for what it’s worth
hello guys, i hope you’re already off to a fabulous sunday.
it’s the first time in a while i’ve had alone so, well, here i am doing what i want to do! and that happens to be indulging in an obsession i’ve had for a couple days.
in spare moments i’ve been collecting shots of the soon to be redecorated (the interior NOT the exterior) hotel de crillon in paris. i’m stashing way too much but thought you may enjoy a little of the edited collection. some of the links to the photos are at the bottom of the post. if any are yours please let me know.
the grand hotel has been on my mind since richard mentioned on his blog that it was going to be ‘redecorated’ over the next two years (not torn down). some of the contents will be sold at auction next week to make room for improvements.
here’s the link to the items on the auction block: artcurial.com/en
i once had a ball there with claudia T and hate that they’re taking some of it apart.
pretty things
it’s one of the oldest and most ornate hotels in paris.
perfect for fairy tale weddings and chic fashion shoots since it’s such a magical public palace.
known for impeccable service
the perfect place for high tea or a quiet rendezvous
great ambiance
attention to detail
and the food’s good too
oh, and desserts
legendary
beautiful garden restaurant grounds
started in the 1800s, she hasn’t changed much since her unveiling in 1909
watching the well heeled come and go
the perfect backdrop
thousands of stories on a romantic stage
the rooms could use makeovers on the upholstery and bedding
but taking down the chandeliers? :(
and the marble mantles? those are up for sale too, for some reason they’re taking the originals out. to replace with what?
they’re also selling linens, dishes and the hotel silver.
it’s always been the place to see and be seen (myrna loy photographed on the roof deck)
and photographers love the setting
even the outtakes are good
not to mention the finished product
it stirs creative imagination
fashionmagazine.com/blogs/fashion/2012/10/11/couture-photo-shoot
links in this post:
sashaparis.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/a-la-russe-presentation-in-hotel-crillon-paris
flickriver.com/photos/22771024@N02/4385399986/
flickr.com/photos/concorde-hotels
waeiskiani.com/blog/2012-11-27/wk-crillon-debutante-ball
1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Kvpws_HFTM/TzcEePxGgyI/AAAAAAAACdQ/CHzP5VVj4OE/s1600/hotelcrillon2.jpg
Random Facts:
The Hotel de Crillon in Paris is one of two identical stone palaces on the Place de la Concorde, wich was constructed in 1758.
In 1788 the Count of Crillon, acquired the building for a hotel.
Address: 10 place de la Concorde, 08 Arr., Paris, Ile-de-France, 75008, France
Website: crillon.com
hi again! just thought i’d share some of what’s for sale in the hotel. i may be over reacting (someone wrote and called me a drama queen), but i just don’t get why you have to take out the orignal and traditional in the process? like these fireplaces, why are they being removed? why aren’t they worth preserving?
- Lot 2327
- CHEMINEE DE STYLE LOUIS XV
En marbre blanc veiné gris
H. : 108 cm. L. : 145 cm. P. : 38 cm.On y joint une paire de chenets, en fonte, à décor rocaille
H. : 23 cm. P. : 44 cm.(19)Estimation 400 – 600 € 
- Lot 918CHEMINEE DE STYLE LOUIS XVI
En marbre gris veiné, à décor de feuilles de laurier
H. : 102 cm. L. : 125 cm. P. : 32 cm.(303 / 305)Estimation 400 – 600 € 
- Lot 946CHEMINEE DE STYLE LOUIS XV
En marbre blanc veiné gris
H. : 110 cm. L. : 145 cm. P. : 40 cm.On y joint une barre de cheminée en métal doré
H. : 83 cm.(311/315)Estimation 400 – 600 €
- Lot 1091CHEMINEE DE STYLE LOUIS XVIEn marbre blanc veiné, à décor de cannelures
H. : 101 cm. L. : 130 cm. P. : 39 cm.On y joint une barre de cheminée, en métal doré
L. : 83 cm.(343)Estimation 400 – 600 € 
- Lot 1TROIS VITRINES DE PRESENTATION MURALES ECLAIRANTES
En métal doré, ouvrant en façade par un vantail
H. : 119 cm. L. : 68 cm. P. : 31 cm.(ENT)Estimation 800 – 1 200 € 
- Lot 65LUSTRE DE STYLE LOUIS XV
En bronze doré, à six lumières, agrémenté de pampilles en verre taillé
H. : 97 cm.On y joint une paire d’appliques de style Louis XV, en métal patiné doré, à deux lumières, agrémenté de pampilles en verre taillé
H. : 27 cm. L. : 37 cm.(102)Estimation 300 – 500 € 
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anyway i’ll calm down now!
the life of a bon vivant
good morning guys and happy friday, i hope your day is already off to a good start. the time has come to start packing up so much of what i’ve taken for granted all these months. funny how you think you have all the time in the world to read books, shoot photos and live a life of leisure at least a little. oh to live the life of a bon vivant!
going through all the things for the sale tomorrow i’m in the middle of all the books that haven’t been read and the shots that haven’t been taken. in the dim morning light i’m doing my best to capture any little bit i can of the goodies around the house. modes and manners is one is a set of books (in english)! about the ways of the women of the past centuries. the books detail everything from the reverence they had for daily life from their stoves to their beds, the appreciation that was shown for the smallest convenience how ordinary washing or cleaning became a sacred (not necessarily religious) daily ritual.
this morning i opened a random page that discussed the various ways scarves were used. they said it was not just for warmth but was also meant to shape and drape the body. still so french! i wish i had the time to read it all!
another of my favorites that will be going is this little sketchbook i found in paris. it’s filled with an artist’s pencil sketches and watercolors of life on the streets in the 20s. his attention to detail with the flowing fabric and poses makes me wonder if all the romanticizing we do about the past really may have been reality.
even the simplest sketch of a woman waiting for a bus or train captured the era.
he was also drawing jewelry, maybe he was a designer or just a student of life…
i could go on an on about every little thing but it’s already getting late. before it comes off the wall i had to shoot my personal obsession which is the home of the original salon hostess, madame rambouillet. she was the first to rebel against social convention and create the salon bleu where moliere and other poets and artists would gather around her bed to paint, put on plays and discuss literature.
for the first time women had a place they could go to become more than property and they began re-inventing society in their image, creating one that rebeled against the filth and barbaric ways of the streets and provided a refuge where they could be be oh so proper and speak with grace and flair.
unfortunately they eventually became ridiculed by moliere and he wrote his famous ‘Precieuses Ridicules’ which is still a popular play today depicting the women as silly and trivial, saying that they took it too far and became a bit of a joke.
in any case it’s all flashing before me and i want to take it all in but it’s time i guess to send it all out into the world. i’m going to keep shooting between boxing and bagging and will share some more as i do. hope you have a great day and wonderful weekend. the party starts at 8am on OKL, hope you can come by!
the middle of the road of life
happy sunday gang, hope you’re in the throes of a blissful weekend! i’ve sequestered myself (practically) for the past couple days in order to get some manuscript under my belt for tomorrow and also get going on okl. i was on a roll when a book called to me like a magnet and i’ve been off in another world ever since. le livre de mon ami. once in hand i couldn’t put it down. everything from the three toned leather spine with raised details and gold letters. yum! and inside was original the silk ribbon book mark.
i’ve been thinking of taking a french class lately, or even starting to try and read it more. i can only imagine what i sound like to the french! so what better time than the present? the first line is in italian, translated to french. i figured if it was a phrase in two langues i had find out what it meant.
the google translations really got me thinking and this is my cue to take a break. the translation of italian to french went from, ‘nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita’, (in the middle of the journey of your life), and in french, ’au milieu du chemin de la vie’, which translates to ‘the middle of the road of life’.
anyway i better get back to it while it’s stil nice and bright. i’m editing the last of the pics for my book and the clock’s already mocking me. i’ve already gotten lost in this book for too way long. but then again, i could keep it closed and on a shelf or just to myself. or i could open it, read the first line and realize i’m ‘in the middle of the journey of life‘. and there’s always time for that!
sending good sunday wishes to you. have a great night!
all change is not growth, as all movement is not forward – e. glasgow
allo all! it’s very late and my last post from paris this time around. it’s been a fantastic trip with lots of great memories and pretty things coming home. but for the first time, it’s a little different for me. as you know i adore the flea markets and all the stories they tell. lately though, i feel a little bittersweetness about it because the subtle ‘progressive’ changes in the city are becoming more apparent and i’m not sure they’re for the best.
ok maybe at times paris can be a bit of a gilded lily, and i can understand wanting to mix the old with the new. but paris is the worlds’ muse and we come for her beauty and inspiration.
le train-bleu, in paris’ gare de lyon
and as someone who loves interior and exterior architecture, i can’t for the life of me figure out why the french allow their beautiful city to be ravaged by renovators.
the changes are everywhere, from the windows coming down and satellite dishes going up
to small details like the books being pilfered for engraving and endpapers sold as scraps
glass fronts on traditional boulangeries and boucheries are tossed aside and the storefronts are cemented over
handpainted panels are removed and separated from the grand walls they once adorned
and apparently stained glass is considered passé
why someone would want to dismantle a marble fireplace and mirror is beyond me
and why would the city allow such destruction?
i mean, i’m not complaining, it gets circulated all over the world i suppose
but it just seems that in this day and age we should preserve what we have and take care of it as stewards
these apartments will be here long after us and what will be left?
where is the love?
and why is it being replaced with ‘sanitization’of the city’ as the french are calling it?
ok maybe i am complaining just a little. it’s happening throughout the city. these beautiful old tile frames in the metro are all coming down
and the old bouquinistes kisoks are being replaced with one of the prototypes below
maybe like joni mitchell sings, paris, is old and cold and settled in its ways. but isn’t that why we love her so? if the powers that be want to make changes, i humbly suggest adding a few more escalators in the metros, make it easier to catch a cab and run a design contest for a pretty something to cover the hanging clear plastic garbage bags on the streets. of course outlawing satellite dishes and making it a crime to dismantle apartments and store facades over 100 years old wouldn’t hurt either! but some say it’s progress. i say it’s heartbreaking. what do you think?
les affairs to remember
bonsoir guys, ca va? it’s one of our last nights in paris and hard to believe it’s been 6 weeks already. the days have flown by and the nights are mainly work but claudia II is our social director and if it weren’t for her we may have missed a lot of great soirees.
last night we were invited to a grande fête at the one and only clignancourt marche aux puces. the paul bert and serpette markets were the hosts and the tapis rouge was rolled out along the alleys both indoor and out. seeing the market by night is such a different experience than in the lazy afternoons. the vendors really let their hair down and put on a night to remember with trimmings to rival a ball at versailles.
it was both intimate and inviting
with furniture you wouldn’t even touch by day being enjoyed by all
the tables were beautifully dressed
and the scent of flowers was everywhere
and bien sur, the champagne was flowing
and the petit fours were plentiful
a good time was had by all, even the kids
this little one below curled up on a chair and took it all in.
so now i bid you adieu, it’s getting late and we have an early morning for our last market day. there are brocantes, fairs and shows going on and we can’t do it all, but you know we’re gonna try!
and last but certainly not least, i wanted to introduce you to claudia’s friend who we saw perform the other night. he’s a funny, charismatic homme francais. we all fell for him, maybe you will too! click the pic above for one of my favorite seductive video of his. there are more on youtube including this live performance. he plays in cosy, clubby spots (we saw him on a houseboat) and just has a real joie de vivre. ok c’est tout pour c’est soir. bon nuit mes cheries, a demain!
days of wine and roses
bonjour mes amis, ca va? we’re fully immersed in parisian life over here, for another week anyway. i’m trying to make it last and enjoy every minute (even if that’s a nap here and there)! paris is like a laduree candy shop with unexpected, delicious beauty around every corner. especially at the markets. we can walk for miles and still only skim the surface.
the fleas are full from the vendors’ summer finds and we’ve been getting up early to make the most of it.
i definitely have a thing for chairs and have been getting sofas, slippers, vanity stools and bergers…
sad for the ones that got away…
but n love with what’s coming back to the states! thought you might enjoy a preview.
and we know you can’t get it all. but we sure try! we’ve been to the maison objet (a little uninspired this year but i’ll post the pics from it. then again everything pales in comparison to the fleas for me!) instead of heading back we went to the markets with our client for the past few days. she’s been shopping for her store, shed home and tomorrow we’ll be packing her goodies up to ship.
the photo above is dave bloom’s of sophie atlan’s booth in clignancourt at vernaisson. we spent a couple days shooting together for the new book.
the detail in this country never ceases to amaze me
the closer you look the more you find
even a tiny powder puff is still as pretty as ever.
well tomorrow is our last day together, and i believe a good time was had by all.
thought you’d enjoy a shot of cindy’s room at caron de beaumarchais. amazing what you can do with 4 little walls!
we’re invited to a big party at clignancourt on friday eve and a concert tomorrow. we’re hoping to get to the show above if we can squeeze it in! well it’s minuit, so more soon, have a great night!
the women who started it all
hey guys, how’s your day going? we’re in full swing chez nous. tomorrow we’re heading out to the maison objet for opening day. our client has arrived and will be shopping for her store so it will be fun with miles and miles of eye candy. i got a press pass so i’ll take lots of pics and hope to share them, at least a little each day. till then i’m trying to keep up with packing and before these goodies got bubbled and boxed i thought you’d enjoy a sneak peek of some of the stuff for the OKL sale coming up in november. claudia’s finds are a great addition and made me see think about the women who really started the trends we still follow today! anyway it’s back to le bubble! have a great nuit!
the woman behind the girl
good morning guys! it’s a chilly, dreary morning in paris but what else is new? we’re up early for a market held every day called marche d’aligre. it’s been packing and shipping central around here and before everything is en route to the us i thought you’d enjoy one small unappreciated box out of a million that were tossed into piles at lille.
i got this paper filled, obviously long forgotten collection of clippings, patterns, catalogs and dreams at the last minute when we were packed like sherpas and all i wanted was a catalog from au bon marche. the guy gave me a good deal on it and i had to say yes, both because it was embroidery stuff (i inherited an appreciation for it since my mom and gram were always hand making the most beautiful things). the second is that i knew i could send bits of it to you.
when i was in lille i guess i was imagining the 20s or 30s glamour gal to be living in paris, the talk of the town, but this box make me think about an era i rarely do, the turn of the century. i think this humble but grand dame lived in lille and was the woman behind the woman i conjured up.
the box has been untouched for almost a humdred years. the papers are from 1908-1914 and it is a tiny window into her life, one not so different from ours but maybe light years away from her own daughter’s. she saved catalogs and made patterns, wanted to create heirlooms and make a happy home.
planned dinners and bookmarked pages of things she hoped to have one day.
she was concerned about her apprearance
and may have even had extensions!
she worked hard to make beautiful things for her family to inherit, her daughter probably thought she was old fashioned.
but she wanted to feel pretty, even sexy maybe in her corset and garters
when she traveled it was in style with everything in its place
lotions and creams (sorry for the bad pics, it was so dark in here last night)!
amazing how generation to generation things can change so much.
she still had questions
and life was centered around creating a well decorated home with all the trimmings.
well my guests have arrived and we’re off to the market. i hope you have a fabulous day!
who’s that girl?
Bonjour mes chères amies and happy labor day. i hope you’re having what’s left of a great weekend. here in france the day is coming to a close but i wanted to stop by and share ours before a new day dawns and the weekend fades away.
claudia and i decided to take roadtrip to one of the biggest flea marktets in france. sadly no, this is not our car, but trucks like this are de rigueur for vendors who descended on the little ville de lille this weekend.
we’ve talked about going for years but there was always something else to do. so we finally hit the road for what was a legendary experience.
it’s known as a braderie, and it’s been going on since the 12th century on the first weekend of september. ten thousand people gather for what can be described as no less than a fleamarket and mussel fest. it’s a gentle takeover of every single street, nook and cranny and is lined with vendors whose treasures continue to astound and amaze me.
we got there a day early since we heard that setup started early and the crowds weren’t there yet.
but it didn’t take long and by sunrise it was on overdrive.
the sheer magnitude was almost incomprehensible. hard to believe it could be so organized in hundreds of tiny streets and parks. but then if you’re doing it for a few hundred years it’s probably child’s play!
of course there was something for everyone and i had to keep focused for what to shop for.
i’m a sucker for all things boudoir so bikes and sleighs were out unfortunately. but sometimes it’s just as much fun to have the pics as the real thing since, as my guy says, you can’t buy it all!
we had rolling carts and bubble and when they were full, we were way done. we think we walked 10 hours both days!
it was worth it, cause tonight we’re going through our stash and it’s a little like christmas.
as i started putting up pics tonight i realized that for me the fleas really tell a story. and they tell a different one to each of us. it was crazy what some people were carrying out! for me it’s about that girl. the one who lived a life i romanticize for it’s beauty and detail. i love to imagine the things she had and did, from an era that seems like a mysterious and glamorous dream.
i wonder about what she wore (or didn’t)!
her friends
the pretty powder boxes that every chic femme fatale had.
her dressing table and what the bottles held. was her life so different from ours?
her compacts
her attitude
the way she traveled
and where she went
how she decorated
and what she read
whose call she waited for
the letters she wrote
and who she loved
and what made her happy?
and how did she end up in my hand?
well that’s enough dreaming for tonight. it’s such a gift that the people of france preserve so much living history. i’ll never get over the markets and every single time i go it’s both fresh and old. can’t wait to do it again tomorrow, we’re shopping the dealer day at clignancourt. et alors, ic’est midnuit. have a bon nuit and sweet dreams!
playing favorites
good morning dear friends! i hope all is well with you. it feels like eternity since i’ve been able to sit and write. for the past week my family and i have been in provence on a trip my sister in law arranged. it’s the first time we’ve ever all gone away together and it was pure bliss. usually we get together once or twice a year on holidays but not since we were kids did we all live ensemble cooking, having breakfast and traveling.
the house was incredible, set on 17 acres of what’s supposed to be the best soil on earth, surrounded by flowers, mountains and ruins.
i got to be friends with the caretaker who actually did the renovations and says it was mainly a stall for horses and cows with just a little building for the proprietor. now it’s got too many beds and baths to really even count and looks completely authentic. we even thought the kitchen may have been original because they added a professional cuisine on to the back of a very country looking salle a manger.
last night was my brother’s birthday and we celebrated with a chef who jean found. after shopping the markets for fruit, cheese, fish, vegetables and wine, it all came to the house and they prepared it and even served and cleaned up. it was a feast and i doubt we’ll ever forget it!
each person was taught how to prepare french cuisine with a decorative flair. it was another late night (they all have been)! and this morning i just had to get here before this all becomes a distant memory.
the rest of the week was spent of course trying to get a little of the flea markets in…
(my nieces even got into it)!
but each day we spent in one or two little towns in the region. it’s a place i haven’t been in many years but now that i’ve touched down again, don’t think i’ll ever be able to give up.
it’s one of those incomprehensibly beautiful spots where history is still thriving.
a place that can never really be understood.
but it’s definitely one i’ll be back to explore
between the aquaducts, arenas, stone huts and sole buildings on mountains, it’s mysterious and magical.
even though we missed the lavender fields the colors of everyday life were more vibrant than anywhere i’ve ever been.
needless to say we all had a ball
and this morning we’re packing and getting ready to catch the TGV to paris.
for more years than i can remember i haven’t been able to tear myself away from the city of lights and most of my trips overseas center around it. now that had a taste of provence there may be a bit of a personal struggle as to which is my new favorite. well luckily they’re both just a plane ride away and hopefully this time next year will be a whirlwind trip again. this time with a small group who wants to join me and explore this spectacular site. oh and shop the markets too of course! ok off we go. more from paris i promise!
ps here is the rental info: http://www.onlyprovence.com/villas/platanes
