I was pretty thrilled when I learned that there was a Cartier exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris during my stay. I arrived on Saturday and the last day of the show was Sunday. Naturally, after dropping off our luggage at our apartment, my friends and I walked over (through the Louvre, tuileries, Concorde, etc.) to the Grand Palais. I had never been to there before this visit. I could have stared at the architectural details of the building for hours, but I had diamonds to see so we headed directly into the show.

The diamonds, and the rest of the Cartier collection (books, designs, templates, forms, clothing, paintings) was unbelievably beautiful. The diamonds sparkled brilliantly (well, that’s pretty obvious for a diamond that is 40 carats, right?). The collection included diamonds worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Queen Elizabeth, among others. The show took us through the historical journey of Cartier, including the sources of design inspiration for Louis-Francois Cartier all those years ago. By the end of the show, I became pretty good at picking out the Tutti Frutti pieces – they’re too colourful for my taste, but oh so gorgeous to look at. Heck, I wouldn’t say no to Cartier. Who are we kidding?

Unfortunately, the exhibit was very crowded on the Saturday afternoon that we were there, and it wasn’t a very enjoyable show to attend. The jewelry cases were quite close together and people did not flow easily around the small(ish) space. It’s too bad, actually, that it wasn’t more pleasant to wander around the exhibit. I know I missed a lot of up-close views of many important pieces. Perhaps I was also just a tad tired from the trip over (and I’m too impatient to deal with crowds).

Nevertheless, it was pretty cool to be in a room with so much sparkle!

Thanks to the Grand Palais for supplying my show ticket.