3/21/2024 0 Comments Facebook peach city girl life![]() The installation by Reem Al-Nasser of a wedding outfit made entirely from jasmine buds based on traditional work by Yemeni artisans (and questioning the sustainability of art and sanctification of virginity) was a standout. Marvelling at the architecture first – one facade has more than 100 photosensitive panels that open and close like a camera shutter to control the light filtering into the interior – I then explored the exhibition on perfume, Parfums d’Orient (until 17 March), which looks at the significance of incense and fragrance from the High Atlas mountains to the Indian Ocean. That afternoon, I was back almost where I’d started, admiring the exhibitions of the Institut du Monde Arabe. Paris was creeping up on me, and I was going to run out of time Photograph: Olrat/Getty Imagesĭrifting back through the 6th arrondissement, I peered at the works of Jules Verne in the window of the exquisitely beautiful rare bookshop Librarie Monte Cristo, but everything looked alarmingly expensive and, feeling a little intimidated, I walked on. View image in fullscreen The Great Mosque of Paris. I felt guilty I wasn’t indulging in a croissant in a proper Parisian bakery, but there was time for that another day. Despite the slight rebrand, it remains famous for its afternoon tea, and the scones were indeed melt-in-mouth delicious. The English waiter told me that the shop was originally opened by Brits in 1870 as a retail space, lending library and tearoom, and had previously been a WHSmith. Tempted upstairs by the smell of baking, passing a display of Penguin Modern Classics, I came to the cafe, and a truly surprising sight: pictures of the British royal family. After a mooch in the elegant Librairie Galignani – surely a contender for the chicest bookstore in the world with its high ceilings and potted plants – I found the more egalitarian-looking Smith & Son nearby, which has a brilliant range of English-language titles. Showered and breakfasted, I walked to the rue de Rivoli next, in search of bookshops to browse in (the undying habit of an ex-bookseller abroad). Looping back to the park, I stopped for an espresso at La Fontaine Cuvier, sliding on to one of those classic woven French bistro chairs which demand a battered novel and a cigarette rather than a Garmin running watch, but never mind. Librairie Galignani is surely a contender for the chicest bookstore in the world I ran on past dozens of pavement cafes, each looking more appealing than the last. The Seine, just beyond, beckoned me back to it, and I ran along the river – past the Shakespeare and Company bookshop, self-proclaimed “Left Bank literary institution”, where a queue watched over by a bouncer was already forming, such is the power of Instagram (though photos inside the famous shop are prohibited). I went on, past the grand wrought-iron greenhouses, giant palms pushing against the glass, as more joggers entered the park. ![]() Jogging across the road and into the Jardin des Plantes, I stopped to photograph another entirely unanticipated, and very different, unknown: a zoological enclosure holding a group of incredibly cute red-necked wallabies, mobbing together in a slice of sun. ![]() View image in fullscreen Jardin des Plantes. Square, Moorish in style and 33 metres tall, it glowed in the light, its tiles of geometric motifs dazzling in green, peach and white. It was a crisp, clear winter day and, rounding a corner, I saw the first unexpected sight of the day: sunshine hitting the sand-coloured minaret of the Grande Mosquée de Paris, inspired by the Al-Zaytuna mosque in Tunisia. The mosque glowed, its tiles of geometric motifs dazzling in green, peach and whiteįor this stay, I made my base the 5th arrondissement, close to the Sorbonne, and on the first morning, with the weather on my side (the hotel receptionist told me how lucky I was, as it had been “raining for days”), I set out for a jog. ![]() None was especially hidden or secret, but they were novel to me. Photograph: Marc Domage/Fondation Louis VuittonĪs with any successful travel experience, the real gems tend to be the “unknown unknowns” – those stumbled on, not anticipated, beforehand. View image in fullscreen The Mark Rothko show at Foundation Louis Vuitton runs until 2 April 2024. ![]()
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