Gruesome!
August 30th, 2010
If you come to Paris, do pay a visit to “Le musée de l’histoire de la médecine” a very interesting museum you can find in the former Medicine Faculty, in the heart of the Latin Quarter. It’s fascinating to see the old instruments, the dummies and the odd tools they have used to cure people throughout the ages. One thing I can tell is that I’m happy to live in the 2000s (mind you, in a 100 years, somebody will probably say, “I can’t believe they had to operate on people to remove the appendix in the 2000s!”).
A small chain of convenience stores called Chez Jean have opened around Paris, offering all the essentials from 7am-11pm, seven days a week even Christmas and May 1st. Modeled a bit like the stores at a highway rest stop, they have snacks, sandwiches, salads, and hot dishes served at the counter, tables to sit an eat, shelves of dry goods and refrigerated sections with pre-packaged meals, drinks, even an organic food shelf. Flowers, office supplies, a cash machine, lotto tickets, newspapers and magazines, some electric essentials (batteries, fuses), personal care, baby care, and of course, all the wine and junk food you usually find at convenience stores. There are also bathrooms, phone recharge stations, and WiFi. It’s oddly cute yet impersonal, and where else in Paris do you get a bottomless up of coffee with breakfast? 153 rue Charenton, 12th; 37 rue Fbg Montmartre, 9th; 7 rue Lafayette, 9th; 13 ave de la République, 11th.
If it has been Armageddon for the art market lately, one upshot is that places are opening for newer artists where one wouldn’t expect. On the rue Guénéguad in the heart of Saint Germain des Prés, you can find African art, design furniture, and fashion-edge photography, but also painter
Louis Aragon had a long life. Born in 1897, he died in 1982 at the age of 85.
From l’apéritif en terrasse to the early-morning croissant on the way home, what’s not to love about the Parisian social life?
Eating Out: Parisians are reluctant to queue, let pedestrians cross the road or wait for you to move out of the way in the metro, but one thing they do take time over is dinner. I was lucky enough to interview the chef Gordon Ramsay when he opened his restaurant in Versailles, Le Trianon. He told me he was amazed by the staying power of French diners, who far outlast their counterparts in London and New York: “When clients at the Trianon come for dinner it’s 8:30, and three or four hours later they’re still there.” Socializing, he said, is not something done on the fly.
Yesterday, as dinner cooked and the sun set, a group of gypsy performers wandered onto my street coming off thier daily train rounds. I smiled down at them because I’d seen them before – I guess that they live in somewhere in the neighborhood. They waved back up and me and started me a serenade, smiling and tooting their trumpets charismatically. At the end, they asked for a coin or two and I was happy to oblige. A euro is a small price for high entertainment in Paris. They continued down the street as the neighbors happily leaned off their balconies to throw them their spare change. The music faded into the evening.
I’ve been in France 15 years now, and I think I’ve been to
I got myself a basic
In 2006, the city of Paris installed 400 sanisettes — freestanding, free-of-charge public toilettes — around the city’s 20 arrondissements. That was something à aimer.
Time for another round of curious translations of American movie titles into French. Interestingly, some of these movies are being released contemporaneously; others were released in the U.S. back in January and are only now showing in France.
Here is a pretty interesting sculpture in the 17th. It was designed by Wang Du, a Chinese artist who has been living in France for 20 years and who was commissioned by the city to create a monument dedicated to Paris firemen. It’s called the Exercise Tower, and it’s located in front of one of the largest fire stations in Paris, at Place Jules Renard. It weighs 7 tons, it’s 11 meters high, and it’s made of polished iron, just like the firemen helmets.




