Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Confessions of an International Maison Stalker

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The photo is from Vivre Côté Paris Magazine Advertisement.
Click on photo to enlarge.

Some years ago, in the late 'eighties, I was watching television. ( Yes, I would occasionally watch T.V. until reality shows reared their ugly heads.) Elsa Klensch was interviewing Philippe Starck, the famous French designer-of-everything on her show, Style. (God, I miss that show and have not tuned to CNN since they canned Elsa.) Anyway Elsa was featuring a most unusual house that Philippe had designed. All I knew was that I had to see this house and that it was somewhere in or near Paris.

Through French design books and the Internet, which was rather feeble back then, I located the house, Maison Lemoult, on Ile Saint-Germain in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a short metro ride from our hotel in the center of Paris. So, one sunny November day, Tall Husband and I stood feasting our eyes on the Starck master piece. As the house sits between the Seine and a street, we saw it from the front and the back. I shall never forget the thrill of that day. The owners, Dr. and Madame Lemoult, were home and were nervously peeking out at us, which did not perturb us in the least. We did notice the new house next door and commented that it was a shame that such an ugly house was built next to the chic Maison Lemoult. We were later to learn that the ugly house was Philippe Starck's studio and home, which he had designed.

Now my fantasizing begins anew, as this wonderful house is on the market, according to an advertisement in Vivre Côté Paris magazine. You can see Maison Starck as long as this link is active: http://www.architecturedecollection.fr/starck/flash/home2.swf

French Internet lesson so that you may enjoy your house tour:
  • precedent=previous
  • suivant=next
  • retour=return or back
  • accueil=home
  • loupe=enlarge (photo)
Oh, did I mention the price? 2 490 000 euros. Ouch!

P.S. I am thrilled to see that there is the same Italian floor lamp, Gilda, in the living room as we have. We got ours from Design Within Reach.

13 comments:

  1. Two things :

    1. I LOVED Elsa too ! As a teenager, I would sit in front of the TV with my finger on the record button of our creaky old VCR ... I taped every runway fashion show imaginable, and watched them back hundreds of times.

    2. I almost became a maison stalker myself this past weekend. My own tall husband and I were driving back from Queen Burger. They have THE best soft serve cones ( at least my little girl thinks so ). While driving home, I realized that we were in the general vicinity of the Bunny Bungalow. I thought about going on a hunt for it, but the dripping ice cream in the back seat made me rethink those plans !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yikes! I better sweep my front porch!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha ! No worries - it would have been a "drive by" stalking ! Hope you had a wonderful and peaceful holiday.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for the link. I like to peak and look at houses too. I was trying to find something about Adolf Loos proportions of rooms and his strict hierarchy (lots of animus) when I found your blog.
    Merci énormement pour ce petit clin d'oeil féerique.
    I would like to visit Tom Kundig's house. Anyone is his friend?
    Kidisa

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kidisa,

    Merci back to you. Loved your French statement about the "fairy wink." Thanks for dropping by and leaving your comment.

    As for Loos, he certainly was not at a loss for words about his ideas on proportion, working in three dimensions, and his disdain for ornamentation, was he?

    I wish I did know Tom Kundig, as I also am an admirer of his work, especially his residential projects. My son and his family are in Seattle this week...but no, I don't think even a son would arrange our visit to Kundig's. You probably know this link to Kundig's work...I only just discovered it and put it on this page under "Modern Minimalism" links:

    http://www.oskaarchitects.com/Projects/Architect/TomKundig

    Annie

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