Paris just opened after lockdown today and Americans are chomping at the bit to go to the City of Light. I usually don’t like to visit Europe in the summer and will probably wait until the fall. That was my plan until I saw the newly unveiled Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection art venue that will open to the public on May 22nd. When I lived in Paris, I would sometime walk from rue des Bons Enfants, where I first stayed, to the Marais. On the way, I would pass by the beautiful Bourse de Commerce building which was the site of a corn exchange in the 18th-century and later a stock exchange and offices for the Paris Chamber of Commerce.

“In 2015, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, offered François Pinault a 50-year lease on the Bourse de Commerce for a lump sum of €15 million, plus yearly fees. Shortly after, the Paris City Council approved the project to transform the building into an exhibition space for contemporary art, including pieces from his private collection of more than 3,500 works” in a renovated building with a new 30-foot-high concrete cylinder inside the building designed by architect Tadao Ando.

The 113,00 square-foot museum space cost about $194 million and will “stage up to 15 shows a year with Pinault’s own collection hanging alongside loans for curated and thematic exhibitions, according to Martin Bethenod, the deputy Chief Executive Officer of Bourse de Commerce. There will be solo shows, in-situ projects, and standalone artist commissions designed specifically for the building” according to Bloomberg.

“Inside the rotunda there’s a 360-degree mural representing French trade across the continents. The 1,400 square-meter painting was executed in 1889, timed to when France held the Universal Exposition. When Pinault took over the space, it took a team of 24 people working for six months to restore it.”

When you are exhausted from viewing all the art, you can revive yourself at the restaurant on the third floor, La Halle aux Grains run by chefs Michel Bras and his son Sebastien.

Maybe I should start checking flights.