Autodidact and free spirit, Joy de Rohan Chabot once posed for the leading photographers of the 1960s, including Henry Clarke, David Bailey and Helmut Newton. Today, the artist says she's happier when tramping through the woods with her dogs than in Paris. Still, she says, she has found ways to make her urban life "as pleasant as possible."
Trained at the Paris Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Ms. Chabot's early interests in drawing developed into an exploration of design, from experimenting with trompe l'oeil murals to studying the techniques of lacquer in China and Japan.
Her upcoming show, "Féerie/Enchantment," which opens at the Galérie Matignon in Paris on Nov. 22, is a fairy-tale-inspired array of pieces in white, blue and silver, reviving a seldom-used technique with wax molds she made herself. "This the first time I've ever worked with cast aluminum," says Ms. Chabot. "It's as expensive as bronze, you work with it like bronze, but it gives the impression of an icy silver—something like frost stalactites."
My weekend really begins on Saturday morning, just because I'm a bit of a workaholic. On Friday night, I usually stay in my atelier until late and then go straight to bed. On Saturday morning, I always make a trip to an extraordinary place, the fish market La Criée du Phare, which is right near the Montparnasse train station on rue Castagnary in the 15th arrondissement. The fishermen from Brittany and Normandy arrive very early by train and sell directly to the people who come to shop at the market. It's enormous, and everywhere you look, there are mountains of fresh scallops and all kinds of shellfish. The atmosphere is very animated and noisy—all the fish sellers are crying out their prices at the top of their lungs. It's hard to believe you're in Paris.
My husband, Jean, and I have another ritual—every Saturday, we make a trip to Drouot, the famous auction house in the ninth arrondissement. He goes for the art and antique furniture, but what amuses me the most are the sales of vintage haute-couture dresses. You find all kinds of incredible clothes, handbags or leather pants of every color. My entire wardrobe is from Drouot....
When we leave Drouot, we always go to the same restaurant, La Cave Drouot, which is an old-fashioned bistro with marvelous cuisine. We usually order the fish of the day, like their skate served with cabbage. The atmosphere is very lively. All the Drouot auctioneers and buyers go there, and we usually run into lots of people we know.
I detest Sundays. All of a sudden, there's no more activity and it makes me anxious, since I'm pathologically hyperactive! But what I love to do—and it's also good exercise—is go for a walk in the Bois de Boulogne. Behind the restaurant Les Jardins de Bagatelle, you take a path lined with flowers and you arrive at a pretty house. It once belonged to the head gardener, and was built in around 1860. Just in front of that house is a marvelous kitchen garden with every type and variety of vegetables that you can grow. I'm actually trying to copy it at my home in Auvergne. Being there makes me feel at peace with the fact that I'm in Paris, since I feel like I'm in the country.
Sometimes we'll have lunch at a nice little rustic-style restaurant, La Calèche, on rue de Lille, across from the Musée d'Orsay. They have wonderful traditional cuisine, like veal with lemon and mushrooms or the types of dishes that you'd expect to find in Normandy.
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