Badaude

Last night in Aix...

 

TAGS: AIX, MARKET, SEXY WAITRESS, STUDENTS, MOONLIGHT, HEARTBREAK

Badaude's Paris Address Book - Five Hotel

Down a dusty little side street just off the boulevard Port Royal, there’s an ordinary-looking door. Open it and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re on the set of Barbarella: egg chairs; a gas pebble fireplace; eye-bending op-art wallpaper and furnishings. Errm, groovy, baby...

If you don’t think you’d necessarily want to wake up somewhere quite so exciting especially after a night out in the neighbouring rue Mouffetard bars, don’t worry. The bedrooms have been tastefully modernised in calm white with feature walls in funky colour schemes. Artworks by laquerworker, Isabelle Emmerique, prevent an impersonal feel. There’s a lighthearted and witty touch to the décor. My room had a ‘glittering canopy’ or pin lights on the ceiling and bathroom walls. Afer a short tuturoial, I worked out how to change their colour from soft to bright shades, or set them to a pulsing loop. Run a bath, turn off the main light in your bathroom, and let the spiraling points of light transform your soak into a disco experience.

The hotel has all the features you’d expect: WIFI, LCD TV; air conditioning – and a few you don’t; all rooms have a perfume diffuser. You can choose your fragrance from a variety of special blends (une touche naturelle, gourmande, tonique, relaxante, or sensuelle ) at reception and change them as often as the mood takes you.

My room at the top of the hotel also had a high bed suspended from the ceiling and two romantic floor to ceiling windows looking over the courtyard and the Paris rooftops.

 

The hotel has a small but perfectly formed room-service menu (no restaurant), but that’s no problem given the location. The Five Hotel is way down at the bottom of the Latin Quarter, on the border of the 13e, Paris’s Chinatown the biggest in Europe. This is Paris for the Parisiens; a relaxed area with a neighborhoody feel.  Nearby, you have the rue Mouffetard, the famous market street, now largely given over to student bars. If you find it a little overrun by young girl’s burial celebrations*, walk up the parallel rue Monge with it’s scattering of cool, bars and restaurants. I like to sit in a cafe the square by Metro Censier-Daubeton (between Mouffetard and Monge) or take an evening walk through the Jardin des Plantes (botanical gardens) or the gardens of the Observatoire (observatory), which are both a five-minute walk from the hotel.

There’s a fantastic Franco-Japanese patisserie, Sadaharu Aoki, right next to the Five. Buy a round of brightly coloured pastries and take them up to your room. Order green tea from room service and enjoy.

 

Five Hôtel
3, rue Flatters
75005 Paris
http://www.thefivehotel.com
Tel : +33(0) 1 43 31 74 21

*the French call hen parties enterrement de la vie de jeune fille 

The Picasson-Cezanne Exhibition...

continues at the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, until 27th September.

 

click on the image to view it full-size.

Badaude's Paris Address Book - Flore

I hardly dare write about this place. Is it just a (very expensive and effective) tourist trap or is it still the real deal? Like all landmark cafés, its present day worth is hotly disputed. The famous literary hangout with trees on the roof is still a place of pilgrimage for tourists wanting to catch a whiff of old-school Saint Germain but it's also a stopoff for mysteriously beautiful Parisians of both genders and a certain age wearing black trousersuits and shades. Are they highly successful editors, designers, movie producers? They sure as hell aren't writers (unless the editor's paying) but there's certainly an air of (moneyed) intellectual glamour wafting about the place.

 

Flore gets a better class of tourists (though perhaps a less interesting class of writers) as it is undoubtedly priced above all but the rich or visitors who are really, really keen on Simone de Beauvoir . Still, it’s worth stopping here once in your life for their home-made hot chocolate (made à l’ancienne with cream, milk and real melted chocolate) served in a silver jug (9 Euros). The room upstairs is for the regulars (allegedly); the terasse for the tourists, but the seats outside have a great view down the Boulevard Saint Germain so, take your pick.

http://www.cafe-de-flore.com

172 bd. St-Germain, 6e Métro: St-Germain-des-Prés Phone 01-45-48-55-26

Aix on Saturday

 

Click on the pic to make it bigger and, when you've done looking, click through to the great triporteur website below...

Tags: Aix-en-Provence, Cafe L'Astoria, Place Verdun, Saturday, coffee, cafe creme, students, Hermes, market, triporteur, missing persons, croquis, haircuts, arty farty.

Badaude's Paris Address Book - Paul & Joe

Haut-Luxe hippy chic fashion designed by Sophie Albou who named her company after her two small sons in 1995. The romantic boutique in rue des Saintes Péres resembles a boudoir and also carries the designer’s line of cute, colourful cosmetics.

 

For men and women who like a touch of colour, of pattern, of fur and leather, added to sober French cuts. I love the fine-gauge v-neck cashmere sweaters, which come in every colour, the 1970s-style schoolboy shirts and the silk camisoles. Others fall for the sweetie-coloured retro-styled silk cocktail dresses and coats or the cute knits which might have been designed for Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour or  Parapluies de Cherbourg.

 

This season the French designs are a little more utilitarian than usual, full of gingham and denim, and have a US workwear twist, complemented by floral voile maxi dresses and all-in-ones fit for an LA starlet.

 

The new label, Paul & Joe Sister is the big sis's credit crunch diffusion range, offering the same shapes in simpler cuts and fabrics. Next door is Paul & Joe for men, and little Paul & Joe. Paul & Joe would dominate this side-street off the Boulevard Saint Germain if it wasn't for Sonia Rykiel's empire which stretches down the rue and beyond to the rue Grenelle. Looks like, between them, Sonia Rykiel and Sophie Albou have the rue des Saintes Péres all sewn up.  

If, like me, you fall in love with the boutique’s opulent scent, it’s all down to the Votivo Redcurrant candle burning at the till.

 

66 rue des Saints Péres, 7e, St-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, 01-40-28-03-34, Metro: St-Germain-des-Pres

2 Avenue Montaigne, 8e, Champs-Élysées, Paris, 01-47-20-57-50, Metro: George V.

http://www.paulandjoe.com/

 

Fête des Mères

Mother's day in France was yesterday, a few months later than the Anglo-Saxon date and a lot more sunny especially when, as I am, you're in Aix-en-Provence for a while...

I eventually worked out that the yawning guy was the flower-wrapper's son when she started yelling, "Encore du Scotch! Encore du Scotch!*" and, like a dutiful fils, he ran off to get some.

* More Scotch Tape! (ie Sellotape)

The holistic apartment agency

When Susie Hollands moved to Paris after working in art galleries in London to found the artists’ agency, IVYParis she discovered that the non-French found it difficult to negotiate the internecine Parisian rental system, especially if they were planning a stay of several weeks or months. After sorting out accommodation for friends, she soon found herself discovering and managing a growing list of apartments for owners across the World.

 

Susie says her aim is always to find the right apartment for each client, whatever their budget and tastes. Paris is always an emotional thing. Everyone has their own particular Paris dream. With her unsurpassed knowledge of the city and wide selection of locations, she can make that dream come true even when her clients can’t quite pin it down themselves.

Melissa Ungerer, an East Village New Yorker, said Susie had to work hard to persuade her to check out a flat in the Canal Saint Martin, an area she didn’t know. She was surprised to find that, although she and Susie had just met, the neighbourhood and the apartment fitted her funky, single-girl lifestyle perfectly.

 

I stayed in Susie’s c apartment in the heart of the Marais, a stone’s throw from the Bastille. The apartment is an elegant, three bedroom affair with a balcony. It’s decorated in shades of ivory and scattered with antiques including 19th century chandeliers, a directoire daybed and an 18th century stone bust. The kitchen is modern; there’s extensive wardrobe space and WIFI access. It’s the perfect blend of Paris, old and new.

Susie provides a welcome-basket desirable basics including tea from Mariage Frères and a bottle of champagne. Diptyque candles scent the living room. This is the best of hotel living and - compared to hotels offering a similar level of luxury - at a bargain price. Its perfect if you’re visiting Paris as a family or a group of friends. And, if you’re willing to forgo room service, nothing could be more fun than living like a Parisian.

 

Contact Susie at www.bonapartconsulting.com

As you can tell...

... I'm still a little sore about this.

 

TAGS: Musée de la Vie Romantique, George Sand, cigarette stubs and coffee...

*jardin des mégots - cigarette butt garden/ashtray