Anya Firestone, Tour Guide and Star of ‘The Real Girlfriends of Paris,’ on ‘The Art of Drinking’

Anya Firestone handed out bottles of Evian at the Louvre on a recent morning. “Because the ‘art of drinking’ starts with staying hydrated,” she says.

Firestone, 34, museum guide, tour guide, and art integration strategist, wears rhinestone earrings in the shape of an olive martini, pink Manolo Blahniks, a Charlotte Olympia minibar clutch, and a Venus. She wore a Marni dress with her portrait printed on it. .

She escorted her client, Matt Stanley, and her Parisian date, Salome Beth, 30, through the long lines at the museum’s entrance to the Code of Hammurabi. A set of ancient Babylonian laws included “an eye for an eye”, which, as she sympathetically noted, dealt with the issue of alcoholic beverages such as watered down wine, and the people’s ” It also covered ‘the right to drink beer’, she explained.

“Pretty impressive!” said Stanley, chief executive of a memory care community near Austin, Texas. Stanley, 43, had hired Firestone to organize a two-day visit focused on alcohol.

“You’ll find that drinking and art have the same background and are moving in the same direction, from religious backgrounds of prayer and drinking, to decadence and debauchery,” Firestone said. . ” is a pun on haute couture.

Last fall, Firestone starred in Bravo’s reality show Real Girlfriends in Paris, which followed six American women in their 20s and 30s as they navigate work, life and love. . She said the opportunity to start her own business has come. Maison Firestonein public view, was the main reason she did the show.

But Firestone also liked the idea of ​​elevating the often-despised genre of television with art and culture. (Not to mention her puns and Yiddish-infused wit.) “By the way,” she said. “I don’t call myself American. I say New Yorkers.”

Firestone grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Her parents were actors. She first moved to Paris in 2010 after her George Washington University graduation, where she wrote poetry and sculpted oversized macaroons during her artist residency. (People thought it was a colorful hamburger,” she said, explaining that the treat hasn’t caught on yet.)

She worked briefly as an au pair channeling Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp, she said. But Firestone likens her current plot to the TV show Emily in Paris, describing her protagonist as “Love her chatter more than a bucket hat” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” ” was likened.

After earning an MA in French Cultural Studies from the Columbia Global Center in Paris, she spent several years traveling between New York and Paris, offering custom tours and writing for Highsnobiety magazine on the intersection of art and brand. I did. Maison Her Firestone also organizes themed events with luxury brands, which she said sparked her interest in “art as branding.”

For example, in the Hellenistic Greek white marble statue “Winged Victory of Samothrace”, known as the “Winged Victory”, Ms Firestone noted that the statue’s wings inspired the sportswear empire’s swoosh logo.

Firestone’s customers used to find her only by word of mouth, but now about half, including Stanley, come to her through Bravo shows and shows. Instagram. The majority are visiting France from the United States. Prices for tours start at $2,400 per day for one or two people.

Her angle, whether it’s champagne, Schiaparelli or NFTs, is “taking art off the wall to show intersections with what people are already enjoying and consuming,” Firestone said. . drag queena crypto team at a venture capital firm, a little girl like “Eloise” who loves dinosaurs, and a blind man.

Admiring Dionysus art and ornaments, Louis XIV stemware, and the occasional Bravo fan (“I just want to say I loved the show!”), Firestone took Stanley and Beth to the museum’s largest exhibition. I was guided to the museum of In this room, the Mona Lisa hangs on the wall opposite “The Marriage at Cana,” a colossal work by his 16th-century artist Paolo Veronese, depicting Jesus Christ turning water into wine. “You can see wine tasting going on all over the painting,” she said.

After lunch at the Ritz, cocktails and champagne naturally appeared, and the itinerary included a visit to the Musée d’Orsay. “The Louvre was once a palace. this This used to be a train station,” said Firestone. She likes visiting her two museums with her companion. These museums, she said, help show how art broke away from monarchies, churches and academies and entered modernity by infiltrating Parisian cafes.

Edgar Degas’ “Love Sainte” depicts what she calls a “weakened” woman with a glass of the infamous green spirit on the table. Nearby was a painting by Edouard Manet. same woman (Actress Ellen Andre), titled “Plum Brandy”. Ms. Firestone urged clients to ponder the difference. “She’s not so sad and defiant here, is she? She seems to be fine.”

According to her, Paris had by then been remodeled by Napoleon III’s planner Georges Eugène Haussmann, giving birth to grand department stores such as Le Bon Marche and Samaritaine.

Firestone and Stanley met the next day in Samaritaine to arrange cognac tastings and private apartment shopping with a stylist. “Bonjour. How’s everyone doing?” Mr. Stanley said, greeting the staff. “I’m not an aristocrat, I’m just a cowboy!” He opted for the Maison’s Margiela drawstring pants.

Afterwards, Mr. Firestone pointed in the taxi. Prada ad featuring Scarlett Johansson. “They are referring to Photo of Man Ray’s Kiki de Montparnasse,” she said. like A great art brand reference. “She Googled a photo of Man Ray on her phone and showed it to Mr. Stanley, who said she felt like she had been given a masterclass.

“Who doesn’t love clasped hands in Paris?” said Ms. Firestone.