Le Dîner en Blanc

Have you heard of the world-wide francophile phenomenon Le Dîner en Blanc?

{image via miaminewsday.com}

The premise is actually quite simple.  A gorgeous meal shared with good friends.  A stunning vista in a public location.  Invitation to friends and by "word of mouth" only.  Good food ... good wine.  Everyone dressed in white.  Magic!

{image via miaminewsday.com}

{image via postcity.com}

Everything is brought by the guests: chairs, tables, glasses, everything for the feast.  And the public space is left as it was found, everything taken when they leave, as if they were never there.

{image via bettermost.net}

{image via coolhunting.com}

As much care is taken with the all white table setting as with the all white outfits.  Diners bring candelabras, china plates and their epicurean feast.

{image via miaminewsday.com}

{image via vanillelatte.com}

So the story goes, 25 years ago on returning to Paris after years abroad, François Pasquier asked his friends meet for a large reunion dinner in a public space - and to dress all in white so they could find each other easily.

{image via premierwed blogspot}

It was such an enjoyable night that it started a 'word of mouth only' annual catch up between friends, and from there it grew.  So large in Paris now that it is staged in two sites simultaneously!

And has graced many iconic venues around the city from the Louvre to Notre Dame, from the Eiffel Tower to the Champs-Élysées to name a few.

{image via miaminewsday.com}

Although it started in Paris 25 years ago, Le Dîner en Blanc is now a world-wide phenomenon.  When his son moved to Montreal, Canada in 2009 the traditional annual white epicurean feast was exported with him, and from there to New York and then around the world within a few years!

{image via fashionista514}

image via Dîner en Blanc Sydney

But it is the ticket that money cannot buy: you have to know someone on the list to be able to join the festivities.  Registration is over three phases for this prestige picnic: first round previous members and "friends of the organisation", second round is "friends of friends" recommended from phase one, and only in phase three can you get a shot at an invite from a first-come-first-served waiting list!

image 2012 via Dîner en Blanc Sydney website

And tonight it will be Sydney's second turn to host the all white spectacle.

And where will it be?  Well, that is always a closely guarded secret right up to the end, with only table organisers to give out details to their table once they themselves have been told - usually only an hour before.  In Sydney, buses are organised from several locations around the city, to bus the guests to their secret location tonight.  It's the ultimate in 'pop-ups'!

Have you been to one in your city?  Or are you on the exclusive Paris list? ... and willing to invite this francophile blogger to next years?

I would fly around the world in a heart beat to join this fabulous event!

Jennifer.
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Le Dîner en Blanc
Worldwide registration website: http://dinerenblanc.info/

Thanksgiving in Paris

Celebrating an American holiday in Paris? you say.  Well, those with an American pedigree this strong will be celebrating Thanksgiving and being thankful wherever they are in the world.

Ralph's restaurant in the Ralph Lauren store in Ste Germaine de Pres, gorgeous and elegant at any time of the year, but look how it's been transformed for tomorrow to join in the holiday spirit!

Image via Ralph Lauren on Instagram

The decor is pure Paris, but the theming is perfectly Thanksgiving.  Wouldn't you just love to be at this table?  I would!

Jennifer.
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RALPH'S
173, Boulevard Saint-Germain 94400 Saint-Germain-des-Prés
T: 01 44 77 76 00

OPEN DAILY
12pm to 5pm and 7.30pm to 11pm Weekdays and Saturday
12pm to 3pm and 7.30pm to 11pm Sunday

Oh Deer, what a window!

I walked into the foyer today to be welcomed by this!  A Vintage Finds oeil-de-boeuf being used as a frame for a deers head!  Eye-catching!  I have seen them repurposed as frames and mirrors, but never something this fun!

I love the window displays at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre (where I have 'Vintage Finds').  As you know, the antique centre is a mix of dealers who bring their own personal styles of collecting and selecting.  Furniture which ranges from classically designed from Denmark or to mid-century commercial from the USA.  Glass collections, Tiffany jewellery specialists, painted furniture, vintage kitchen wares.  The front displays and in the windows at the antique centre, are an ever changing eclectic juxtaposition of so much of this put together in a vignette!

And before I go on, I can hear you say as you read this - 'an oeil-de-what?'

An oeil-de-boeuf is the french architectural term for the round or oval windows on the top most floors of Parisian roofs (translation: bull's eye).

{images via A+B Kasha, My French Country Home and Wikipedia}

You can seen them elsewhere in France of course, but they are most recognisable as the baroque ornamentation around the little attic windows protruding from the zinc roof as you walk the streets of Paris.

{image Vintage Finds}

{image Vintage Finds}

Asking around, I have managed to find a sheet of lovely original old mirror, in a storage shed at my framers!, and so am able to give you some contacts should you wish to have this beautiful original zinc piece from France, repurposed as a feature mirror.

Come by over the weekend to check it out, it's worth a look!
Jennifer.
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Ma Cocotte: new restaurant in the Paris markets of St-Ouen

This summer in Paris, my best find has been Ma Cocotte, the fantastic restaurant in la puces de Clignancourt et St-Ouen.  This new place to eat makes a pleasant change to the more traditional restaurant fare in this little corner of Paris.  Annually so many people make a pilgrimage to the most famous of Paris' flea markets, that frankly it was about time that a beautiful and modern Paris restaurant has found it way there!

{image vintage finds}

Created from the ground up by French design royalty Philippe Starck, equally well known as an interior designer and for his industrial design and consumer goods, this restaurant could never fail to please visually.  And it also hits the mark wonderfully for a perfect lunch time meal on a sunny Sunday stroll at the markets!

{image unknown source}

Starck has personally sourced items from the flea markets of St-Ouen - thus - far from creating a modern restaurant at odds with it's surroundings - the restaurant sits so comfortably within the markets of Paul Bert and Serpette you could think it is a newly opened vintage store!

Starck in his restaurant

His inspiration was the dealers' own lunch time meal tables laid out to share with their friends, their laughter and chatter.  He wanted a place of his own to eat on his regular trips to the markets, with his own friends to share laughter and chatter.  From this modest plan, comes the transformation of an industrial building to a 'market must-do'!

{image Sarah Lavoine}

And hopefully you won't be as naive as I am, to the video art installation! On the back wall, against the natural bricks are two artworks framed identically, one photographic, or rather I thought both were - until the image of a person leaning on the glass partition appeared different each time I looked away and then looked back!

{image via Ma Cocotte}

The surprise downstairs in this vintage styling utopia, are that the bathrooms are a sea of utilitarian white tile and 'public bathhouse' styling that have been said to resemble something from Kubrick's 2001!

{image The Wall Street Journal}

Last year when I was there this building at the entrance to the Paul-Bert market could have been mistaken for a cement parking garage.  Starck refers to the building as a 'monopoly house' which now houses this two-story hip restaurant with so much Parisian design cred.

From the vintage furniture selection to the wood and steel panel lift garage doors, a contemporary and deliciously simple menu, arranged to share with friends; this is an exciting new addition to the traditional brasserie fare of St-Ouen.

Hope you take the time to enjoy on your next visit!
Jennifer.
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MA COCOTTE
106, Rue des Rosiers 94400 Saint-Ouen
T: 01 49 51 70 00

OPEN DAILY
12pm to 3pm and 7pm to 11pm Weekdays
8am to 11pm Saturday and Sunday

Sometimes it really is the little things ...

On a buying trip like the one I have just been on, racing around Paris and the french countryside, sometimes it is the space, the pause, the time to breathe that you really appreciate.  The pace is generally quite quick - there is so much to be done while I am there - that I do enjoy opportunities to slow my eye, and seeing the smaller things around me too.

Walking through the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, with the perfectly manicured lawns that you are not allowed to stand on; it brought a smile to my lips to see these little 'untamed' flowers poking their heads through the blades of grass.

And walking through the fields of Normandy, with acres and acres of farm field vista in front of you, there is still a smaller and quieter perfection to be found - such as in these details in the blades of wheat.

Or in the wild grasses by the roadside, or the detail of a wild daisy in a field.

And on seeing these pretty oak flowers, realising that the significant hum in the air, was actually a tree full of bees!

And today, I had planned to be taking photos of some stock to show you, before I put it in the shop.  However, the light is bad, it's raining on and off, and just not the day to be taking furniture outside!

So with a camera in my hand and nothing to shoot, it's made me look again, back home in Brisbane.  At our own hedge of azaleas, that don't quite know whether to flower or not, or whether spring is here, because of this unseasonal winter rain we are having!

And look again at how pretty they are laden with water.

It doesn't always have to be the grand gestures or the sweeping vistas that make your heart sing.  Sometimes it really is just the little things.

Jennifer.

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{all images Vintage Finds}