Chunnel Vision

“WHY IS everyone going to Bhutan?” asked the New York Times, rather cheekily, in 2005.

Well, they weren’t then,  and they aren’t now. Thanks to its strictly regulated tourist industry, this small, insular kingdom wedged between China and India is probably the most alluring country you can’t afford to visit.

All the more reason to check out the  Musée Guimet’s current exhibition, “In the land of the Dragon“.

It comes at a time when Bhutan itself is becoming more westernized. There are still no traffic lights in the capital, but phones and televisions – banned until 1999 – are now making inroads. It’s still the only country in the world that dares to measure its success according to GNH (Gross National Happiness)* rather than GNP – and on the whole, it scores higher than most. Yet the country is also on the cusp of change, about to take its first tentative steps into democracy.

Ravishing photos and video footage (alas, no English commentary) open the expo before revealing Bhutan’s treasure… mystical silk mandalas intended to promote meditation on the way to the calm void at the heart of Buddhism; exquisitely-wrought gold-leaf bronzes of the gods, dating back centuries.

A privileged view, indeed. These national treasures are on show in France for the first time, and even in Bhutan, they are only brought out for special temple festivals. The Bhutanese government hopes that unveiling them will allow Westerners to gain a better appreciation of the country’s peaceful Buddhist heritage. Perhaps so – and its brilliant colours and movement will haunt you, too.

* French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has also expressed his interest in Gross National Happiness.

• Running until 10 January, 2010, In the Land of the Dragons: Sacred Arts of Bhutan is at the Musée Guimet (pictured, right) France’s  national museum of Asian Arts.

THE EPAD row rumbles on. Here’s the latest from The Times.

Meanwhile, France’s Young Socialists have raised a smile with their  Become a Sarkozy adoption campaign. Yesterday, they were outside the Elysee Palace, and now the campaign has gone live on their website. Over-qualified and unemployed, they think a change of family identity could work wonders on their job prospects.

EVEN FOR France’s bling-bling President Sarkozy, it was a pretty immodest gesture.

Cries of nepotism went up when Nicolas Sarkozy gave his son, Jean the plum job of heading up Paris’ business district, La Défense (pictured left). Feelings are running high, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.

Mr Sarkozy Jnr is 23 years old. With only two years on the conseil départemental under his belt, the President-designate of EPAD* hardly looks like the kind of heavyweight needed for the job. In his defence, he claims to be well briefed on the EPAD/La Défense files from his work as a councillor. That may be true. Trouble is, his chief qualification is that he’s the son of the Président de la République. Are we really supposed to believe there was no one else up to the job? Someone not just out of short trousers, so to speak?

A petition is currently  doing the rounds, inviting Jean Sarkozy to do the decent thing (ie, turn down the post,  get on with finishing his law degree and do a couple of work placements.) And, while it’s unlikely to attract quite as many hits as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s new online organ, it is gathering support.

So how much does the post really matter? The simple answer is, a lot.  To the west of Paris, La Défense is lumbered with a legacy of ageing high-rises and a reputation for concrete soul-lessness. It has been hard hit by the recession, and yet it will play a pivotal part in the future of Greater Paris.

When (if?) Jean Sarkozy – aka “le Dauphin” – takes over the helm at the end of this year, he will have an annual 1 billion euro budget for modernising and humanising the district. Then again, if the challenge turns out to be tougher than expected, he can always count on Dad.

* l’Etablissement Public de l’Aménagement de La Défense

Croydon gets the Banksy treatment

AFTER THIS, I promise to stop banging on about walls and pavements for a while…

“Banksy strikes again” is hardly headline news, but the UK artist just keeps on coming up with the goods.

The piece they’re all talking about is in Croydon (a drab south London suburb that Nicolas Sarkozy named as a model for le Grand Paris;  see article in The Times). Technically, it should have been scrubbed, since it is graffiti and on council property – but who’d scrub a Banksy these days?  The council put it to a public ballot instead. Locals, unsurprisingly, feel honoured by Banksy’s attentions and are already rather attached to their DIY punk. They’ve voted to keep it. More at  Vandalog.

With the almost-exception of Miss-Tic, Parisian street artists lack Banksy’s pith (and his PR nouse.) But there’s still a lot going on, going up, and going down on the French side of the Channel.  A good place to start is with Invisible Paris’ self-guided tour. Have fun!

• Miss-Tic is currently showing at Galerie Ab, 15 rue de la Grange-Batalière, 9th arr, Paris.