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 Denis Gérablie, 40, who this spring opened Galerie Babel in a space that formerly exhibited Man Ray.

The name references the Tower of Babel, because buildings appear unfixed in his paintings, but it’s about something more fluid than a tumble of bricks and mortar he says. “My houses are like trees. They can grow, wilt, sway in the wind. Walking in these cities I create, there is something vegetable about it, like walking in a forest.” He was inspired in part by the French word for real estate, immobilier. “Immobile. I think I reacted against this term. And I think my paintings are also a reaction against a world that is wooden and heavy. I always thought houses were closed off by walls, and very serious,” he says.
Gérablie’s aesthetic is infused by color and wit, and also the little people that inhabit his world, which he calls the schmurptz.¨It’s as if I wanted to resolve the problem of a human being in a city. A human being isn’t made to live in a city. But a schmurptz is made for it. The schmurptz and the houses go peacefully together.”
>more

Louis Aragon had a long life. Born in 1897, he died in 1982 at the age of 85.

‘Aragon et l’art moderne,’ the exhibition currently on display at the Musée de la Poste is a necessarily selected survey from a long career as a poet, novelist, journalist and long-time friend and collaborator to some of the 20^th century’s most celebrated artists.

Divided into three time periods, the show is a snap shot of Aragon’s participation in the political alliances and artistic movements of the era, as illustrated through his paintings and publications.
The show highlights Aragon’s work during his involvement with the ‘intellectual transformation of Dada’ from cubism and fauvism to surrealism. Aragon, along with writers and fellow French Communist members Paul Éluard, Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault, explored the boundaries of experimental writing, taking the absurdity of Dadaism into a realm that became known as Surrealism.

>more

From l’apéritif en terrasse to the early-morning croissant on the way home, what’s not to love about the Parisian social life?

Moderation: Boire avec modération (drink with moderation) is your mantra for socializing in Paris. France may be one of the biggest wine producers and consumers in the world, but the French pride themselves on enjoying alcohol in a civilized manner. Savoring a glass of red with one’s lunch or dinner exhibits art de vivre—where’s the fun in deprivation? Getting out of one’s tree every Friday night exhibits a lack of self-restraint and, needless to say, is frowned upon.

Moderation applies to eating as well. It requires iron willpower in a city full of tempting bakeries and delis. But indulging in small amounts of rich food and drink seems to work pretty well for most parisiennes’ waistlines.

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.
>more

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 cherish those simple moments. They remind me why I love living here.

Last night was one of those « it’s too hot to sleep » nights, probably the last of the summer. Today I couldn’t help but notice that the chesnut trees had already begun to shed their yellowing foliage. I am not ready for the cold of winter. I need to buy new sweaters and tights. I still need the sun.

I’ve been in France 15 years now, and I think I’ve been to Disneyland Paris at least a dozen times, and I even got to cover the opening of Disney Studios in 2002 for work. I’d go more often but it’s a tad harder to convince Parisians to come with me, especially if it’s cold or wet. I have a few souvenirs, a stuffed Steiff ‘Steamboat Willie’, a Jack Skellington mug, and some cool collector pins (still looking for a good Haunted Mansion or Nightmare Before Christmas pin). So here are just a few tips on making your trip to the Magic Kingdom just a little bit less stressful.

I got myself a basic Annual Passport (€99), which essentially pays for itself after two or three visits. There are some restricted dates (like Halloween, Christmas), but you can upgrade to two other passes (up to €199) that allow full access, parking, and big discounts at Disney shops and restaurants. A regular ticket purchased from the USA is $74 for just Disneyland (not the Disney Studios next door). If you are a resident of the Ile-de-Frace, you get a special rate of €29, which is pretty darned cheap (you do have to purchase it at least five days in advance, only good weekdays). It’s not easy finding this rate, you have to first of all make sure you’re in the “French language, Ile-de-France” country, which you can change at the bottom of the screen on the Disneyland Paris site if for some reason it defaults you to the UK or US site. This will still usually take you to the “Billet” page for the regular ticket of €53. Just look at the menu on the left and click on “Billet Francilien” and you’ll see the €29 rate for weekdays, and €40 for weekends. Make sure it works for the date you want to go, et voila, buy your ticket. If you want to be sneaky and try to buy a Francilien ticket when you don’t have an Ile-de-France address, don’t come crying to me when you don’t get in. Cheating Disneyland is just bad karma (even if they are a global empire). There are about a billion other “special rates” on the Disney site, so if you can stand it, have a scroll around. Getting on their mailing list will alert you to specials.

>more

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.

Now, however, there is a new trend in “public” lavatories, which I call “fleecing tourists par sanisette.”

“Point WC” is the culprit of this shady new business. I first encountered Point WC last winter, during the biannual soldes. I was shopping at Le Printemps department store on Boulevard Haussmann, where I had just dropped a considerable sum on a luxury handbag. Before leaving the store, I decided to stop at the women’s restroom. At first I was delighted to see that Le Printemps had revamped their worn, ugly and funky not-in-a-good-way restrooms for their customers. I noted that the new, brightly painted men’s and women’s toilettes even had a name: Point WC. Wow, I thought. Customer appreciation. Now that’s progress. And then I walked in, and was immediately ordered by an attendant to pay up: €1, to be exact.
>more

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.

By contrast, the titles of Inception, Night and Day, Salt, Twelve, andToy Story 3 are exactly the same in France as in the original.

>more

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.