The Elysee Palace: presidential grandeur in Paris

Wondering where the French president lives and works? Right in the middle of Paris, in the Elysée Palace. In 1718, a town house was constructed on a plot of land in the then-sleepy area of Paris known as the Faubourg St-Honoré to serve as the residence of the Count of Evreux. Built and decorated between 1718 and 1722, the house was designed and laid out in accordance with the prevailing principles of contemporary architectural theory. At his death in 1753, the Comte left a town house that was admired by all his contemporaries, one of whom called it the finest country home in the neighbourhood of Paris. Passed on through the ages to various owners and occupiers, regal, powerful, socially connected and revolutionary, the palace has been transformed, redecorated, remodeled, modernized. In 1848, it was designed the official residence of the French president. Located at 55, rue du Faubourg St-Honore, the palace boasts beautiful private apartments, a presidential office, a wine cellar, a private florist, and magnificent English-style gardens. While it is not possible to tour the presidential palace, one can peek into the courtyard through the open gates on Wednesday mornings when the entire cabinet visits. If you’d like to get an idea of what the president eats, baker Rene Gerard St. Ouen brings fresh bread to the president twice daily; his boulangerie is located at 111 Boulevard Haussmann (metro Miromesnil, line 9). Take a marvelous virtual tour HERE of this elegant tribute to French architechture; you’ll see the entire palace getting ready for a president dinner. Spectaculaire!

The new Orsay Museum in Paris

Step inside the Musée d’Orsay and you may just wonder where you are. Le Nouvel Orsay has been the talk of Paris lately. So, after 18months of renovations, what exactly is new about it?

• More gallery space. Most of the new space comes from additional levels built inside the Amont pavilion. A welcome change for anyone used to elbowing their way through the crowds. New works will be brought out from storage, especially from Orsay’s decorative and graphic arts collection.

• New color, new floors, updated lighting. The white walls have mostly been replaced by blues, grays, and greens, and hardwood now covers the previously stone floors. Plus, with its warmer lighting you may think you’re in a living room rather than a museum. Overall, the New Orsay has a cozier, more intimate feel. Less, in fact, like a train station.

• New, more thought-provoking presentations. “We will put the artworks into context with other disciplines: history, literature, music, even philosophy and psychoanalysis,” says Museum director Guy Cogeval. Look for similarities, make connections. You’ll find Rodin sculptures, for example, in the Impressionists Gallery.

• Bigger cafe! The Café de l’Horloge was refurnished and expanded. More room for hungry crowds and souvenir shoppers.

• And that’s not all. More changes are to come, beginning in 2012 when renovations will begin again in the smaller galleries; projected finish date: 2015.

One thing about the Nouvel Orsay is NOT new, however: its October 20^th opening date was delayed a week by a workers’ strike !

Travel in the steps of the Impressionists as you roam throughout Provence. You’ll be struck by the many reminders of Vincent Van Gogh in Arles and nearby St-Remy-de-Provence. Many of his most famous paintings stem from his time in and around this area, where he lived from 1888 to 1889: his bright sunflowers, his curious bedroom in Arles, the atmospheric Night Café with its green billiard table and glowing lamps, as well as his famous Starry Night paintings (Starry Night, and Starry Night over the Rhone). He painted Arles’ narrow, cobblestone streets, its marketplaces and cafés, and the yellow house where he lived for a short time with his friend and fellow-painter, Paul Gaugin. The rich countryside of Provence also inspired him and he painted neatly-tilled cornfields and fertile valleys, orchards in bloom, sunsets near Arles, and cypresses in the moonlight, all in deep, rich oils of yellow, orange, green and blue.

Van Gogh suffered all his life from bouts of insanity – the people of Arles nicknamed him “le fou-roux” (the redheaded madman) – and it was indeed here in Provence that he cut off part of his right ear after a violent argument with Gaugin. “Starry Night” and several other well-known paintings and self-portraits (one showing his bandaged ear) were done when he was at the asylum in Saint-Remy, twenty miles from Arles. In the summer of 1890 Van Gogh died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is buried in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. His brother Theo reported Vincent’s last words as, “The sadness will last forever.” In spite of his dark and tragic end, Van Gogh should be remembered as his friend Gaugin once painted him in a portrait entitled: “Van Gogh, the Painter of Sunflowers” (1888).

For more about the life and the art of this tragic genius, much of whose life was spent in France in the company of the Impressionists, read the excellent biographical novel by Irving Stone: Lust for Life. You can also visit his room at the sanitorium in St Rémy which is a poignant reminder of his suffering.