Elegance and Decadence...

I keep wondering and pondering about what happened to elegance as an aesthetic aspiration. Wherever you go, wherever you look, much of what is displayed these days appears (to me) shoddy, sloppy and soulless, proposing either dull and depressing materials and colours or an array of garish, cheap ones. Nothing is made to last, but perhaps that is not such a bad thing, all things considered. So when I went to the historic Elysée Montmartre, now used as a venue, I was confronted with the old and the new...

Making my way up to the reception area, I thought about all those other people who had likewise ascended the impressive stairway over the years.. not to mention all those looking down on them doing so! Today, the lighting is brightly-coloured, in line with the modern usage of the Elysée as function rooms for professional events, parties and so on.

However, the serving counter in the salon area surrounding the vast stairway was stunning with its grand windows, panelling and the ceiling frescoes that were partly lit up by the chandeliers. I loved gazing up at these, champagne in hand, trying to imagine what social gatherings must have been like in past centuries since inauguration of the Elysée-Montmartre as a salle de spectacle in 1807.