Archive for March, 2008
April in Paris: Marathon and Foire de Paris!
April in Paris takes on a whole new dimension when you consider that the month will start off with the annual Paris marathon on April 6th this year (2008). Be sure to take a close look at the NEW ROUTE if you plan on running in the marathon. If you haven’t already signed up, it’s too late to participate for this year, but you can start training for 2009. Just remember to register on the Paris Marathon website no later than November.
Even if you don’t plan on running …
Date: March 9th, 2008 |
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Cabarets
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2008
Cabarets (sometimes referred to as ‘Feather Clubs’ are the famed nightspots where tourists flock to view an array of almost perfect female bodies draped in not much more than feathers. The most well known clubs such as Le Moulin Rouge, Les Folies Bergeres, the Crazy Horse and the Lido need little introduction. You can add a new one (or really a revived club) Bobino on Rue de la Gaite. Bobino used to be one of the venues for American cabaret dancer, singer, movie actress - humanitarian - and French Resistance participant - Josephine Baker.
Likewise Crazy House is revamping (please excuse the pun) with the help of Pamela Anderson’s recent appearance.
Date: March 7th, 2008 |
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Paris Deals from Multiple Travel Sites
If you are looking for a way to combine cheap airfare to Paris with a hotel special during your stay you normally have to check quite a few different websites in order to know you are getting the best deal. The good news is that BootsnAll has just added a new place where they sort all the best available deals from multiple providers and then put them all on the same page.
There are airfare deals departing from specific cities, hotel packages for once you arrive in Paris, and packages that combine …
Date: March 6th, 2008 |
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Romantic Dining in Paris that you can afford
News Art Cafe/Salad bar. An intimate respite from Montparnasse traffic (just around the corner from Avenue du Maine on Rue de l’Ouest) All you can eat salad bar with exotic ambiance, great music, and peace and quiet for a comfortable tete-a-tete.
What is a romantic restaurant? I’m writing this post in response to a recent e-mail. One reader said that ‘romantic restaurants’ were out of the question for her budget.
Quite honestly, one of the most ‘romantic’ meals I’ve ever had were two bologne sandwiches which we ate by candlelight in the cellar of the Vagabond Lodge in Aspen, Colorado. In case you haven’t yet figured this out - a little big of candlelight makes any cave or cellar look suddenly romantic, but the real catalyst is the person who happens to be sitting across the table from you.
Date: March 5th, 2008 |
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Rue Daguerre Chic
Even though the 14th Arrondissement didn’t make the cut for Adrienne Ribes Tiphaine’s Paris Chic &Trendy listing of designer studios, hip boutiques and vintage shops, I was certain that my home turf must have at least one or two such boutiques which merited a closer look.
Finding a street to begin my search didn’t present a problem. Rue Daguerre, made famous by its film director resident Agnes Varda and her film ‘Daguerrotypes’ is a fun place to browse, primarily for its market, regional products and good butcher shops – but also for design.
I’ve …
Date: March 3rd, 2008 |
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The Paris Syndrome
Last week, Francois Hauter reported on ‘the Paris Syndrome’ (le Bloc-notes Parisien “Ces Parisiens auxquels la Ville Lumiere tourne le dos” Le Figaro March 1 ‘08)
This is the term coined by Japanese soujourners in the ‘City of Light’ when their dream city becomes their worst nightmare. In French the expression ‘avoir du cafard’ means ‘to be depressed’. The state of mind (when it happens to foreigners ) is also referred to as ‘culture shock’. Why should one be depressed when you live in the ‘most beautiful city in the world’?
Hauter mentions the fact that Japanese residents (there are approximately 30,000 living in Paris) are virtually invisible (especially when it comes to elections). He writes:
“They are invisible. Nobody asks them about anything. No one polls them before elections. Parisians act as if they don’t exist. However all these foreigners have chosen to be here out of love.”
Date: March 8th, 2008 |
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Paris Train Stations
The ‘less than inspired’ interior of Gare du Nord
Parislogue readers know that I have nothing but high praise for the SNCF train system. You can take trains anywhere in France, and normally trains depart and arrive on schedule.
However, Paris train stations are another matter. The city screams for at least one stylish train station which captures the nostalgia for the elegant era of train travel combined with the modern accoutrements of international travel (i.e. free Wi-fi access for example).
Date: March 7th, 2008 |
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Bodies found in the Seine River
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2008
With the recent discovery of Super Model Katoucha Nian’s body in the Seine River this past Thursday (February 27th), that is the SECOND corpse to be dragged out of the Seine since the beginning of 2008. Earlier in January, an American man in his mid-forties also succumbed to the river.
In both cases, no suggestion of foul play has been made. Such may not have been the case for Ethel Brown, an American woman whose corpse was discovered on March 8th in 1906. …
Date: March 6th, 2008 |
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Cedric Klapisch’s Paris
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2008
If you’re really lucky, once in a blue moon, you might get to see it snow in Paris. An endless expanse of white against the phantom shadows of winter branches – not unlike cinema in black and white. Cedric Klapisch is more than lucky with his newly released film Paris (which is currentlyl showing in Paris as well as the Lincoln Center in NYC through March 9th, 2008). He knows how to capture the mundane events of everyday life and discover the sublime. Isn’t that the artistry of directing? Any truly great director has committed him or herself to a clandestine agreement with the viewer. “What I have to show you will stay with you for the rest of your life.”
Rarely do snowflakes settle long enough onto the Parisian landscape to leave a lasting impression, and likewise, only on the brink of death does one truly begin to savor and register the myriad details of your hometown. When one’s hometown is Paris, there’s so much to lose – that one can go almost crazy trying to absorb every nuance. So discovers Pierre (Romain Duris) – a young Parisian, handsome – elegant – energetic – and possibly about to die.
Date: March 5th, 2008 |
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‘Paris Chic & Trendy’ Book Review
You can learn big things from a little book. So, I’m discovering from the second book I’ve had the pleasure to review in The Little Bookroom publisher’s Paris series:
Paris Chic & Trendy by Adrienne Ribes Tiphaine with photos by Sandrine Alouf.
Paris Chic and Trendy is a guidebook to 54 Parisian designer studios, hip boutiques and vintage shops with an emphasis on addresses that the average visitor might bypass in their rush to Louis Vuitton megastores and Armani emporiums.
Why should you read this book? By using this as your guidebook to explore some of the hundreds of boutiques in Paris, you’ll have a good benchmark of how to judge a shop’s merit in any neighborhood - even in your hometown.
Even though I consider myself to be very familiar with Paris’s neighborhoods and shopping districts, this little book has enticed me to look beyond surfaces and try to analyze a shop’s fashion choices and design. Although I disagree with the opening premise in the intro - “In Paris, fashion comes naturally.” (Fashion is the antithesis of natural). I definitely agree that Parisian women rule the roost when it comes to ‘a certain allure’ and ‘indefineable chic’.
The first thing I learned (after studying the breakdown of these chic and trendy establishments according to arrondissement) is that my ‘hood’ Montparnasse i.e. the 14th arrondisement didn’t make the cut. Neither did Left Bank neighborhoods in the 5th, 13th and 15th arrondissments.
Meanwhile the 1st arrondissement racks up 13 boutiques – a number of shops clustered along the famous Rue St. Honore. From Rue St. Honore to the Palais Royale gardens, there are more designer boutiques than one could possibly digest in a day. Many a day have I been sidetracked from museum going for that somewhat less admirable pastime of window shopping on this street. The prices defy common sense. Enter a shop at your own risk.
Date: March 2nd, 2008 |
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