Feting the French

It's always a good year if you're Patrick Jouin. Even 2009. And even in the shadow of the Air France flight 447 disaster. As part of a Franco-Brazilian exchange and celebration, a Jouin retrospective debuts at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo on July 29.

Organized by Valérie Guillaume, curator of design at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the show fills six galleries with models, photographs, and objects representing 50 worldwide projects by Jouin's firm, now known as Agence Jouin Manku. Four of his restaurant interiors come to life via re-creations of table settings complete with furniture, tableware, custom lighting, and rugs: Mix in Las Vegas, the Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, France, and two Parisian establishments, Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée and, high up in the Eiffel Tower, the Jules Verne.