I loved my old logo. I loved it for the fact that it was created first on a napkin after a THATLou prototype that Kasia Dietz wrote about in her Love in the City of Lights blog. My  30-odd THATLou guinea pigs had left Cafe Blanc and Kasia and I (happy from enough imbibing) stood in our coats considering how to work a THATLou logo around a triangle – I was married to the pyramid being the face of THATLou. A few weeks later Kasia had her first bag painting workshop and poof, the THATLou logo was born. Happily born on a bag (which I still use and is now very grey!). You can see it here, as modeled by the THATLou mascot (my toddler Storsh):

Storsh, the THATLou mascot

From the very beginning of our Website discussions Jenny Beaumont argued the need for a new logo. Last September after our Foodies in France THATLou, Jenny and I had a marathon lunch to discuss working together on the website and when she brought up the logo I smiled and said, ‘thank you, but there’s no need for a new logo’. Throughout the entire website creative brief, prototype, initial testings phases she diligently argued the need for a new logo. All met with my polite stone cold wall. My loyalty to my old logo was as solid as Gibraltar. Until she pointed out that I had already out-grown my old logo by creating THATd’Or last January. That the pyramid just didn’t apply and to miss the opportunity of launching a new logo at the same time as the new website was silliness. Companies grew, and that was that. Sound advice, for sure (and thank you, Jenny for persisting and being as stubborn as this bull dog is. We make a good match!).

So out with the Old:

beloved first THATLou logo

And in with the New:

Please note the clever small Lou next to the magnified THAT in this before and after. Thank you, Elle, my brilliant architect, design-guru friend. Another post will be devoted to you and ze fabulous THATLou brochure, when you’re good and ready. Here are the before and afters of the big lou and small one:

So there you go for the New Face of THATLou!  Next steps on the website will be to translate it into French, Spanish and German. And we have the domain name for THATd’Or, but I think that will be next year. Because we not only have private THATLous to host, we have blogging to return to, and plenty of other enriching projects, so one thing at a time.

What’s next on the blogging front? Well, to give you guys a break from all of this self-promotional thatlou hoopla. It’s exhausting. I’ve given myself the first days of June as a deadline to linger on the first of the Monthly Museum Musings series. They’ll be short and sweet about smaller treasures Paris (and other cities) have to offer, each characterised with an “In the Neighbourhood” suggestion of what you could do before or after your museum visit.

Any suggestions of museums you enjoy are happily welcome and at times I hope there will also be guest posts on museums that I’m not so familiar with.

The post New Face of THATLou, Part 2 appeared first on THATLou.

l’Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in foreground

All winter and spring I’ve had an absolute ball photographing the Louvre from every angle for the website, so  in my excitement I dumped many shots that have since ended up on the editor’s cutting room floor (at the time they’d surely be the new face of THATLou).  You can see them in this post, that post and of course Focusing my Lens on the Louvre post.

Academie Francaise dome as seen from Cour Carree

And the brilliance of Jenny Beaumont’s website is that I can continually change the photos that I have up there. Right now there are 12 rotating photos, so every time you change the page a new one appears. Plain old genius – except that it of course runs the risk of me just quitting my job, closing down THATLou, bidding farewell to my family and moving into the dusty halls of the Louvre to get a better shot of this, that or the other.

Bernini’s Louis XIV, with his back to IM Pei’s pyramid and nose to the Tuileries

Other clever points that Jenny concocted are on the Themes page: if you scroll over the title a box appears to describe the theme. I love this. And I’ve caught myself dawdling ages on the Frequently Asked Questions page without reading a word of it; Jenny’s accordion effect never fails to please me (if you click on the question it highlights in green and the answer un-scrolls). I am not a website person, I have no curiosity to trawl the web for the new hot thing. So I think it’s a kick that there are these tricks on my very own website.

Anyway, next week I’ll post just one more promotional rag – addressing the Logo – and THEN my friends, I promise to return to some sort of actual content. This spring has been relentlessly busy with private hunts and endeavors such as starting THATd’Or and partnering up with Expedia’s Paris Hotel site.  It’s been wonderful to see the company start to take shape, but it’s kept me from lingering on the written word (which is a large part of my THATLou pleasure, pondering the Louvre’s treasures).

Taken from the Richelieu wing, 2nd Fl (17th C Dutch area)

There’s a short series I’d like to start this summer on other smaller museums in Paris and abroad. A Monthly Museum Musings series. Over the past year I’ve already touched on other museums such as the Prado,  the Met and V&A for specific collections, but haven’t really taken a look at Paris’s smaller treasures.  So that’s something I look forward to sinking my teeth in. And if anyone has museums they’d like me to point my nose to (anywhere), I’m always open suggestions. I know of one fine reader who will sigh a breath of relief (actually Jason will say, damn you’re slow, it took you forever!) when I finally scrutinize the Chateau de Chillon just up-lake from Montreux, where Storsh’s god-brother lives.

PS/ All of these photos except for the first one have ended up on the cutting room floor. Perhaps one day when I’m old and retired I can make a THATLou’s view of the Louvre Photo Book!

The post The New Face of THATLou appeared first on THATLou.

Science-Académie (known as Science-Ac’) was established in 2006 with just a few hundred students. Today this Paris-Montagne Association now stands at 2000 students, enlivening the interest of high school students and pre-BAC kids in Science. Science-Ac was born from the l’Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS is the French equivalent of MIT, for you American readers), and has generational dons or tutors per each level, PhD candidates doing lab work alongside high-schoolers. Their proximity in age, no doubt bolsters the inspiration for the students to further their scientific studies.

Tomorrow a group of Science-Ac’ students will be scouring the Louvre for 25 pieces of art that marry Art with Science. For instance a double-sided David and Goliath painting by da Volterra  inspects the Centripetal and Centrifugal forces of David’s use of the sling. But as such physics strays from typical THATLou reading I’ll do a give-away that’s a bit closer to home.

Here are two works of art in two separate wings on two separate floors of the Louvre. One is by a Northerner (Dutch) the other by a Southerner (Sicilian), but both are true masters of perspective in entirely disparate ways. Scientific perspective is an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as a canvas or paper), of an image as it is perceived by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are:

1. objects are drawn smaller as their distance from the observer increases
2. The distortion of items when viewed at an angle (spatial foreshortening)

In art the term foreshortening is often used synonymously with perspective, even though foreshortening can occur in other types of non-perspective drawing representations.

da Messina’s Christ at the Cross

CHRIST AT THE COLUMN Antonello da Messina (1430-1479), 15^th C Italian Painting

This fine painting is tiny, only .30m x .21m wide, so in a reversed way it pops out among the Italian Painting gallery. Antonello’s acquaintance with the rules and foreshortenings of Tuscan perspective allow him here to show a living, monumental Christ whose Passion thrusts itself upon the viewer. This immediacy is enhanced by the illusionist handling of the knot in the rope: set at the bottom of the composition, it appears to rest on the frame, as if on the ledge of a window opening onto the divine. During his apprenticeship in the Naples of the Princes of Aragon – collectors of the work of the Northern painters – Antonello acquired Flemish oil painting techniques: the layering of paint and glazes creates depth and subtle transitions from shade to light, while also enabling meticulous realism in physical terms and in the stroke by stroke rendering of Christ’s hair and beard. Science Ac kids are asked to pose with his pained expression (just think of all Christ had been through at this point). To me he’s saying “how much bloody longer do I have to go through this torture?” It’s a fantastic painting.

de Hooch Card Players in an Opulent Interior

CARD PLAYERS, Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684), 17^th C Dutch Painting

During his decade in Delft (Holland), Pieter de Hooch was deeply influenced by the color and strict lines of the art of Carel Fabritius, who also influenced Vermeer (huh, Vermeer’s Astronomer may just be nearby, then!). de Hooch developed a personal style that proved a success, basing his compositions on a colorful, artful use of perspective, with figures fitting harmoniously into the overall scheme. His works are subtly illuminated with lateral sources of light and often feature a series of rooms leading from one to the next. The lines of the marble floor tiles here draw the viewer’s attention to the vanishing lines of the painting. The spatial elements opening onto the exterior-windows and half-open doors are punctuated by a contrasting play of light, accentuating the lines and volumes. For an extra fifty bonus points have your team point to the small hint of another room in this charming scene. (and yes for you hawk-eyes, the pretty girl in the foreground is cheating with her lad).

The post Arts + Sciences Hunt appeared first on THATLou.

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A Street in Venice, 1880, Clark Art Institute, Mass

I’m happy to say a second THATd’Or is imminently descending upon the coffered halls of the Musée d’Orsay! Kristina Tencic, the AFMO’s Communications Liaison, and I are co-hosting another treasure hunt. This time it’s private and for an exclusive group of expat Americans who’ve been in France for a long time. Who at the Musée d’Orsay could represent such a group better than John Singer Sargent?

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882, MFA, Boston

And so it is with this in mind that I shall let my fingers flutter and see our subject cross the channel and the pond (although to be fair, John Singer Sargent (JSS) didn’t make it to the States till he was 20 years old, when he established citizenship). Both his parents were American, his father was a Dr in Philadelphia; 2 years prior to John’s birth his older sister died. This caused his mother, Mary Singer, to breakdown, and as a result his parents set sail for Europe, never returning. JSS was born in Florence, though he was raised with seasonal visits across Europe. If you’re born and raised “abroad” are you an expat – or is it simply “abroad” for your parents? For that matter, if you grow up on the road are you an expat?

Wyndam Sisters, 1899, Met, NYC

Putting questions of Sargent’s identity aside, he was without a doubt a great painter whose portraits created an enduring image of society of the Edwardian age, often focusing on ladies in their brocaded satin gowns. Though he studied in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and under the fashionable society portraitist Carolus-Duran, the heavy spell of JSS’s idol, Velazquez, is apparent in most of his works. The haunting interior of The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882, at Boston’s MFA) has distilled light and delicately adjusted forms which pays tribute to Velazquez’s Las Meninas. Northern masters to influence Sargent were Frans Hals, with his quick stroke and light touch, and of course Anthony Van Dyck with his rich textures and fabrics.

El Jaleo, 1882, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Boston

Sargent’s best known work, and certainly his own favorite was the portrait of Madame X, the famous Parisian beauty. A fellow American expat, Madame Pierre Gautreau was a Louisiana Belle married to a Parisian banker. Sargent did a gazillion studies of her, spending a good amount of time at her country house in Brittany trying to get his studies right. A nervous and, I get the idea, self-important woman, Madame Gautreau never sat for long, but Sargent was the only portraitist of many who’d been granted the permission to paint her – no doubt due in part to being a compatriot – and he was dead-bent on capturing her marvelously.

Madame X, 1884, The Met, NYC

When he finally did capture her, Sargent entered Madame X‘s soignée portrait in the Salon of 1884 and much to his despair was totally panned. Critics dismissed it as near pornography, complaining of the revealing décolleté black dress, all that skin and her provocative pose. One of the straps of her dress in the first version was off her shoulder! Scandalous! Discouraged by his Parisian failure he fled to London, welcomed by his good friend Henry James. London became his permanent home, but Sargent had many a client in the States, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and perhaps most importantly Isabella Stewart Gardner (who was one of his most loyal and forceful patrons).

Lingering on a light summary of Sargent’s life has been fun, but what to say of THATd’Or? Why have you been reading this? You must want some reward, other than the pleasant visit of seeing his quick and talented stroke, no? Well here’s the give-away: a second prize will go to the team who writes the best limerick which includes elements of the story of John Singer Sargent’s Carmencita, which our hunters will be seeking out at the Musée d’Orsay on Thursday night.

Carmencita, 1890, Musee d’Orsay

* Although Rembrandt Peale (1778 – 1860) is pretty damned good as well

The post THE American Expat Painter appeared first on THATLou.

This is either the last or the penultimate post inthe Louvre Photo Series. It’s been a pleasure to ponder what images to use for the imminent THATLou website. 

As I touched on in the last post, photographic tastes which I’d long ago forgotten awoke, such as automatically turning to black and white, steering clear of portraiture (unless people are tiny, indecipherable specs in the distance, I’m not really interested in them), looking at shadows, architecture and reflexions, and above all — what the Louvre provides in spades – is a love of geometric shapes. Don’t really have much more to say than that.

In fact a complaint I’ve had from many regarding this blog is that the posts are just too long. When I’m writing about content, which is the majority of this blog – although you wouldn’t know it from these recent website / THATd’Or round-ups! – it’s true that they are a bit wordy. But were anyone who took art history seriously to read this (apart from my mother) they’d say that this blog is too superficial (she saves my feelings by not saying anything). So since you can’t please everyone, I’m just going to do a photo-dump today, and leave you with some images which may or may not appear on this imminent website that Jenny Beaumont’s doing a phenomenal (and immense) job on.

Once the site is launched, hopefully it won’t be too long before I actually return to a bit of content myself, and take a look at the content of the Louvre — and other museums for that matter. Otherwise I may just lose myself in talking about nothing. We wouldn’t want that!

You can see more images of the Louvre here.

The post Louvre Photo Series cont’d appeared first on THATLou.

My taste for photography was borne exclusively whilst working for David Friend, who’d been the photography editor at Life Magazine for 18 years. His photo library and his pure joy of looking at pretty much any image, let alone the enriching old photojournalists who he palled around with like Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks and Cornell Capa was an education unto itself. At the time I never appreciated how clearly I would remember nearly every interaction that I had with those venerable old characters.

In that phase I also took a class at the ICP just to get a grasp on technical bare basics. Much to my surprise it was the developing that I enjoyed more than actually shooting film (which I’d loved doing for years). I had more control in the dark room, not to mention liking the smell of chemicals. But I forget things as quickly as I learn them, so now all I’m left with is what I do and don’t like.

Here’s something that I adore: my husband playing with Light + Motion:

For other snaps du Louvre there’s Focusing my Lens on the Louvre and Up Next? THATLou Website. Next week we’ll move to the prototype phase, which apparently is where the fun begins!

But before Jenny Beaumont‘s beautifully designed website is launched, more snaps shall be deposited herewith.

The post Louvre Lovelies appeared first on THATLou.

But parenthetical tangents aside, this “Focusing my Lens of the Louvre” title is a continuation of this weekend’s post when I  touched on the imminent THATLou website. Whoopla is certainly in order, but not till it’s launched in early March. Till then I’ve been posting photos that may or may not be used in the final www.thatlou.com site.

from the Campana Galerie (where the Greek Vases are)

Besides the pleasure of working with Jenny Beaumont, web-designer extraordinaire, the most rewarding part of the site has been to put time aside to actually look at the Louvre for the Louvre itself. Not visiting for the art, not visiting to create a treasure hunt (all of which are of course sublime visits unto themselves). But visiting exclusively to ponder the building itself is a pleasure I have not had since I first moved to Paris and used to go many times a week (I lived in the Marais and worked in St Germain des Pres so the 65,000 sq meters were where I made my pit stops).

It breathes history whilst integrating a sharp-edged, geometric modernity. IM Pei becomes more and more startlingly brilliant with each photographic visit that I’ve made. So without more blather, I’ll leave you with the images, this last one by El Argentino being my fave with its intentionally retro feel. The Parisian light is palpable. But I said I was going to zip the lip, right?

The post Focusing my Lens on the Louvre appeared first on THATLou.

So it’s sort of wild that THATLou is fairly close to its first year anniversary  (23 March was our first Angels + Wings Treasure Hunt at the Louvre, as was reviewed in Out and About in Paris among a host of other generous blogs). What’s most wild about this landmark may be something pretty basic:  we don’t yet have a website. It’s the first tool that most small business owners attack, that and business cards.

But it’s been a much busier year than I expected, and all good things come in time, right? So it is with great pomp and fanfare that this blog post should alight to your in-boxes to announce: This past week web-design-extraordinaire Jenny Beaumont and I have been on full-on all’attaque mode to produce THAT website! Jenny, an American based in the rolling hills of Normandie, is a bastion of patience and practicality as well as being a genius designer and crafty UN diplomat/devil’s advocate.  And I am blessed to have her guidance, as well as the wise counsel of Allison Blumenthal to subtle-ly stomp my sometimes feral enthusiasm.

On the first-things-first basis we’ve been distilling all the necessities that are admittedly tricky to find on this blog.  The themes will be explained, the schedule and booking will be made easier, the generous press will be integrated along with corporate quotes, happy tourist reviews on Trip Advisor and testimonials of destination weddings and school groups visiting Paris.  And in a depth of field that I just can’t fathom (I tend to read the paper in hand, and write letters with a pen) I am getting a glimpse of just how abstract and brilliant Ms. Beaumont is.

The new www.THATLou.com website will be launched toward the end of Feb / beginning of March. Until then I shall post sporadic photos that both El Argentino (my husband) and I have had a ball taking for it. Of course most of the snaps posted here won’t be included in the final site (there are hundreds!), but if you happen to see any that you recommend certainly feel free to drop a line either below or via email.

Needless to say, I still need to take a dip south of the Seine to photograph for THATd’Or (Treasure Hunt at the Musée d’Orsay), as there will be a little sister site www.thatdor.com which will be launched simultaneously.

The post Up Next? THATLou Website! appeared first on THATLou.

Chasse au trésor ou rallye au Musée du Louvre célèbre pour l’abondance des ses oeuvres remarquables.  Découverte le Louvre (ou le Musée d’Orsay, avec “THATd’Or“) avec nous pour une approche originale, thématique, insolite et ludique!

THATLou (TREASURE HUNT AT THE LOUVRE, Chasse aux trésor au Louvre)

Anne-Pierre de Peyronnet

Les règles générales sont assez simples! Nous vous distribuons une liste d’œuvres d’art au début de chaque THATLou. Chaque équipe doit se photographier devant autant d’œuvres d’art se trouvant sur cette liste que possible. Si vous envisagez de ne pas respecter les règles ci-dessous, sachez qu’il y aura des espions dans le musée (hi hi!). Si l’on vous voit courir ou que les membres de votre équipe sont séparés par exemple, vous serez automatiquement pénalisés.

Il s’avère que de fois les questions bonus demandent de poser pour des photos; des autres fois ils sont purement informatives, dans ce cas la réponse peut être toujours trouvée sur les photocopies ou sur les plaques au Musée.

Chaque équipe devrait s’organiser pour trouver ses points forts. Les rôles plus importants sont navigateur (quelqu’un qui sait bien lire les plans); la personne avec des yeux de lynx pour lire les toutes petites lettres; et celui qui a de la capacité pour bien s’orienter dans l’espace pour trouver les œuvres sur les salles. Les équipes sont formes de 2 à 4 personnes.

Les points bonus sont intégrés dans le texte (les photos de chaque pièce du trésor / œuvres d’art sont accompagnées d’un texte). Certains des points bonus sont en lien avec des articles publiés sur le blog (en anglais). Vous pouvez faire une recherche sur le site avec les mots associés à votre chasse au trésor (par exemple Beauty + the Beast(iary). Bestiary en anglais sont « créatures merveilleuses », comme griffons ou dragons, Centaures et Satyrs ou le sphinx ou Cerbère (le chien à trois têtes, vicieux, qui gardait Hadès, le monde des morts).  Les points bonus sont importants mais pas assez importants pour faire gagner à eux seuls une équipe.

Daisy de Plume 

Règles

1. En ce qui concerne les photographies, n’utilisez qu’un seul téléphone/appareil photo par équipe s’il vous plait. La personne (dans l’équipe) qui prends les photos peut changer mais continuez à utiliser le même appareil. Ces règles permettent de faciliter le décompte des scores à la fin du jeu.

2. Les membres d’une équipe doivent rester ensemble pendant tout le jeu et ne pas courir: si l’on vous voit à plus de 3 mètres l’un de l’autre, vous perdez 10 points par pieds qui vous sépare et l’équipe qui vous voit séparés récupérera vos points perdus! (et oui ! nous venons de passer de mètres à pieds…vous ne voulez pas apprendre l’équivalent de conversion de cette manière, restez ensemble!)

3. Aucune aide extérieure…Si l’on vous voit parler à un employé du Louvre, touriste ou personne de la sécurité, vous serez automatiquement éliminé du jeu. De même, vous n’avez pas le droit d’utiliser Internet ou tout outils autre (aucune Smart Phone) qu’une carte officielle du Louvre pendant le jeu. Je vais vous surveiller, ne vous faites pas attraper!

4. Nous devons nous retrouver à un endroit sur lequel nous nous sommes mis d’accord à l’avance à une heure précise (nous synchroniserons nos montres et nous motterons d’accord sur une heure de fin avant de commencer). Chaque minute de retard fait perdre 2 points à l’équipe mais souvenez-vous, ne courrez pas! Ceux qui ont 10 minutes de retards et plus seront disqualifiés. Parfois, il y a des raisons stratégiques pour être en retard, faites attention!

En Résumé

• Ne courrez pas
• Pas d’Internet
• Restez proches les uns des autres
• Ne parlez à personne en dehors des membres de votre équipe

The post Règles en Français – Rallye au Musée du Louvre! appeared first on THATLou.