#082 ✰ wanders at Le Bon Marché
and curiosities from Sarah Andelman - remember colette?
I have mixed feelings about Paris. I dislike how rude and precious people usually behave. I dislike the non kid friendly atmosphere - metro access, playgrounds, restaurants.
But I like that -pretty much- everything is visually pleasant: perspectives, facades, people, window displays of any shop - even drugstores (yes, look👇 don’t you suddenly want to brush your hair with a 130 year-old heritage pure boar bristle brush?! I do).
I like that most walls and buildings have already seen so much. I like that there is constantly something to discover and be amazed about. I think I like Paris, in the end.
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Last Friday, I walked from Tuileries, rive droite, to Le Bon Marché, rive gauche. I was listening to the excellent Hermès podcast, the whole story: from that german saddle maker to the birth of the Kelly bag, the Birkin bag, the Carré, Petit H reverse design, LVMH unsuccessful moves to takeover: an ode to craftsmanship and desirability.
What better view than this one. I had to pause. Millions of people would spend their savings just to see this once in their life. I was just passing by.
After a coffee with my brother at Noir, where apparently Fashion Week was just getting started, I reached my destination:
L E B O N M A R C H É
Le Bon Marché (1852) is probably the most iconic shopping temple in Paris, in France, in the world? In 1883, french writer Emile Zola, author of Au Bonheur Des Dames described it as the “cathedral of modern commerce”. I am saving this incredible story for a future newsletter.
Inside Le Bon Marché, every single object - be it a cushion, a notebook, a pair of sandals, a perfume, a dress or a macaron - is a caress for the eyes.
And that building, please.
Mise en Page
- running til April 21st -
Mise en Page is a temporary exhibition by Sarah Andelman, the lady behind the colette store (1997-2017), “the most influential store in the world” - remember?
In this exhibition 'Mise en Page’ (literally Page Layout) Sarah Andelman celebrates book stores and edition around the world, with a selection of merch, notebooks and other interesting objects. She invited french artist Jean Jullien, with whom she’d often collaborated for colette, to design this original artistic world. The whole layout is extremely poetic. I especially loved the coffee area - look at these chairs!!
I expected to meet with books. I wandered through a cabinet de curiosités: insolite works of art, such as… dirty plates or toaster bookends:
… and objects: bearbrick aroma ornaments, bananagrams take-everywhere word game, insanely messy puzzles, catchy notebooks, ‘c’est comme ça’ plant captions, retro notebooks, luxury boardgames, the exquisite magazine F (food documentary) and magazine B (business and destinations) collections, or this lyrical children book illustrated by Jean Jullien:
I met with the lovely founder of Ryvdoll, a magnetic doll that you can dress over and over. Ever played with paper dolls as a kid? This is her magnetic sister.
And my favorite piece so far - probably because, well, who wears that?
I purchased two Nuuna notebooks, one for me, one for kev. And took off.
That’s it for today.
From Paris with love.
Good vibes et bisous.
Mathilde
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The acquired podcast!!! The best