From the Pushkin Collection to La Dame de Pic by Esprit de France

The Custodia Foundation, a discreet place located near the Hôtel d'Orsay, owns a vast collection of antique drawings. High-quality exhibitions are also held here, such as the current one encompassing 200 works on paper from the Puchkin Museum in Moscow. The exceptional collection takes visitors through the chronological history of drawing, from the German and Italian Renaissance to the 20th century European and Russian avant-gardism. All schools are present as well as all the major artists. Thus, Dürer rubs shoulders with Carpaccio, so does Rembrandt with Rubens and Poussin, and Fragonard -with the superb Attaque- preceeds Friedrich’s Two men by the sea. As for modernity, it is just as brilliantly represented: the 19th century by Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas -not to mention a moving Portrait of a young woman painted in 1888 by Van Gogh-, before you get overtaken by the twentieth century artists’works. An important collection of Matisse drawings with strong and pure lines, a cabinet dedicated to six large sheets by Picasso in strong colours and rhythms, as well as works by Fernand Léger, Modigliani and De Chirico. It is also essential to mention the Russian masters’works, be they the famous ones known in Europe such as Chagall, Kandinsky, Tatline and Malevich or others to be discovered such as Koupreyanov -for his charming Red Horse- or Deineka. A superb choice not to be missed!

The name of Pushkin may evoke to many by association of ideas, the Lady of Spades, a famous novel written by Alexander Pushkin in 1834.

But today, La Dame de Pic (“The Lady of Spades” in English) is a restaurant that you may consider as a must during your stay in Paris. Enter the world of Anne-Sophie Pic, the only female Chef with 3 Michelin stars to her name. She comes from a family of talented chefs in Valence and has developed a very personal type of cuisine based on unusual aromas and ingredients such as lemon, verbenna, liquorice, rhubarb, beetroot and more. Her compositions, such as Freiberg fondu triangles in sparkling Sansho pepper broth, or crab on fine tangerine jelly reveal her capacity to balance flavours using stimulating contrasts. The precision of her work illustrates a rare sense of refinery, resulting in a highly unique gastronomical experience!