Fleeting Beauty & Bold Gestures – A Week in Paris
Celebrating life in Paris, Paris Makers, and the strange, new, true and beautiful – forever!
▶ After touring Europe, Nan Goldin’s retrospective devoted to her videos and slideshows This Will Not End Well arrives in Paris, opening Wed at the Grand Palais. Now 72, the legendary American artist admits she always wanted to be a filmmaker. My slideshows are films made up of stills – immersive sequences of photographs, sound and music drawn from more than 50 years documenting life among friends, lovers and family. Installed inside a series of pavilion-like structures designed by architect Hala Wardé, the exhibition unfolds as a kind of village of intimate cinemas, presenting six of Goldin’s major works. They include The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, her magnum opus, and The Other Side, a moving tribute to the trans community she photographed from the early 1970s onward. The journey culminates across the Seine at the Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière with the return of Sisters, Saints, Sibyls, Goldin’s searing installation on family trauma and the legacy of suicide, first created for the space in 2004.
🍷 Fleur Godart, longtime champion of natural wine and her father’s free-range chickens, has transformed her earlier project Vins et Volailles into Fine Fleur, a buzzing café, canteen, grocery and wine bar in Saint-Ouen, just a short stroll from the Puces. The space reflects the vision of an inspiring personality – storyteller, advocate for sustainable farming, and champion of creativity and community in Paris – and sees you through the day: morning coffee, a relaxed lunch on the sunny terrace, an afternoon snack, or a glass of wine for the apéro.
🎀 Designer Johanna de Clisson launches George Ruban Libre this week, a new mono-product brand making a single, XXL wool ribbon – 2.5 meters long and handmade in France – that can be tied as a bow, cravat or ascot. Unisex, timeless, and endlessly transformable, it turns a single gesture into an instant signature.
👗 La mode du 18e siècle. Un héritage fantasmé has just opened at the Palais Galliera, exploring women’s fashion during the Age of Enlightenment and its lasting influence on contemporary style. Over 70 garments, accessories and works of art are on display, including Marie Antoinette’s fragile corset, alongside iconic pieces by Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood and Dries van Noten – showing how 18th-century silhouettes continue to inspire haute couture, kitsch and camp alike.
🌸 And finally, the cherry trees at the Jardin des Plantes are in bloom, heralding the arrival of spring next week. A handful of spectacular Prunus – from the iconic white Shirotae along the main Perspective to the deep pink Kanzan, delicate Alba Plena, and early-flowering Oregon plum – transform the garden with their spectacular blossom and perfume, reminding us, in the spirit of the Japanese tradition of hanami, to pause and savour life’s fleeting beauty.
PS There’s other cherry trees in Paris to admire: in the Tuileries, Trocadéro, Parc de Bagatelle, Père-Lachaise, parc Martin-Luther-King, Square René-Viviani, Jardin Tino-Rossi, and the Parc des Sceaux.
Thanks for reading :)
Kate
Welcome to Paris, Puces. on Substack. Expect the best of : LIFE IN PARIS 🇫🇷 each week, plus expert intel and tips from the world’s most epic FLEA MARKET✨ Art, Fashion, Design !
On Mondays: Life in Paris postcards - a curated mix of sights, bites and delights, celebrating Paris Makers, and the strange, new, true, and beautiful, forever!
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