Let's Explore

Check list to see and do Destinations Tours, Guides, Walks & Wheels Museums Sightseeing Famous Graves sightseeing destinations in Paris, around Paris, outside France, within France

  • Stairs and entry to exhibition Elsa Schiaparelli Shocking MAD ColleensParis
    Let's Explore,  Museum exhibitions

    Shocking! Surrealist Schiaparelli at MAD – Paris

    When is a fashion house a walking art gallery? When your audacious mentor is fashion designer, Paul Poiret, and two of your contemporary artist friends are surrealists, Man Ray and Salvador Dali. When you walk up the stairs of the Musée des Arts décoratifs (MAD) toward the rays of sunshine, prepare yourself to be transported into a world of design in the shocking surrealist Schiaparelli show at MAD.  The pink jacket with those sun rays greets you as you open the exhibition’s door. Welcome to the Elsa Schiaparelli retrospective, the first in 20 years. Shocking! The surreal world of Elsa Schiaparelli (Shocking! Les mondes surréalistes d’Elsa Schiaparelli ) continues until January 22, 2023. Admiring the multitude of form-fitting jackets…

  • Tour_Saint_Jacques_ColleensParisP2740063_2020
    Let's Explore,  Monuments

    How to Visit Châtelet’s Tour Saint-Jacques in Paris

    If you want to begin your pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, begin at Châtelet and the Tour Saint-Jacques in Paris. Or skip the pilgrimage and let MagmaCultura help you discover the fabulous history of the tower and its uses through the centuries. A specialized guide leads you to one of the most beautiful, panoramic views of Paris! Along the journey up 300 steps, you will also visit a room with tower decoration fragments and a meteorology room that was in use until 2000.

  • Artisans_Workshop_Tassin_Cuir @colleensparis.com @tassincuir La Maison Tassin
    Let's Explore,  Life in Paris & France,  Neighborhoods

    Life in Paris: Tassin Leather Continues an Upholstery Tradition

    Paris neighbourhoods have gone through gentrification significantly in the 2000s. Along Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine n the Bastille is no exception. The furniture manufactures and sales offices have given way to clothing and sports stores. There is hope, however, because La Maison Tassin Cuir (leather) continues an upholstery tradition. Their story includes drama. In 2015, a fire destroyed the company’s artisan workshops. Livelihood, unfinished orders from distant lands and their leather went up in flames. Like a phoenix, however, the Tassin company mobilised and moved into adjoining buildings. The former display room became the workshop. The business offices moved to another neighbourhood. Soon, by relative time standards, the salvaged tools…

  • Marcel Proust On his mother's side MAHJ dossier de pressed
    Let's Explore,  Museum exhibitions

    Marcel Proust on His Mother’s Side

    The “Marcel Proust-Du côté de la mère” exhibition has it all: Fake news, social, art and theatrical history, fashion and moral transformations and politics. A more in-depth look at Marcel Proust’s writings is illustrated by the use of the period's contemporary painters and photographers throughout the exhibition. Their scenes illustrate Proust’s words. There is so much to this exhibit, I recommend you visit to absorb the family history, Proust's observational history and the intensity of a time machine between the Belle Époque and the modern life of society and the rich contributions of modern Jewish families.

  • Image two dresses and coat dress Henri Matisse (The Dance) Black and White YSL colleensparis.com
    Let's Explore,  Museums

    Exploring the Musée de l’Art moderne and YSL

    What happens when your tour guide does not show up at the art museum? You become the beholder of the beauty on your own: Couturier art, painted art, creative food art and chocolate art. When the guide did not show up, a group of us walked into the Musée d’Art moderne (MAM)  and found Yves Saint Laurent’s couturier art and explored the MAM on our own to our own delight.  After the ad-lib visit, we went downstairs to the Forest restaurant and were surrounded by dancing art on the walls in an imaginary forest. For dessert, two of us went foraging for chocolate and came upon more art: artisan chocolate…

  • Image Musée Carnavalet with words Ville de Paris and poster of Marcel Proust Colleen's Paris
    Let's Explore,  Museum exhibitions

    Marcel Proust “A Parisien Novel” is a Novel Journey

    An unexpected pleasure came with choosing the wrong ticket. The ticket was not a Carnavalet Museum general admission ticket. My ticket was actually a timed ticket for Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust, is a well-known, popular Parisian author (1871–1922) who set his novels in the Belle Epoque of 1890s until 1922. The Marcel Proust A Parisian Novel (Un Roman Parisien) exhibit is a map of characters, fashion and scenery (exterior and interior) for the visitor's novel journey.... read more

  • ham and cheese sandwich the croque monsieur at the grocery store
    History,  Let's Explore,  Life in Paris & France

    How did le Croque-Monsieur get its name?

    Le croque-monsieur (croak-missyou) is THE real French sandwich. It is not just a ham and cheese sandwich made with two pieces of bread. It is toasted and it is famous. Le croque-monsieur is one particular sandwich that has made it's way from the brasserie and bistro to the microwave in France. Diners take photos of meals exquisitely arranged on the plate. Not many take a photo of a sandwich. These foods, however, do share something in common. They are available in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.