Paris is still spectacular

What could be more exciting than a bright blue McLaren sports car with California licence plates outside Ritz Paris hotel on Place Vendome where usually the tower created from Napoleon’s captured cannon is the centrepiece? That the McLaren attracted attention is quite an understatement. Hotel Director General Marc Raffray would never disclose who owned it, but he did reveal that 45 per cent of their guests now come from the United States, 5 per cent from Japan and just 2 per cent from Qatar.

Qatar came to mind because I had just visited nearby Hotel de la Marine, Place de la Concorde, which in 1767 was established as the Royal Furniture Depository by Louis XV to house an exquisite collection of 18th-century art and furniture. Designed by Ange Jacques Gabriel, the palace served as that for two decades before France’s Ministry for Naval Affairs sought refuge there in 1789, escaping Versailles. Only in 2015 did the Ministry move and the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN) take over the building, restoring it and opening in 2021 as a museum of historic furnishings containing the superb art collection of the Al Thani Foundation, Al Thani being the Royal Family of Qatar.

Equally exciting was that Hugh Dutton, renowned architect specialising in glass creations who grew up in Jamaica, designed the glass canopy over the courtyard entrance. Situated on the second-floor level, the canopy allows light to stream in thanks to the subtle interplay of mirrors placed above it. When I purchased canopy postcards in the gift shop, the clerk delayed the queue to tell me what a brilliant architect Dutton is, that he once met him and unlike most brilliant architects who are full of themselves, M. Dutton was humble and very nice!

We dined with Hugh and his lovely partner Valérie Poli, another architect, and he revealed being saddened that his Jamaican Parliament building design didn’t win but he is creating something for a jewellery store on Fifth Avenue in New York and has been asked to extend the ‘Climate Ribbon’ he did over Brickell Center in Miami, a design influenced by hillside breezes at his childhood St Mary home. We introduced Hugh and Valerie to Onika Miller, an executive with JN Group before becoming the interim secretary general of the Auto Association of the World, headquartered also on Place de la Concorde. Miller invited us to Chez Vong, an excellent Chinese restaurant specialising in Peking Duck with a gorgeous interior despite graffiti covered walls outside.

She spoke highly of a past exhibition showcasing Indigenous Cultures at the Atelier des Lumières. Three years before, entering the Van Gogh exhibition in the Atelier warehouse, now a Culture Space, I felt totally immersed in the artist’s colourful paintings projected on all sides and the floor, slowly swirling as music played. So, I highly anticipated the Cézanne Lumières de Provence/Kandinsky exhibition. Cezanne’s villages and flowers weren’t as enthralling as Van Gogh’s intense works, though watching small children in the darkness, chasing patches of light from the paintings or joyously running into walls to feel objects brought a smile. Kandinsky’s modern art lent itself marvellously to the music of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, so I joined Captain Tom shooting into the starry universe. That brought back the wonder of my first immersive art experience. On until 2 January 2023, now Des Lumiéres experiences exist in Bordeaux, Les Baux-de-Provence, New York, Dubai, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Jeju, South Korea.

A guided tour of ‘Machu Picchu and the Treasures of Peru’ at the Cité de l”Architecture et du Patrimoine, Palais de Chaillot educated me about the variety of ancient peoples involved in 3,000 years of Inca origins but since the exhibition was closing September 4t, the place was packed and the heat became too much after two hours. Similarly, no visit to Paris is complete for me without viewing Impressionist paintings at Musée de Quai d’Orsay but crowds of tourists made it almost impossible to enjoy the paintings, especially in the room with Van Gogh’s Starry Night. People were 20 deep taking photographs with cell phones.

Recently opened La Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection greatly disappointed me and my friends Susan Reid and Jay Merrin. Japanese architect Tadao Ando transformed this circular 16th-century building – once a grain market capped in 1813 by the world’s first metal dome of such large proportions – into a museum of contemporary art but what ridiculous “art” it was. Except for older frescoes inside the dome, the modern art consisted of such objects as a hanging damaged moped and strings of light bulbs dangling from the ceiling. Only Wolfgang Tillmans’ blue inkjet print of Tag/Nacht III qualified as art in my opinion.

Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac restored my faith in Parisienne museums. Less crowded with works from Oceana, Asia, North Africa/Middle East, Africa and The Americas in a modern building with lovely garden this is an absolute must. I started with the Oceana collection which was incredible. With 3,500 items exhibited on the main collections level you will enter worlds you’ve never seen before.

For dining La Closerie des Lilas, the legendary restaurant, brasserie and piano bar at the corner of Boulevards Montparasse and St Michel, remains my favourite. Created in 1847 everyone from Cézanne to Sartre to Hemingway has enjoyed its warmth and French cuisine. Finally, I couldn’t leave Paris without a bowl of soupe a l’onion gratinée, onion soup covered with melted cheese, and the best is at Flottes family brasserie.

Leaving Charles de Gaulle airport, lines of us were suddenly told to wait, then we backed up into another area. An unattended piece of luggage was suspicious to a sniffer dog. Without fuss we retreated when BOOM. We’re never told if there were an explosive inside or the explosion was done by security. An employee said in seven years at the airport that had happened only twice. So listen when you’re told not to leave your luggage unattended!

Note: Correction to Part One: The Zoo in Paris is the second oldest in the world after one in Vienna.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com