 Whether we like it or not, we live in an age
of product placement. Anyone doubting that can
ask the judges of "American Idol" how they're liking their Coke.
Kube Hotel
in Paris is an appropriately modish collaboration
between Grey Goose Vodka and Murano Resort
centering on the concept of cubicity (cubicality?).
Its 41 high-tech rooms are cube-shaped, as is the foyer, the
elevators and the exterior spaces...
Read the rest of: "Kubic Volumes"»  One grey New Year's Day in Paris my sister and I decided to go for a walk. Our senses happily dulled from the night before, we wandered through Montparnasse; a high wall herded us along the sidewalk.
Suddenly, it broke into large gates: a cemetery lay beyond. We hesitated, but our curiosity was piqued, so we went in...
Read the rest of: "Rambling About (In) Cemeteries: Montparnasse Cemetery"»  For all of us who like to go to restaurants
and imagine we've been invited to somebody's
dinner party, there's now a perfect place
to do just that.
Chicago native Daniel Rose (who originally came
to France intending to study philosophy... more on that later)
runs his 16-seat restaurant called " Spring"
almost as some sort of a one-man show...
Read the rest of: "Spring in Paris"»  There are many methods of discovering good restaurants and avoiding bad ones in an unfamiliar city.
The simplest one I know of involves walking secondary streets of the target neighborhood in the evening, taking note of restaurants that quickly fill up with locals. Avoid the empty ones, avoid the ones with people who look like tourists. Above all, avoid the ones with menus in English. Obviously, read the menus. That's pretty much it.
As simple as the method may be, most of the time it just works. Et voici my latest Parisian discovery: L'Absinthe Café in the 3rd arrondissement (not to be confused with the restaurant L'Absinthe in the 1st)...
Read the rest of: "L'Absinthe Café: First Impressions"»  They are a familiar sight on the banks of the Seine - those faintly weary people manning dark-green wooden stalls filled with used and new books, postcards, posters, paintings, compact disks, LP's other pre-digital-era media curiosities.
They are Paris Bouquinistes - a tribe that has existed (and flourished) since as far back as mid-16th century, although it was only from the late 1790's, when they were first officially recognized, that les bouquinistes gradually came to occupy most embankments on and around Île de la Cité - despite organized resistance from the more "orderly" bookstores which, as you know, are aplenty in Paris...
Read the rest of: "Paris Bouquinistes"» 
If skate-sailing is your thing and Paris your kind of town, I have the perfect location for you. By all means, try doing this on Quai d'Orsay next to the Air France terminal. You'll have the fresh wind from the Seine, more than enough space for maneuver and the attention of both tourists and motorists. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you where to get the gear (I don't know). But surely, if skate-sailing is your thing, you do. So, smooth sailing!
 No, not the Paris Mob. I'm talking about l'Empire de la Mort - The Catacombs!
The Catacombs span the entire city of
Paris. The tunnels and passageways spiral in an incredible distance of 186 miles! Yet, the legal tourist area spans only about a mile. For a very low entrance fee (2.5€ 26 and under, 5€ 27+) you can explore the sectioned off tunnels for as long as you want. Just bring a jacket, it's 11 degrees C in there year round...
Read the rest of: "The Parisian Underworld"»  The story goes like this: an American college student is seated on the terrasse of a fancy Paris café. When the waiter (finally) arrives, she asks for
« a tall skim latté with sweet'n'low.»
« - Madame,» says the waiter, « we are not a pharmacy !»
OK, probably apocryphal. However,
learning the Paris coffee rules will make your next trip to that oh-so-picturesque café all the more pleasant...
Read the rest of: "How to Order Café in Paris"»  |
