La Belle France» Culture

May 2012 online now!

Ashley — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:02:45 +0000

Dreaming of a fabulous summer vacation drifting quietly along the canals of Burgundy on a delightful barge trip? So were we. Check out our latest issue of La Belle France to read more about this, and:
-Les Enfants Terribles
-Bread & Roses: the perfect shopping break
-Paris’s Ecole Ferrandi cooking school
-The Ritz & the Crillon: renovations coming soon (some have already started)
-The Provinces Museum Calendar Summer 2012 (don’t go to France this summer without our cultural calendar on-hand!)

Versailles …not just for Royals anymore

Ashley — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:09:50 +0000

The French had a hard time “getting into” Sofia Coppola’s rock’n’roll Marie Antoinette movie with Kirsten Dunst… but it’s true love with Les Adieux à la Reine, the new film based on French author Chantal Thomas’s (not to be confused with lingerie designer Chantal Thomass) award-winning novel that focuses on the Queen’s reader on the eve of the Revolution. (This time round, the ill fated Austrian is portrayed by German actress/model Diane Kruger.) French theaters are filled this spring.
While France abounds with prettier, more romantic castles, Versailles is the one that continually tugs at the heartstrings. For years, the prettiest hotel in Versailles has been the Trianon Palace, abutting the palace gardens, with its kitchen currently supervised by British bad boy Gordon Ramsay. Unfortunately, the Trianon Palace has been bought, re-sold and re-vamped so many times over the last 25 years that its original Belle Époque charm has been lost in the shuffle.

To read more of this article from our April issue of La Belle France, login or subscribe!

Garden Festival

Ashley — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:42:18 +0000

From April 25 to October 1st, the Gothic Renaissance Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire hosts the 21st annual International Garden Festival. Located 200 kilometers south of Paris (between Tours and Blois), it’s worth a detour on your castle tour. This year, there’s even a (slight) cuisine connection: Chef Alain Passard chairs the horticultural jury. www.domaine-chaumont.fr Corinne LaBalme

March 2012 online now!

Ashley — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:54:18 +0000

Our March issue is online now… and if you’re a print subscriber, it’s in the mail! It features a cover article on Oscar Wilde’s final digs, L’Hôtel, as well as reviews of other favorite Paris hotels: Le San Régis and Le Saint James. In this same article we take a look at the new Paris “W” as well. Cast your vote on this one on our Facebook page. And there’s no time like springtime to take a look at what’s new (and gone) in Michelin.

As for Paris restaurants… L’Hédoniste quickly garnered much press as well as two toques from Gault-Millau. Do we agree? You’ll have to read it to find out.

Rounding out our March issue, we have a complete listing of the Paris Cultural Calendar for Spring 2012. Don’t go to Paris without checking it!

For all this and more, every month, make sure you are a current subscriber to La Belle France!

Hot Air

Ashley — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:40:39 +0000

In our latest issue, we review the whimsical and so stylish Saint James hotel. We love the a la Jules Verne-esque outdoor dining and bar area, featuring fabulous and fanciful hot air balloons!

Saint James Paris. 43 avenue Bugeaud, 75116. Tel: 01.44.05.81.81. www.saint-james-paris.com Forty-six rooms and two private pavilions from 310€ to 1,500€. Breakfast: 28€ or 35€.

Cartier Foundation

Ashley — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:54:31 +0000

Time’s running out… if you haven’t yet seen “Mathématiques: Un dépaysement soudain” at the Fondation Cartier. This novel exhibit — pairing top scientists with artists like David Lynch and Patti Smith — proves that Algebra and Geometry can be beautiful mind-games. Through March 18. www.fondation.cartier.com Corinne LaBalme

Photo © Olivier Ouadah

Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections

Ashley — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:51:24 +0000

No time to get to France? From now through July 19th, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington is featuring 77 paintings, prints, and sculptures by women artists from 1750 to 1850. Many of these works have never been seen outside of France. The exhibit reveals how women artists weathered this tumultuous period which encompassed the court of Louis XVI, the French Revolution, and Napoleon.

35 artists are featured, including Marguerite Gérard, Antoine Cecile Haudebourt-Lescot, Adélaïde Labille-Guillard, Sophie Rude, Anne Vallayer-Coster, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun. This fascinating exhibit explores how the political and social dynamics of the time shaped the lives and works of these talented artists.

Through July 29th

Painting: Rose Adélaïde Ducreux
Portrait of the Artist, ca. 1799
Oil on canvas
69 3/8 × 50 7/8 in.
Musée des beaux-arts, Rouen

Félicitations, Jean!

Ashley — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:00:14 +0000

We are all so excited about all involved in “The Artist” and their tremendous year! A big congratulations to Jean Dujardin, friend of La Belle France, for becoming the first ever Frenchman to win an Academy Award for Best Actor! Félicitations, Jean!

Learn to make Pommes Dauphinois in minutes

Ashley — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:34:26 +0000

Watch our new series on French cooking! La Belle France takes you to the hotels and restaurants of France every month, now we’re bringing French cooking to you as well. Here, we make the classic Pommes Dauphinois. Everyone loves this dish in restaurants throughout France, now you can make it quickly and simply in your own home!

Left your heart in San Francisco…

Ashley — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:43:44 +0000

Left your heart in San Francisco? Find it at the Duke’s Bar in the Westminster Hotel (13 rue de la Paix) on Feb 2, 9, 16 and 23 when NY/SF crooner Terrance Gelenter brings a little Tony Bennet/Bobby Short to the Place Vendôme at 9 pm.