Text by Alison Culliford*, illustration & photos by Fabrice Fortin

In a world of crashing bottle-banks and traffic noise, where we cocoon ourselves in our i-Pod bubbles, the revelation of superior sound can be a doors-of-perception experience.

When a stereo-buff friend took me to La Maison du Haut Parleur promising an extra-sensory treat, a visit to an opium den would not have had a more profound effect. We sat in the sweet spot on two directors’ chairs, and Monsieur Gest delicately placed the needle on a record. An oboe began its plaintive song; a cello answered and as the orchestra swelled the music resonated in our very bones.

Closing your eyes, you are not just in the best concert hall in the world, but in the instrument itself.

Bruno Gest is a self-deprecating man, so much so that he would not be photographed for our feature. He has run La Maison du Haut Parleur for 34 years and is soon to retire, handing the business over to his associate Christian Robert and young employee Romain Aubry.

Inside the inconspicuous shop, a mass of boxes and electrical gubbins fills the front. At the back are examples of their speaker kits. Essentially they provide the boomers and tweeters, which they have sourced from the best manufacturers, and will put you in touch with a cabinet-maker who will construct the box around them. “Or if you’re into DIY you can construct it yourself,” says Gest. “Both options enable you to have a far better speaker for your budget that if you bought it from a major manufacturer.”

They also sell speakers from French specialist companies such as Focal and Atohm, and have a repair workshop recently patronized by a “very famous French actor,” though discretion prevents these gentlemen from divulging his name.

But it is the sound theater downstairs that makes this place unique and is where the Blakean moment can be had. With Monsieur Gest’s large desk on one side, it has a Doctor No’s lair feel about it. The secret weapon kept down here is the Aeria Système, two huge speakers with a monumental 1930s look, whose 85cm high bass block is topped by a hand-turned acacia wood horn reminiscent of a vintage gramophone.

“The form sweeps the sound outwards and the wood eliminates all resonance. It’s completely neutral,” explains Gest, who spent 18 years developing the system. This is true up to 120 dB, and led the tech-head critics of the review Prestige Audio Visuel to declare its rendition of a concert piano “belle à pleurer.” Its beauty is considerable, but it’s the sound that counts.

“Like everyone, we are just looking for the thing that pleases us. The MP3 generation has a different outlook, but there will always be people that appreciate this quality of sound.”

The problem is that once you’ve been transported by the Aeria System nothing else is good enough. It takes you to another world, conjuring dreams of a loft apartment with a single Le Corbusier chair from which angels will serenade you. If you have one, you can join the 1000 or so people in the world who have crossed the threshold into perfect sound.

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Prices: Kits (from 78€), Aeria Système (6,000€)
Delivery time: 1 month.
Contact: La Maison du Haut Parleur, 138 Avenue Parmentier, Paris 75011

*Alison Culliford is a freelance journalist based in Paris: alison.culliford@gmail.com

Photos by Fabrice Fortin for Paris By Appointment Only™

Just like her distinct, handmade jewels, Valerie Sloan’s shoebox of a boutique is striking despite its diminutive size. Maybe it’s because there’s usually no one in it.

When she’s not upstairs with her slowly growing clientele, the former sculptor can be found downstairs in her atelier handcrafting new pieces for her couture bijoux collection.

Looking for a way to transform her love of volumes and textures to a smaller, more manageable format, Sloan switched from sculpture to jewelry in 2000.

“Sculptors are often burdened by the weight and size of the objects. I quickly realized that I could continue making sculpted objects that were precious to me through jewelry,” says Sloan who opened her shop, Valslo, in early 2009.

Using an ancient technique called “lost-wax casting,” she first sculpts her design out of a block of wax, studying and smoothing its every facet with a battalion of tools. Then she carries her delicate wax carving to a nearby foundry, where it’s transformed into a one-of-a-kind jewel in silver or gold.

Since her brand is still budding, she produces one piece at a time, which means that the design on display is the only one in stock. If it’s not your size, Sloan has to go through the whole process again. This slow, non-commercial method would drive any ambitious entrepreneur nuts, but Sloan wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like to tailor-make things, the idea is for people to order something personalized and timeless,” says Sloan, who treats each piece like a future heirloom.The fit and comfort of the jewel is as important to Sloan as the overall aesthetic, which means that she’ll spend hours polishing the inside of a ring just to give it a silken feel. The shiny interiors also offset her predominantly matte surfaces.

“Unlike shiny metals, with matte surfaces you can see how volumes have been sculpted through the relationship between light and shadow. ”

Inspired by everything from a crack in the wall and a fleeting shadow to the rocks in her garden, her designs have a palpable personality to them. Physical symbols of passing thoughts and observations, the collection runs the gamut of emotions, from tender and romantic to raw and blunt. Even though there’s a coherent current running throughout, the range has three distinct styles.

The first is feminine and precious (both literally and figuratively) with light, delicate forms adored with Tahitian pearls green sapphires or specked quartz. The intermediary range consists of asymmetrical shapes with continual curves. The final unisex group in massive silver is the most weighty and  industrial.

While there are occasional earrings and necklaces throughout, Sloan (if you haven’t noticed) is a ring lady with an incurable passion for wedding bands. “I like the idea of a symbolic jewel, especially one that represents the union between two people. It’s a beautiful example of idealism.”

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Valslo: 10 rue du Perche, 75003 Paris
Prices: €500-1500, depending on design and material
Atelier visits: On request, contact me for details.

Monsieur Ho is to feet as Yves Saint Laurent was to fashion—worshiped by his clients and envied by his rivals as a master of his medium.  For the last three decades his name has been passed secretly from one glamorous parisienne to another as the best pedicurist in town. None other than La Deneuve, France’s most famous and demanding diva, is his number one fan.

“Many of my clients, like Madame Deneuve, have followed me since my beginning at Carita 27 years ago,” explains Ho, a discreet and soft-spoken man who cares for his word-of-mouth clientele in his own private salon near the Champs Elysées.

In French,  pedicure means something entirely different from your twenty-buck NYC pedi.  It’s a curative treatment that only a podiatrist can perform, while beauté des pieds refers to the typical scrub and polish you get at your average nail salon. Monsieur Ho is both podiatrist and esthetician, meaning he can cure your feet and make them look divine. In a city where fashionable (read: uncomfortable) shoes are de rigeur at every age, his services bring springs back into steps.

“When it comes to shoes, comfort and aesthetics don’t mix. If they feel good, they’re ugly. That’s why I have such a steady clientele.”

Behind the rice-paper sliding doors of his mahogany-and-cream waiting area is a room the size of most studio apartments, outfitted with a single, Emperor’s throne of a chair. You’re asked to change out of your shoes and into a pair of plush slippers before ascending the steps to your perch. Lulled by the low-lit paper lamps and soothing water sounds playing in the background, you sink into the comfy leather lounge chair while Ho assumes his station at the tips of your feet.

After a lovely little foot bath and quick nail trim, Ho gets down to business. First he prepares his instruments: a thin, surgical knife (bistoury) and a slender gouge, both outfitted with fresh, disposable blades. With gouge in hand he starts working around the perimeter of each nail, carefully dislodging any dead skin that’s built up over and around them.

Once all of the skin has been ousted, he scrapes it all away with his scalpel using tiny gentle gestures so that each nail is perfectly clean. Next up? The soles of the feet. After reading your feet with his fingers, he takes his scalpel to offending mounds and patches being careful not too take off too much, then smooths the soles with a fine, hand-held file.

“The bottoms of our feet are our natural insoles, you want to keep a slight thickness for protection when we walk.”

Then comes the epic-long filing of the nails. Using five different files (emery, metal, mousse, etc), each one finer than the last, he gets nails as smooth and soft as crystal before performing the final climatic finish: the chamois cloth buffing that stimulates blood flow to the toes and leaves nails naturally rosy and glistening for up to a month.

Have a look below at Mr. Ho polishing my toes:

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Price: 150E per hour
Availability: Send me an email to be put in touch with Mr. Ho
House Calls: For an extra fee, Mr. Ho will come to your hotel room or apartment