Peterhof, Saint-Petersburg

Amazing gardens opening to the sea, the Finland Bay. Peter 1st wanted to do better than the famous Sun King himself ! Fabulous fontains too.

But our favorite place, definitly,  was the smaller residence “Mon Plaisir” and the Pavillion of the baths.

Perhaps one day we’ll talk about “Russian Baroque”…

well, maybe you noticed I had an italian name :  “Muraro”, that’s why baroque can be only italian for me, 😉 and then versions were made from it…here is a very short  shorcut of art history  !!

I ‘m sure you must think the french  always think  they are superior ! well, french classicism vs baroque was my  daily food when I studied art history ! and I’m so used to the grandeur of Versailles, a very conceptual castle indeed, more than just a setting or a stage- I will explain you if you come with me there !

But Peterhof absolutly deserves a whole day to explore russian baroque and these fabulous gardens.

we had a wonderful and lovely guide : Svetlana, thank you so much Svetlana for the good times spent together that day and our lunch facing the sea !

Contemporary Art in Saint-Petersburg

When we were there a new place  was launched, well, a pre opening is better because the official opening will take place in September, it’s called “Erarta”, there is a gallery and a museum +a café and a shop.

Amazing building, great spaces, and very good exhibition, paintings by a young artist : Vladimir Semensky, a series inspired by Antique, his best work according to me.

http://www.erarta.com/eng/gallery/exh-gallery/semensky/

we were kindly received by the director Victoria Dudenko and had a private tour and could meet the artist.

thoughts for our friends in Moscow

We are so sad  and thrown into confusion when we see right now the dramatic situation in Russia, especially around and in Moscow with all the people suffocating, suffering, and the land devastated…We think about all the people who received us so warmly and hope they are well.

We really hope the situation will improve very quickly.

Museums in Saint-Petersburg

1) out of category for sure : the Hermitage !! oh my god, I’m used to say when I give a tour at the Louvre that the 3 biggest museums in the world are the Louvre, the Hermitage and the Met in NY,now Ican tell I was there  and I’ve visited the 3 ones !!

So overwhelming of course, the best, as usual is to make a selection of what you like , that’s why we focused on paintings but we had a private guide, Elena, excellent and brilliant scholar graduate in history (who is coming soon to settle down in Paris and I’m sure we are going to hear about her in art circles very soon), so we did the gold of the Scythian (Nomadic people 7th BC), amazing department (you can do it only with a guide from the hermitage). It looks like art deco style sometimes, so modern, a great sense of stylisation and naturalism in the mean time, perfect plastic acheviement.

if you love  Rubens and Rembrandt, buy immediatly  a ticket airplane, don’t wait no more and go ! No words fair enough to describe the deep humanity from the “Return of prodigal son” by Rembrandt, a lesson about the meaning “forgiveness”.

my favorite paintings :  Giorgione ‘s Judith and Picasso’s Three woman. The department of modern art is very impresive, as in Moscow Pouchkine museum, many of these treasures are coming from Chtoukine and Morosov collections.

2) the Russian Museum for 19th century art and turn of the century with the symbolist Vroubel + the biggest Malevitch collection… when it’s visible, such a frustration for me :  these rooms were  closed when we were there…well, good thing : it means I have to come back !

Saint Petersburg, a selection of hotels and restaurants

After 5 fantastic days in Moscow, we took the fast train to go to St Petersburg. Everybody in Paris prefers St Peter to Moscow but I enjoyed soooo much Moscow, I was even afraid to be disappointed by St Peter !

Be reassured, impossible to be disappointed ! more friendly for sure than Moscow at the first glance, more european. You can notice many great influences like Amsterdam with the canals, Vienne for the Baroque…lovely gardens and green spaces, perfect to wander around.

I’ll speak about their fabulous museums of course but they also have great places for dinner outside in summer, terrasse by the Neva on the “Flying dutchman” to admire the Hermitage.

Great service, very friendly and professional people (special thanks to Valeria, Alisa and the manager Karl Kutzelnig) and excellent cuisine at Kempinsky hotel and restaurant located on the top roof, so close to the Hermitage, the perfect place for a stay. We even met the french actress Carole Bouquet who was there to marry her son that week end !

In paris we have George on top of Pompidou center for Beautiful People , in St Peter they have the Terrassa. Fashionable, trendy and delicious place which is also a fine grocery.

Before  we left we had a lunch at famous cafe Singer, magnificent Art Nouveau style building, a book-store actually with a tea parlour and restaurant. fabulous strudel and pastries.

We stayed in a five stars hotel , very affordable,  infortunatly the service was not 5 stars level…but they had an incredible spa !! with a snow cabin, 8 differents styles of sauna/ steam rooms and a very cool pool ! we enjoyed it very much because we also has a heat wave in St Peter after the one Moscow.

Near Pouckine town, after a tour to the summer palace of the Great Catherine (very very russian baroque..mmmmm….well, everything is told ! 😉   don’t miss  the most fabulous place for us, sooo russian, I felt like beeing in a Kandinky painting from 1890’s, I can’t remember the name of that place but russians know it for sure : Poutine president celebrated his birthday in 2000.

The waiters have blue shirt with daisies, the waitresses are blond. The place is a huuuge isba, all wood inside (but air conditionning !), when we arrived around 2.30 pm there were two babouchka finishing their lunch, 2 popes in another room…we had a very delicious russian meal for  cheap and…caviar (for 50euros !!! great ! I like that so much !). You cannot imagine the feeling, it was like a dream, we were like Ansel and Gretel…the garden ouside was just marvellous, with animals, turkeys, chickens…

Contemporary art in Moscow

a must : a visit to Le Garage !

first, a great place : a former garage built in late 20’s transformed recently into a private center for contemporary  art, with great temporary exhibitions, high international level ! and a very cool restaurant too inside.

The owner is Dasha Zhukova, the fiancé of famous billionnaire Abramovitch.

We could a see an exhibition of Rothko paintings, for the first time in Russia, very moving.

+ a very interesting  exhibition about performance art, showing many documents and videos.

But my favorite work was an amazing video (actually photos giving the illusion of video)/ installation by russian collective AEF+ S, called the Feast of Trimalchio, you’re immerged in the center of a room surrounded by 3 giant screens into an exotic paradise, a kind of Thaï Abu-Dhabi ! The roles between masters and servant are going to be reverted little by little…fashion models and perfect bodies played the parts.

please visit their web site :   http://www.aes-group.org

Another very good place like a laboratory for russian artists : Winzavod, a former wine storage place converted into a center for cutting edge art with private art dealers, a center for temporary exhibitions, fashion and design shops, lectures and meetings are organized there too. And of course a delicious restaurant inside.

We were very well received by Sofia Trotsenko, the head of project and Julia, developper.

http://www.winzavod.com

Museums in Moscow

I’ve already told about the Kremlin museum, really worth seeing with amazing treasures, including diamonds, precious ceremonial clothes, icones,  silver objetcs offered as diplomatic gifts to russian court…

I think my favorite museum is Pouchkine museum for Degas and his mesmerizing blue dancers , Matisses (the goldfishes-the big pink workshop…), Picassos, Gauguins, a beautiful japonizing Redon…many of these modern masterpieces are coming from Morozov and Chtoukine  private collections.

But don’t forget Tretiakov gallerry for Roublev’s icones, and its excellent 19th russian painters like Serov (their Manet) and the symbolist Vroubel (picture below, the Swan Princess). There is another Tretiakov gallery for 20th century in vintage communist times style building (we could say an architectural statement today, nevertheless pefect for modern art exhibition !), with abstract artist like my favorite : Malevitch and his famous black square.

We were lucky also to se a temporary exhibition in the Moscow  Museum  of Modern Art devoted to Alexandra Exter, cubo-futurist artist who worked ballet decors and costumes, as for theatre and even movie.

Places I loved in Moscow

1) the Kremlin, the actual seat of power and residence of the president.Formerly the citadel of Czars, originnally built in wood in 1156.

Don’ t miss the square with marvellous cathedrals, like the Assumption (picture) and the Annunciation. Impressive icones adorning the walls, some made by famous painter Andrei Rublev.I loved  the floor made of   jasper and agate (very rare) in the one of the  Annunciation.

there is a also a very pleasant garden inside the Kremlin, that looks like a city into a city.

to see absolutly : the diamod fund in the Kremlin museum !! I’ve never seen so much big gold nuggets ! and so many diamonds, like the mythical one the Orlov adorning Catherine sceptre.

The Kremlin museum is really worth visiting it :  the treasures offered by foreign courts to Russia , the dresses of the Great Catherine for coronation, the biggest collections of oldest coaches, splendid Fabergé works…many amazing testimonies of the wealth of Russian court.

2) The red square :

For me ,  I totally identify Moscow to that fabulous cathedral : Saint Bazil closing Red Square perspective. I feel like beeig in a Kandinsky painting, like a day dream. Oh my god, the sens of colours and decors, the proliferation of motifs, everything turns clear  ! you can even understand Malevith suprematism when you look at the clothes of saints painted on icons, adorned with black crosses and circles…

where to stay in Moscow and my favorite restaurants

The most fashionable hotels and very well located are The Ritz-Carlton and The Park Hyatt, a stone throw from the Red Square.

Have a drink  on the top floor of the Park Hyatt, impressive view on Moscow.

My  favorite places for a diner :

– Baccarat restaurant :

located in a former casino (they are now forbiden all around Russia), impressive decor by Stark and Baccarat  of course. I’m already a fan of baccarat show room in paris and cristal room restaurant…The chef is french,from alsace  excellent tasting menu for 100 euros. Delicious mix between russian and french cuisine. Very Deluxe atmosphere and refined as well…

– Vogue Café. Trendy, elegant and tasty . Dress code : glamour

if you’re a Kamchatka crab’s fan, go ! delicious pastries too for afternoon tea.

Perfect place for a lunch or a drink.

Ok ok, my tips don’t look very russian, you would say… 😉 well, try this one :

The House of Writers ‘ restaurant where we met the russian ambassadors in Madrid and Amsterdam…

For connoisseurs only, the best herrings with potatoes I’ve ever had !! excellent bortsch too, delicious zakouski, the perfect russian dinner in a cosy atmosphere. Go there with theatre peole or writers.

We celebrated Edwart’s birthday that evening and Sacha and Gallina offered a chocolate cake from famous Café Pouchkine (their Ladurée !), mmmm !  excellent !

Very cutting edge/ trendy, the places to go absolutly !! :

the Garage of course and Winzavod, 2 centers for very contemporary art, with cool and tasty restaurants :

will tell you soon about my favorite museums and places !!!

Hi ! I know my blog was originally designed for Paris lovers ; a blog filed with tips, informations and news about the french capital but it’s also a blog devoted to travels and I just come back from Russia : we enjoyed it soooo much. Me and my fiancé stayed 5 days in Moscow then 5 days in St Petersburg and I really loved Russia immediatly !! I will write next days posts about my trip , including picures, what to see absolutly, where to go, where to eat…

Our trip was so marvellous and enchanted that I really want to share it with you ! And I take advantage to say a thousand warmest thanks to Sacha and Gallina Avdeev, the russian minister of culture and his wife, who received us so well and treated us like VIPs !! we’ll never forget it !

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