Paris, France |
Parisians will once again be able to stroll the gilded aisles of the Samaritaine department store, after 16 years of painstaking work to restore the Art Deco and Art Nouveau landmark to its former glory.
Luxury conglomerate LVMH shut the 151-year-old emporium overlooking the Seine river in 2005, when safety inspectors discovered widespread risks including antiquated wiring.
Once a retail anchor for the historic core of the capital between the Louvre and Notre-Dame, by then it was losing money and customers no longer interested in its pitch: "You can find everything at La Samaritaine."
"It was dying," the store's chief Jean-Jacques Guiony told journalists on Monday, when President Emmanuel Macron visited for the restored site's inauguration.
Macron, touring alongside Bernard Arnault, LVMH's chief and one of the world's richest people, called it "a stunning French cultural treasure."
For the revamp, LVMH shrank the floorspace in the flagship building, a classified monument, by a third and took its offerings firmly upmarket -- applying the formula at Le Bon Marche, LVMH's other temple of luxe in Paris.
Gone is the hunting gear, housewares, tools and toys, despite the historic signs still on the facade.
Instead, think designer fashion labels, an entire floor dedicated to swank watches, two concept stores and a vast beauty and cosmetics department in the basement.
Restaurants, bars and food offerings like Street Caviar by Prunier are spread throughout, while a Cheval Blanc hotel opening in September will offer Seine views and a restaurant with Michelin-starred Arnaud Donckele at the helm.
Rooms start at 1,150 euros (nearly $1,400) a night, and the two-storey rooftop penthouse will have its own pool, spa and cinema and a private elevator direct to the street. Price upon request.
"You'll no longer find everything at La Samaritaine, but you will find all of Paris at La Samaritaine," said Eleonore de Boysson, Europe director at LVMH's DFS retailing arm.
- 'Complicated' -
Opened in 1870 by Ernest Cognac, a travelling salesman, and expanded with his wife Louise Jay, the four Samaritaine stores became a fixture of Paris culminating in a 1930s golden age.
He named it La Samaritaine after a pump on the nearby Pont Neuf bridge that depicted the Gospel story of the woman of Samaria offering water to Jesus.
It's the bridge Matt Damon's character spies on from the Samaritaine's roof in the 2002 thriller "The Bourne Identity" -- though the huge lettered sign he stands behind won't be replaced.
The work was originally expected to last three to six years, but delays emerged as LVMH sought out hundreds of artisans across France capable of restoring mosaics and other artworks.
They also discovered that an elegant, golden-hued peacock fresco, an Art Nouveau masterpiece extending along the walls under the glass atrium roof, had been covered in white paint in the 1990s.
A court battle with residential and heritage groups angry over a new undulating glass facade on one section, designed by the Pritzker-winning Japanese firm Sanaa, also went to France's top court before LVMH was allowed to proceed.
Press reports say the budget climbed to 750 million euros, an amount executives have not officially confirmed but quietly concede is in the ballpark.
"Renovating is much more complicated to do than just rebuild," Guiony said.
- 'It's a rebirth' -
As part of the project negotiated with City Hall, much of the store was converted into office space as well as 97 low-income housing units and a child daycare centre.
One building will be rented to Japanese fast-fashion specialist Uniqlo and other shops.
LVMH also carved out an esplanade complete with fountains where cars used to whiz past, making it easier to marvel at the ornate facades and hopefully drawing more Parisians as well as tourists.
The store and hotel alone will create 2,100 jobs, further revitalising a district that has seen a spate of recent projects, including the new Bourse de Commerce art museum by Arnault's luxury rival Francois Pinault.
But only a handful of the nearly 750 employees abruptly dismissed 16 years ago have been rehired -- dozens were interviewed but LVMH requires sales staff to speak at least three languages.
"It's a rebirth," said Mourad Khati, 53, a manager once again on site. "I first started when I was 21, having just arrived from Kabylia" in Algeria.
"In those days it was more working-class," he said. "Today it's very high-end."
js/sjw/lth
Bangkok, Thailand |
Some families living in a jungle may be fearful of things going bump at night, but for one household in Thailand, the sight of an elephant rummaging through their kitchen was not a total shock.
"It came to cook again," wrote Kittichai Boodchan sarcastically in a caption to a Facebook video he shot over the weekend of an elephant nosing its way into his kitchen.
Likely driven by the midnight munchies, the massive animal pokes its head into Kittichai's kitchen in the early hours of Sunday, using its trunk to find food.
At one point, it picks up a plastic bag of liquid, considers it briefly, and then sticks it in its mouth -- before the video cuts out.
Kittichai and his wife live near a national park in western Thailand, by a lake where wild elephants often bathe while roaming in the jungle.
He was unperturbed by the mammoth mammal, recognising it as a frequent visitor as it often wanders into homes in his village where it eats, leaves and shoots off back into the jungle.
The elephant had actually destroyed their kitchen wall in May, he said, creating an open-air kitchen concept reminiscent of a drive-through window.
This weekend, its sole task was to find food.
Kittichai said a general rule of thumb in dealing with unwelcome visitors crashing is not to feed them.
"When it doesn't get food, it just leaves on its own," he told AFP.
"I am already used to it coming, so I was not so worried."
Wild elephants are a common sight in Thailand's national parks and its surrounding areas, with farmers sometimes reporting incidents of their fruits and corn crops being eaten by a hungry herd.
tak-dhc/jfx
© Agence France-Presse
Carbis Bay, United Kingdom |
US First Lady Jill Biden struck an inclusive tone , in her choice of words and clothing, as she accompanied President Joe Biden on his first foreign tour.
The 70-year-old made a clear statement by wearing a jacket with the word "LOVE" on the back, as the couple met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie on the eve of a G7 leaders' summit.
The first lady's eye-catching choice was guaranteed to draw comparisons with her predecessor, Melania Trump, who cut a stylish but often distant figure in the role.
During a trip to a migrant child detention centre in 2018 the former US first lady infamously wore a jacket emblazoned with the slogan: "I really don't care, do u?"
Aides for Donald Trump's ex-model wife initially claimed it was "just a jacket", but she later admitted it was intended as a message "for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticising me".
Speaking to reporters Thursday shortly after posing for photographs alongside her husband and the Johnsons in Cornwall, southwest England, Jill Biden said she too was now making a statement.
"I think that we're bringing love from America," she said, when asked about the jacket.
"This is a global conference and we are trying to bring unity across the globe.
"I think it's needed right now, that people feel a sense of unity from all the countries and feel a sense hope after this year of the pandemic."
- Bike, book and bag -
The current first lady flew into Britain late Wednesday, with President Biden announcing "The United States is back!" as he seeks to reset diplomatic ties after the isolationism of the Trump era.
Biden gifted his British counterpart -- a cycling enthusiast -- an American-made bike and helmet, while Carrie Johnson received a leather tote made by US military wives and a presidential silk scarf.
In return, Johnson gave the US leader a framed photo from an Edinburgh mural of the black 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and Jill Biden a first-edition copy of "The Apple Tree" by British author Daphne Du Maurier, who lived in Cornwall.
While their husbands held their first face-to-face talks as leaders, Jill Biden had tea with the British premier's new wife, who is making her debut in the global diplomatic spotlight.
The 33-year-old married the twice-divorced Johnson, 56, just last month in a scaled-down, secretly arranged ceremony. They have a baby boy, Wilfred.
Carrying Wilfred in her arms, she and a barefoot Jill Biden also strolled along the beach in front of the summit venue in Caris Bay.
Following this weekend's summit, the Bidens will meet Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle west of London, before heading on to Europe for further summits.
"Joe and I are both looking forward to meeting the Queen," Jill Biden said.
"That's an exciting part of the visit for us. We've looked forward to this for weeks and now it's finally here. It's a beautiful beginning."
pool-jj/jit/pvh
© Agence France-Presse
Carbis Bay, United Kingdom -
G7 leaders on Sunday vowed to start delivering one billion doses of Covid vaccines and to step up action on climate change, in a US-led summit call to arms that also took on China and Russia.
In a final communique issued at their first physical summit in nearly two years, the leaders of the elite club largely hewed to US President Joe Biden's push to regain the West's cohesion after Donald Trump's tumultuous tenure.
"We will harness the power of democracy, freedom, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights to answer the biggest questions and overcome the greatest challenges," Biden and his colleagues from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan said.
At a G7 news conference before he headed on to a NATO summit and showdown talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden said his fellow leaders agreed "America is back at the table and fully engaged".
NATO's mutual defence was a "sacred obligation" for the United States, he added, arguing that democracies were in a "contest with autocracies" while insisting that Washington was not seeking "conflict" with Beijing or Moscow.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the summit in southwest England, had described Biden as a "big breath of fresh air" and told reporters Sunday that the G7 stood united anew in its "democratic values".
Angela Merkel, attending her last G7 as German chancellor, meanwhile said Biden had brought "new momentum" to resolving the world's problems at the three-day summit.
But the pledge on vaccines for poorer nations fell far short of the 11 billion doses that campaigners say are needed to end a pandemic that has claimed nearly four million lives and wrecked economies around the globe.
Likewise, the G7's pledges to deliver more aid for countries at the sharp end of climate change, and to phase out fossil fuel investments, were decried as too little, too late ahead of a UN summit in November.
"This G7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at aid group Oxfam.
"Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times."
India and South Africa, who took part in the G7 talks as guests, had pressed for the gathering to waive intellectual property rights on Western vaccines. But Britain and Germany were notable holdouts.
Campaigners also complained the G7 had failed to flesh out how it will pay for a newly agreed "Nature Compact" -- aimed to protect 30 percent of the world's land and oceans from despoliation by 2030.
- Taking belt to China -
Johnson also touted a G7 pledge to get 40 million more girls into schools over the next five years, as part of the post-pandemic reconstruction.
He said such initiatives would marry the West's intentions to promote democratic values with concrete actions, "helping the world's poorest countries to develop themselves in a way that is clean and green and sustainable".
For the G7, none of those virtues apply to China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, which has been widely criticised for saddling small countries with unmanageable debt.
Instead, the allies adopted a US initiative to "collectively catalyse" hundreds of billions of infrastructure investment for a rival G7 plan called the "Build Back Better World" (B3W) project.
Calling B3W a "momentous commitment", Biden said it would be "much more equitable" than China's own lending spree in the developing world.
"China has to start acting more responsibly in terms of international norms on human rights and transparency," he added, as the G7 leaders condemned Beijing over rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the G7's resurgence under Biden as a "collection of democracies", but said the West also had to work with Beijing.
Nevertheless, the G7 risked inflaming tensions further by pressing China to let experts from the World Health Organization further investigate how Covid-19 first emerged.
Biden has ordered US intelligence agencies to report back on whether it came from an animal source or from a laboratory accident.
- Russian cyber attacks -
The G7 also demanded that Russia "credibly explain" the use of chemical agents on its soil, end its "systematic crackdown" on opposition groups and media, and "hold to account" hackers waging ransomware attacks.
Biden will meet Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, and said he would be "making myself very clear what the conditions are to get a better relationship with Russia".
A lingering row between Britain and the European Union over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland hung over the talks.
But London sought to bring all sides together using the "soft power" diplomacy of Queen Elizabeth II and her heir Prince Charles, at a Friday night reception for leaders and EU chiefs.
They then enjoyed an evening beach barbecue Saturday around fire pits, featuring a sea shanty band and toasted marshmallows.
Biden on Sunday became the 13th out of the last 14 sitting US presidents to formally meet the queen, inspecting a royal honour guard at Windsor Castle.
He then jetted out of Heathrow to Brussels for two days of summits with leaders from the NATO military alliance and the European Union.
jit/har/jj
© Agence France-Presse
Universal City, United States |
Natalie Lucia knew her Los Angeles life was getting back to normal the moment she was confronted by a snarling, life-sized velociraptor.
Thursday marked several milestones in California's emergence from the pandemic -- vaccinations became available to all over-16s, basketball fans could watch the Lakers in-person, and Universal Studios Hollywood finally re-opened to impatient theme park fans.
"I have been waiting to see Blue and the dinosaurs since they closed... To be able to see her after 15 months is amazing," said Lucia, a 40-year-old piano teacher, standing outside the Jurassic World section as the velociraptor emerged.
"This is a symbol... I'm going to get teary-eyed! We're finally able to do stuff again, and it's amazing."
The sprawling theme park consists of immersive rides, a giant Harry Potter-themed Hogwarts castle and a tour of Universal's famous studio soundstages -- but it had all been shuttered for more than a year as Covid-19 ravaged the United States's second-largest city.
With infections plummeting after a severe winter spike, Governor Gavin Newsom relaxed California's tier-based criteria for reopening -- allowing Los Angeles-area theme parks to return to operation -- and has announced that all restrictions will be gone by mid-June.
For now, Universal's theme park is following the government's 25 percent capacity restrictions, and on Thursday only annual pass holders and press were admitted -- ahead of Friday's public reopening.
Certain rides that exceed 15 minutes indoors are yet to reopen, live performances are on hold, and characters who used to roam the park posing for photos with guests are still absent -- one giant Homer Simpson danced behind a rope designating a special, social-distanced selfie zone.
But self-described "theme park nerds" Jenny and Cameron Cubak said it still felt "like home" as they stood in line for the new "Secret Life of Pets" experience with their 23-month-old daughter Emily.
"I'm actually really excited even to wait in line," said Cameron.
- 'Magic' -
California has experienced the most Covid-19 cases and deaths of any US state -- in part due to its massive population, but also a result of a December surge that prompted a sharp U-turn on previous reopening efforts.
With the Golden State now among the lowest for per-capita infections, vaccinations have accelerated, and Newsom said Thursday that half of all over-16 Californians would have received at least one dose by midnight (0800 GMT Friday.)
Also Thursday, basketball fans were allowed back to downtown's Staples Center for the NBA champions' clash with the Boston Celtics. The roughly 2,000 spectators who are now permitted at games must show they are fully vaccinated or have had a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of tip-off.
Back at Universal Studios Hollywood, only California residents are admitted, no parties may be larger than three households, and face coverings and temperature checks are mandatory.
For Sean Duggan and daughter Kaylee, who have season passes to "every park in California," Universal's reopening "gives us a little more freedom," with Disneyland set to follow on April 30.
"We're getting a chance to go outside, do these events, and feel a little bit more secure about being out."
Nekia Griffin, a 46-year-old medical administrator and Harry Potter fan, told AFP her trip to Universal was her "first real outing" since Covid-19 arrived in the US last spring.
"To get a piece of that magic is just, it's indescribable. It's just so wonderful to be back."
amz/caw
© Agence France-Presse
French fashion house Dior returned to live audience shows with a firework-punctuated presentation of its 2022 Cruise collection in Athens at the Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Olympic Games.
Watched by celebrities including film star Catherine Deneuve, model Cara Delevingne and Queen's Gambit actress Anya Taylor Joy as well as Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the collection showcased designs inspired by antiquity and traditional Greek dress.
Greek artisans whose work was featured in the collection included a tailor and embroiderer from Argos in the Peloponnese, a silk factory in the northeastern town of Soufli, and a maker of fisherman's caps from the port of Piraeus.
"I am very interested in the craftmanship. It's my passion," Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri told AFP.
"Each country has many different aspects in fashion," she said.
Cruise collections fall between usual spring/summer and autumn/winter collections -- and French houses often visit other countries for the launch.
The event in Athens "(blends) the power of heritage and contemporary inventiveness," Dior said.
The peplos, the robe traditionally worn by women in ancient Greece, was a "key inspiration" for the show's tunics, the fashion house said.
The collection -- mostly in black, white, grey, gold and blue -- also included sportswear pieces and suits inspired by jackets and pants worn by Marlene Dietrich.
The show took place 70 years after an iconic Dior shoot at the Acropolis.
"We are very proud to be here," Chiuri said.
"When I arrived in Dior I found the archive and I said, one day it would be great to realise again this trip in Greece. In some ways, it’s an anniversary," she said.
In addition to the Acropolis, Greek officials have permitted Dior photo shoots at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Ancient Agora in Athens, the temple of Poseidon at Sounio and the temple of Zeus at Nemea.
Chiuri said getting crowds back was a welcome feeling. The last show with spectators, a smaller affair, was in September.
"We worked a lot with video, film, but it’s completely different to have an audience at our fashion show. It's like a concert," she said.
"The guests are part of the show with us."
Last summer, Dior launched its cruise collection in Piazza del Duomo in Lecce in Italy.
neo/jph/har
© Agence France-Presse
Los Angeles, United States |
Long before his mega smash-hit "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda dazzled Broadway with "In The Heights," a Latin pop and salsa-inspired musical celebrating the New York immigrant community that raised him.
Warner Bros.' big-screen version of Miranda's debut work finally arrives in US theaters Thursday -- a rare foray by a major Hollywood studio into a lavish production that puts Latino stories, stars and filmmakers front and center.
"It's a big deal, and I think it's the beginning of a Latin wave that I hope opens a lot more doors for more movies like this," Mexican actor Melissa Barrera told AFP.
"From the moment they started casting in the movie, I was like 'oh my gosh, because there aren't many movies that give us this platform, I know everyone is going to audition for this.'"
Barrera -- who rose to fame in Mexico's "telenovela" soap operas -- landed the key role of Vanessa, an aspiring designer hoping to trade the Washington Heights "barrio" at Manhattan's northern tip for the chic fashion world of downtown.
Her love interest Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), a bodega owner, dreams of rebuilding his father's beach bar in the Dominican Republic, while their Puerto Rican friend Nina (Leslie Grace) has "escaped" to Stanford University but pines for home.
Miranda -- who is of Puerto Rican descent, and has long advocated for his community in the entertainment world and beyond -- wrote the first version of "In The Heights" as a young student at Wesleyan University.
It reached Broadway in 2008, where it earned 13 Tony nominations, and set its creator on the path to "Hamilton" -- the wildly popular story of the first US treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton and his fellow founding fathers, itself told through the lens of modern, multiethnic America.
In the film, Miranda takes the small role of neighborhood "piraguero" -- a vendor of traditional ice desserts -- and hands directing duties to Jon M. Chu ("Crazy Rich Asians.")
But Barrera admitted it was "intimidating" to collaborate with the "Hamilton" creator on the follow-up of sorts to a global smash hit.
"The pressure comes along with 'I want to do this right, I want to do the best that I can to do good by Jon and Lin... and the entire community."
While 18.5 percent of the US population is Hispanic, Latino actors accounted for just 5.4 percent of lead roles in Hollywood last year, according to UCLA's "Hollywood Diversity Report."
- 'Struggle' -
The film version of the tale is largely shot on the colorful streets of Washington Heights, blocks from where Miranda grew up.
In keeping with its recurrent theme of encroaching gentrification, location scouts had to studiously ignore the area's Chipotle and Target chains, "recasting" several blocks with hand-painted signs and awnings to evoke a nostalgic, mom-and-pop shop feel.
Along with highlighting the food, music and traditions of Miranda's youth, the film diverges from its stage predecessor by following Nina to protests supporting immigrant rights for the so-called "Dreamers."
The film was shot and intended for release during Donald Trump's presidency, at a time when the citizenship pathway for undocumented young people brought to the United States as children was under attack.
The pandemic forced a postponement to the movie's release. Today, the passage of two immigration bills approved by the US House of Representatives remains uncertain in the evenly divided Senate.
"It's a rarely told story -- it's a rarely told struggle," said Grace, whose character Nina fails to fit in at her elite West Coast school.
That feeling of self-doubt is "a universal feeling that we all feel, both in terms of representation and in terms of 'Dreamers,'" she told AFP.
"They're told that they're the worst... that they reflect a lot of things that they're not here to reflect.
"They come with an aspiration... a dream."
"In The Heights" opens in US theaters and on HBO Max streaming
amz/caw/oho
© Agence France-Presse
