Since 1968 Huw Brys has largely been based in Paris. His grandmother originally gifted him a studio in what was then a run down area, The Marais. It has also been mentioned that this was in a building formerly occupied by a coal merchants owned by his grandfather.

For a long period this may have conformed to the Bohemian life described by Hemingway in ‘A Moveable Feast’. More recent visitors to the Marais will know that it is now an achingly fashionable quartier. The aforementioned coal merchants was housed in a 17th century hotel the remainder of which Brys inherited on the death of his grandparents. It is coincidentally close to the Hotel Sale, now the Musee de Picasso. The buildings are now administered by the Foundation on his behalf, two wings having been converted to studios and let to overseas students at the Ecole Beaux Arts.
Although a financial beneficiary of the relentless gentrification of the Marais Brys has expressed mixed views. On the one hand he is proud that the Place des Vosges and the many hotels have been restored to their former glory. On the other he deplores the proliferation of boutiques and art galleries that have driven most of the original shops and traders from the area. He described this as ‘exchanging good bread for bad art’.

He accepts this is a complaint that will find little sympathy outside what has been described as the Bohemian Bourgoisie - those of his intimate acquaintance who have witnessed and shared that change. By and large they have, over the past thirty years or so, patronised largely the same restaurants and bars on both banks of the Seine and been little affected in that respect. Those visiting Brys are accommodated in the relative luxury of the Hotel Bouvier enjoying the peace of its enclosed garden, working in its airy light studios and venturing out through the throng of tourists only as they feel necessary. Older visitors nevertheless share his nostalgia for a Marais populated by people who made and mended things.