Paris tour: must-sees in the French capital

Wallpaper’s ‘Postcard from’ series highlights the best new design, architecture, art, fashion, food and more in destinations around the world. For this dispatch, our Paris editor Amy Serafin surveys the French capital, where an exhibition celebrates botanical beauty, an embroiderer and jeweller are elevating haute cuisine, and an Italian luxury brand is leading the way in wellness. Discover these highlights and more in our Paris tour.

Postcard from Paris: must-sees of the moment

Laura Gonzalez La Galerie

Interior architect Laura Gonzalez displays her exuberant, anti-minimalist yet sophisticated style at a new Left Bank showroom. She collaborated on the scenography with American fabric company Schumacher, who shares her taste for prints and colour. The eclectic universe includes a dinner table topped with raku marquetry, generously padded ‘Mawu’ chairs with flared oak legs, and a remarkable ‘Lilypad’ chandelier with glass petals.
3 Rue de Lille, Paris 7e, lauragonzalez.fr

Bulgari Spa 

The Italian brand’s Paris hotel has a vast spa in Vicenza stone and Burmese teak. Its mosaic-lined pool is reserved for guests and members, but anyone can book one of its treatments, which have been developed in collaboration with niche skincare brands such as Augustinus Bader. For the ultimate in pampering, bring a plus-one to the Spa Suite, a private space with a double bed and an onyx jacuzzi.

30 Avenue George V, Paris 8e; bulgarihotels.com

APC Vintage  

In 2017, APC France started a programme for clients to bring in their used APC clothing for credit. A selection of returns is reconditioned and sold at a new dedicated boutique. The store also carries prototypes, notably shoes and bags. Recent finds include a silk dress with a graphic floral pattern from the early 2000s (€90), a men’s work jacket with exposed stitching (€130), and an embossed ‘Betty’ bag (€180).
33 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, Paris 3e, apc.fr

Bleu Bao

Dim sum meets design at the third restaurant in the Bao family, opened by Céline Chung and reflecting her Chinese roots and French upbringing. The architecture studio Atelieramo designed the two-storey space to resemble old bourgeois houses of China, with a boudoir-like room upstairs. The affordable menu includes steamed baos, melt-in-your-mouth Dongpo pork, ginger milk pudding, and cocktails inspired by the regions of China.
8 Rue Saint-Lazare, Paris 9e, baofamily.co/bleu-bao

Palais de Tokyo

French artist Cyprien Gaillard’s major two-part show ‘Humpty \ Dumpty’, simultaneously exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo and Lafayette Anticipations (until 8 January 2023), is anchored in our obsession with battling the effects of time. He looks to Paris in a time of transition as it prepares to host the 2024 Olympics, specifically the buildings and monuments overlooked during the city’s facelift. Through abandoned Parisian clocks, love locks and asbestos, Gaillard dissects the human urge for structural restoration and preservation.
13 Avenue du Président Wilson, Paris 16e, palaisdetokyo.com
Fondation Galeries Lafayette, 9, rue du Plâtre, Paris 4e, lafayetteanticipations.com/fr
Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

L’Arpège

Alain Passard’s three-star restaurant has long been one of the very best. He shocked the culinary world two decades ago by replacing meat with a vegetable-driven menu. Now he’s brought the garden into his 16th-century basement, inviting two ateliers normally associated with couture, embroiderer Lesage and jeweller Goossens, to work magic on the decor. His signature dishes have been embroidered onto linen wall coverings, hung with gilded vines and butterflies.
84 Rue de Varenne, Paris 7e, alain-passard.com

Villa M 

Designed by Philippe Starck and Triptyque Architecture, Villa M is bursting with greenery. Make time in your Paris tour for a stop at the verdant rooftop bar, which serves original cocktails with a view of the Eiffel Tower. The inviting restaurant has sofas, kilims, and an open kitchen creating simple, delicious cuisine, from sea bream ceviche to a classic cheeseburger. A mixed-use building, Villa M also features a hotel, a wellness centre, a co-working space, even a boxing ring.
24 Boulevard Pasteur, Paris 15e, hotelvillam-paris15.com

Fondation Louis Vuitton

With ‘Monet-Mitchell’ and the ‘Joan Mitchell Retrospective’ (until 27 February 2023), Fondation Louis Vuitton introduces the work of Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell’s observations of the natural world, placing them in conversation with one another. Monet’s intricate and dream-like garden scapes sit alongside Mitchell’s frantic observations of colour, each marking an era of abstract expressionism.
8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi Bois de Boulogne, Paris 16e, fondationlouisvuitton.fr
Writer: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

Alléno & Rivoire Chocolatiers

Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alléno and his pastry chef, Aurélien Rivoire, have taken chocolate to a new level. Just try to choose among creamy chocolate ‘clovers’ with the subtle flavour of mountain herbs, chocolate sticks with roasted coconut ganache, tablets to pair with Champagne or cognac, or incredibly juicy dried pineapple enrobed in chocolate. All sold in a striking new boutique, designed by artist Laurence Bonnel, Alléno's wife, with Carrera marble arches.
9 Rue du Champ de Mars, Paris 7e, chocolat-allenorivoire.fr

Fabula

One of the hot spots of summer 2022 and set to return in 2023 (after closing for winter) is a pop-up restaurant in the Musée Carnavalet gardens. By day, it offers creative self-serve lunches. At night, a responsibly-sourced, zero-waste menu by Thibaut Spiwack includes dishes such as Normandy beef gravlax with cognac, or small boat mackerel with sage, along with made-to-measure cocktails by mixologist Nico de Soto. Three oversized balloons cast soft light on the classical façade, for a fairytale ambiance.
16 Rue des Francs Bourgeois, Paris 4e, fabula.paris

A version of this article appeared in the August 2022 Design for a Better World issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!