Popping the question...

The weather is soooo depressing in Paris at the moment (I feel sorry or the tourists!) that I refuse to use a photo du jour! Instead, let me offer you this very rejoicing one that I actually took last year at Beaubourg, when the sun was still shining. FYI, there are several companies that can organize marriage proposals for you... like this one for instance ! Hint, hint?!

Rotten July!

People often ask me what to pack when coming to Paris? I never know what to answer as the weather is always very unpredictable... Hence last April and May, when we suffered an unusual and terrible drought and now July which is really windy, rainy and a little cold too (and probably not good for business). Only positive point: nice weather to take pictures ;-) Need I introduce you to the Arc de Triomphe? I did not think so!

Quiet Sunday in the country

I spent Sunday (yesterday) afternoon at a garden party with close friends at Le Vésinet, a very nice suburb of Paris, near the Ile des Impressionnistes (an island on the Seine, where the Impressionnists used to come and paint towards the end of the 19th century). It's a wonderful area, very green, with very nice houses, which is worth visiting (easy to reach with the RER - the speed metro) if you have never been there. As you can see in this photo, life there is not too stressing ;-)

Haut Marais art

Here another one of my "discoveries" in Le Marais. I found it at the beginning of rue Charlot (or the end, depending on which end you start it!). Apparently these posters are remains of an event that was organized by the 3rd arrondissement City hall of Paris aiming at promoting artists, art galleries, museums... in the Haut Marais (the higher part of Le Marais) area (they were more than 230 participants apparently). I missed all this as... it took place in May 2011. Next year maybe! Still love the posters though ;-) FYI, it's pouring in Paris at the moment ;-(

A new place to visit

This morning I went to rue des Archives, in Le Marais, and noticed that the door to the gardens of the Hotel de Soubise (that I already mentioned here) were open. To me, that was a first, so, of course, I entered... And I discovered a huge area in which you can see this stunning facade (this building is actually the place where the French national archives are located) and gardens. I found out later on the Web that the doors have only been opened to the public since the end of June and that there is a total surface of 8 000 sq meters (86 111 square feet). All this in the heart of Paris, not bad!

Bird's-eye view of the arch....

Thank you so much for your nice wishes yesterday ;-) Like last year I don't resist showing you an image that I grabbed from the television and that you will rarely see (it is normally forbidden to fly over Paris). The Arc de Triomphe in the middle of La Place de l'Etoile from the sky... I love it. Did you notice the red trucks? They belong to the firemen brigades that marched, like I was telling you yesterday.

200 year anniversary

Today is Le 14 juillet (Bastille day), the day France celebrates its Revolution... Like every year, there is going to be a huge march on the Champs Elysées and like last year it seems it's going to rain [update: not really, it's a beautiful day!]! This year's theme is "overseas" (we have several troops stationed in the West Indies and other French territories). The firemen will also be honored, as they celebrate their 200 year anniversary this year (I wonder who put out fires in Paris before?!), hence this photo, that I took from my window a few days ago, when my boulangerie caught on fire!

Splendid door

This door belongs to the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, a museum that was built during the 30's, more precisely for the "Exposition internationale des arts et des techniques" (International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life) that took place in 1937. It was erected on former military lands. Everything in this door is typical of that period, even the font that says Musée de la ville. Beautiful.

Green Paris

I'm just back from a very long weekend in the South of France (near Nîmes) where I attended a wedding and spent some time off, far from the city buzz... And though no need to go that far to feel like you're in the country while in Paris! Hence this Parisienne that I photographed in Montmartre and who obviously has green fingers! Maybe did she win the Balcons fleuris (balcony flower decoreting) contest that the Paris city hall organizes every year?!

Repetto

Repetto is a real French landmark. The name comes from the founder, Rose Repetto, whose son, Roland Petit (who just passed away yesterday at 87), used to come back with injured feet from his classical dance lessons. In 1947 she then decided to make him dancing shoes, that would prevent the pain (as if?!). The famous Pointe and Ballerines were born. Soon, they became THE dancing shoes of the most famous dancers in the world. Now the brand has been repositioned, they sell all sorts of dancing equipment and regular shoes. They have several stores in Paris and many in the world. I took this photo at 36 rue de Passy, in the 16th arrondissement.

Jerry Bin Laden

Not much to say about his graffito (which is more of a printed painting really). I saw it near the Beaubourg Center and could not help but laughing when I saw it. I have no idea who made that, but I think it’s pretty creative and funny. Jerry (and Tom) are very popular in France for we had them on television (and we probably still do). Bin Laden is a little less popular, but he was a lot on French television too ;-)

Paris Port

Where did I take this photo? In Camargues, where I’m currently spending the weekend? In Normandy, where I often go? Nope! In the middle of Paris! As a matter of fact if you look closely you can even see the Génie de la Bastille (the little guy up top the Bastille column) in the background of the photo. Believe it or not, there no less than 19 ports within the Paris area and they are not all for goods delivery. This one is called Le Port de l’Arsenal, it’s a “Port de Plaisance”, that is dedicated to yachts only. You can rent a spot for only 2 306 € a year if you have a small boat and … if you find room ;-)

Place des victoires

Hurrah! After several weeks of work, where half of the Place des Victoires was totally hidden by scaffolding, they finally freed Louis the 14th (the guy on the horse in the middle!)! This place is one of the most beautiful ones in Paris for it's not too large, yet extremely spacious - and not too busy with car traffic ;-) For those of you who are into history, you should know that it was first inaugurated in March 1686 and that the law stated that only symmetrical buildings could be erected there.

Ham and cheese party

I may have been blogging about Paris for several years now, but I'm not the only one! Last evening I attended the anniversary party of Eyepreferparis, the blog that ex New Yorker Richard Nahem has been managing for 5 years! It took place at O Chateau, a place I already mentioned a long time ago (they do wine testing seminars in English). As for me, I only took photos as I don't drink wine and I'm trying to lose weight!

A little piece of Brazil in Paris

A new shop opened in my street and it's really neat! It's a Brazilian store, called Não do Brazil, and they sell sneaker like shoes, of all colors. Really cool. I wonder if it's really Brazilian or just marketed as Brazilian and... made in China ! (I'm kidding). Maybe Monica (with one "n"!), my truest visitor from Brazil can tell us the truth...

Paris by night

I'm just back from an evening out in Paris. On the way back, the weather was so nice, I took "Le chemin des écoliers" (the long way round) and I did not regret it! Need I say more?

Happy Independence Day

Since I have a lot of American visitors, let me dedicate today's post to them as it's the 4th of July! Thanks to PDP friends (Guille, Michael, Stuart and Elizabeth), I had lunch at Blues Bar-B-Q, yesterday (Sunday). Co owned by delightful Diana from Texas, it is a real American restaurant where I discovered pulled BBQ pork, corn bread, genuine coleslaw and of course, an ice cream float! Now that's a festive occasion!

Big Jump!

I don't know if you remember Taïg Khris, a French guy who loves to jump off anything with roller skates on? Last time he jumped from the Eiffel Tower and yesterday he did the same from... le Sacré Coeur. And now that I have connections in Montmartre ;-), well it was easy for me to cease the right moment! Taïg Khris claims to have broken the record of the longest jump on roller skates with 29 meters. Impressive. Watch this in motion, in this little video if you want more...

Art!!

I know that modern art is not an easy topic to deal with, but there is a lot in Paris and from time to time I like to report about it. Thus, this week, I went to La Maison Rouge, an art gallery located near Bastille, where they celebrated the launch of Slash Magazine, an online magazine that... deals with modern art. The main exhibit was dedicated to Winnipeg, and this little sculpture was part of it, I believe. Don't ask me... Maybe one of the "treasures" that will be part of the huge treasure hunt that the Paris city hall is organizing this Saturday!

Green Broom

On this 1st of July our Theme day is "Green". I could have photographed a tree, but I already took a tree related photo a couple of days ago. Instead I dug out this photo of a typical Paris cleaners' broom that I photographed recently on my way to the gym. Isn't this green vibrant? Check what's green in the other cities of the City daily Photo bloggers community.

Free, at last!

Unfortunately, it's not the first time I mentioned that some French people are held hostage somewhere in the world... (remember Ingrid Betancourt?). Well two of them (Stéphane Taponier et Hervé Ghesquière) have just been freed today after 547 days in Afghanistan, among the Talibans. I took this photo in September 2010, during a demonstration to support their cause, but never used it because I did not think that adding more publicity (even though PDP is not exactly CNN LOL!) would help. Now I'm glad to use it!

Optical Illusion at Paris town hall

Fa-sci-na-ting! I passed by the Paris town hall today, where they currently have an open air exhibit about Paris trees (there are 485 000 of them!). On top of the various - very interesting - explanations, they also installed an anamorphosis work of art by François Abelanet. Anamorphosis? Let me borrow Wikipedia's definition: " it's a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image." Well, since an image is worth a 100 words, click here, you'll see that what you get in this photo is not really what you see! More, in French, on the Paris Website.

Paris pollution

Pollution is a topic I rarely talk about, or it's generally not too much of a concern in Paris, except when it's hot and there is absolutely no wind, like yesterday (Monday). Airparif is the office that controls the air in Paris and, well at the moment, the various indexes (don't ask me too much about them, it's pretty complicated) that they produce don't look too good. Parisians should avoid going out, running exercising... You can see it in this photo I suppose, which is a little yellow and foggy... I've seen worse though! But God was it hot...

Painted Window

Look at the cute window I found in Le Marais! It's located just above the Brasserie La Perle, at 78, rue Vieille du Temple and it probably belongs to it (in fact, it's pretty common that the apartment just above a café or a restaurant be attached to it. Have a nice week everyone, ours will start with a super hot day - I'm talking really hot (+13° C compared the normal average)!

Love!

I'm not in Paris today, but I know the sun is shining. And I know that there must be plenty of lovers by the Seine... Now tell me you would not like to be in their shoes! See here the next episode...

Er...

Weird and enigmatic graffiti I found at rue Léon Frot. It says "Waiting for the accident"... What accident? A place one, a nuclear one, a new economic crisis? I really would like to know what the "artist" had in mind when posting this... Anyway I thought it was funny, in a provocative way. Have a nice - accident free - Saturday ;-)

Paris bloggers Meetup

Two evenings ago, I attended a Paris blogger meet up, organized by ParisParis.in. About a hundred "Paris lover" bloggers were there and it was fun. It took place at La Bonne Franquette, a non too touristy Montmartre 400 year old restaurant - I had Boeuf Bourguignon, as some of you who follow me on Facebook may have already seen ;-) During the evening, a young woman showed me a photo a photographer took of her. Stunning! I wish I had taken it.

Big J(D)ump at the Modern art Musuem

There is a fantastic museum near the Trocadero called the "Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris" (that I mentioned several times here). They recently worked redid the main esplanade which was really old and dirty and did a real good job. Only, recently, they installed this roller skate ramp, and now the place is slowly turning into a dump again... Weird.

Music at the opera

There was music at the opera last night, but it was not the usual opera music and it was not inside the opera, but on the steps, outside! A huge band, mostly wind instruments (listen to them on Myspace), very good. Huge success! Earlier, I came across another band, in a very typical café (look at them here). Well, it was a fun Fête de la musique (music fest), like always.

Pick up after your dog

As I already mentioned here, there are about 200 000 dogs in Paris and according to Wikipedia and other sources, they produce daily 16 tons of, well, this! The thing is that since 2002, dog owners must pick up after their favorite companion. To remind them of this there are several signs like this one throughout Paris. This one is different, because it's been a little tagged. There is also a guide on line on the Paris.fr site where you can read things like "don't try to teach your dog about cleanness, it's a human concept" LOL!

Helicopter ride over Paris

Lucky me I went on a helicopter ride above Paris yesterday (Sunday)... Well when I say above, it's more accurate to say, around, because flying over Paris is totally forbidden. It was nice, but not extraordinary, because for legal reasons (helicopters are noisy!) they have to take you away to the west suburbs as quickly as possible and you don't get to see much. I would not really recommend it, unless you have never been on a helicopter before. In which case, it's still a nice experience. More photos on the making of.

Bikers demonstration

Bikers are not happy and they want the government to know it! Why? Because of the recent measures I already mentioned here - mostly the fact that radars won't be notified before you come across one, like it used to be. It's very unlikely that this demonstration will change anything, but it allowed me to take this cool head! FYI, there are roughly 2,5 million bikers in France in total, and according to statistics, they are 3 times more likely to be killed than car drivers. And they demonstrate against seucrity measures? Er...

Cour Carrée du Louvre

Sorry, I've had a terrible day today and no time to go out and take a photo (nor to file the ones I took of the white dinner party, needless to say!). So in the meantime here is one the the Cour Carrée du Louvre, that I took when it was beginning to get dark. Sorry, no time to complete my caption with historic facts, now I have to rush out...

White dinner 2011

Here we go again! Like every year I found myself at the white dinner party (le dîner en blanc) last evening. Or should I say white dinnerS, as, for the first time, there were two; one in the square courtyard of the Louvre (la cour carrée du Louvre) and the other one at Notre Dame. I took a lot of photos, but I won't have time to select them before this weekend, so be patient! In the meantime, here is a pretty unexpected one: a chef (dressed in white, bien sûr...) cooking in front of Notre Dame ;-).

Ticket to ride?

Caught in the act... These two police officers may look "cool" on their bike, but they also give tickets! According to various sources about 5 million parking tickets are given every year in Paris and their price (11 € - when you pass the meter time, 35 € when you're parked in a forbidden area) should increase this year by 6 to 10 €... Two wheel vehicles also get tickets now for it is now forbidden to park on sidewalks, unlike when I started driving one...

Book Signing (not singing!)

It's not everyday that a friend of yours publishes a novel and invites you to the book signing... That's what happened to me last evening at the Librairie de l'Inconnu, where Bruno Vinay Garenne was singning his first novel called Sens Interdit (no way out?) - don't ask me what the plot is, i haven't read it yet! I know it's a bit personal and not really interesting for you, and even though I climbed on a chair I did not really manage to make a good photo(!), but, hey once, in a while, you want to share the happy moments of your friends don't you?!

Spelling Bee

Only in France? Yes probably... During the past months about 5000 7th grade pupils throughout France took part in a huge spelling bee competition. The final was broadcast yesterday evening on national television ! I'm sure it was a huge success as, for the French, getting the right spelling is like a national sport! Before, adults would even take part in it... Why? Because we suffer so much with our grammar rules and weird spelling that once we sort of master them, it becomes like a game...

Giant walk through Paris

We're all familiar with city marathons. But what if you're now a running champion and still want to discover Paris "with your feet", with a bunch of other people? Simple: you take part in the GDF Suez (Gaz de France - Suez) walk, that - as I only found out today - has been taking place in Paris for four years now. More than 22 000 people took part in it this morning, and since they passed right by my home, I only had to walk a few blocks to take this photo! Clever: you could follow their progression, live, in this map (go to the bottom of the page).

Veggie Pride

I found myself in the middle of a "Veggie pride" today - that is a march to support vegetarians - at Les Halles. There were celebrating their tenth anniversary apparently, but it's the first year I heard of it - which is not surprising as Veggies are not numerous in France (only 2% of of the French population according to Wikipedia. Their protest is not only in favor of vegetarian food, but against the daily slaughtering of animals for their meat (3 million a day, the say). I don't think it will stop anytime soon, not to mention that the use of animals goes now widely beyond their meat...

Arts et Métiers Statue of Liberty

Thursday evening I attended an event at the Arts et Métiers museum, a great museum I already mentioned several times here, where they have all these cool inventions on display (the first "car", the first telephones, cameras...) including mock-ups and photographs of the Statue of Liberty (which you probably know, was made by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in France and given as gift of France to the US on July 4th, 1884. Recently the photographs have been restored, that is why the organized this event that the US Ambassador to France attended. See more photos here.

Biological attack?

Today two packages containing "a chemical substance", were sent to the Mondadori press group in Montrouge (close to Paris). This lead to the evacuation of the building and the intervention of the firemen. Nothing too serious apparently, but with the recent bacteria affair that lead to the death of several people - mainly in Germany - the good old chemical terrorist attack is now regularly mentioned! FYI, I did not take this photo personally, but I asked Guillaume Frat, who works there and who owns a great blog (in French) to lend it to me ;-)

Celebration

I'm just back from a dinner with very good friends of mine, in the suburbs. On the way back, I drove through the Champs Elysées and saw the French flag was hanging, in between the arches. This generally happens when we celebrate something, like Bastille day (le 14 juillet,) or the end of WWII. In this particular case I don't know why... Maybe one of my readers will give us the solution. Anyway, it's a classic, but it's still beautiful ;-)
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La Grande Halle de la Villette

Last evening I went to La Cité de la musique to attend a concert conducted by Les Arts Florissants, a Baroque musical ensemble conducted by William Christie. It was... Baroque! On the way out I took this photo of La Grande Halle, a remain of a former slaughter house that was built between 1865 and 1867 and was still used until 1975. Beautiful.

Stunning ceilings

Yesterday evening I attended the Parisapps meetup (organized by Mobile Monday France), an event that took place in the Paris City Hall town hall during which the five best mobile apps dedicated to Paris got featured. It was interesting (have a look at them and at all Paris applications, here if you're interested). What was also interesting was the cocktail they served afterwards stunning ceiling of the ballroom we were in. This is just a small bit, as the whole ceiling (painted by Henri Gervex and Aimé Morot) is 50 meter (164 feet) long!

Back to work

It's been a very quiet long weekend in Paris, the city was almost empty, but now the time has come to go back to work... I actually took this photo last Friday, when I had to take the metro to pick up my scooter that was being serviced. I saw this scene and thought it would make a good photo. The rectangle tile you can see on the wall is typical of the Paris Metro.

Playing Shi Fu Mi

I found another of these intriguing slogans that they post on sidewalks regularly. This one said "Do you want to play Shi Fu Mi?" -which apparently means "Stone paper cloth". Turns out it's a French clothing brand, for women. Anyway, I waited for people to pass by on it and took this photo that I kinda like a lot without knowing exactly why! Probably because it reminds me a bit of the Beatles Abbey Road album...

Flower power!

Here is another jump in the past... Those of you who are less than 40 probably have never used this slogan - and even I was a little too young when it was on - but they probably heard of it. That is why when I saw this old Ami 8 (a popular French car from the 60's) at rue Vieille du Temple I could not help but taking a photo of it. No political claim, though, this car only belongs a florist (L'artisan fleuriste). Have a great weekend everyone, ours will be sunny!

Return to the 40's

I came across these two young ladies in the 3rd arroundissement and for a moment I thought I was travelling in time! They really looked like they just came out of a movie from the 40's or something. I looked up on the web and there is apparently such a fashion trend (look at this article in Elle), but it's actually the first evidence I witnessed! I'm not sure it's really suitable for a sunny day, but who am I to judge? ;-)

Where is everybody?

Those of you who visited Paris will probably think this is a fake! Why? Because generally, at this very famous location (Le Sacré Coeur), there are dozens of people running around, like little ants... (depending on the sources, it's the second or third most visited places in Paris, with 10 million visitors per year!) , but not this morning at "dawn", when I passed by there just before going to a meeting in the neighborhood. Enjoy...

Theme day: under (re)construction

Shame on me, I almost forgot it's a theme day today... What theme? "Under construction". You can imagine that in a city like Paris, there are more reconstructions than actual constructions... Hence this very famous Carreau du Temple, a huge covered market in Le Marais, that was built in 1863 and was pretty dormant lately, until the Town hall decided to give it a new life (check this animation). I can't wait... Click here to see what is under construction throughout the world!