Visionary auteurs, artisans & reimagined interiors … A Week in Paris
Celebrating life in Paris, Paris Makers, and the strange, new, true and beautiful – forever !
🎬 A mini Frederick Wiseman season has opened at Le Louxor’s Ciné-Club. The legendary American documentary filmmaker, known for his intimate, unscripted portraits of communities, is introduced each Sunday by Fabienne Duszynski, who offers context and fresh ways of seeing without replacing the simple pleasure of watching. Next Sunday: Blind (1986), an immersion in the Alabama School for the Blind. And don’t miss his great and possibly final film, Menus-plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023), streaming now on Mubi.
✊🏽 Cinéma La Clef reopens! After six years of struggle, Paris’s iconic community-run, socially engaged cinema finally throws open its doors this Wed. Since 1973, La Clef has championed bold cinema – from African and Caribbean voices to workers’ cinema. It’s now always programmed collectively and operates on a pay-what-you-can basis, inviting audiences into worlds, stories and communities often ignored by more mainstream screens. This week’s programme here: laclefrevival.org. The café opens 1h before each session.
And watch Martin Scorsese on why La Clef matters: preserving films, keeping movie theatres alive, and safeguarding the experience of watching cinema together.
📷 Bold, a brand-new festival at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson dedicated to self-published photo books, takes place this weekend. Celebrate independent and experimental photography and publishing with an exhibition of the 35 shortlisted books for the first edition of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Self-Published PhotoBook Award, plus a reading room, talks, workshops and a pop-up bookstore. Don’t miss the special focus on artist Stephen Gill, a pioneer of self-published photo books via his imprint Nobody Books.
🩵 Our friends the domino paper makers and decorators Antoinette Poisson open a dedicated boutique on the Left Bank at 2 rue Bonaparte – their dreamy 11th arrondissement courtyard atelier will now operate solely as a workshop. Explore their ever-growing range of artisanal designs – signature wallpapers and fabrics to stationery, perfumes and candles – alongside collections from like-minded guests, kicking off with a takeover from the curated concept store Chez Dede from Rome. Opens Wed!
🪶 Meanwhile, at the Maison de Victor Hugo on Place des Vosges, Victor Hugo, décorateur reveals a lesser-known side of the literary giant. After denouncing Napoleon III, Hugo was forced into exile, eventually spending 15 years on Guernsey with his mistress Juliette Drouet, where he poured his creativity into interior decoration. The exhibition explores his Paris interiors and the two houses they inhabited in Guernsey, revealing Hugo as an imaginative colourist, ensemblier and master of playful domestic spaces.
🪑 And finally, Maison&Objet opens this Wed (14–19 Jan), bringing the international design and interiors world to Paris for the biannual trade fair. Expect exhibitions, launches and off-site events rippling across the city all week, across galleries, showrooms and pop-ups. The Puces de Saint-Ouen will be buzzing all weekend of course, as dealers, designers, and collectors converge.
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).
Love this curation of Paris happenings across film, design, and independent publishing. The Frederick Wiseman season at Le Louxor is fascinating because his observational style strips away narrative scaffolding and forces viewers to sit with institutional rhythms most documentaries gloss over. La Clef reopening after six years feels symbolic given how rare it is for community-run spaces to survive both financial presssure and urban gentrification. The Bold festival sounds incredible since self-published photobooks often take risks traditional publishers wont touch.