La Fondation Louis Vuitton

In the midst of all the insanity taking place on Parisian streets lately, I was nonetheless determined to visit one of the chicest cultural hotspots in the city: La Fondation Louis Vuitton. Located in the Bois de Boulogne, just outside the péripherique, the Fondy LV – as I like to refer to it – is an architectural marvel dedicated to art exhibitions which rotate on a seasonal basis. Currently exhibiting the work of a personal fav, Egon Schiele, whose work I initially became obsessed with following a trip to Vienna’s Leopold Museum, as well as Jean-Michel Basquiat, I felt a visit was an absolute personal obligation before bidding a farewell to Paris in time for Christmas.

After a slightly muddy walk through the woods, all the while rocking out to the seasonal bop that is Winchester Cathedral Choir’s rendition of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, the swooping glass heights of the museum’s exterior beckoned me to a clearing. It was a very poetic moment, and I felt like Snow White. Anyway, the queue was practically non-existent owing to the fact it was a sullen Wednesday afternoon, so after being vetted for potential terror threats – a classic Parisian experience – I bought my ticket and strut through the door!

Upon entry, I was a little shocked to discover that one of the museum’s staff, the very same who had been allocated to ticket-checking, was someone I had previously encountered in dramatic and rather scandalous circumstances. Feeling this may have been a bad omen, I was perhaps slightly nervous that my visit to Fondy LV would be cursed by infrared flashbacks of bitch-fests and club nights on the midnight city streets, but thankfully, no such psychologically scarring happenings occurred. I’m very aware that what I just wrote is probably completely indecipherable to everyone reading this post, so let’s move on.

My first stop was the Egon Schiele exhibition. Not really sure what to say about this as I’m not an art critic, and a badly edited Wikipedia article would probably be of more insight, but what I can tell you is that I very much enjoyed. The exhibition perhaps wasn’t as good as the work currently on-show in Vienna, but I’d go as far to say that it’d be of interest to any fan of Schiele’s oeuvre, or anyone interested in the existential expressionist line of the body which differentiates the internal corpse to that of external warfare – I mean, lol who isn’t?!

Afterwards, I spent some time looking at the Basquiat collection, which was much more extensive, and very well-displayed. Unfortunately, I can’t provide any further insight into this exhibition as I’m not a huge fan of this particular artistic movement, undoubtedly due to my own ignorance. However, everyone else seemed to be interested, which can only be a good thing!

One thing I would say to all curators / museum designers currently employed at La Fondation Louis Vuitton: please make your loos a bit easier to find, and install a normal cafe, please! I mean, the restaurant on the ground floor did look lovely, but as a penniless solo visitor, I wasn’t really in the mood to spend upwards of 50 euros on a miniscule plate of parmesan foam when all I really wanted was a hot choc with some mini marshmallows.

xoxo