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.
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.
Dior, already famous for its creative use of flowers in its shows (see here) has gone next level to create the most magnificent delphinium mountain in the middle of the Cour Carrée of the Lourve.
The show took place inside the structure where the models walked in front of a smaller but no less impressive hill of flowers. In total 400,000 stalks of blue Delphinium were installed by mega production company Bureau Betak.
Images from WWD and Paris in Four Months.
I find myself back in Paris once again. Thus the lack of posts lately – my apologies – as I’ve been rather wifi-less of late. Our week in Paris at the end of June involved lots of summer fruits, flowers and food and sun.
We ate at Clamato, Bones, Le Verre Vole, saw an amazing Charles-Edouard Jeanneret exhibition at the Pompidou and spent the afternoon in the garden of the Chateau du Versailles. We wandered through the Parc de Belleville, the Jardin du Luxembourg, and bought some begonias at the Marché aux Fleurs. Then we left for a beautiful little farm in Italy – more on the farm to come.
This garden, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, and off the Promenade Plantée which I have previously written about, was an explosion of colour when I visited in summer last year.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
A little flashback to Paris last August.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
It’s been a busy month! Some pals leaving on great adventures, others coming to stay and wedding season thrown in too. I’m beginning to plan more of my own flower work for next year and getting excited about all that will hold.
One of my favourite Frenchies is here at the moment which reminded me that I still have plenty of photos to share from Paris.
Endless delicious meals cooked by Angele and Olive.
Visits to the Marché Aux Fleurs in the middle of the city.
One of my favourite galleries, Fondation Cartier with its rambling landscapes and impressive green wall above the entrance.
La Recyclerie, a new cafe near my sisters work where we often met for lunch. It’s located in a former railway station, is super laid back and they even have their own mini farm and vegetable garden.
And other random wanderings through the streets and a cat adventure…
More to come soon. All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
One of the first gardens I visited on my recent trip to Paris, the Promenade Plantée runs 4.7 km between Opera Bastille and the bois de Vincennes. It’s built on an old railway line reminiscent of New York’s High Line. It’s a tranquil trail with an amazing rose collection and beautiful views down Parisian boulevards.
All photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
I discovered these incredible ‘tubes de trichoptères’ at the Dries Van Noten exhibition at the Musee Arts Decoratif in Paris last month.
Created by insects which artist Hubert Duprais has provided with access to only gold and jewels.
Photographs by Sophia Kaplan.
The Secret Garden 