novels - all okay distractions. but tv - never!

during the period leading up to the commencement of the current iraq guerre, i found the joys of french news. visual news. i discovered france 2 on new york's channel 22 at 19h00 each night - and truly cherished having a fresh (and french) perspective on world events. coupled with bbc and occasionally the times, i was able to distinguish what was us media propaganda, and what was actually happening (remember colin powell's snow job?).

i clearly recall the vilification of france - unite behind a common enemy in an effort to deflect attention from a misguided war. while we were slinging expressions around ('freedom fries' etc.), the french news was offering fact without editorializing. when the war began, they presented an objective picture of what was going on - without bashing the us or britain. i was extremely impressed with both the stance of the government - they never did become embroiled in the war - and dominique de villepin's staunch refusal to be drawn into it (despite being lambasted by the bush administration).

then came along real player - a gift from friends abroad who wanted us to stream some footage of their young daughter being interviewed on german tv. in order to get that 'feed' i downloaded said item, and voila - there was tv5, france 2, and more recently, france 24. eureka.

unfortunately, there ended the no-tv-in-the-bedroom policy. every night, i duck into bed with my glass of wine, my tiny laptop, my earphones, and stream french news. what a delight to catch up on the greves (strikes), political maneuvering of the ump, the sans-abris camped out on the edge of canal st. martin, and the latest stories on labor unrest as france lurches towards a 37.5 hour work week!

and the best part, bien sur, is a dose of paris daily; a real shot in the arm that keeps me connected to my most favorite city on the planet!

h

papier plus

in a tiny corner of paris, shoehorned in between the lovely ile st. louis and the marais, is a charming and typical parisian 'rue'. on this sweet street, just north of the equally charmant and agreeable pont louis philippe, lies a gem of a shop which has been situated in this local for as long as i can recall.

papier + is a special and unique place. the french, our newly found 'allies' in the post-chirac era, are notorious for their love of the finer things that life has to offer; this boutique is no exception. i can recall a happy, simpler time some twenty years ago when jane and i ambled through this area, pinching ourselves and realizing at that moment how lucky we were to be alive in this place. we stumbled upon our beloved papier +, and spent a great amount of time thumbing through photo albums, journals, and cahiers. i never managed to leave the place without having the shopkeeper weigh me out about a kilo of paper clips, all in sculptural forms, on an old fashioned scale - on one end lay my booty, and on the other end of the scale he would gingerly drop and add calibrated weights to calculate my cost (thankfully, not the method employed at weight watchers!).

everytime i used one of those many paper clips, it was for a special occasion - a card to a loved one, to which a photo was attached; a shot of my work going off to a gallery or museum, or just affixed to a piece of my clothing as a good luck charm.

and do you know what? things didn't turn out too bad - merci, papier + !

h