Blue Steel

Underground car parks, pink wigs and beaucoup de bleu a la Vogue Italia. Good reason to stay underground.

http://www.vogue.it/magazine/fashion-stories/2011/02/blue-time

Animal Instinct

Beautiful and slightly sinister, Les Dandys, the new collection from iBride, have all the markings of the French design company's signature style - elegant and witty anthropomorphism with a disquieting sense of realism. The hunt is on.

www.ibride.fr

Bourdello

Student of Rodin, contemporary of Maillol and lover of gargantuan proportions, the eminent French sculpture, Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) had his wicked way with stone. Luckily for France, he had an altruistic family and his wife and daughter left a huge body of his work to the state. Luckily for me, his studio and museum is tucked away on rue Antoine Bourdelle, just around the corner from mon petit studio.

Another chance discovery as I was busy spotting vintage Minis on the way to Montparnasse, the museum garden full of centaurs, archers and enormous horses stopped me in my tracks. Inside, colossal stone statues from Greek and medieval mythology dwarf the human visitors in all their warm-blooded frailty. The studio itself is a jumble of inquisitive heads and busts, while outside, gigantic mythological freizes clash with the view of the neighbouring new-build apartment blocks.

18, rue Antoine Bourdelle,

75015 Paris.

Fake Empire

Young French artist Noemie Goudal prefers when things are not what they seem. Her subtly surreal photography reveals places and faces sensitively captured in twin realms of fantasy and decay. I love the juxtapositions, the crumbling buildings and the sense of longing.

http://www.noemiegoudal.com/