Sunday's Trouvailles #5
Art, books and newsletters...what more do we need on a Sunday?
This is Sunday’s Trouvailles, my Sunday morning newsletter, which is the online version of a favourite Parisian weekend activity - browsing a brocante, local market or garage sale in search of trouvailles (lucky finds). Each week, I’ll share the best of my cultural findings from the week and the archives, aka my piles of saved links, screenshots from my camera roll and paper treasures stashed in boxes.
I’m offering a 10% discount on subscriptions if you become a paid subscriber by next Sunday, 21 April. Sunday’s Trouvailles will continue to remain free, as will the Views from the Café posts, but to have access to all columns and the archives, you will need to be a monthly or annual paid subscriber or a founding member. This works out at 45 EUR per year/ EUR 3,75 per month. Writers often say, “it’s the price of a coffee a month”, but if you live in Paris, London or a big city these days, it works out at about half a coffee per month really. In return, I will help you fill your creativity and culture cups and connect with readers around the world. You can also claim a coffee back if you come and visit me in Paris! ☕
🎨 Trouvailles to immerse yourself in art
Art prescriptions - I’m pretty sure I had already seen this some years ago, but it popped up everywhere across the media this week: a pilot project in Switzerland has introduced museum visits as part of doctors’ prescriptions for certain treatment plans. They might also expand it to include theatre and dance in the future. I truly love this concept; I find so much calm and peace wandering a gallery or exhibition, and my mind definitely gets sharper and more focused on details, colours and textures than it usually does when I’m walking around distracted by my phone.
A night at the museum - To celebrate its 200th anniversary and the rehanging of part of the collection, The National Gallery in London is offering subscribers to its newsletter a chance to win a night in the Sainsbury Wing. The lucky visitor will have dinner at the gallery’s new restaurant, a private tour of the rehanging and the chance to sleep among the collection.
📚 Bookish Trouvailles
A dream project on sale - One dream project (of many!) I have is to open a small bookshop with an apartment above to rent for writers to come and work on their projects and meet readers and run workshops. This week, I saw exactly how this would look like, as a bookstore with a small apartment on top became available for sale in a small village 1 hour from Toulouse. You can see the pictures here. Asking price: EUR 169,000. If this was two years ago, when we considered Toulouse among the cities to live in, you bet I would have already booked a visit. I might have to multiply the price by 3 or 4 to make it happen in Paris, but luckily, I have plenty of time!
A great independent guidebook - This weekend, I finally had the time to get my head into my trip to Japan, do some packing, and, my favourite part, read my guidebooks. I bought them back in 2019 when I was planning a trip there for our honeymoon, but let’s just say…Covid! My favourite one is Lost Guides’ Tokyo and Beyond Guide, by Anna Chittenden, the writer, photographer and traveller beyond the account and the travel guides. It’s beautifully illustrated and full of tips and recommendations that actually helped me get a feeling of what could be worth doing/trying/seeing in the abyss of information about Japan.
The chichest shelves - I feel like French fashion brand Soeur doesn’t get enough attention abroad, compared to not only Sezane but, say, Sandro or Claudie Pierlot. It has just launched a temporary online shop in partnership with Pacific Editions called Bookstore, which looks exactly like what my cooler self would buy for her desk and shelves one day.
🗃️Trouvailles from the archives
In my continued attempts at cleaning my inbox, I often come across all the wonderful newsletters I read and keep stashed in folders “for when I’ll need them.” So I thought I would start “needing them” and share some favourites on here over the weeks. There are two newsletters I miss and wish were still going, the kind you can’t wait for them to hit your inbox:
Tigers Are Better Looking - Everything
writes is kind, fun and inspiring. Whether it’s career advice on or one of her past newsletters, , which she used to write with Laura Brown. If you are lucky enough to discover this today, you can dig into the archives. I particularly loved the quirky and lesser-known stories of adventurous women from the past.The Wingwoman - Another newsletter writing duo I loved was The Wingwoman by Charlie Gowans-Eglinton and Frankie Graddon. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an archive for it, but it did turn into a podcast at some point and you can still listen to that to get the feeling and peek at their account on Instagram for some past issues.
The Long-Distance Creative Club - Friday 9 May
The second session of the Long-Distance Creative Club is coming up on Friday, 9 May at 4 PM Paris time / 3 PM London / 10 AM New York. You will get your invite with all the details in your inbox this week, but in the meantime, mark the date as we have a special guest I’m so excited about and you won’t want to miss it.
Have a lovely Sunday!
Aaaah, we loved writing Tigers so much!