Parismarais Newsletter
Issue 64 january 2011
http://www.parismarais.com

Bonjour Parismarais readers,

January might seem like a letdown after the holidays in some places, but in Paris the first month of the year is eagerly awaited for two reasons: the soldes – five weeks of retail sale mania (Jan. 12 to February 15) – and the haute couture fashion shows (Jan. 24 to 27).

If you are planning to visit the City of Light this month, best to come before or after Fashion Week and the other professional fashion expos that take place at the end of the month, which will fill the city with models and fashionistas and make hotel rooms scarce and pricey.

Following the cold snaps and snow in December, the weather has been unseasonably warm and pleasant, with only intermittent rain, another good reason to come now.

Anyone who has visited the Marais recently has probably noticed that the neighborhood is even more chic and upscale than ever and is turning into Paris’s new fashion center. No less a fashion luminary than Jean Paul Gaultier has made it his base, along with a number of other designers and artists.

Here’s a lunchtime tip for both visitors and residents: one of the best lunch deals in town can be found at the restaurant F&B (14, rue Charlot; tel 01 42 78 02 31), where a three-course lunch menu costs only €15. ( more selected restaurants : http://www.parismarais.com/selected-restaurants.htm )

See below for information on hotels – including new additions to the Parismarais long term – apartment rentals and guesthouses – and exciting events in Paris.

Until the next time!

Pascal Fonquernie
Editor, Parismarais.com

Discover Thirza Vallois
new electronic books about Paris.
Nothing compares to them.

Welcome to Thirza Vallois's new website. It will keep you abreast with her upcoming writing and speaking engagements.  Watch out for the upcoming electronic edition of her Around and About Paris series, Volume 1 for now (arrondissement 1 to 7).
All the secrets and stories of the Marais, its architecture, nooks and crannies, will unfold on your Kindle, Ipad or Iphone...Unless you wish to download them as PDFs.
http://www.thirzavallois.com/home.html

BOUTIQUES HOTELS AT THE BEST PRICE EVER :

We are happy to announce new luxury hotels are joining the parismarais network.

Hotel Crowne Plaza ****

The Hotel Crowne Plaza Paris République, has been entirely renovated in 2010. Ideally located on the Place de République, this square will soon be one of the finest pedestrian areas in the upper Marais. The hotel offers 328 air-conditioned rooms (standard, Club Rooms and Suites). It has been redecorated in an audacious 60s style. Built in the 19th century, at the same period of the Opera Garnier, the hotel’s unique, sumptuous façade is distinctly Napoleon III. Easy access from the République metro station is also a plus. Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Opera Garnier and the historic Marais are also nearby. All the top tourist sites are easily accessible in just moments, as well as the key convention halls. If you’re travelling by TGV, Thalys or Eurostar, you’ll be at the doorstep of your hotel in just 10 minutes since it is half-way between the Gare du Nord and the Gare de Lyon train station. The restaurant “Le Dix” serves traditional French cuisine while the Bar offers a warm Club atmosphere, perfect for a relaxing moment. The Hotel Crowne Plaza is the only Hotel in the North Marais that is a terrific place for your receptions, conventions or weddings with its 18 module salons that can welcome up to 400 people. With our direct connection to the Hotel, you will always benefit from the best rooms and best rates when booking with parismarais.com.

Rooms from 150 euros.

Hotel Marais Bastille ***

The ideal location close to lively bastille area and the architectural wonders of le Marais.Best Western Marais Bastille Hotel is located on a wide avenue lined with trees, which means you can get to some of Paris’key locations on foot. These include Place de la Bastille, the famous Place des Vosges, build under king Henri IV, the Bastille Opera House, the Marais quarter that has 170 superb mansions to visit including the Picasso museum and the marvellous Hotel Carnavallet , now historic museum of Paris. Our central location offers convenience to both business and holiday travelers, with numerous transport options available nearby.

Rooms from 109 euros.

HOTEL JACQUES DE MOLAY ***

Welcome to a 400 year old home, completely renovated in 2004. Hôtel Jacques de Molay, on rue des Archives just a short walk from the Archives Museum, is an experience in its own right. Enjoy a friendly and warm atmosphere in a medieval inspired decor tempered with a of Provençal styling.
It features 23 exquisite rooms where the modern world subtly finds its place… superb colorful bathrooms, satellite TV, Internet access and minibar. Enjoy a great breakfast buffet after a workout in the private fitness club with sauna, hamman, hydrojets showers or simply relax in the lounge bar. We can host private parties as well as business conferences.

Rooms from 90 euros.

In the Marais, very few hotels can boast of a true fitness center. With glass roofing, open to natural light, the Hotel Molay has a great gym. The room is air-conditioned and the bio-ethical decor is all natural wood. There are a variety of exercise machines, weights and barbells, body building apparatus, cardio-training, hydraulic rowing machines, a dry sauna, private changing rooms and hydrojet showers.
Even if your trip to Paris is just a few days, you can keep in shape day after day at a reasonable price: 12 euros a day or 70 euros a week… And this offer is available even if you stay in other neighborhood Marais hotels or apartments. A great and unique offer exclusively from ParisMarais.com.
Hotel Molay Fitness : from 12 euros per day!

RENT A CAR WITH RENAULT

Discover the French Favorite Car Maker : Renault and its prestigious new models

You can now, rent them for a day or more and have it delivered to your hotel.
Call Renault Rent and ask for parismarais.com special offer.

96 Rue AMELOT 75011 PARIS
tel : 01.49.23.55.55    fax : 01.49.23.54.20

How About going to the Riviera, Loire Valley, Burgundy and drive a glamorous Megane Coupé-Cabriolet or the Upscale new Latitude, seriously competing with  Audi and BMW… or the Laguna Coupé… Have a new vision on french cars…

Renault Mégane Cabriolet

Renault Latitude

Renault Laguna Coupé

L’Antiquité Rêvée, at the Louvre…

Art styles come and go with the ever-seesawing cycles of fashion just as surely as hemlines and shoulder widths change every few years. One style that is always sure to make a regular comeback is the Antique, and this seems to be one of those moments when it is exerting its fascination: three current Paris exhibitions touch on the question of Antiquity in the arts.
The mega-show at the Louvre entitled “L’Antiquité Rêvée: Innovations et Résistances au XVIIIe Siècle” focuses on the revival of Antique tastes in 18th-century Europe, largely in reaction to the decorative exuberance of the rococo style, which made the relative austerity of Roman and Greek art something of a relief.
This was not the first time European artists had looked back to Antiquity, of course – everything Antique was big during the Renaissance, and it remained a reference point in the ensuing centuries – but this exhibition concentrates on 18th-century interpretations of it in painting, sculpture, architecture and furniture, at a time when all the arts “were looking to the past for the sources of modernity,” as the exhibition’s curators put it.
During the 18th century, the hot topic was whether modern art could equal the works of Antiquity. The debate was fueled by archaeological discoveries and excavations (among them Pompeii and Herculaneum), the development of art history as a discipline and the opening of the first museums.
The exhibition looks at the question from many angles. Works by Edme Bouchardon, for example, show how artists who looked to Greek or Roman models for inspiration often depicted their subjects in a more lifelike, dynamic way, as in his “L’Amour se Faisant un Arc dans le Massue d’Hercule” (1750), based on the often-copied “Eros Stringing His Bow” by Greek sculptor Lysippos. While studying copies of the statue, Bouchardon also did careful studies of a live model to create what is now considered a masterpiece of French 18th-century sculpture.
The exhibition also illustrates the backlash to neoclassicism, with examples of what the curators call neo-Baroque (e.g., Francisco Goya and Jean-Honoré Fragonard)

David, whose reputation survived the French Revolution and ensuing political upheavals, is also used as an example of late 18th-century “triumphant” neoclassicism, with its martial themes, cult of Virtue and glorification of heroes. The show ends, however, with an atypical painting by David: while it harks back to antiquity with a mythological subject, it has nothing triumphant about it. “Psyche Abandoned” (pictured at the top of the page), dating from 1795, is an unfinished work that shows Psyche sitting completely naked and vulnerable, caught as if by a flashbulb in the depths of her grief after being deserted by her lover, Cupid. She has pulled her hands away from her face and stares hopelessly at the viewer, her cheeks flushed and her eyed rimmed red from her tears. This lovely work, which presages the Romanticism of the 19th century, belongs to a private collection, making this a rare chance to see it. Nearby is a marble statue of Psyche, also from a private collection: Antonio Canova’s “Standing Psyche” (1789-92). The half-naked beauty, delicately holding a butterfly (symbol for the soul) between her fingers, is meant to represent the union of body and soul. The curators point out how, compared with an Antique statue, Canova’s work is less static, with the body turning in space. (Canova’s masterpiece “Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss” can be seen in the Louvre’s permanent collection.)

Heidi Ellison
http://www.paris-update.com

Read more on paris-update.com: http://www.paris-update.com/fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1094:lantiquite-revee-gerome-a-anticomania&catid=34:temporaryexhibitions&Itemid=53

Musée du Louvre: Hall Napoléon. Métro: Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre. Open Wednesday-Monday, 9am-6pm (until 10pm on Wednesday and Friday). Closed Tuesday. Admission: €11.00. Through February 14. (The Louvre is also holding an interesting exhibition called “Paper Museums: Antiquity in Books 1600-1800” through Jan. 3). www.louvre.fr