SHANIA TWAIN'S PARIS
by MARK SEAL
On the verge of a world tour for her latest album, the pop princess who hails from Canada, kick-started her career in Nashville, and now lives finds time for a relaxing and romantic weekend in Paris.
Sitting in a suite at the Hotel Bel-Air in Hollywood, Shania Twain is meeting with a phalanx of reporters eager to hear about her latest album, Up!, and also chatting with American Way about her passion for Paris. Back in a big way after a five-year hiatus, the 37-year-old Twain is preparing for a world tour this fall. Her previous album, Come on Over, sold 34 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth bestselling album in U.S. history, and Up! could eventually exceed those numbers. The former Eileen Regina Edwards of Ontario, Canada, crossed over from Nashville country into pop with unparalleled ferocity and speed. Today she lives with her music producer husband, Robert John “Mutt” Lang, and their year-and-a-half-old son, Eja, in an ancient mansion in Switzerland. But when they want to get away, they head straight to the City of Light, where Mutt popped the question to Shania in a surprise engagement nine years ago. Here’s a weekend with the princess of pop in Paris, the city of light, love, and more.
FRIDAY
Lodging
“Hotel Costes is cool. I especially like having lunch there. They have a terrace patio, but you can eat there all year long. I’m a vegetarian, and they have really good things there like fresh carrot juice. We also stay at the Ritz. It’s a really great location, and we’re suckers for the classical style. The George V is great as well. That whole area is great for shopping.”
Dinner
“On our first night back, we would probably go to the Alain Ducasse restaurant in the Hotel Plaza Athйnйe. It’s first-class service and true gastronomic food. If you want to experience the best French cuisine, it is the classic place to go. A typical meal there would be champagne, then a couple of amuse-bouches, then a couple of appetizers, then your entree, which is usually two to three different dishes. So that’s like seven things now. Then they have anywhere from two to three desserts. It’s nothing to get 10 different plates of something there. It takes three to five hours to have dinner, and you have to reserve several months in
advance. You can get in a little bit easier for lunch.”
Nightlife
“We don’t do nightlife in Paris, because we like to dine in Paris and it’s such a long dinner experience. By the time you’re done, you’re happy just to take a long walk or watch a movie. We always go to see a movie in Paris for some reason. We go to the theaters on the Champs-Elysйes. There are a lot of choices — American movies with French subtitles.”
SATURDAY
Breakfast
“Even if we’re not staying at the Ritz, we’ll walk over there for breakfast. Because they have a beautiful dining room in a very classical style. Breakfast is great in that room.”
Sights
“The statue of Joan of Arc is always impressive. It’s right on the street, you don’t have to pay to see it, and there’s so much history there. It’s something you would just take for granted walking by, and not realize that it’s Joan of Arc. It’s a big part of their history, but the statue isn’t sitting in a museum somewhere. It’s just out on the street. Cour de Rohan is a little area with tiny shops and tearooms and St.-Michel as well. Also the Sacrй Coeur, the white cathedral on the hill. We went to see the Dali museum up there. It’s down in the basement and unassuming, but very interesting. You can take the train down at night, and it’s very scenic.”
Shopping
“We also window shop, either on Blvd. St. Germain or Rue St. Honore or Avenue Montaigne by the George V. All of the haute couture shops are on those streets. My favorite store in Paris is a kid’s store, Bonpoint. That’s where I got Eja’s first clothes, the clothes we took him home from the hospital in. Gianfranco Ferrй doesn’t exist in every city, but certainly in Paris, and they have several different shops. They have clothing and fragrances. Place des Victoires is another special shopping place. It’s a really trendy area, where I go when I want to buy hip shoes or jeans or that kind of thing.”
Lunch
“The cafes in Paris are fantastic. My favorite cafe area is St.-Michel, on the Left Bank. You also have to go to Angelina for their world-famous hot chocolate. Or to Ladurйe for croissants. Both have wonderful tearooms with great salads and warm pastries.”
Culture
“We love the Palais de la Dйcouverte, the museum just on the other side of the Champs-Elysйes. It’s really great. The last time we were there, the exhibit was about the history of perfume. They had all of these really old original fragrances. They were displaying all of the different dried flowers that they used from all over the world. Very exotic spices. They had samples of all of these things and explanations of how they processed these things. It was really interesting. This is the type of city where the average person off the street can just knock off and find out how they make perfume. I find Paris very accessible to everyone. There seems to be something for everyone: exhibits, art, music.”
Dinner
“I would have dinner at Alain Passard’s restaurant L’Arpиge. It’s very modern and not too far from any of the hotels. Their specialty is the tomatoes for dessert. It’s sweet, but not overly sweet, and they serve it with mint ice cream. It’s very tasty, very frosty. When I was probably seven-and-a-half-months pregnant, we went to L’Arpиge. We walked back to the Ritz from there, which was like 20 minutes. We make a habit of walking after dinner. Guy Savoy is a good restaurant, too, and one that we go to all the time.”
Ballet
“I like to go to the ballet, Opйra Bastille, because you don’t have to worry about the language. We go there often. One of my favorite ballets, which I hadn’t seen since I was young, is Swan Lake. We got to see a new adaptation of it, which was fabulous because it was all men. You have to go to the ballet, because there’s no language barrier, although we do speak French now. But I still find it sometimes difficult to follow theater in French.”
SUNDAY
Breakfast
“As far as a patisserie goes, Pierre Hermй is very special. They present all of their sweets in the window just like at a jewelry store. At first, you think it is a jewelry store. Mutt’s big on chocolate, so he’ll often eat something that’s chocolate. Mille-feuille is something we both really love. It’s all beautiful tasting, but the presentation is just so incredible.”
Art
“We always go to the Louvre. It’s so famous, and everybody goes there, but they have new things going on all the time. Every few months they have a big new exhibit, and we always want to know what it is, because we’ve seen the classical stuff many times. Whenever I take a friend, we always have to see the Mona Lisa and all the classical things, and you never get tired of seeing them. But I’m always interested in what they’re bringing in, too. It’s very important when you’re in Paris just to walk around and see what exhibits are going on. The Grande Arche de la Dйfense is another must-see that has great exhibits. It’s glass and metal and pretty spectacular. It kind of blends in with the sky. A very high building. A real skyscraper. In the top of it they have fabulous art exhibits that change all the time.”
ONE GREAT DAY IN PARIS
“I was engaged in Paris. Mutt was actually recording there with Bryan Adams. He said, ‘Why don’t you come with me to Paris when I do this? We’ll be working in the studio. I’m not going to have time to be with you very much. I want you to be able to enjoy Paris, so I want to invite your sisters along.’ He wanted them to be there for that moment. I brought my own engagement ring with me and didn’t even know it. He just said, ‘Listen, someone’s going to bring you a small package. There’s a video in there that I’ve got to see. Could you bring it with you when you come to Paris? And don’t lose it!’ I said, ‘Okay, sure,’ and I put this package in my luggage. I had no idea I was bringing my own ring over. We were in a hotel just off the Champs-Elysйes. It was 3 o’clock in the morning and he had just come back from the studio. I was still awake and he proposed to me then. Paris is the city of romance! There’s something dreamy and surreal about the fact I was engaged in Paris on my first trip there. It made it very special.”
Mark Seal is an American Way contributing editor whose work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Playboy, Time, and Town & Country.
Photo By RICHARD McLAREN
Отредактировано Stas (2007-08-17 23:45:14)
