The Paris Times - Fresh Insights into Life in Paris

Secondhand Books, Firsthand Comfort

Taryn Haight — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:33:26 -0700

Stacks of coffee-stained books overflow the shelves and onto the floor of Tea & Tattered Pages, a secondhand English language bookstore in the 6th arrondissement. Titles blur together, creating a jumbled atmosphere of “where to begin” or “what to read first” until a single poster in the back of the store becomes legible. Unattended children will be sold as slaves.

The City of Darkness

Guillaume Pitron — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:12:49 -0700

Far from being the realm of the dead, Paris’s catacombs play unofficial host to a thriving nightlife. From dusk to dawn, hundreds of so-called “cataphiles” take up residence and for these modern troglodytes, the underside of the capital is nothing but a gigantic playground. We paid them a visit.

Like Cupboard Like Closet

Laura Calder — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:00:25 -0700

Food writer Laura Calder analyses her fear of clothing and discovers the intricate links between food, fashion, and the fine art of French dressing.

Anonymously Yours

Susan Sachs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:54:19 -0700

Stung with stories of discrimination and volatile suburban ghettos, France has come up with a new weapon to fight racism, sexism and ageism in the job market.

Blue Velvet

Scott H. Bourne — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:51:32 -0700

They filmed Blue Velvet
In an apartment building
In Wilmington North Carolina
Called “The Carolinas”
I know because I lived in the complex
Just across the street
Was an old southern style church
White and tall
Its steeple reaching into the heavens
With a clever little cross
Just on top
On Sunday morning you could hear
The singing
From our apartment building

Shopping Frenzy

Isabelle Gollentz — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:39:08 -0700

Three stylish boutiques to add to your shopping itinerary...

Pleasure for the Eye and Ear

In the Batignolles neighbourhood near Place Clichy, French Touche is a small cave where you enter without knowing what you are looking for, and yet find the item you’ve always wanted.

On the Road, Notebook in Hand

Julie Pecheur — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:10:07 -0700

French philosopher and personality Bernard-Henri Lévy follows in Tocqueville’s footsteps.

Metro Line 2: Stay Home, Span the World

Guillaume Pitron — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:03:14 -0700

To escape the grey monotony of the Parisian winter, Guillaume Pitron decided to travel around the world. He boarded the No. 2 subway line and crossed the widest ethnic spectrum of the city.

Law of the Claw

Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:49:19 -0700

What guest list at fete Grand Palais could boast such celebrated names? This is the Felon’s Salon. So haut monde as to be the living end in fatal snubs, people are just dying to get in. Definitive (with an emphasis on fin) its terminal disdain.

Landing on All Fours

Michael Kirwan — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:58:10 -0700

Harriet Sternstein—occupational therapist, pastry chef, now canine cook—has just opened France’s first bakery for dogs.

A Man of Great Caricature

Taryn Haight — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:55:28 -0700

If a picture is worth a thousand words, one drawn by Honoré Daumier is priceless. With just a few pencil strokes, this 19th century French caricaturist exposed society’s injustice and political corruption. Once praised by poet Charles Baudelaire as “one of the most important men, not only of caricature, but further of modern art,” Daumier remains far from forgotten.

The Thrill of the (Pur)chase

Julie Pecheur — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:55:28 -0700

Join the treasure hunt at Paris’s two great flea markets

Of course there are gift coupons. But what about that mysterious object burnished by the decades that catches your eye and whose unfinished story depends on your bargaining skills—in French! Now, this is a worthwhile present.

Popular for the quality of their goods and atmosphere, two permanent flea markets in Paris—the marchés aux puces de Vanves and Saint-Ouen—started over a century ago, when ragmen and housebreakers fetched discarded objects from the streets of Paris to sell. By the end of the 19th century, the sellers organized into official markets and became professional dealers.

The Interdisciplinarist

Julie Pecheur — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:44:33 -0700

David Edwards’s new experimental space, Le Laboratoire, brings artscience to the center of Paris.

Until recently, 46-year old David Edwards couldn’t escape a nagging feeling of misdirection. Decades of self-reflection, countless trips across the world, several books, and millions of dollars (earnt and spent) later, he has the answer: Artscience.

The merging of two words—art and science. It sounds simple. But only a few nimble geniuses, like Leonardo, have made the leap between the two spheres. Frustrated by this discipline apartheid, Edwards came up with his hybrid concept. And for aspiring “artscientists,” there is only one place to be: Le Laboratoire.

Parisian Vinyards

Julie Pecheur — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:28:57 -0700

Nestled among the buildings of modern-day Paris are four small vineyards, remembrance of the times when vineyards flourished on all its surrounding hills. This year, we followed the city’s oenologist, who like an alchemist, turns urban grapes into wine.

Torrential cold rains have just washed away the last traces of summer and the grapes look shiny, plump and plum in the wooden baskets. In the vineyard, a flock of photographers tries to get the best shot of the mayor of the 18th arrondissement, shears in hand, cutting the few wet bunches left and drinking last year’s wine with two celebrities, the TV host Nagui and the popular singer Chimène Badi. It is grape-picking season, Montmartre style.

It Won't Hurt This Time

Clara Young — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:20:03 -0700

French industrial designer Mathieu Lehanneur’s inventive pharmaceuticals in MoMA’s new show, introduce ritual and art into medicine.

Every Sunday, a youngish friend of mine, who recently suffered a heart attack, puts a week’s worth of pills into his seven-day dispenser. For each day there is a big yellowy-pink oval vitamin pill, an orange Plavix, a specially-coated aspirin and, lastly, a quarter of a Bisoprolol, divided by a mechanism that looks like a tiny paper-cutter. After he takes his four morning pills, he puts one cholesterol-reducing Lipitor pill into the newly-empty compartment, to take at seven in the evening. This he often forgets to do.