Created in 1926 by Christian Zervos, the Cahiers d’Art review belongs to the legend of SaintGermain-des-Prés. Picasso, Giacometti, Matisse, Léger, Beckett and Miro took part in it before it became slightly neglected. ‘Les Cahiers’ were purchased by the Swede Staffan Ahrenberg and are now headed by Samuel Keller and Hans-Ulrich Obrist and back to their former place and lustre.
Since 1958, the gallery has offered a vast selection of graphic and photographic editions of the greatest figures of the Surrealist movement, namely Hans Bellmer, Giorgio De Chirico, Salvador Dali, Leonor Fini or Wassily Kandinsky. It also exhibits Pre-Columbian art focusing on the cultures from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Jean-Bernard Gillot is first and foremost a librarian, but he also infuses his bookshop with his passion for photography and travels. He also regularly organises exhibitions on modern and contemporary photographers.
Every day from 10 am to midnight and on Sundays from 11.00 a.m to 10.00 p.m, it is nice to stroll around in this multidisciplinary bookshop where there is a kid department.
The Galerie Cipango has been known since 1978 for its unique pieces. It regularly invites a seasoned artist -painter, sculptor, architect or photographer- to create one or several jewels that echo their own work. Each of these encounters is immortalised by signed and numbered limited editions.
the Hotel is a must. Jacques Garcia has created a charming house, luxurious but intimate and discreet, steeped in the history of Saint-Germain des Prés. Here we take a trip, a thousand places from our daily lives, in a special atmosphere, borrowed from a little nostalgia for bygone times. Each of the twenty rooms has its legend, reflected by a specific decoration. If you like English literature, room N° 16 where Oscar Wilde lived for a long time will be for you, but you will have many other choices, from Marco Polo to Charles X via Mistinguett, or even Venice and Pondicherry, and even an apartment with its terrace.
In the basement there is a lovely pool and a hammam, which can be privatized to spend a moment of relaxation alone or in pairs.
The Hotel also has one of the prettiest lounges there is, which can be privatized for events, and a Bar, the Wilde’s, one of the best known on the left bank, the one where we give appointments during the day. , where we feast at night, where every Thursday evening we come to listen to jazz. (find it in our Bars & Clubs section).
Sophie and Mathieu Richard present pieces of the great French designers of the 1950s : Royère, Adnet, Jouve, Perriand, Prouvé, du Plantier but the gallery concentrates on the work of Mathieu Matégot, an inevitable post-war figure. Matégot was the first one to work metal as others work paper or material, by folding it or piercing it.
The scents of the Dyptique Candles have become indispensable, but there are other candles which are in harmony with them to give places we love a genuine character. Cire Trudon, a Royal Manufacture with an ancestral knowledge, which is the oldest candle factory in the world (1643) created them ! Here the perfumes are not identifiable at first “smell” but there are unique mixes which all reinterprete a moment of history and bring the legend of French taste to light : Empire, Pondichéry, Chandernagor, Odeur de Lune, Odalisque or Carmelite, Empire, Dada…
And today a collection of eau de parfum, kept in precious bottles, with original and heady fragrances, imagined by perfumers Antoine Lie, Yann Vasnier and Lyn Harris: Elae, Aphédie, Médie, Bruma, Deux, Révolution, Mortel and Black Mortal. Fragrances that also tell a whole story and embody a personality more than a genre.
Nobuyoshi Araki, Martin Parr, Alberto Garcia-Alix, Dado Moriyama, Mohammed Bourouissa, Anish Kapoor, appear amongst the artists represented by Kamel Mennour. This self-taught man managed to do in ten years what others spent a life-time to achieve : to present world-famous artists in an international gallery and try to make contemporary art accessible to the largest number, in particular by publishing numerous monographs.
Alain Ducasse and Nicolas Berger both share a passion for original tastes over extravagant ones and have selected chocolates for their purity and personality from twelve sources, meaning as many different identities and unique flavours. Each selected bean is carefully worked according to its own character and is unmixed to better reveal the identity of its producing country.
To bring back the glory days of the Jean-Vincent Bully’s Officine which made a name for itself in the 19th century, Victoire de Taillac and Ramdane Touami went back to the original recipes and associated ancestral textures and protocoles with innovative cosmetic techniques to obtain natural products with longtested virtues.
Nothing is missing in the interior design imagined by Nicolas Daul, from the real apothecary counters to the painted ceilings, the spirit of Honoré de Balzac can be felt everywhere !
