Colleen's Paris Blog !

Coumba, Mangabey, ready for a nap, le Jardin des Plantes

The Zoo (La Ménagerie) at Jardin des Plantes

Associating a zoo with Paris strikes a different chord from looking at historic buildings....

Paris Needlework Fair Poster Aiguille-en-Fete - English 2012

Needlework Fair in Paris

Grab your knitting needles, embroidery threads, patchwork and hoops. The Paris Needlework Fair (l’Aiguille...

Images exquises-Musee de la Poupee-Paris

Paris Activities For 11 And 8 Year Old Girls

Lots going on in Paris for those traveling with girls aged eleven and eight....

The Renewable Energy Of Paris

Through the grapevine I hear that Paris is an open-air museum. True in some...

The Zoo (La Ménagerie) at Jardin des Plantes

By Colleen's Paris

January 30, 2012

Associating a zoo with Paris strikes a different chord from looking at historic buildings. However, le Jardin des Plantes is historical with its own zoo called La Ménagerie . Founded in 1794, this zoo is considered to be the oldest in the world along with de Schönbrunn in Vienna. Among its 2,000 inhabitants, the ménagerie celebrated 168 births in 2010. One of the newborns in the singerie (monkey house), Coumba, became a bit of a celebrity in 2011 with an accident. The inexperienced mother mangabey became too rough with her baby and broke its arm. Wearing a cast is a hard way to start off life for a newborn. Coumba, the female Mangabey was born in February 2011 and by the age of one and a half months was wearing an arm cast. Coumba’s arm repaired quickly as you will see in the Paris Mayor’s video . The video...
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Needlework Fair in Paris

By Colleen's Paris

January 26, 2012

Grab your knitting needles, embroidery threads, patchwork and hoops. The Paris Needlework Fair (l’Aiguille en Fête) takes place in February (February 9 and 12, 2012). The fair is not restricted to age or gender. The men are knitting along side the women and there is even a sporting event: Speed Knitting! The annual Paris needlework fair began in 2004, and continues to grow and attract talent from around the world. Susan O’Connor is flying in from Australia giving special classes in English. Her classes (January 31, February 1, 2 and 3) are being held at the famous Au Ver à Soie. The cornflower pinball and scissor sheath class is being held on Wednesday February 1 and the stumpwork class is on Friday, February 3. More details below. Contact Nathalie @ auverasoie.com Susan is is the Editor of the Australian Smocking and Embroidery magazine published quarterly by Country Bumpkin. Judging from...
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Paris Activities For 11 And 8 Year Old Girls

By Colleen's Paris

December 27, 2011

Lots going on in Paris for those traveling with girls aged eleven and eight. Exhibitions include the Babar in the toy gallery (until September 2, 2012) at the Musee des arts decoratifs. Toys for boys at he Musée de la Poupée, a fun little museum with a wonderful display of dolls through the ages. The doll museum currently have two exhibits on until March 11, 2012: the toys for boys and the other a joint exhibit with Choco-Story(also until March 11, 2012), the chocolate museum: “‘Exquisite Ephemera’ is a temporary exhibit in two parts presented simultaneously at the Musée de la Poupée-Paris and at Choco-Story, the chocolate museum, showing a selection of the best Victorian scraps from the ODIN collection. These two complementary exhibits show images representing children playing with dolls for the Musée de la Poupée and chocolate trading cards representing children from 1875 to 1915 for the...
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The Renewable Energy Of Paris

By Colleen's Paris

December 21, 2011

Through the grapevine I hear that Paris is an open-air museum. True in some respects, but it is a living open-air museum for some and the home front for others. Nothing stays the same. Search out scenes from a movie from another decade, and you might be disappointed. However, more recent movies by the dozen have left their prints. Look for that smoke filled room and it has probably been gentrified. The spirit of Paris, however, remains. Modernization can mean a return to what was. For example, the Parc Butte Chaumont will be restored to its 1867 landscape between 2013 and 2017. In the case of the Ritz Hotel, what was is faded. The hotel did not earn the label “Palace” so it is closing down the summer of 2012 and upgrading. The city, hotels and transportation are trying to become more accessible to those with limited mobility. Preparing...
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Santa’s Workshop Is Open For Business

By Colleen's Paris

November 18, 2011

Printemps Christmas 2011 Chanel's creative Karl Lagerfeld in Paris

What better way to kick off the holiday season, then with some holiday windows, lights, games, cartoons and a letter to Santa. The Champs-Elysées is illuminating Paris with an entirely new display along the boulevard called “Tree Rings”. The Christmas windows are lit at Galeries Lafayette in the theme of rock and roll. Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld are featured in Printemps’ windows with flight attendants, photographers and ballet dancers. Start planning your holiday sightseeing with Lots of Christmas in Paris, the Ferris wheel, merry-go-rounds, decorated streets and the festival/carnival at the Grand Palais. The list is long for holiday fun in Paris with holiday concerts and church services , nativity scenes, Christmas markets, holiday concerts and Christmas decorations with a Paris theme. One hundred and seventy-five chalets are set up along the Champs-Elysées, which is expecting 14 million visitors until January 3, 2012. The lights along the Champs-Elysées (statistics)...
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The Steins – Their Adventure in Being Avant-Garde

By Colleen's Paris

November 8, 2011

photo_famille_Stein_1906, © New Haven, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale

What fits in two small Paris apartments but takes up two exhibition floors at the Grand Palais? The Stein Collection. Gertrude Stein, the writer, and writer’s magnet in the early twentieth century was also an art collector. She, her brothers and sister-in-law set an avant-garde trend that showcased Matisse and Picasso. The original collection is so large that it now takes up two floors of the Grand Palais/RMN in Paris. Gertrude and Leo Stein lived in a small two-bedroom apartment in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. Their older brother, Michael, and his wife, Sarah, lived close by in a small two-bedroom apartment with a long hallway and high ceilings. They collected the work of artists before the artists became famous (Matisse, Picasso) or as an artist was being recognized (Cézanne). The collections covered their apartment walls. This adventure in art collecting at the advent of modernism can be seen...
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Small Concerts = Big Sounds

By Colleen's Paris

November 3, 2011

Autumn and Winter Music in Paris Great music by young artists or groups (with no government subsidies) resound from Paris venues with great acoustics: churches, small theaters, cellars, etc. The income for these artists comes either from donations or from a small portion of the entry fee they receive, usually between 10 and 15 euros). The concerts usually last about one and a half hours. The artists are obviously playing for the love of the music and their instrument. This season, Paris has two treats: Lydie Solomon and the Annual Marin Marais Festival. Fingers Dancing Toward Eldorado In May, one of Paris’ young artists performed in the Salle Gaveau concert hall. What a treat to sit in the upper balcony and watch her fingers dance across the keys as she took us on a voyage through Latin America with French and Latin composers and her own compositions. I thought her...
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A Light Beauty Facelift for the Eiffel Tower

By Colleen's Paris

October 12, 2011

General view of first level platform, Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is about to provide its visitors with a step into dizzying suspension. Soon visitors to the first level will look straight down the Eiffel Tower through a plate of glass instead of looking through the fence. The idea of the architect, Alain Moatti, is to give the impression of floating above Paris. In its third major renovation since 1889, a portion of the Eiffel Tower’s solid flooring will be transformed into a 1.5m (5 ft) wide platform of glass. An inclined glass barrier is designed to replace the present grilled fencing. The work begins February 2012 and will be available for viewing during the summer 2013. The present buildings from the 1980s with their mirrored windows will give way to transparent, windowed buildings to give the visitor the sense of openness into the surrounding space. The lateral walls framing the glass façades will be painted in...
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Exhibitions

Needlework Fair in Paris

Paris Activities For 11 And 8 Year Old Girls

The Steins – Their Adventure in Being Avant-Garde

Poster Des Jouets et des hommes, RMN/Grand Palais Paris until January 23, 2012

Any Age Enjoys a Good Toy at the Grand Palais

“Des Jouets et des homes” (Of Toys and Men) at the Grand Palais in Paris presents a history of toys in the Western world and spotlights their importance in children’s education right from birth” until January 23, 2012. Influences Boys had the neatest things to play with growing up. Coming from a family of...