A day in Paris between redness and and Italian gastronomy by Esprit de France

The Henner Museum is a beautiful town house little known to the general public and located in the Plaine-de-Monceau district. As visitors often ask why the successful 19th century artist was so attracted to bright red hair, the museum is putting on an exhibition exploring the question, starting with the exquisite Woman Reading -whose long red hair and languid naked body with milky skin was painted in 1883 -. But Henner is not the only one to have fallen in love with redheads: Courbet saw it as a surplus of realism, Degas, Renoir and Toulouse Lautrec used it as a dynamic element of their compositions, Gauguin liked it for its ambivalence. Elsewhere, in Europe, red hair was also appreciated as an anti-classic colour: the Pre-Raphaelites used it for their sensual and determined women, Klimt for his superb Danae or Munch for his Vampire. The choice of this color by artists shows a desire to stand out radically from academism. The exhibition then broadens its purpose, with wit and fantasy, to question the fascination-repulsion that redheads have on the collective imagination. It is recalled that redness is often considered "the color of demons, foxes, falsities and betrayals" but at the same time many heroes who appeal to youth are endowed with this red hair that designates them as intrepid beings to identify with: such are The Red-Headed Boy (Poil de Carotte), Spirou, Tintin, Fifi Brin d'Acier... From Henner’day to Sonia Rykiel’s, this exhibition is an opportunity to question and jostle a number of prejudices!

Exiting the Musée Henner, you may consider a gourmet break. The Italian gastronomy is certainly not new to you, however we advise you to go and discover EATALY. The high-end Italian food mall chain, created in Turin in 2007, has gradually spread around the world with stores in Seoul, Stockholm and New York. High time we had one in Paris! Oscar Farinetti's multi-regional gastronomic outlet opened the 12th of April in the Marais (in BHV's old canteen facilities). So what's it all about? The Italian buisnessman seems to have found the winning combination: a gigantic surface (27,000 sq ft) made up of three levels -white, green and red like the flag- for all sorts of restaurants, bars and seasonal produce counters to sample, shop and/or eat on-site. The offering also includes cookery lessons!