I’m starting to think of Place St Michel as “city centre” of Paris and location of choice for many meet-ups . A little bit like the front gate of Trinity College in Dublin kind of thing. It’s easily accessible by public transport, has iconic meeting point (the square in front of the fountain), widely sign-posted and hard to miss while at the same time easy to spot people. Perfect.
Around the square are a number of cafés and bookshops. Unlike many (touristy) cafés and restaurants in central Paris area which prefer to boost the availability of Berthillon ice cream, this one opts to serve Ben & Jerry’s instead. Local and artisanal vs international and factory production – I think I know which one I’d go for ;)
It has been a while since I last visited Louvre. Well, no time like present to revisit, when a recent acquaintance suggested a trip to say hello to Miss Mona Lisa. Of course, Louvre is more than just this masterpiece of Leonardo. We’ve all heard of the time any visitor would need should each piece of work in the collection of Louvre be examined for mere 30 seconds each (some 12-13 days!) and so most time, tourists only zoom from one room to another in search of the most well-known pieces, snap a few photos, and off they go.
In any case, not all rooms are opened nor all items on exhibit at any one time. In fact, several rooms are currently closed for renovations, and some other rooms clearly have just been re-opened. Rather to my horror, these rooms now spot a modern office look with the beautiful old ceiling frescoes nowhere to be seen. Or worse, some rooms have had new frescoes painted to “themify” the rooms, e.g. Egyptian motifs in rooms where Egyptian artefacts are exhibited. I couldn’t even bring myself to photograph that. Seriously, why would one authorise such atrocity?
I recently blogged about the Montsouris reservoir and if you look back again at the accompanying photo, you would notice a fountain from which water is flowing freely at its centre. Named Wallace fountain after its generous donor, Sir Richard Wallace, there are over 60 of these fountains around Paris to provide free potable water in public spaces from spring to autumn.
Normally dark green in colour, imagine my surprise when I came across one today that’s fire-engine red! Mais bien sûr, this particular fountain is situated in the heart of Chinatown area, and this is the one colour that Chinese loves most. Perhaps the residents nearby feel they require the fountain to “fit in”, culturally speaking?
Personally, I’d rather they be dark green than red.
Parisians are, in general, a stylish lot of people. Standing at the fringe, I often wonder where so-and-so bought her effortlessly fabulous outfit and fashionable item of clothing/accessory/footwear. Often I couldn’t help feeling a little dowdy in comparison but reminded myself in turn that these don’t change who I am, only the “outer shell”, of what I wear.
La vanité mise à nu par ses thuriféraires is another thought-provoking sculpture by Daniel Hourdé, installed just across the road from Désillusion totale, that perfectly represents the stripping of vanity to reveal the fundamentals, the depth beneath this layer of superficial mask. We are vulnerable under it all; usually only the most devoted see this side of us, with the truest standing by us unconditionally. Trust of this kind is hard to come by and if you have earned it, never take it for granted.
Despite being a frequent visitors to Paris (and France) in the past, I have actually never been here before for La Fête Nationale. We don’t call it Bastille Day here and in fact it may even confuses the French – “c’est quoi, le Bastille Day?” So, my first celebration, and although I skipped the military parade in the morning, I was at Champ de Mars (with a few thousand others) to enjoy the fireworks in the evening.
My friends and I got there early to bag ourselves a sweet spot at the feet of the equestrian sculpture of Marechal Joffre, having a spot of picnic and chit chatting while enjoying a pretty decent free concert prior to the start of the fireworks. As the sky got darker, the Eiffel Tower started lighting up while I played with a few settings on my camera, capturing something like above, which I thought was really cool. The fireworks finally began just after 10pm, and for about 40 minutes, we were treated to a visual feast of bangs and sparkles, dancing to the songs of Broadway Musicals. Two words – über impressive!
(For additional photos, see here)
I needed a quick book-fix after a relatively stressful day at work. At Gibert Joseph, I browsed through the English books section, picked up a couple of novels, and was heading back downstairs to the cashier to pay for my purchase. There, lo and behold, a book that’s promoting for all the “fat words” of the world.
“Fat words”? Actually, gros mots translates as swear words… aha, now, you’re probably thinking – interesting book! Especially one which promises a guide of 80 most commonly used, errr, colourful phrases. In 12 languages, no less. Of course, that means this book is now categorised as “dictionary” and I can think of a couple of people who wouldn’t mind having one on their bookshelves, hehehe.
There is a giant blue pepper (by Patrick Laroche) sitting at Place René Char, nestled between Boulevard St Germain, Boulevard Raspail and rue du Bac. Very shiny and as much as I love my veggies, this is just weird as an art concept. Seeing the “pepper holder” referring to Galerie 208 Chicheportiche, there are, presumably, more vegetable sculptures in that gallery.
Aaaaand speaking of pepper, I recently tried stuffed chilli pepper at a Peruvian restaurant near Jardin des Plantes. Delicious and authentic food to be had there, and boy has that dish had a good kick of spice in that chilli. Even for someone with high tolerance to spicy food, I was losing my tastebuds to the heat of the dish. Not a dish I could recommend to too many people I guess, which is a shame, because it was pretty tasty.
The signs of Parisian street name are generally quite standardised. There are a few odd ones here and there, mostly because they were signs from the old days before the city council imposed a regulated signage system. Or you are rich enough to own a building and pay for someone to redesign the marker that sits outside your building. (Read all about the fascinating history behind street name signage here.)
They probably wouldn’t have approved one for Avenue des Naked City, not that we have a street of such name but it is also grammatically incorrect. However it hasn’t stop someone from getting creative and labelled this on rue de Beaume. Whether if this is a prank, or someone trying to do some clever marketing (according to Google there is a band of this name), well, I don’t know.
I climbed a gate this morning to get out from the compound of my building.
My friend and I were heading out to go to the market when we were stopped at the main door. There was a filming across the road, and we would have to wait till an all-clear was given by the director. They were filming some Chinese tv series (I didn’t quite catch the name). 10 minutes later, we were still waiting and our receptionist then offered to let us out via the garden. Sure, why not?
Except there was a locked gate to the garden, that was what. And this time she didn’t have a key for that. Climbing over then. Of course, as we walked past the set, we noted they were changing scenes and we could have actually came out of our building the proper way. Never mind.
I now wonder what series is it exactly.
From the exterior, this glass building could pass for an old, disused metro station from the era of Art Nouveau. It’s pretty yet subtle, with names inscribed on the wall referring to rivers near Paris. This hints on the purpose of the site itself, formerly a stone mine but today a water reservoir that would serve the left bank and areas south of Paris.
Water channelled in from the aquaducts of Loing, Lunain, Vanne and Voulzie are stored away from plain sight, under grass-covered hills of which the glass building sits atop. The interior resembles a massive cathedrale which has been inundated with clear water (Google and you will see), and how I would love to see that for myself. However, as you can imagine, for health and safety reasons, a tour into the reservoir would just not be possible. What a pity.
