Photos: JasonW

Like the ambience of an traditional-style funfair, with ferris wheels, candy floss and giant stuffed toys? Then the Foire du Trône is for you! On a large stretch of land at the edge of the Bois de Vincennes (on the east of the city), you have two months to sample the atmosphere, show off your shooting and punching skills and perhaps go home with a teddy bear! (or flatscreen TV, depending on your luck).

It’s open every day of the week from midday to midnight (and 1am on Saturdays and the night before public holidays) with stall and attractions for all ages.

And popular it certainly is: 1.2 million visitors every year!

Our advice is to use public transport to get there (the metro drops you off two minutes away). In a car, you’ll spend more time looking for a space than screaming on the rides

The Foire du Trône is on the Pelouse de Reuilly (here) from 3rd April – 31st May 2010. Open every day from midday to midnight (1am Saturdays and the night before public holidays).

Official site (in French): www.foiredutrone.com

Tatiana has just donated the photos that she did for our commission to us, and we are truly grateful (because we love them). You can see them in our Flickr gallery here.

And if you’d like to join Tatiana for a small glass of wine and crisps, feel free to attend the opening party on Tuesday 23rd March from 7pm onwards!

The exhibition Rooms With a View (Chambres avec vue) by Tatiana Margaux Bonhomme is at the LM Gallery (here) from 19th March – 25th April 2010.

Don’t forget the opening on Tuesday 23rd

LM Gallery site here: www.lm-galerie.com

The Albert Kahn gardens - photo: JasonW

The Albert Kahn museum and gardens have a special place in our heart. They’re unique. We visited the amazing gardens for you last Spring (here) and now that Spring is almost upon us again, it’s something you should keep in mind.

Especially as they are currently celebrating the 150th anniversary of Albert Kahn’s birth with a rich programme of event from 3rd – 28th March 2010 :

- an outdoor exhibition that will take you through the gardens whilst you learn about the man himself,
- a quiz for adults about Albert Kahn,
- 7 guided walks in the gardens with a ‘cultural mediator’ (I think they mean ‘guide’),
- 12 conferences to help you understand ALbert Kahn, his work and his era (with guests from the museum staff and other organisations),
- 24 showings of the BBC series about Albert Kahn, including multiple showing of the nine episodes and even a 10th, unseen episode about Japan,
- 4 showing of the film Albert Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt,
- 7 other screenings of films made by the museum or in collaboration.

Also, the museum he completely revamped its website (including a small section in English). There’s now a map fo the world that allows you to access the fifty-odd countries photographed or filmed by Kahn’s envoys between 1909 and 1931, with nearly 1,000 autochromes and films on offer. As digitisation continues, a large part of the museum’s collection (72.000 autochromes, the largest collection in the world, and 180,000 metres of silent black and white films, the 2nd largest collection of documentary films in France) will be available online.

The gardens are also well represented on the site. Via a map you can read about their history and see current photos.

The site also requests the help of visitors in adding, completing or correcting the legend of what they call ’shipwrecked’ photos (or ‘orphaned’, if you prefer). They’ve even made a snazzy film with techno-rock music to relaunch the site. How very hip!

Don’t let that put you off though. The museum is well worth seeing, the current temporary exhibition about Brittany that you told you about here is still on, and the gardens are just amazing.

The Musée Albert Kahn (here) is open every day except Mondays form 11am – 6pm (8pm starting 1st May). Admission is a ridiculous 1.5 euros ! And it’s free for under-12s!

New site: www.albert-kahn.fr

Facebook page ici.

The pyramids of the northern royal necropolis in Meroë. (c) M. Baud

Meroë is in Sudan, 200km north of  present-day Khartoum, and the wonders found in its pyramids – widely pillaged – are now scattered around the world. The exhibition has received loans from seven different museums and it is divided into several themes:

- everyday life
- trades
- social systems
- the kings and their insignias of power
- the role of the queens (« Candaces »)
- religious practices fusing the gods Amun from Egypt and Dionysus from Greece, and
- the people of Meroë’s own vision of the afterlife.

photo : (c) Jürgen Liepe

Excavation of the site is ongoing, with teams from the Louvre working away, and part of the exhibition will show some of the objects that have been found recently.

The exhibition Meroë, Empire on the Nile is at the Louvre (here) from 26th March – 6th September 2010. Open every day except Tuesdays from 9am – 6pm. Late night opening Wednesdays and Fridays until 10pm. Admission 9.5 € / 6 € after 6pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Official site: www.louvre.fr

The beune has to be seen for a start. Spacious and, er, wooden. 450m² organised around a central glass-roofed space. Wooden beams, old brick…

The Concept? As we explained above. Fashion, interior decoration, organic make-up…

Something to shake things up a bit then! There will also be an organic perfumes bar, and African-fusion food. Yum! As he flyer says « come as you are, with a touch of pink! ». They are nutso…
If you’re feeling a bit grey after a prolonged winter and need a bit of funky zest in your weekend shopping, this could well be it!

Living Colors is on the 27th & 28th March 2010 at the Cartonnerie (here) from midday to 8pm. Admission 2€.

Official site here.

Facebook group here (but not much going on). Myspace page here (ditto). Shame.

We’ve told you about our great photo project numerous times, and especially the exciting 2010 edition here. Each year a photographer is commissioned to present a new set of photos, and in 2010 that photographer is Patrick Tourneboeuf. We’re really pleased to be working with him, as his work is amazing.

That’s all in September this year. In the meantime, Patrick obviously has lots of other projects in the pipeline, and you can soon see his work and meet him at the Librairie de la Galerie, designed by Jacques Garcia, on 12th March 2010, together with two other photographers and an author. Perhaps this would be the moment to choose a photo to buy and have it signed by the artist?

photo : Patrick Tourneboeuf

The event is at the Librairie de la Galerie (here) on 12th March 2010 from 7 – 10pm.

Anthropomorphic figure, sitting © Museo Larco, Lima-Pérou

For the very first time in Europe, the exhibition « Sex, death and sacrifice in the Mochica religion » brings together 134 Mochica ceramics depicting sexual or sacrificial acts with a surprising level of realism, predominantly of a sexual nature between animals and/or anthropomorphous figures.

The Mochica craftsmen have moulded these non reproductive rites into their pottery, making the stylised sexual attributes the central themes of an iconography for ritual purposes whose boldness is as pronounced as the strength of their beliefs. Within this ideology dwells the concern for ensuring proper continuity of society and in a more general manner that of the whole universe.

© Museo Larco, Lima-Pérou

Truth told, there is nothing erotic about these astonishing representations, and their naturalism is just superficial, since they represent the essential part of supernatural entities or processes combining things that are normally far removed from one another: the living dead, animals with human attributes, gods who are at once destructive and regenerative. Intriguing and surprising objects that the exhibition will explain fully.

The exhibition Sexe, mort et sacrifice is at the Musée du Quai Branly (here) from 9th March – 23rd May 2010. Open Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 11am – 7pm; Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 11am – 9pm. Admission 8.5€ / 6€.

Official site: www.quaibranly.fr

Musée d'Orsay. Photo : JasonW

De Haan was, however, an important figure in Gauguin’s circle during the late1880s. Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Amsterdam, he revealed his artistic talents at a young age. His early work was influenced by Rembrandt. The scandal provoked by Uriel Acosta, a large painting now lost, forced De Haan to moved to Paris in 1888. It was there that he met Gauguin. His career and his style of painting were radically transformed by this meeting. From April 1889 to October 1890 he painted alongside Gauguin at Le Pouldu and Pont-Aven. Sérusier, Filiger, Schuffenecker, Morgens Ballin and Jan Verkade made up the rest of this more or less tightly knit group.

Meijer de Hann’s painting embraced and developed the principles of Synthetism championed by Bernard and Gauguin: simplification and flat areas of bright colour to evoke an image of Brittany readily perceived as ‘primitive’.

Autoportrait on a Japanese-style background © Fondation Triton, Pays-Bas

Guided visits of the exhibition are organised, as well as a special workshop for children following the artist’s travels from the land of windmills to Brittany!

The exhibition Meijer de Haan, the hidden master is at the Musée d’Orsay (here) from 16th March – 20th June 2010. Open every day except Mondays from 9.30am – 6pm (9.45pm Thursdays). Admission 8€/5.50€.

Official site: www.musee-orsay.fr

By the way, the museum warns that « some of the pieces presented in the exhibition may be shocking to some visitors (particularly children) ». Great for your blood-thirsty teenagers then! We investigate…

Musée d'Orssay. Photo: JasonW

Over the years covered by the exhibition, literature created many criminal characters. The title is itself taken from a work by Dostoyevsky. In the press, particularly the illustrated daily newspapers, the powerful fantasy of violent crime was greatly increased through novels.

At the same time, the criminal theme came into the visual arts. In the work of the greatest painters, Goya, Géricault, Picasso and Magritte, images of crime or capital punishment resulted in the most striking works. The cinema too was not slow to assimilate the equivocal charms of extreme violence, transformed by its representation into something pleasurable, perhaps even into sensual pleasure.

A great subject for an exhibition then. Beyond crime, there is still the perpetual problem of Evil, and beyond social circumstances, metaphysical anxiety. Art brings a spectacular answer to these questions. The aesthetic of violence and the violence of the aesthetic – this exhibition aims to bring them together through music, literature and a wide range of images.

© Musée Fabre de Montpellier Agglomération – photo Frédéric Jaulmes

Organised to complement the exhibition are guided tours – one for all the family, another (gorier?) adapted for teenagers – kids workshops, a cycle of films and several concerts.

The Crime and Punishment exhibition is at the Musée d’Orsay (here) from 16th March – 27th June 2010. Open every day except Mondays from 9.30am – 6pm (9.45pm Thursdays). Admission 8€/5.50€.

Official site: www.musee-orsay.fr

And why are we telling you this? Because the film’s co-produced by Why Not Productions, who not only look after the Cinéma du Panthéon just around the corner from us, but also run the Salon du Panthéon on the top floor, one of our very favourite places for lunch…

OK, it’s not far from our hotels, but even if it were we would still make the effort to go there. Too delicious! Too relaxing! We told you all about it here a couple of years ago (how time flies). Since then the word of mouth has made their reputation rocket and we would advise you to reserve in advance if you want to have lunch there. Or why not pop in during the afternoon for a tea break and some real calm?

Anyway, we’re very pleased for Why Not Productions that the film is having such continued success. By the way, it’s still showing at the Cinéma du Panthéon (times here). Alternatively, the DVD and Blu-ray are now available in France (without subtitles).

We’re crossing our fingers for the Oscars®, where A Prophet is in the running for Best Foreign Feature.

Official site for A Prophet: www.sonyclassics.com/aprophet

Le Salon du Panthéon is at 13 rue Victor-Cousin (here, 2 seconds from the Hôtel Design Sorbonne).

To reserve a table for lunch call +33 1 56 24 88 80 or drop in and see them!