For the past five years French photographer Laurent Kronental has been documenting the dilapidated Modernist estates of his country. Architects of these sometimes stigmatised buildings include the incredible Richardo Bofill, Emile Aillaud and Martin van Trek. Kronental also focusses his attention on the elderly residents of these estates, and how easily forgotten they have become.
All photographs by Laurent Kronental.
Surfing, rock-climbing and plenty of padrón peppers while in Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz back in July.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
After our first week in Paris last July we took the morning train down to Lyon and then hired a car and drove down across the border to Murazzano in Piedmonte where we worked for a week on Finocchio Verde, a beautiful goat, sheep and everything else farm. From there we then cruised back up into France through the Swiss alps, through soaring, snow capped mountains. The alpine wildflowers around here are some of the most stunning. There are so many different varieties, I feel like you could be turning around in the same spot for hours constantly discovering different delicate little petals. Our destination was Port Lesney in the Jura region where we stayed in an ancient blue window framed home and whiled away our days drinking wine and eating cheese by the river, and exploring the nearby villages and countryside.
I am very excited to properly introduce our latest contributor. Géraldine Mahé is the founder and editor of a great french garden, landscape and architecture blog BUD UP. It’s awesome to have a contributor all the way from Paris.
Hermès Rooftop Garden by Géraldine Mahé
The perfumer of the house of Hermès, Jean-Claude Ellena, has a long relationship with gardens. He has chosen four special gardens to inspire the creation of four special perfumes. The first a secret Mediterranean garden hints of orange and fig trees. The second, inspired by a garden on the nile of Egypt smells of roses and mangoes. The third comes from the idea of a garden in India after the monsoon – fresh, lemon-scented and spicy.
The final perfume is inspired by the Hermès garden itself. The garden is located sur le toit – on the roof – of the Hermes head office on rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris. The perfume reflects the three main trees of this garden, magnolia, pear and apple. In the video below the head gardener Yasmine and Jean-Claude give a little tour of this special space (in French!).
All photographs by Quetin Bertoux, translation by Sophia Kaplan. Be sure to check out BUD UP!
Just found these pictures on my sisters camera of some wildflowers I picked in the alps a few months back. They make my heart ache with happiness.
Photographs by Olivia & Sophia Kaplan.
My courtyard at home is super sweet. Being greeted by a chicken as you enter is a rarity in Paris.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
The Jardin des Plantes is one of my favourite gardens in Paris. We visited on the weekend and caught the end of the dahlias and some beautiful autumn scenes. In the grounds is the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. The main hall with huge whale skeletons and taxidermy is reminiscent of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Very Night at the Museum. We also checked out Alchimies by Sarah Moon – a photographic exploration of the museum and surrounding garden. Well worth a look. Afterwards we headed across the road to la Grande Mosquée de Paris for pastries and mint tea. All in all a pretty excellent day.
Final photograph by Sarah Moon, the rest by Sophia Kaplan.
Jardin des Plants: 57 Rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris
Alchimies runs until 24th November in the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution.
I apologise for the lack of posting lately, but it’s because of good news! I have started an apprenticeship with a florist in Paris. A really good one at that! I cannot believe that my dream of working with plants and flowers in Paris has come true. I feel so incredibly happy. Along with the new job I have also moved into a new apartment which has kept me busy and away from my laptop. Hoping to get back into the rhythm starting now…
This past weekend we went to a friends place in the countryside a couple of hours south of Paris. We cooked yummy food, made a bonfire and just relaxed. As usual I spent a lot of time in the garden – picking flowers, cutting herbs for dinner and collecting walnuts to take back to town. It’s beautiful and calm and just what we needed.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
Photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
The Secret Garden 