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Randomly: Marais

I was running late meeting C but my way out from the metro station was blocked by tourists. This is quickly becoming a pet peeve in the month of August. With fewer Parisians and more visitors in town, the escalators are perpetually blocked. Folks, if you are not walking, stand to the right please!

Randomly: Marais

Randomly: Marais

C teased that I’m becoming a Parisian. A good, hearty lunch at L’As du Falafel went a long way to soothe my annoyance, and a leisurely walk to rediscover Marais restored me to good humour. We found hidden corners away from prying eyes and delicious shops that I mentally note to visit when I’m not absolutely stuffed, while chit-chatting the afternoon away.

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Le Mary Celeste

Now that daylight saving has finally kicked in, at last, I could write a little show-and-tell about Le Mary Celeste, although the spotlight would be more on the French-Asian fusion cuisine and less on the interesting cocktails. (We’re terrible drinkers, really.) Up until now, the somber winter had rendered it quite difficult to photograph the dishes – the menu changed daily – in the dim interior, so we’d whole-heartedly piled our attention on the food that tickled our tastebuds.

Le Mary Celeste

Le Mary Celeste

Situated in the Marais, this is undoubtedly a place where many of the chic and the stylish hang out. I’m not quite that cool, so you won’t catch me perching on one of the bar stools and chatting casually to the bartenders. Instead, I tuck myself into a corner table with F or my friends, eye the menu hungrily, and mentally ponder how to persuade all at the table that we should order one of every item there is on the menu. Not that a lot of convincing was ever needed. ;)

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Day 333: Leg, breast or thigh?

This window at Ted Baker is just too funny. Awesome timing, given Thanksgiving had just came and went, and christmas is chugging along nicely, the poor turkey would need to be dressed one way or another. It shall be all trussed up and later presented as prettily as possible to the table of sacrifice. Ah, hidden puns everywhere I don’t even know where to start :p

I still haven’t got started with seasonal shopping and I’m unlikely to start it now. Maybe next week. First up, I need to worry about moving in a couple of days, and the way I see it, the less I have to pack, the better. At least I’ve started with the shopping list. Some things need to be ordered online though, so I must not leave those till too late. In fact, I should do them now… toodles!

Day 330: Garden and Victory

There are a number of museums in the Marais with free entry to their permanent collections. Frédéric and I had them checked out in record time – 3 in 90 minutes. I admit to doing cursory-glance kind of visits to just have an idea of what the museums are about. The decision to visit them on an impromptu basis perhaps didn’t serve us well in understanding the significance of the collections. Perhaps we should have taken out an audioguide or signed up for a guided tour. Nonetheless, it didn’t mean I failed to find something appreciable in any of them.

Take Musée Carnavalet for example, which is dedicated to the history of Paris. I found interesting paintings of Paris of old when there used to be houses and shops lining the bridges of the city (this was banned in late 18th century) and of various city plans (some never came to pass). The picture above is of the central garden of the hôtel particulier which houses this museum today, with its beautifully trimmed hedges and the original of the statue of Victory found on the column at Place du Châtelet (the one at in place at Châtelet is gold-gilded). See, little steps to get to know Paris better :)

Day 244: Picasso, painted

At the junction between rue de Haudriettes and rue des Archives sits a mural called La femme, lumière de l’homme. Painted by Combas in hommage of the great Cubic master, Picasso, who called Paris his home for many year, where he lived, painted and sculpted in Montmartre. In fact, not very far from where this spot itself – less than 5 minutes walk – is Musée Picasso, where thousands of his works (plus his private collection) make up the exhibition collection.

This photo above is but about 1/3 of the entire mural.The very top panel was a reminder of how Montmartre and Paris used to be, and the middle panel, the name of the painting reflected is at the tip of my tongue yet somehow I couldn’t just spew a name and get it right. It’ll come back to me some time. Meanwhile, spot the amusing tiled floor of this picture.

Day 242: Bedazzled Invader

Pixel art is fun, pixel art in bedazzled tiles is even more entertaining.

Spotted on a wall somewhere in the Marais (I cannot for the life of me recall the street name right now), this space invader is sitting pretty with coloured alien antennae (note the matching colour scheme) and a special one that sparkles and dazzles. Is there extra point for zapping the alien via that particular antenna? ;)

As a child, growing up, my first memories of computer/video games are of Mario Bros (ah the days of game cartridges and square Nintendo box), Space Invaders (black 8″ floppy disks!), Pacmac and Pinballs (giant machines at the arcade, anyone?) but somehow I seem to have outgrown them quicker than I’d anticipated. Nowadays it’s all nostalgia and reminiscing the past, and me unable to play wii without embarassing myself.

Day 174: Sales in the city

The shopping madness begins. Les soldes started yesterday and already I’m hearing of bargains being picked up by my friends and my colleagues. I’ve been completely swamped with work right now though, so no time to do my part in, errrm, contributing to the economy ;) This is, of course, good for the health of my bank accounts.

Now, this shop in Marais is amusing. Have you figure out why yet? Look again at the photo. I’ll give you a couple of seconds to play detective. Spot the magic yet?

On a normal day, a sign for boulangerie patisserie means I should be standing in front of the windows and start to drool over freshly baked breads and pastries and all things delicious. But I’ve been deceived. All there are in the shop now are men’s clothes. Never mind. I’m sure I could spot another few boulangerie nearby.

Day 147: Gyokuro

So I was meeting Anne in the Marais yesterday. However, as I arrived early in the area, I decided to walk about randomly (like I always do). Somewhere along the route, I came across Patisserie Pain de Sucre and like a siren calling out to me, I automatically walked in to the shop and cue Pavlovian conditioning – droolfest! If I could have, I would have bought one of every cake and verrine in there. But I stayed sensible, and I came out about €16 poorer in exchange for 2 verrines and a slice of Gyokuro.

The verrines have been eaten up after dinner last night, but there’s still this slice of cake left for today. Its full description reads: Biscuit madeleine à la pistache et zestes d’agrumes, crème au thé vert matcha, mousse coco, crémeux léger au thé gyokuro, feuille de chocolat au thé vert (madeleine cake of pistachio and citrus zest, cream of matcha green tea, coconut mousse, light cream of gyokuro tea, green tea chocolate leaf). I was quite sure I spotted rosemary inside one of the layers, not just decorative at the top, but I could have also mistaken something else for it. Perhaps it was green citrus peel?

Gyokuro is amazingly light to eat and it tastes fresh too, perfect as a summer day treat. It is definitely the best buy of the lot, as the verrines were just too “busy” with all the complex layers contained in teeny tiny glasses. I liked them, but not enough to want a repeat. The cake, however, I could eat a lot more of it. I should try other varieties next time I pass by.

Day 146: Running out of idea?

I was highly bemused when I passed this window on rue des Francs Bourgeois that claims “Je ne suis pas inspirée” because right now, that somewhat reflects how I feel. I know I haven’t been the most diligent when it comes to maintaining this blog up-to-date at all time, and I am a tad concerned if this is a bit monotonous for you since I seem to be photographing just a lot of statues/sculptures lately.

I need fresh idea.

I don’t exactly want to fall on backup idea, which would be to photograph all the famous sights of Paris, but to try to give you a flavour of what living here is like and what I see when I travel. Of course, one way to do it would be to photograph people, but I’m still a bit wary of my skill on this aspect and for fear that it may be intrusive. What say you? Any suggestion? Or is there anything in particular you’d like to see more of?

Day 136: Formal garden

I quite like walking around the Marais quarter, which is lively and bustling but also attracts a certain kind of fashionable crowd (not that I am one of them – and I doubt I could afford to be one either), making it an interesting people-watching neighbourhood. More importantly, the quarter did not undergo a Haussmann “re-looking” (a casual French term for makeover apparently) and therefore plenty of interesting architecture to check out too.

Hôtel particulier is one of the features which I think of as a link to the romantic past of the streets here, thanks to the favours bestowed by the royalties and the peers of French court once upon a time. The grand urban mansions usually come with entrance courts and gardens, and if you could cast your imagination a little back, if only back to the days where Impressionist artists could cast paintings of garden strolls in Victorian dresses and suits, the gardens would be just perfect for socials and interludes in between attending various soirées that one had been invited too.

Today, a number of these hôtel particulier have been converted into administrative buildings as well as museum spaces. Some of these are free to visit (e.g. Musée Cognacq-Jay, Musée Carnavalet, la maison de Victor Hugo) so there is no excuse to not get acquainted with the idea of grand Parisian townhouses. I should revisit them too. It has been a while.


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