Paris To Do List

Every once in a while, I'll hear about an event through a blog or see an ad for a temporary exhibition while riding the métro, and write it down in the hopes of checking it out. Here are a few of the things I've written down recently:

• Ever since a day trip to Nancy (Lorraine) two years ago, I've been an art nouveau nut. I hope to satisfy my craving for art nouveau glass work by checking out the Tiffany exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, just next to the Sénat and the Jardins du Luxembourg. The exhibition showcases the vitraux (stained glass windows) of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), son of the guy who started Tiffany & Co. Runs through January 10. 

• Graffiti - social expression, art, visual pollution, whatever you think about it, that's what you think. (True.) If you're interested in seeing a graffiti retrospective, head by the Cartier Foundation, 261 Boulevard Raspail in the 14th. It runs through November 29. If you don't feel like paying to get in, at least stop by to see the graffiti outside the building. 

The building itself is also really cool - one of those inside/outside sort of things. Also, don't miss the slickness of the exhibition website (here and here), which makes me want to go even more than the graffiti I've already seen there, and the recommendation from Invisible Paris.

•  "Islamic Arts: Masterworks of the Khalili Collection" is the title of an exhibition open through November 22 at the Institut du Monde Arabe, which is one of those awesome landmarks/tourist opportunities that very few people know about. (The building, at one end of Boulevard St. Germain in the 5th, has an incredible view of the city center.) The collection includes manuscripts, curtains and tapestries, ceramics and glass, metals and goldwork, jewelry and enamels, panels and stonework, but that's not what made me want to go. Rather, it was the poster that's all over the metro: 

So cool.

•  Last (for now) but definitely not least, there's a ton of great music happening at Opéra Bastille: Puccini's La Bohème (with Natalie Dessay!), Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore (with Anna Netrebko! (Tom, eat your heart out)), Korngold's Die Töte Stadt, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and a concert of Korngold's chamber works (who knew??), and that's just this week! I'm hoping to pick up a "passe jeune" which allows youngsters/students to pick up rush tickets for super cheap.