Yes, of course, it’s an entirely different clientele. It’s a completely different ballgame. I still love the Drouot quarter, and the auction house is like a second home. But it’s a part of town that you just pass through, it’s for buying and selling.  It’s an art dealer world and lots of Americans come here to ply their trade. That said, the way the market’s evolved means there are fewer art dealers and fewer Americans who stock up on art in France, unlike before. So, it’s a real plus to have a gallery in a more upmarket part of town. It may be less frequented, but it has plenty of cachet just like avenue Matignon. Being in a reputable area equates with having a high-end gallery.

We have a largely European clientele – Swiss, Belgian, Luxembourgish, Dutch, British – some US clients, and most are art connoisseurs and serious collectors. I do very occasionally get passing trade, for example, someone who has spied and set their heart on a bronze horse. There’s always that luck-of-the-draw element. The passing clientele that previous art sellers welcomed barely exists today.

I’d like so to show you a small painting in the sitting room that I love. It’s by Geneviève Asse, a Breton painter who studied under Nicolas de Staël. Her studio was on Île aux Moines, a district that holds a special place in my heart. Xavier gave me this painting three years ago as I’m very attached to Morbihan.  She painted sea and skyscapes, using a slightly matte blue-grey which became a characteristic style. The sky takes up most of this work. Our sitting room has a blue and pink theme.  There’s this Yves Klein table; most fans know his signature blue, but not his use of pink. We love it, it really brightens up the sitting room. One of Xavier’s clients offered to sell him loads of stuff including this table. He bought it and had it delivered that same day.

I admit this isn’t very original as it’s my area of expertise, but I’ll go for this sculpture which I love. This elephant is by the French artist Marcel Demarle who had a similar style to Pompon. His story’s a touching one. He was an artist from the Paris region, who worked as a postman, but dedicated his life to sculpting. Whenever he had a bit of money to spare, he’d make a bronze. He died penniless, with no clients. Most of his works are on show in the La Piscine Museum in Roubaix and at Paris’s Pompidou Centre. This elephant was an unknown piece until it was discovered in a collection in Florida. It really love this sculpture.

There’s also this big painting, which is fun and a bit of a mickey-take. It’s a homage to Poliakof by one of my ancestors. He painted it in 1967. His name was Roger Evot. A specialist dealer who visited us here thought it was a work by the artist himself. The truth is we made a bit of a hullabaloo and displayed it like a masterpiece, when in fact it’s just a tribute.

I like the hippo and I like Pompon. I like the way his animals look smooth.

These sconces weren’t here to begin with! I didn’t even buy them together. They’re made from tortoise shells, which are banned from export. One of them belonged to the painter Bernard Buffet. The shells were removed and put on a stand, so they could be used as fireguards. We had them wired up and turned into sconces. I really like the diffused light.

Constance and I love sculptures, fragments, and marble! There’s this small draped Roman piece. There’s a small Gandhara hand in the library (ed. an ancient Graeco-Buddhist style) that Yves Saint Laurent gave to one of his friends – I snapped it up at an auction twenty years ago.  So there you have it, we have eclectic tastes. Antique sculptures next to 1920s lamps by Just Andersen, a Danish artist, alongside a fountain element by Lalanne when he worked on a fountain project for the Noailles family, a small painting by Inès Longévial…  On the other side, between the windows, that seemingly antique female bust is actually a 1930s sculpture. The Giacometti-style bird above has more modest origins. It’s by an artist called Boulione, who isn’t an animal specialist. The contents of his studio were auctioned off in Drouot by Crait-Müller five or six years ago.

Our next big event is the TEFAF exhibition in March – it will be our 7th consecutive year. It’s our biggest event and attracts a broad range of international clients. We’ll be alongside esteemed and very high-end fellow professionals: we need to stand out, have a superb stand and display pieces that we specially set aside to exhibit every year. They’re masterpieces, our flagship works. So that’s the big project right now. On a more low-key note, Constance and I will be holding an animal exhibition in our garden and at our country house for a few days in June.

There are so many… Just to name a few, during a stroll along Boulevard Saint-Germain: at Charlotte Chesnais (169, Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 6) where you’ll find her jewelry, conceived as sculptures, timeless and so elegant. Just across the street, I love the paper tablecloths, pink neon lights, and primary colors that haven’t aged a day at Le Rouquet where I always have the herring with potatoes and oil (188, Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 6). A stop at L’Écume des pages is a must afterward (174, Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris 6). That’s where I found my latest favorite, “L’alphabet des aveux” by Louise de Vilmorin and Jean Hugo. And then, in no particular order, the fresh and creamy tofu from Yen (22, Rue Saint-Benoît, Paris 6), the Delacroix Museum (6, Rue de Furstemberg, Paris 6), which also offers drawing classes for children in the garden, and finally Sennelier (3, Quai Voltaire Paris 6), the artists’ haven where you can find all the necessary materials… and the scribbled papers left behind by the Fine Arts students.

We love the Marta ceramic lamp in green, which I could easily see as a pair of bedside lamps against the green leafy wallpaper in our bedroom! And also the Letizia mirror paintings, to be placed one above the other for a kinetic effect.