HTSI editor’s letter: Paris, city of might
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Bonjour! And welcome to Paris, where I am currently writing this editor’s letter from a hotel in Saint-Germain. Right now, I can see a squad of tourists queuing to get coffee at Café de Flore (thanks, Emily in Paris). Next door, Brasserie Lipp is serving steaks and dauphinois in its fabulously grumpy style.
The scene could have been captured years ago – some of the waiters have been serving the tables here for decades. But however jaded one might feel about falling for the clichés, Paris is too beautiful, too ornery, too glamorous to resist.
This issue acts as a curtain-raiser for a year of celebrations. Welcome to Paris 2024. With the Olympics arriving in a few months, the city is in a mad rush to polish up before the torch arrives. Typically, the French are approaching the Games and their attendant visitors with customary ennui; if you really want to engage with a local, just start a chat about the traffic on the roads.
Nevertheless, the Games are coming and preparations are ongoing. Among the most spectacular renovations will be the unveiling of the Grand Palais. The famous dome has been closed for the past three years to undergo a €466mn renovation: we have been granted first access by the project’s architect to have a look around. Some 55 companies and 200 subcontractors have been working on the facelift, which has included everything from basic plumbing and glazing to specialist gilding and the restoration of the mosaics first installed during the belle époque. The building will officially reopen in 2025, but the central nave will be ready to host the fencing competition and taekwondo in the forthcoming months. Matthieu Salvaing has taken a dazzling portfolio of pictures. Having only seen the nave used for elaborately staged Chanel shows in the past decade, I have found it quite a revelation to admire the empty space.
Left Bank or Right? That is the question. And Parisians are emphatic about the preference they have. In our property special we meet Thierry Gillier, the founder and chairman of Zadig & Voltaire (and, it transpires, the grand-nephew of the man who invented Lacoste’s famous cotton piqué polo shirt), who has lately given up a minimalist apartment in the 16th for an opulent expression of the more bohemian Rive Gauche. The house is one of those apartments one imagines is pure Paris, a delightful conjunction of hardwood flooring and enfiladed rooms. Add to that a priceless collection of modern artworks and a ground-floor kitchen and it quickly becomes the most enviable of homes.
Interiors superstar Maxime Flatry has meanwhile been championing the art deco movement from his Saint-Germain-based gallery. His passion for the subject, plus his very starry list of patrons, has propelled him to the top of the antiquarian scene. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs commends his “exceptional eye and impeccable taste”, while Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier says Flatry “has almost made the tastes of the time evolve”. Not bad for a chap who first started selling pieces on social media, and especially impressive considering he’s still only 30 years old.
For those who want sightseeing, we’ve also done a tour of Paris – via its design galleries (see How To Spend It in… Paris with Laura Gonzalez), and via photographer Joachim Müller-Ruchholtz, stylist Kyanisha Saphire and model Sophie Koella, who staged this week’s street-style fashion odyssey around the city while shooting on a hired truck. Ask ye not of health and safety when admiring Sophie posing on the lorry. Just sit back and enjoy the trip.
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