From Parisian Style to the Past Revived – A Week in Paris
Celebrating life in Paris, Paris Makers, and the strange, new, true and beautiful – forever !
💥 Opening tomorrow, a collision of two historic Parisian retail cultures – the department store and the flea market – as the Marché Paul-Bert Serpette lands at Le Bon Marché for its new-season exhibition Tous à la Ferme. Curated by Gilbert Kann – art and design advisor and lifelong Puces devotee – the pop-up brings a handful of the market’s dealers into the department store, including friends such as Galerie Vauclair and Remix Gallery, with a selection of furniture, decorative arts and design around a pastoral spring theme. Vive les Puces!
Pick up my book The Paris Flea Market in the bookshop. 👀
⚜️ Stepping further back in time, Une journée au XVIIIe siècle, chronique d’un hôtel particulier has just opened at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, inviting you to immerse yourself in the life of a Parisian townhouse of the 1780s, a few years before the Revolution reshaped life in Paris. Recreated with over 550 objects – from furniture, wallpaper and silverware to fashion accessories, toys, and even household pets – the exhibition also highlights the clever inventions of the day: folding furniture, tables on wheels, and even an ingenious curved eye-bath, all reminders that the 18th century was as much about innovation as it was about elegance.
📚 In honor of Georges Perec’s 90th birthday this year, the Archives de Paris presents Archives d’une Enfance, exploring the writer’s lost childhood and picking up where his semi-autobiographical W, or the Memory of Childhood left off. Orphaned during the war, Perec spent much of his life investigating memory, absence and the fragments of his early years through his writing. The exhibition juxtaposes his texts with archival documents, tracing his journey from Belleville to the family’s exile and his attempts to recover all that was lost.
👔 Across the Atlantic, The Cut magazine just dropped a small Spring Fashion supplement The Parisian Man that investigates the legend of the stylish Frenchman via portraits of 40 Parisians, from all walks of life, generations, body types and sartorial persuasions, through the lens of the exceptional Paul Kooiker. No hair or makeup stylists, most simply wore what they showed up in. Here’s a handful of interview extracts from a couple of our friends and heroes:
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac: “My wardrobe is like my art collection.”
Ramdane Touhami: “First, I have a rule: no plastic, no polyester. I only wear things that come from nature.”
Paul B. Preciado: “Fashion, in the industrial sense, I find mortifying.”
Benoît Astier de Villatte: “My father, Pierre Carron, who was a painter and also my professor at the Beaux-Arts, passed on a great deal to me in terms of taste. He would rewear things, mending them, repairing the edges, or finding creative ways to make his clothes last.”
🍷 The always buzzing Septime La Cave, a kind of anti-chamber next to the no-reservations Clamato, run by the same team, serves gourmet nibbles to pair with its natural wine list – think olives, Bigorre pork terrine and Comté 24 mois. In a block party spirit, they’ve teamed up again with like-minded neighbours Louie Louie to bring pizza nights back to the wine bar, currently serving a Savoyarde-inspired creation topped with morbier, raw cream, baked potato, pickles, smoked fennel oil and dried beef, served in two rounds every evening from 7pm. Yum.
See you there!
Thanks for reading
Kate x
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!
On Fridays: Flea market intel - in-depth guides, behind-the-scenes stories and practical tips (this content will eventually be paywalled, but Life in Paris will remain free).