The eccentric designer and creative director of Christian Dior, John Galliano, was fired days earlier after being filmed in a bar; drunk and making anti-Semitic statements.

In one of the videos, seen by many people on the web, it is possible to see Galliano, inebriated at the bar La Perle in the Marais district of Paris, saying things like: “I love Hitler”. Another video shows him in the same bar, also very drunk and hurling anti-Semitic insults at a couple of customers. These costumers decided to sue the Gibraltarian fashion designer for his unacceptable behavior.

With such evidence, the owner of the French fashion house had no choice but to fire the creative designer. Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Christian Dior, have been facing several problems with customers and figures of the entertainment world thanks to Galliano’s controversial scenes, but according to some rumors, this recent scandal was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Toledano, tired of the eccentricities of the designer, long sought an excuse to fire him, and found it in this episode. “I condemn most firmly the statements made by John Galliano which are a total contradiction with the essential values that have always been defended by the House of Christian Dior.” He said in a statement.

Natalie Portman, who besides being Jewish, was the face of last year’s Miss Dior Cherie perfume (for which she posed topples), was shocked, disgusted and completely offended by Galliano’s comments and also declared that she does not want to be associated with the designer in any way. But many close friends of him find justification for his aggressive and destructive behavior in the fact that, in recent years he has suffered the loss of many of his loved ones, sinking him into alcohol addiction and depression. Galliano started frequenting the bars of the Marais district, a popular gay area where also a high percentage of the Jewish community in Paris reside.

Very recently, in 2007, his boyfriend and assistant Steve Robinson was found dead by a drug overdose in his apartment in Paris. A month later, his stylist and best friend Isabella Blow, committed suicide and finally, the tragic loss of his friend and disciple Alexander McQueen, left John Galliano without any emotional strength and a lot of anger towards the world.

Currently, Haider Ackermann, a Colombian designer, who has his own brand, is one of the leading candidates to replace John Galliano at Dior. We’ll see who will take the place of the loved and hated designer.

Laura Aurelia

Again Paris, the capital of fashion, is the place of scandals, intrigue and anger. Rent apartments in Paris and live close to this season’s trend and adrenaline that come together.

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Translated by: Hans
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During a scene in the extraordinary 1963 film by Louis Malle, Le Feu Follet, Alain, the suicidal protagonist who has spent the last six months in detox centre for alcoholics, looks up an old painter friend – played by the unforgettable Jeanne Moreau, so that he can say goodbye to her before he ends his life.

“You look like a corpse” she tells him through the glass door of an art gallery. The painter and the corpse, who has “beautiful eyes” leave the museum and after visiting a market, the pair, in a lovely sequence,  make their way to the girl’s house, as they chat about their shared feelings of perplexity towards life, of their desamparo towards the course of life, and the paths all their friends have taken over the years. “Our friends are extraordinary. They think time changes them, so they become nervous and they can do anything – kids, business, books. Or they kill themselves. Or they become mystics, like Dubourg… The bastards talk of sincerity and then do their jobs,” says the painter without a name. Alain asks about her, and she responds gracefully, slowly, as if about to start a brief dance, “Me? Abandoned, ruined, completely destroyed. I don’t move. I am still trying to comprehend it. The dream. I only believe in the dream.” The walk ends as they reach the painter’s house, in whose gardens we can recognise the Temple of Friendship, which was next to the mythical 2-floor pavilion of number 20 Jacob street, in the middle of the Latino neighbourhood, which was from 1909, the home of openly lesbian and pioneer of feminism North American writer Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972).

Perhaps the life path of the writer was marked at the age of six, when she met a young man at Long Beach, New York. The British gentleman, after protecting her from a group of kids chasing her, sat her on his knee to tell her a story she would never forget. Nor would her Mother – Alice Pike Barney – forget the encounter with this eccentric but charming man, who met up with them on the beach the following say to talk. His words were so inspiring that she decided to dedicate her body and soul to art (many of her paintings can still be seen today at the Smithsonian American Art Museum).

The name of the gentleman was Oscar Wilde, and many years later his niece Dolly would have a tempestuous and passionate relationship with the girl who sat on his knee that day.

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Paul Oilzum

Number 20 Jacob Street was one of the biggest epicentres for literary life in Paris in the between-war period. Natalie Barney founded the Women’s Academy there, in honour of women writers, and in denunciation of the fact that women had been excluded from the French Academy. If you rent apartments in Paris there are fewer places more special to visit.

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Translated by: Poppy
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It’s almost a tradition for French politicians to want to be remembered in some permanent way, leaving an indelible mark on the city of Paris.

It’s a kind of ambition that has often resulted in huge, ostentatious buildings and projects – there was, for example, the Georges Pompidou Art Centre, so called after the president of the same name who ordered its construction – or the Museo Antropológico del Quai Branly, created upon the initiative of Jacques Chirac.

However, it was without a doubt François Mitterrand who tried the hardest to leave his own personal legacy upon the city, with a series of landmark, emblematic buildings which he believed were sure to be remembered for years to come: like the glass pyramid in the middle of the patio at the Louvre museum, which functions as access to the museum and has ever since been an undeniable icon of the city – or La Grande Arche, or the staggering François Mitterrand wing at the National Library of France, in the neighbourhood of Tolblac in south Paris.

So, it is in this context – no doubt propelled further by his particular character – that the current French president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to leave hus own public legacy in the shape of a Museum of French History in Paris. It’s a project that isn’t expected to be completed until 2015 – nevetheless, it is already surrounded in controversy.

The first point of debate is naturally the cost, estimated to be between 60 and 80 million euros. A particularly significant issue at a time when the average citiizen is experiencing a daily decrease in his social and financial freedom due to the current austerity brought on by the economic depression. From one side, a good number of prestigious French historians believe Sarkozy’s project to be faddish, and driven by ideological rather than practical or scientific motives – particularly since the president himself opened up the contentious and potentially dangerous debate about national identity and Islam – not to mention his proposed policies to expel the Romanian communities from the country, and implement exams for immigrants to prove their right to live in the French republic.

One particularly tough reaction has been that of veteran historian and co-founder of acclaimed magazine Le Débat Pierre Nora, who has fervently denounced the current context of growing right wing politics, and the promotion of the French race – the idea of an “essential” France based on ideology rather than science or ethics.

Paul Oilzum

According to the latest statement, it seems that the museum will be in the HQ of the National Archives, in the middle of the Le Marais neighbourhood. New museum or no – it is still one of the most beautiful neighbourhoods to stroll through when you rent apartments in Paris

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Translated by: Poppy
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Created in 1977 by the perfumers Jean Amic and Jean-Louis Sieuzac, few perfumes have been so controversial and have achieved the permanence that Opium by Yves Saint-Laurent has got.

From the moment it was made till now, the blessed perfume has been one of the top sellers in the market. The controversy, that makes it different among others elixirs, lies on the reference to the drug opium and the assumed apology that from the beginning accompanied the product advertising.

Currently, this perfume continues provoking high controversy, causing that the Advertising Standards authorities in the UK banned its TV advert, which was a fundamental part of the campaign designed for this season. The authorities considered that it has inappropriate images of a woman simulating drug use.

In the ad, the character of Belle, played by the beautiful French actress Mélanie Thierry, plays a young woman dancing convulsively and exalted. There is a moment in which a woman entranced, points at her arm veins with her index finger and then her body falls down on the floor pretending to be possessed by the “fragrance. ” According to the Advertising Standards Board, this action could be interpreted as suggesting an injection of opiates, and that is why they decided to ban it.

However, the perfume continues to seduce many women , not in vain, the fragrance is called “The fragrance for Yves Saint Laurent addicts. ” For those addicted to the fragrance, its elegant personality and oriental smell, combined with its second to none mix of plums, pepper, mandarin, myrrh, jasmine, roses, laurel and cedar create an absolutely irresistible fragrance.

Artist, iconoclast, fashion master and lover of good things, Yves Saint Laurent, irradiates majesty, fragrance and savoir faire, something we can easily see when walking the streets of beautiful France.

Laura Aurelia

Artist, iconoclast, fashion master and lover of good things, Yves Saint Laurent, irradiates majesty, fragrance and savoir faire, something we can easily see when walking the streets of beautiful France. Rent apartments in Paris and be seduced by the creations of the inventor of prêt a porter

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Translated by: Hans
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Dominique Aury is a shy French woman who wrote “Story of O” in 1954, under the pen name Pauline Réage. Everything started because her lover has challenged her by saying that women were not able to write erotic stories and she, with the intention to seduce him, wrote a novel that is considered to be one of the top novels of the literature because this work was the kick-off of the “erotic” genre written by women.

Her lover, who was called Jean Paulhan, was the one who asked Dominique to write the novel. He was also a writer and an intellectual, that is why he was able to influence Dominique and to keep her up-to-date of the cultural issues of that time because she was sick, bedridden and unable to face the society.

The main character of the “Story of O” is a woman who was named “O” and although the novel contains scenes of explicit violence and sexual slavery, it was not written with a vulgar language at all, that is why the book makes the reader, word by word, more excited and transporting him to a world of domination and sadomasochism that makes it worth reading.

The novel was published in English and French at the same time. Dominique Aury was actually the heroine of her own novel. “O” is a fashion photographer, a beautiful and elegant Parisian woman who is forced by her husband to have bondage practices as being whipped, chained or pierced. And also she had to be always ready to have oral, vaginal and anal sex (or anything else that her partner would like).

d.b

In the novel everything begins when the lover of O offers her to remove her underwear in a field on the outskirts of Paris. To find out what else happens in this intriguing erotic novel you have to take a few days and rent apartments in Paris the city of the “Story of O” and lock up with your partner to read the book aloud while getting excited together and loving each other at the same time.

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Translated by: Hans
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Père Lachaise cemetery is filled with beautiful tombs,  but perhaps one of the most beautiful ones is the angel shaped monument sculptured by Jacob Epstein en 1909 where Oscar Wilde’s mortal remains were laid to rest in 1950 along with the ashes of Robert Ross, his literary executor, first male lover -with whom he would spend the nights in the bazaars “hunting”  young handsome males to seduce- best friend and undoubtedly one of the persons that loved and cared for him the most.

Wilde passed away in Paris the 30th of November of 1900. It was Ross who previously  paid off all of his debts and recovered his author royalties for his sons Cyril and Vyvyan Holland – who  had lost their surname after the downfall of the Irish writer (his name was erased from the theaters, his books were banned from publishing, his house and all of his possessions were seized and plundered, there were even feasts to celebrate his prison sentence )and assumed their mother’s new husband’s last name  – who entrusted  Epstein with the monument even if his own ashes weren’t disposed there until 30 years later

In this beautiful tomb,  many times covered with lipstick kiss marks from the  admirers that visit him, you can read a few lines of his last poem, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”  written in the very prison where he spent over two years of forced labor just  for not finding a reason of not being ashamed of being different, Irish, a pro-socialist, incredibly brilliant and having a intense desire for  men.  In this same prison he wrote “De Profundis , a sublime and true accomplishment of art over pain while living in the darkest abyss of misery and unhappiness, where he was constantly subjected  to physical violence that eventually led to a perpetual  ear infection that was never properly taken care of and perhaps along with other illnesses led him to his demise

These are the lines at the ending of the fourth poem:

“Alien tears will fill for him

Pity’s long broken ern

For his mourners will be outcast men

And outcasts always mourn”

Wilde spent his last months in Paris. This was his third and last “Paris period”,  although Oscar Wilde was no longer Oscar Wilde. Depending on the way he felt he called himself Sebastian Melmoth as a double tribute to the “Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian”  - one of his favorite paintings by Guido Reni-  and the classic gothic novel written by his  Great Uncle  Charles Maturin, “Melmoth The Wanderer”

In Paris, amidst other things he  converted to catholicism and  spent his time in a relentless self destruction mode, He died just the way he had always lived, beautifully beyond his means

Paul Oilzum

If you visit Père Lachaise when you’re renting apartments in Paris it might be nice to stop at his grave. Maybe you will see some American tourists who take fotos and celebrate his birthday with wine, poems and flowers they stole from other graves.

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Translated by: Marc
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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is known as an Art Nouveau illustrator, lithographer and Post Impressionist, along with Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. He is without a doubt the forefather of the poster art of today.

Born in 1864 into an aristocratic family, he moved to Paris at eight years old.

Due to incestuous relations, and inbreeding inside his family – quite a common occurrence amongst the nobility – Henri suffered from many hereditary illnesses. There was a rare form of dysplasia – the pycnodysostosis which is also now known as Toulouse-Lautrec syndrome. As a result of this condition, his legs stopped growing, and he didn’t reach above 154cm in height.

From a young age, Henri adopted the bohemian lifestyle, setting up in the Montmartre neighbourhood – at the time a hotbed of artists, writers and philosophers. His illness saw him rejected from many of the elite, exclusive clubs, and so Henri took refuge in the late night bars of the area. He started to earn a little money from the sale of his drawings, which would go on to bring him success as an established poster artist for the prestigious cabaret world.

One of the cabarets Henri frequented was Le Moulin de la Galette. Now an official landmark, the theatre was a cinema for many years – and today re-opens its doors in an attempt to recapture the magic of the belle epoque. It was immortalised by not only Toulouse-Lautrec but other artists such as Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso and Casas.

Le Moulin de la Galette was where you went to dance, whilst rival Moulin Rouge was where you went if you wanted to see professional dancers. Toulouse-Lautrec painted the cabaret a lot, and came to create a series of promotional posters. There was always a seat specially reserved for the artist at the club, from which he would watch, and paint during long nights. He painted one of the great can-can dancers, Jane Avril. The Moulin Rouge was a pioneer in the art of the strip tease, with semi-nude women dancing on stage. The Folies Bergèrs was a similar style of club, and became stiff competition for the others, with its almost completely naked dancing women. And everybody has heard of Le Chat Noir, as illustrated by Steinlen- an icon of the city.

Toulouse-Lautrec is undoubtedly one of the most iconic images associated with the Montmartre neighourhood and the birth of Cabaret – where, along with art, and alcohol, the artist took refuge.

He was an alcoholic for most of his life, and died in a sanatorium aged 36, from complications cased by alcohol and syphilis.

Toulouse-Lautrec is still a highly respected artist, enjoying posthumous fame for his oil paintings.

Ara

Explore Montmartre, and relive the spirit of the 19th century cabarets in Paris – some of them are still open – when you rent one of the apartments in Paris

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Translated by: Poppy
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