Paris museum tops the wishlist
Museums and galleries are opening and maybe it won’t be long before I can see art exhibitions in the flesh.
Museums and galleries are opening and maybe it won’t be long before I see an art exhibition in the flesh. TV documentaries such as Inside the Met (New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Secrets of the Museum (London’s Victoria & Albert) have nourished the mind and taken viewers behind the scenes in a way no real-life gallery-goer could experience. I’ve loved stickybeaking into textiles collections where precious garments rest beneath alpine layers of tissue paper, and seamstresses attend to minuscule repairs. And enjoyed being virtually shoulder-to-shoulder with conservationists as they restore masterpieces or do a “touch up” that could take years.
Thanks to Academy Travel’s brilliant online lectures, I’ve been channelling the Italian Renaissance’s early years, recently on the trail of 15th-century artist Piero della Francesca and his remarkable progress to the ducal court of Federigo da Montefeltro of Urbino. And yet, he was under-appreciated in his lifetime, which brings me to Berthe Morisot, the first of the (few) female French Impressionists and my favourite artist, no contest. To say her work was undervalued in comparison to her male contemporaries is an understatement. She was married to Manet but not the famous one. Her husband Eugene was the feted Edouard’s brother.
First on the post-Covid dream list is Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris, which holds the largest collection of Berthe’s oeuvre. I fell in love with her work about age 10. The diurnal, domestic nature of her paintings, especially depicting her only child, Julie, seemed so accessible and enchanting compared to the “high” art of the masters. There were girls like me washing up, reading books, holding toys, all captured in gauzy, dream-like light. It’s fascinating how we find pathways to art and culture, often through serendipity. If my art teacher hadn’t tacked a print on the classroom wall of Berthe’s Le Cerisier, would I ever have dreamt of going to France to wear straw hats and pick cherries? It didn’t seem to me like art at all, but depictions of real life being played out in faraway, exotic settings. I wonder if many of you have had a similar impetus and there’s been no option but to follow the siren call.
Forward planner
Viking Cruises has announced it is expanding its fleet with the arrival of Viking Saturn in early 2023, bringing the line’s number of ocean-going ships to nine. The new vessel will be identical to its sister incarnations, accommodating 930 passengers in 465 chic staterooms, all with balconies. Previous Viking guests will be familiar with the expansive views offered from the glass-clad Explorer Lounge, the therapeutic benefits of the spa’s snow grotto and sauna, and the fine fare enjoyed at Mandfredi’s Italian Restaurant.
Viking Saturn’s first season will be spent in Scandinavia and the Nordic countries, exploring the waters and shores of Iceland, Greenland, Norway and Canada on two new 15-day voyages. The ship will call at some of Norway’s prized beauty spots, including Geiranger fiord, the quaint fishing villages of Lofoten (pictured) and the Arctic cathedral of Tromso, before heading to the remote Svalbard archipelago in search of polar bears. Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, the wild ruggedness of Djupivogur and the Viking history of Qaqortoq, Greenland, are other highlights.
For double the adventure, these two sailings can be combined to create a 29-day odyssey departing from the western Norwegian city of Bergen and concluding in New York or vice versa.
From $18,795 a person, twin-share, for the 29-day Greenland, Iceland, Norway & Beyond itinerary.
PENNY HUNTER
Book club
THE ONLY STREET IN PARIS
Elaine Sciolino
Elaine Sciolino moved with her family to France in 2002 as Paris bureau chief for The New York Times and has resided on the long, narrow Rue des Martyrs on the Left Bank since 2012 in an apartment with tall ceilings above “a fireworks store” named Pyro Folie. She has spent years coaxing out her neighbourhood’s secrets and is an articulate advocate for its attributes and innate sense of Frenchness. She deftly hooks readers into the “collective pleasures” of a village-like street, home to about 200 tightly held small shops, which serves as a “physical spine” between the financial hub of the capital and the nightlife of Montmartre.
For her, it’s “the last real street in Paris, a half-mile celebration of the city in all its diversity”. Rue des Martyrs slices the formerly working-class ninth and 18th arrondissements and while there’s no clear answer to the derivation of its name, well-argued theories abound. But what can’t be disputed is that Sciolino has devised a brilliant homage to a patch of Paris that’s the “centre of the world” for long-term residents, many of multicultural backgrounds, who know of every petty rivalry and minor scandal and are brilliantly brought to life by stories and insights. Famous habitues are woven through the text; dropping in are the likes of Degas and Renoir, Flaubert and Truffaut. Baudelaire strolled here, perfecting the art of le flaneur. A tiny street urchin once sang as residents tossed coins wrapped in paper so they wouldn’t roll away. “Eventually she made it big ... as Edith Piaf.”
The street does not belong to “monumental Paris”, the author tells us, and is unlikely to be found in guidebooks. Not until now, that is. A shopping tip from Sciolino: “Smile and say bonjour … never, ever be rude.” She prepares us for the shock of the new, too, from the appearance of designer olive oil boutiques to ice cream in trendy flavours such as chocolate with pepper. Go with the flow, I say. Pass those madeleines and a universe of runny cheese and dip into Sciolino’s follow-up bestseller, The Seine: The River That Made Paris.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
View from here
MOTEL MAKEOVER
Netflix
Almost a century ago, in 1925, the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, California, opened as the world’s first “motor hotel”. Australians took to touring holidays by mid-century and destinations such as the Gold Coast blossomed with catchy “stay-ova-nite” motel signs. Ah, the aroma of breakfast appearing by magic through a hatch. Retro refits of these 1950s-60s marvels are a sentimentalist’s dream. Think, The Pink Hotel in Coolangatta, La Costa Motel nearby in Bilinga, Halcyon House in Cabarita Beach and The Oriana in Orange.
In Motel Makeover, a six-part reality series, Canadian gal pals Sarah Sklash and April Brown breathe new life into an enfeebled Knight’s Inn at Sauble Beach on the shore of Lake Huron, a few hours’ drive from Toronto. They’re not hospitality experts but have swished-up The Sportsman into The June Motel in Prince Edward County so they have a few ideas on “Junifying” (their word) the new property along “beach casual but elevated” lines.
When they arrive at Sauble Beach in January 2020 it is snowbound and hard to imagine as a sun and sand paradise. They have a deadline of June, when the summer season begins, and a budget of $600,000, rather modest for an overhaul of 24 guestrooms, restaurant, pool deck and separate reception and retail pavilion.
Their market targets are girl getaways and romantic weekends. Sarah, April and project manager Courtney know how to source a bargain and cajole a builder. Their decor is selfie-mindful with Good Vibes Only and Peace Love Wine neons aplenty. But Covid hits, the project pauses, the budget is slashed by $100,000, supplies are scarce and opening the new June Motel is moved to September.
OMG! Will the pool deck be finished before the first guests arrive? Check in, it’s a fun escape.
GRAHAM ERBACHER
Spend it
Retail chain Adairs has launched a contemporary homewares and accessories collection in stores and online this month in conjunction with the Brad Turner Creative studio. Cushions, lamps, tableware, bed linens, limited-edition and hand-printed wall art, floor mats and home fragrances are in the mix, all patterned with Indigenous motifs. Turner, a Bundjalung man from the northern NSW and Queensland coastal border region, aims to present spiritual heritage and culture in his art and loves working in earthy yellow ochre, raw sienna and soft pink tones reflective of country. A Dulgo Dumburru Chalahn fabric tote bag (pictured) features a rainbow-inspired pattern; $39.99.
adairs.com.au
SUSAN KUROSAWA