Sailing in the clouds: Louis Vuitton, Paris

Curiosity took me recently to the suburbs of Paris to see Frank Gehry's extravagant construction for France's richest man, Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault. 
The Fondation Louis Vuitton is designed as a cultural centre to house Arnault's collection of modern and contemporary art, borrowed works for exhibitions, and a concert hall.

On the edge of the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement, it's designed as a vast sailing ship, intended to appear as if floating, suspended, above the ground.

To create the ship effect, beneath it is a sort of sunken, artificial lake, with water cascading towards it. 

Above, twelve enormous glass 'sails' are draped in curving, billowing shapes. 
It's impossible to get the whole building in camera view from the ground, but a side view gives some idea of the scale.

The effect is spectacular, certainly, and gets more so the higher you ascend to the roof top.

But the sails, and the crazy amount of timber and steel columns, beams, struts and props needed to support the illusion of weightless sails from afar, actually do rather block the views and potential connections with the surroundings.

Inside there's a ground floor restaurant with giant suspended sculpted fish, another of Gehry's favourite forms 

and impressive gallery spaces.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the place though. Critics have called it a 'crazed indulgence of over-engineering' in which the overwhelming effect is of a building with lots and lots of empty, functionless space. 

And local residents protested vigorously against its construction, on the grounds that it broke multiple laws intended to preserve the character of the Bois. But, proof that money talks, their objections were overruled when a special law was passed in the Assemblée Nationale declaring that it must go ahead as a 'major work of art for the whole world'. 

Whatever you think of it, it's worth a visit for the building alone, and now to see a major exhibition of Modernists - Les Clefs d'une Passion (here).

Iconic Paris

The Seine, the views from its bridges, rive gauche, rive droite, the Louvre, the Eiffel tower ... these must be amongst Paris's best known and most photographed images. Overworked and clichéd for sure, but somehow still impossibly photogenic in every season and type of weather. Here, in autumn, from my last visit there.

View of the Eiffel tower from the roof terrace restaurant Les Ombres at Quai Branly museum and, below, crossing the river, looking forward to the Palais de Tokyo and Paris Museum of Modern Art  - and back to the tower, silhouetted by a sunburst.

Alternate Paris

It's not Fez or Muscat, but Paris. The Grande Mosquée de Paris is a peaceful haven in the centre of the city that I discovered in the autumn. It has the fountain and tree-filled inner courtyard and brilliantly coloured mosaics of typical Moorish architecture (its builders inspired by the Alhambra), and there's also a tearoom in a pretty tree-shaded courtyard where you can have thé à la menthe and North African pastries.

From here it was an easy walk towards the Seine, through the Jardin des Plantes, past the quaint Natural History Museum going back to the French revolution ...

to the contrasting modernity of the Institut du Monde Arabe

for a close-up view of architect Jean Nouvel's amazing building: 
a metallic brise soleil is constructed of hundreds of light-sensitive openings - the shapes inspired by traditional middle eastern latticework façades - that regulate the amount of light entering the building. 

These 'eyes' open and shut in response to the amount of sunlight, creating and re-creating shifting geometric patterns on the outside, as well as changing interior spaces with filtered light - function and aesthetics merging perfectly. (I noticed only later, looking at the photos, how the paving stones on the ground mimic the façade).

From the terrace surrounding the glassed panoramic restaurant on the roof of the Institut there are fantastic views of the Île de la Cité and Île Saint Louis

Merci Paris

While in Paris my friend Felicity and I met up with Carol from Paris Breakfasts who lives in this city, lucky fish. Carol offered to show us some places neither of us had been to. But first she came to check out our hotel ...

Isn't this a dream city-rooftop garden?

... Bourg Tibourg, a tiny, exotic gem - so tucked away it's easily missed altogether from the outside - where Jacques Garcia's design is Gothic meets oriental meets Napoleon III, yet the atmosphere is super-friendly, homely and welcoming.

We wandered northwards through the Marais, not quite managing to avoid entering en route countless patisseries of which Carol is madame the expert and connoisseur ...

Motorcycles are the way to get around here, clearly, whether you are a chef, a chic biker girl or just passing through ...

In my fantasy Paris life I would move in right here and park my Vespa on the balcony ...

How we managed to avoid temptation at the Boulangerie Beaumarchais I don't know ...

but we were headed to lunch in the Cantine Merci - on the ground floor of Merci on the boulevard Beaumarchais, with a view to the potager ...

where the food is all fairtrade and organic. 

You don't just get to feel virtuous though ... their salads were quite possibly the most delicious I've had in my life.

Merci inhabits three light and bright floors of a former factory. It's all about creative but also responsible retailing - all its profits go to charity.

I loved the vintage red Fiat 500 at the entrance and the iconic Parisian fishtank ...

Merci Carol for Merci Paris
xx