FEAST OR FAMINE

  Opposite the entrance gate of the Paris Garden of Plants ( Jardin des Plantes ) is the snake fountain. Actually, it is called the Cuvier Fountain in memory of Georges Cuvier, a French naturalist and zoologist.     On the corner of Rue Cuvier in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the site was formally the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Victor which had a fountain called the Alexander Fountain or the Brush Fountain. The prison, including the fountain, was demolished in 1840.   French architect Alphonse Vigoureux (1802-1853) was the water inspector for the city of Paris. He created the snake fountain from 1840-1846 to pay respect to Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) to replace the Alexander Fountain. Jean Leopold Nicolas Frederic – Baron Cuvier – is best known as the “father of paleontology” and establishing that species extinction was a fact in his work  Essay on the Theory of the Earth  (1813). The French government listed it as a historical monument in 1984.   ...

The Wes Anderson exhibition, the first dedicated to the work of American filmmaker Wes Anderson, follows the chronological evolution of his work, from his first steps as a self-taught director in the 1990s to his most recent works and the most awarded worldwide ( The Grand Budapest Hotel ). The exhibition, from 19 March to 27 July 2025 is held at Cinematheque in Paris.  The exhibition explores Wes Anderson’s almost complete filmography and the meticulous work carried out before filming with his team: cinematographer Robert Yeoman, screenwriter Roman Coppola, composer Alexandre Desplat, and production designer Adam Stockhausen.  Visitors can see the hand-painted model of the Darjeeling Limited train; the books from Moonrise Kingdom; the painting Boy with Apple that sits in the dressing room of The Grand Budapest Hotel; the puppets from Fantastic Mr. Fox and Asteroid City; the miniatures of Simon Weisse; the work of graphic designer Erica Dorn; and the incredible collections of ...