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House Hunters International Meets the Earful Tower, and I Met Mary Cassatt

Paris Stairwell - Paris, France

House Hunters International film crew at workHouse Hunters International film crew at work

Earful Tower live show

Earful Tower Oliver & LinaEarful Tower Oliver & Lina

WE GOT A LOT OF EXERCISE HUNTING FOR APARTMENTS…

All last week, International law student Christina Lloyd and her mother, Patti, and I were traipsing from one apartment to another– up and down the many flights of stairs to apartments on the top floors — as part of the taping of House Hunters International, my 32nd episode. (We got a lot of exercise.)

One of those afternoons, after filming in an apartment on the 6th floor without an elevator, I climbed to the 7th floor to Oliver Gee’s Earful Tower sound studio (in a converted “chambre de bonne”) to record a one-hour long live radio show, also filmed for Facebook. (Yep, I got a lot of exercise last week.)

With me on the show was Amber and Sarah of “Becoming Maman,” tour guide April Pett of April in Paris Tours, author and jingle composer, Samuél L. Barrantes and Deuxième Studios designer Lina Nordin, who happens to be Oliver’s fiancé with wild plans for their honeymoon.

Once we caught our breaths after climbing seven flights of stairs, one after another we put our headsets on, put our lips to the colorful mics and bantered with Oliver who is always full of interesting questions. He makes it all worth climbing the stairs and wanting to come back for more! Watch and listen to the entire show.

(Before the week of filming HHI was over, I got word that we’ll be taping another episode in early May, this time in Bordeaux! I am so jazzed!)

COME WATCH OUR FAVORITE EPISODES!

Tomorrow at our monthly networking and coffee gathering (3 to 5 p.m. at Le Café de la Mairie on rue de Bretagne), Après Midi, we’re going to show three of our favorite House Hunters International Episodes. This is your chance to ask a few questions about the taping, too! For more information visit our web page. GET THERE EARLY TO GET A GOOD SEAT — we’re expecting a big turnout.

BE A PART OF A PODCAST!

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 18th when you’ll have a chance to witness a live podcast with Oliver Gee and me on the topic of “Why Paris?” He will interview me live at 7 p.m. at Café Méricourt, 22 rue de la Folie Méricourt, 75011 Paris.

Why Paris? Why do we live in Paris? Why do others want to live in Paris? What makes Paris so great…especially when recent reports claim Paris is one of the most expensive cities in the world in which to live and beaten out by dozens of others for quality of living? Be there when we debate this question that hits us all right in the heart! For just €10, you can be a part of the podcast’s audience. Have a drink or two at the café and then stay for dinner if you like.

Café Méricourt can only seat up to 40, so be sure to register early! Here’s how: email [email protected].

The April 18th interview podcast will be streamed live in another closed Facebook group: The Friends of the Earful Tower. This group is $5 a month and has live streams from Monthly Live Interviews.

IT’S PARIS. YOU DON’T COME HERE FOR THE WEATHER.

The weather turned from wintery cold to warm spring over the weekend and every human being in Paris was out enjoying the sun and breezy air. I had the occasion to wander into the Luxembourg Gardens on Saturday afternoon and there wasn’t a chair or bench to be had for all the visitors soaking up the rays. In fact, I’ve never seen so many people in the park.

It seems to happen this way every year…one minute it’s winter and we’re in our wool coats, gloves, scarves and hats, then the next minute we’re basking in the warm sun in short sleeves and sandals. I put my wool coats in the auxiliary closet that morning, but know oh too well they will likely come out again for a frosty moment or two before summer really stays put.

As someone I know very well said (me), “It’s Paris. You don’t come here for the weather.”

AN AMERICAN WOMAN IMPRESSIONIST IN PARIS

Mary Cassatt at the Musée Jacquemart-André

Mary Cassatt - Self PortraitMary Cassatt – Self Portrait

Mary Cassatt, an American Impressionist painter in Paris, is regarded during her lifetime as the greatest American artist — a woman who lived nearly sixty years in France. She is the only American painter to have exhibited with the illustrious group of impressionists in Paris, the likes of Degas, who was a major proponent of her work.

In a retrospective exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, from now until July 23, 2018, this unique American female figure of the Impressionist movement is being honored, allowing visitors to discover Mary Cassatt through some fifty major works: oils, pastels, drawings and engravings, which, accompanied by various documentary media, tells the history of an American woman in Paris.

The Musée Jacquemart-André can be best visited by arriving there before noon to get a table in their lovely Salon de Thé for lunch overlooking the gardens before venturing into the magnificent mansion and visiting both the permanent collection and the temporary exhibit. The museum also has one of the best museum gift shops in Paris, if not that large.

We were both awestruck by the beauty of the Cassatt works, all set around the theme of “mother and child.” Even more so, we were in awe of Cassatt’s ability to overcome the stigma of her womanhood at a time when it was purely a man’s world, especially in a foreign country. Cassatt came from a wealthy and well-educated Pennsylvania family and fell in love with France when at an early age she and her parents spent a few years here. This bicultural upbringing played an important role in her life, but as the critics claim, she retained “a fiercely American identity.” She was a pioneer, ahead of her time, defying the obstacle of being a woman in a field where women didn’t tread. Even her prolific depiction of women was unusual at the time, making a statement about the important role of women in society.

Kudos to the feminist, Madame Cassatt. Neither she nor her sister, Lydia, with whom she shared an apartment in Paris, ever married. We can only surmise that her career as an artist was more important to her than a family life. She was also known to be in conflict with her sister-in-law, Eugenie Carter Cassatt, who was anti-suffrage and who, along with Philadelphia society in general, boycotted one of her shows.

The works bring together a collection of loans from major American museums, such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Terra Foundation in Chicago, but also prestigious institutions in France — the Orsay Museum, Petit Palais, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and in Europe, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Bührle Foundation in Zurich, and others. Many works also come from private collections — masterpieces gathered here for the first time.

I urge you not to miss it, but go have lunch first!

A la prochaine…

Adrian Leeds -  with Oliver Gee

Adrian Leeds
Adrian Leeds Group

(with Oliver Gee)

Respond to Adrian

 

The Adrian Leeds Group

P.S. For those of you in Southern California, I’ll be in Los Angeles and open to meeting with clients for two-hour property consultations in person between April 30th and May 4th. Special rate $350. To book your consultation, email me at [email protected]

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