Not to be outdone by the Christo-wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe, Bernard Arnault, chairman of Dior and LVMH, has had a monumental building on the Champs-Elysées wrapped following “Christian Dior’s original drawings of 1955 that were recently discovered in the Dior archives,” according to the Dior company’s press release. The release emphasizes that no public funds were used to wrap the building and that Dior will recoup the expense by selling products presented on the somewhat recyclable wrap. Nevertheless, public security forces were called in to control crowds dressed in the “new look” who attended the inauguration of the Dior wrap.

Only those showing a Louis Vuitton bag or the credit card receipt for an equivalently priced bag were admitted inside. Scanners denied entrance to numerous holders of knock-off bags. (Authentic LV bags were available at a stand specially installed next door for foreign visitors.)  Several anti-baggers demanding a free memorabilia Dior swatch were arrested.

In inaugurating the Dior wrap, Mayor (and presidential candidate) Anne Hidago said, “Arnault overwhelms us, prods us, makes us talk, so whatever he wants to do is fine by my administration.” She would neither confirm nor deny that François Pinault, another French billionaire, has recently applied for permission to wrap a building on Boulevard Haussmann. But she did say: “My friend François Pinault just finished unwrapping the Bourse de Commerce gift that Parisians bought for him for 86 million euros, so that will likely keep him happy until Christmas.”

Meanwhile, at the top of the Champs-Elysées, the Christo-wrapped Arc de Triomphe continues to dazzle.

© 2021, Gary Lee Kraut

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Imagine being invited into the home of modernists living behind 17th- and 18th-century facades in the Saint Germain Quarter, behind 19th-century facades near the Opera, behind early 20th-century facades near the Bois de Boulogne, studying the cover of a vinyl record while listening, perhaps with stereophonic sound, to Duke Ellington or Gilbert Bécaud or Sydney Bechet, maybe Miles Davis playing on a three-track stereo tape,

or stretching out to read Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus or Alain Robbe-Grillet or Elle.

Imagine sitting in the living room of certain members of the comfortable class of la bonne bourgeoisie, looking to break with the 18th-century originals and copies that signified sophistication in the homes of their parents, debating whether to open dad’s 1949 Burgundy or Bordeaux, and if the Bordeaux then the Chateau Latour or the Chateau Petrus,

or facing a television set in the living room tuned to the single channel of Télévision Française, or discussing the politics of the flailing Fourth Republic and then of Charles de Gaulle’s return from the desert to take the reins of the Fifth.

Pascal Cuisiner, owner of the Galerie Pascal Cuisinier, invites visitors to take a seat, or at least a view of a seat, in the lap of years 1951 to 1961 through an exceptional collection of 100 chairs, armchairs, sofas and other seating from what he calls “the first modern French designers.” He uses the term to refer to those born around 1925 and 1930 who were among the first to design furniture for mass production. Mass production for these designers during the hinge years 1951 to 1961 often meant production in small series, hence the uniqueness of Cuisinier’s collection.

The exhibition “100 sièges français” runs Sept. 6 to Oct. 15, 2014 at two locations: at Cuisinier’s namesake gallery in the 6th arrondissement and at the Jean-Michel Wilmotte Exhibition Space in the Marais, the larger, more attractive setting of the two.

During an interview at the latter, Cuisinier speaks of his role, as gallery owner, in “defending a concept, a designer, a style,” ensuring an expertise for his clientele of collectors, decorators and individuals in tune with the aesthetics of the period from 1951 to 1961.

That’s a period when aspects such as tubular metal legs, flat springs and the use of latex foam and elastic strapping were considered ultra-modern or avant-gardist.

“Taken together,” he notes, “they represent one of the most radical departures from tradition ever seen in the history of furniture design, both in France and the world over.”

Citing René-Jean Caillette, Genevieve Dangles and Christrian Defrance, Pierre Guariche, Joseph-André Motte, Pierre Paulin and designers from the Atelier de Recherches Plastiques (ARP), Cuisinier says that many of the designers whose work interests him would go on to become well-known in the 1960s and 1970s and to run major design agencies.

Residents of and visitors to Paris are likely familiar with the work, if not the name, of Motte (1925-2013), who designed the brightly colored molded chairs that began to replace the old wooden benches in many metro stations in 1973.

Cuisinier typically holds two 6-week exhibitions each year in his gallery while otherwise showing a sample of assorted furnishings from the period of his focus in his gallery.

***

Wondering what to wear, Mesdemoiselles, Mesdames, while sitting your imagined chair on the Left Bank or on the Right? See this video about the exhibition about the “New Look” and the emergence of ready-to-wear at the Palais Galliera, the City of Paris’s Fashion Museum, running July 12 to Nov. 5, 2014.

***

Galerie Pascale Cuisinier, 13 rue de Seine, 6th arr. Open Mon.-Sat. 10am-7pm. Tel. 07 43 54 34 61.

Jean-Michel Wilmotte Exhibition Space, 9 rue du Roi Doré, 3rd arr. Open Mon.-Sat. 10am-7pm.

Cuisiner also presents his gallery at PAD London, Design Basel and Design Miami.

Palais Galliera, 10 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, 16th arr. Open Tues.-Sun., 10am-6pm, until 9pm on Thurs.

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut

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“I’m just a result,” she says while outlining the family history in gemstones since the 17th century. The family long lived in the last valley of Jura before the Swiss border. Her grandfather left the valley for Paris, where in 1929 he created a workshop for cutting colored gemstones.

“As a little girl I was surrounded by things that glimmer,” she says.

She recalls the excitement in the family workshop and at home with the approach of the imperial coronation in 1967 of Shabanu (Empress) Farah Palavi, wife of the last Shah of Iran. Langlois was 12 at the time and some of the gemstones intended to decorate the empress during the ceremony came from their workshop.

Langlois has remained true to the family niche of colored gemstones and claims to work with the widest variety of stones on rue de la Paix. Rue de la Paix and Place Vendôme do indeed form a rather diamond- and crystal-studded runway. “What I know how to do best is work with an assortment of colors,” she says.

She has a particular affection for floral themes—flowers and bouquets that don’t fade—with a good deal of butterflies and angel also present in recent collections. She says that she especially enjoys working with sapphire, with the padparadscha, a rare orange-to-pink variety, being her “ultra.”

She purchases many of her stones from a brother who operates a gemstone cutting workshop in Thailand. Another brother operates a workshop n Paris.

After working as a jewelry designer for a variety of other houses she began selling her creations under her own name in 1998. Her collections are now available in 24 countries, including the US, Canada and the UK. Asia has become her largest market. Langlois’s ambition is global yet she thinks of her own creative spirit as remaining very French, and particularly Parisian in its search for balance and elegance. “We,” meaning Parisians, “have plenty of flaws,” she says, “but at least we have that,” meaning balance and eleganc.

Langlois’s haute-couture approach doesn’t launch prices into the stratosphere, particularly since she doesn’t focus on work with diamonds. Her windows in the courtyard off rue de la Paix show pieces mostly in the 500 to 5000€ range (about $700-7000), along with some high-priced creations. Or as she says, “I make jewelry at the price of a very nice dress.”

The small shop and showroom are open to the public during normal business hours. Because of the international scope of her business Langlois isn’t always present though, so to have the pleasure of meeting in person this amiable creator of fine jewelry it’s best to make an appointment.

Isabelle Langlois, 12 rue de la Paix, 2nd arrondissement. Metro Opéra. Tel. 01 42 46 75 00. For locations worldwide where Isabelle Langlois jewelry is available and to contact by e-mail see www.isabellelanglois.com.

© 2014, Gary Lee Kraut

Map

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In 1912, dance fanatics flocked to the Théâtre du Châtelet to watch Vaslav Nijinski and Tamar Karsavina of the Ballets Russes perform new-fangled ballets like Firebird and Spectre de la Rose. During intermission, bemused spectators would thumb through elaborate programs for Cocteau’s take on what it was about.

Parisian couturier Jean Doucet chose this historic venue to premiere an All-About-Avian Spring/Summer 2013 haute couture collection that didn’t need any footnotes.

With Irina Kolesnikova of the Saint Petersbourg Ballet making a star pirouette on the runway, fashionistas checked out a Very Vogue Version of Swan Lake.

In Doucet’s re-staging, good girl Odette snags the guy since Irina got to wear the feathered wedding dress in the finale—although, come to think of it, back-stabbing Odile was also invited to the party.

Far, far from the avenue Montaigne crowds, Jean Doucet’s salon adds a spark of glam to ever-so-slowly gentrifying Bercy district at 6 rue Jean Renoir in the 12th arrondissement.

© 2013, Corinne LaBalme

Corinne LaBalme, a Paris-based writer, journalist and editor, is currently working on development of a series life-style documentaries for Muses Productions.

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* * *

By the time the Hotel Lutetia opened its doors in 1910, well-to-do visitors to Paris were familiar with the extravagance of hotel luxury in the City of Light but they hadn’t yet experienced it on the Left Bank. Palatial lodging had until then been a Right Bank affair: Hotel du Louvre, the Meurice, the Ritz, Hotel Normandy and others flourished in the triangle between Place de la Concorde, the Opera and the Louvre, Paris’s primary luxury zone of the Belle Epoque.

Wealthy visitors, including British aristocrats and the like, flocked to that Right Bank zone where, without traveling far, they could call on fellow French aristocrats (who’d had the good sense to marry the wealthy heirs of banking and industry), visit the Louvre by day, attend the Garnier Opera by night, luxuriate in tea rooms, hotel bars, high-class prostitution, see the sights, check out the latest art, fashion and jewelry and shop. There was little reason to stay elsewhere.

The Left Bank also had its shopping attraction in the name of Au Bon Marché, a temple of modern commerce created by Aristide Boucicaut. In the 1860s Boucicaut had launched the concept of the department store—all you could want in a single place—in France and well beyond. The square between Le Bon Marché and the Lutetia would eventually be renamed Square Boucicaut.

The owners of Au Bon Marché (its name was eventually changed to Le Bon Marché by the LVMH group, which has owned the stores since 1984) therefore devised a plan to further cater to the needs and whims of the crème de la crème of shoppers while also attracting members of government (the houses of parliament and most government ministries are nearby) and notables associated with the universities in the Latin Quarter: they would built a hotel unrivaled on the Left Bank.

The hotel was given the grand name Lutetia, after the town developed along the Seine by the Romans after their conquest of the local tribe of Celtic Gauls known as the Parissi. The Lutetia’s architects were Louis Hippolyte Boileau and Henri Tauzin, who designed a building that was a precursor to the Art Deco style. Boileau’s grandfather was the initial architect of Au Bon Marché beginning in 1867, a project to build Paris’s first specifically designed department store that was taken over by Boileau’s father. Boileau himself worked on an expansion of the store in the 1920s.

Though the initial exuberance at the new hotel was stopped in its tracks by the First World War, the Lutetia took off with a bang during the Roaring ‘20s and assumed its role as a purveyor of the spirit of luxury on the Left Bank.

Lutetia’s construction, however, didn’t create a major wave of top-tier hotel construction on the dense central Left Bank. Instead, luxury pursued its evolution on the Right Bank as it extended its reach to the area surrounding the Champs-Elysées. The Hotel Plaza-Athenée which opened on avenue Montaigne in 1913, served as a cornerstone for the development of high-pampering hotels to either side of the Champs-Elysées, then well on its way to becoming a new sector for Paris extravagance.

One hundred years on, the Right Bank, specifically the first, eighth and sixteenth arrondissements, remains the natural herding ground for high luxury lodging and shopping and the preferred bank for department store shopping in Paris.

With 231 rooms, including 60 suites and junior suites, plus a large plush lounge-bar, a magnificent banquet room, meeting rooms, a brasserie and a gastronomic restaurant, the Lutetia’s size makes it an oddity on the central Left Bank. Perhaps because of that the Lutetia seemed to lose its way in the 1990s and early 2000s as boutique 4-stars claimed control of the hotelscape of the 6th arrondissement and edging into the 7th (Relais Christine, Aubusson, Pont Royal, Montalembert, Bel Ami, Villa d’Estrée, Relais Saint Germain, etc.), even if some of those boutiques are quite the store.

I remember going to the Lutetia to meet friends who were staying there in the late ’90s and finding its atmosphere slightly reminiscent of 1945, when the hotel served as a repatriation center for displaced persons and concentration camp survivors. Its dark days from 1940 to 1944 when the occupying German took it over as headquarters for their military intelligence services (Abwehr), however, were long gone. It was a decent place to stay, alright, but I had come to see the Lutetia as yet another Concorde hotel: fine but soulless, on the Left Bank but no longer imbued with the exuberant intellectual spirit of the Left Bank of the 20th century, a 4-star chain mentality in a pretty body. Le Bon Marché still offered fine department store shopping but entering the Lutetia was like going to the mall.

It’s time now to reconsider that point of view.

Since 2010 the Lutetia has been the property of the Israeli Alrov Group. Though still under Concorde management, the Lutetia is in the process of reclaiming its discreet yet showy side, a duality that a hotel must master in order to garner attention in the absence of a glowing article in The New York Times, a few glossy magazine spreads, a juicy sex scandal or Starwood points.

The Lutetia has a ways to go if its owners fantasize about joining the ranks of the “palaces,” as they top-tier hotels are known in France, yet the building was designed with as much luxury in mind as the famous names of the Right Bank, so the physical potential remains. Meanwhile, 5-star status mostly requires the will do so at this point. In any case, this is a property worth keeping an eye on.

As a business destination this been a sure bet all along at the right price. It has now been successful of late in enhancing its design, art, and literary cred, which has helped shake off its chain reputation, making it more appealing for free-spirited leisure travelers.

The Lutetia is a 4-star hotel, among the city’s finest in that category, especially for such a large hotel by Paris standards. But stars alone do not make a hotel; travelers should be wary of the star inflation over the past two years as France has harmonized its categories in line with other European countries. Five-stars are not always more prestigious than four.

The Lutetia has more upgrading to do in terms of service and in some of the rooms in order to restore its wow power through and through. Nevertheless, many of the rooms are on fine footing and nearly all have have size in their favor, even the 7th floor rooms, originally reserved for chauffeurs and other personnel accompanying the fortuned clientele. And certain aspects of the Lutetia are clearly intended for a 5-star or even palace clientele. In particular, there are several drole or chic and in some cases spectacular designer suites that, along with works of art in the public spaces and the Art Deco spirit of the building, earns the Lutetia its designer cred.

The more eye-popping of those designer suites—signature suites, they’re called—are clearly intended for high-end travelers, e.g. the 1300-square-foot fifth-floor suite decorated by the sculptor Arman on the themes of music and African art; the Littéraire Suite with its own library; the shoe-themed suite with works by the artist Thierry Bisch; the filmmaker David Lynch has decorated a suite that is an ode to his adoration of Paris. The 7th-floor Hiquily Suite can only be thought of as the female nude suite since they appear everywhere: lamps, table bases, mirrors, etc.

Museum-quality photography adorns the walls of several suites that have been decorated in collaboration with Paris’s Maison Européene de la Photographie. Some of the signature suites have stunning views out to the Eiffel Tower or over the center of the capital. These suites are generally beyond the budget of 4-star travelers and even many 5-star travelers. Yet the more self-assured 5-star travelers who generally look toward the Right Bank for luxury hotel options will not feel like their slumming by considering this Left Bank 4-star option.

Space limitations on the central Left Bank ensure that smaller 3- to 5-star hotels are bound to dominate the hotelscape in the area. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see that the Lutetia is fighting for its reputation and doing a good job of ensuring a place where visitors can live large on the Left Bank.

For those staying in a 4- or 5-star hotel where boutique may be a code word for a lobby you don’t want to sit in and a receptionist who serves as bartender, it’s worth keeping the Lutetia in mind when in search for a somewhat sophisticated place for:

– a meal: Paris, a gastronomic restaurant (one Michelin star) cheffed by Philippe Renard and decorated by Sonia Rykiel, open Mon.-Fri.; Le Lutetia, a brasserie, open daily; a “jazzy brunch” served Sundays noon-2:30pm Sept-May;

– a literary event: among them, events held by the association Les Mots Parleurs, which organizes readings and literary encounters at the hotel one Saturday evening per month;

– a musical evening: in particular jazz in the lounge-bar Wednesday to Saturday evenings, 10pm to 1am, under the programming of in-house pianist Daniel Roca, and

– a drink at Le Bar du Lutetia. Did I mention that I have a cocktail named after me here? No? Well, continue to “Gary’s Cocktail at the Bar of the Hotel Lutetia” for a singular account of how that came about.

© 2013, Gary Lee Kraut

Hotel Lutetia. 45 boulevard Raspail, 6th arrondissement. Tel. 01 49 54 46 46. Metro Sèvres-Babylone. Small spa area. Stylish cigarette and cigar room by the bar. A monthly schedule of literary and jazz events and exhibitions at the Lutetia can be found here.

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Never mind.

He went window shopping instead.

Imagine his surprise when he came upon a shop that sold leather accessories for the feet.

What an odd concept he thought, and he took a picture.

If he were to accessorize at all he might shop at this digit decorating shop:

But they wouldn’t allow him inside either.

So he stepped into a world where shoes weren’t required,

and from there he sent us these photographs with best wishes for merry trekking and travels in the coming year.

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Even when historians speak of Alsace-Lorraine they’re mainly speaking of the former, since all of Alsace was included in that once-disputed region but only a part of Lorraine.

Furthermore, there isn’t much of the way of distinctive Lorraine cuisine to promote outside of the region. Even in Paris, the only mention of Lorraine that you’ll ever find on a menu is quiche Lorraine.

Unlike L’Alsace, a winning, cliché-heavy restaurant on the Champs-Elysées that does an excellent job of promoting Alsatian cuisine, the brasserie La Lorraine, off the Champs on Place des Ternes, ignores its namesake in favor of brassy, upscale Parisian brasserie fare. And along the street in front of Paris’s Gare de l’Est, the East Station, from where trains to Alsace and Lorraine depart, the brasserie La Strasbourgeoise (named for the capital of Alsace) is another good choice for Alsatian fare while Le Bistro Lorrain is a…. pizzeria.

Truth be told, there isn’t much in the way of Lorraine cuisine even within the region, where the harsh soil has allowed for little culinary fantasy beyond pork dishes, including the pork-and-cabbage stew/potée Lorraine, and the famous, bacon-enhanced quiche Lorraine. There’s a good amount of perch and trout from the rivers but no special fish dish that has left a mark outside of the region. And with all due respect for its wine (vin gris de Toul and Moselle), its local beer-making traditions, and its spring water from Vittel, none of those drinks is cause alone to travel, as satisfying as they may be.

Lorraine as a name remains unevocative in part due to the historical incongruence of its cities: there’s photogenic Nancy, marked by Renaissance flourish, 18th-century refinement, and Art Nouveau curves; there’s Metz, which brings together French classicism and German monumentalism; there’s Verdun, which calls to mind the horror and sacrifice of the trenches of WWI. Each of those worthy destinations (to be explored in future articles in the Northeast France section this site) is easily accessible from Paris. Since 2007 high-speed trains from Paris can rush a traveler to Nancy or Metz in 1:30 or to Verdun in 1:40, but it’s unlikely that the traveler will think of himself as going to Lorraine but rather to Nancy or Metz or Verdun.

Nevertheless, inside Paris’s Gare de l’Est the boutique En passant par la Lorraine… attempts to evoke an unevocative region with what little there is to unify it: the mirabelle plum and a 16th century folk song.

En passant par la Lorraine is the name of that song. It’s a little ditty about a woman passing through Lorraine in her clogs and it has given the shop its name and its kitsch little clogs for sale. The mirabelle plum has given it most everything else.

If visiting France anytime mid-August through September, be sure to put on your list of food experiences a trip to any market to pick up some mirabelles, sweet yellow-golden plums that are likely to come from Lorraine, which assures about 80% of the world production. Also keep an eye out for mirabelle tarts in the bakeries.

Since En passant par la Lorraine… doesn’t sell fresh produce, you won’t find any fresh mirabelles here, or even a mirabelle tart, but you will find most anything else imaginable one can do with mirabelles. You’ll find them in jams, in preserved terrines, in canned stews, in mustard, in soap, in biscuits, in chocolate, in candy, in liqueur, in beer, and in brandy.

Two other traditional dry cakes from the region decorate the colorful shelves in this shop, Madeleines de Commercy and Marcarons des Soeurs, along with regional beer and brandy (eaux-de-vie), jams and preserves made from other regional fruits (particularly blueberries/myrtilles), and various fruit-flavored bon-bons (notably bergamots de Nancy), all with a regional bent.

For heated and/or refrigerated regional fare, you’ll have to go across the street from the train station and one region to the east to the deli-caterer Schmid, which considers itself “The ambassador of Alsatian gastronomy in Paris since 1904.” There you’ll find the staples of Alsatian culinary regional identity: choucroute (sauerkraut, served with potatoes and a choice of sausages, bacon, and/or pork), kuglehopf (a molded cake with raisins), Munster cheese, and strudel. Though 400,000 of Lorraine’s Mirabelle trees are “protected” by the appellation “Mirabelle de Lorraine,” plums don’t stop at the regional border, so Schmid offers the aforementioned mirabelle tarts. Canal Saint-Martin, a 10-minute walk from here, is the place of choice for a picnic in the area.

Both Lorraine and Alsace are known for their Christmas markets, which begin around December 6, the Feast of Saint Nicolas. An alleged relic of Saint Nicolas, his phalanx, was brought from Italy in the late 11th century to the Lorraine town that now goes by the name Saint Nicolas de Port. Eventually Nick was named patron saint of Lorraine. It’s nevertheless neighboring Alsace, evocative as it is, that most highly promotes its Christmas markets. In December stalls selling Alsatian food and products are set up in front of Gare de l’Est, led by sausages, Gewürztraminers, and Rieslings.

Lorraine is far more discreet. So the shop En passant par la Lorraine… is your best bet for information—and at least some bon-bons—if curious about the region or before taking the train east. Chances are 50-50 that you’ll come across manager Jean-Paul Lacroix, himself an excellent ambassador from the region. He can tell you (in English) the history of these various products, such as how candy made from bergamot oranges from Sicily came to be used in a specialty of Nancy. If asked politely, he might even sing a little song, as he did for me: En passant par la Lorraine/Avec mes sabots… oh oh oh, avec mes sabots.

© 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

Practical information

-Boutiques

En passant par la Lorraine… Gare de l’Est, 10th arr. Metro Gare de l’Est. Tel. 01 40 35 47 80. Open Mon.-Sat. 7am-8pm. En passant… has other shops, all in the Lorraine region.

Schmid 76 boulevard de Strasbourg, 10th arr. Metro Gare de l’Est. Tel. 01 46 07 89 74. Open Mon.-Fri. 9am-8pm, Sat. 8:30am-8pm.

-Restaurants

La Strasbourgeoise 5 rue du 8 mai 1945, 10th arr. Metro Gare de l’Est. Tel. 01 42 05 20 02. Open daily noon to midnight.

L’Alsace 39 avenue des Champs-Elysées, 8th arr. Metro Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tel 01 53 93 97 00.  Open 24/7.

La Lorraine 2 place des Ternes, 8th arr. Metro Ternes. Tel. 01 56 21 22 00. Open 7am-1am.

The post Looking for Lorraine in Paris and Finding Alsace along the Way appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

I first met Leyla Ahi at a white picnic beside the Eiffel Tower one summer night, where she flitted about like an ivory moth, stopping long enough to pour me a glass of Champagne and, as the lights on the tower twinkled 11pm, to invite me to visit her stand at the Puces (Flea Market) at Saint-Ouen.

In the fall I did, and I found Leyla as adept at serving tea as she is Champagne. Not that she stayed long by my side here either. Here in the Marché Dauphine where she specializes in old and antique textiles, wall-hangings, and their trimmings, her passion, energy, and peddler’s vigor don’t allow her to stay still. She is constantly bringing over cushion tapestries, table mats, swaths, trimmings, and lengths of embroidery and pointing out table cloths, cloth lampshades, embroidered vests, Catholic ceremonial dress, tapestries, tassels, and braids.

The explosion of colors, shapes, motifs, and arabesques of the textiles Leyla sells make her stand a treat for the eye—and for the fingers, too. “Touch,” she says, “feel this.” After visiting so many don’t-touch museums it seems almost illicit to be fondling the 18th- and 19th-century fabrics that are Leyla’s specialty (she carries 20th-century pieces as well).

Leyla was born in Iran in 1973 and moved to Paris with her family when she was 10. Persian traditions are obviously in her blood. It’s no accident that her father sells carpets, rugs, and French tapestries in the small adjacent stand. Nevertheless, Leyla entered the textile field via her own detour, which included initial studies in law and in archeology, making her passion for the puces a personal affair. A natural when it comes to buying, selling, and negotiating, she enjoys her own treasure hunts as well as those of those of her customers. She says that she appreciates the dusty aspect of these flea markets, adding that “these are antique dealers, not dealers in dust.”

Leyla’s wares draw many decorators and designers, professional or not. Collectors stop by as well, as they do throughout the puces, yet the colorful, touchable articles here especially work up the creative juices of a clientele looking to rework old fabrics and tapestries into contemporary decorative items or clothing.

Ask Leyla about an article’s original use so as to benefit from her knowledge in traditions of techniques, of use, of the way in which a fabric was worn or hung. Then ask yourself what you might do with it. With enough imagination, you can find dozens of uses for every piece of old or antique fabric or tapestry. Or simply enjoy the feast for the eyes and for the fingers.

Leyla Ahi
Marché Dauphine, stand 55
138 rue des Rosiers
93400 Saint-Ouen
Tel.: +33 (0)6 13 40 31 10
E-mail: leylaahi@hotmail.com

Opening time: The Fleas at Saint-Ouen are open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday 9am-6pm. Leyla is also usually at her stand Friday morning and can otherwise be available by appointment. Many other stands are also open for several hours Friday morning, around 9:30am-2pm. The markets are announced as being reserved for professionals on then, but in fact anyone can go.

This is from an occasional series on the Puces de Saint-Ouen, the vast array of flea markets with 2000 stands and shops on the northern outskirts of Paris. While portions of the Puces sell new, knock-off, or downscale items, they are known nationally and internationally for their permanent stands dealing in antiques, vintage articles, collectables, and by-gone objects. The stands are grouped into 15 different sections or markets spread over 17 acres. Stands aren’t strictly grouped by theme though a number of dealers may sell similar types of objects in a particular market. The term flea market can be misleading since these sellers in these shops and stands are well-established, highly professional, and present quality and/or specialized goods.

Websites: For more information about the Saint-Ouen Flea Markets at Porte de Clignancourt see www.parispuces.com.

Getting there: Marché Dauphine, in which Leyla’s stand is situated, and other markets at the Puces de Saint-Ouen can be reached by one of two metro stops. From station Porte de Clignancourt (line 4) walk about 500 yards north (to just beyond the highway overpass) then turn left onto rue des Rosiers. The walk will take you past the hustle and bustle of shops, stands, and sidewalk sellers of cheap and counterfeit goods, past the rag-and-bone and new-but-cheap market, and perhaps a few pickpockets along the way. The calmer, less intimidating walk is from station Garibaldi (line 13), via rue Charles Schmidt then rue Lecuyer, which leads to rue Paul Bert. Rosiers and Paul Bert are the main streets through the serene and genteel sector that houses the more notable antique and vintage dealers—not without its own rag-and-bone charms. Those who might be uncomfortable walking amongst urban and suburban character and characters, or unwilling to do so in bad weather, will prefer taking a taxi directly from the hotel to a specific market or simply to the corner of rue des Rosiers and rue Paul Bert.

© 2007, Gary Lee Kraut

The post At the Flea Market: Leyla’s Antique Textiles appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.