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I am on the email list for the Air France E Newsletter and they are now sending monthly coupons for their destinations. This month they are offering 10% off of all Tempo/Economy flights from the U.S. to France. Here are some sample one-way fares:
New York - Paris $357*
Houston - Lyon $410*
Philadelphia - Paris $432*
Washington D.C. - Nice $445*
Los Angeles - Paris $457*
The coupon code is ENEWS09369
You must depart in September or October and the promotion ends on September 30 so hurry up and book your flight so I can take you on an Eye Prefer Paris Tour when you arrive.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Bic, the king of clever disposable household items including pens and razors, has just come out with a new cell phone especially for tourists visiting France. The simple design is user friendly and ready to go with the battery already charged and SIM card in place. It’s only 49 euros and comes with 60 free minutes that are good for 12 months after phone is activated. After that you can buy prepaid minutes. It’s available at train stations, airports, tabacs, supermarkets, and newsstands. I think this is a great idea and certainly the easiest way to have a working cell phone here.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
As many of you know I was quite a disco bunny in my youth, strutting my disco moves at famous/notorious New York clubs like Studio 54, Area, Paradise Garage, and Xenon.
So when I heard a few weeks ago that the Palais de Tokyo was opening a disco exclusively for children between ages 3 & 7, I thought it was a hoot. Carine Charaire & Olivier Casamayou (conception and artistic direction), with Florence Doléac (design), Guillaume Sorge of the collective D*I*R*T*Y (music) and Yi Zhou (video), have put together an authentic reduced scale disco complete with mirrored balls, plush colored sofas, and flashing colored lights.
I could imagine the scenario now: ten and twelve-year olds, in a reverse carding move, use fake ID’s borrowed from their younger brothers & sisters, then pretend to be four & six and beg the noveau Steve Rubell at the door to let them in. They would dress in Osh-Kosh overalls with Pampers and carry Fisher Price toys as accessories. Five-year-olds will be selling Ecstasy in the bathrooms and snorting baby powder will replace cocaine.
BABYDISCO
September 26-January 4
Palais de Tokyo
3, avenue du Président Wilson, 16th arr.
Metro: Iena
Wednesday, Saturday, & Sunday,
By online reservation only starting on September 15
Admission: 10 euros(includes free juice box ticket- JUST KIDDING)
http://www.palaisdetokyo.com
Ex-Disco Baby
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
I met Eva Glele a few weeks ago when she personally gave a tour of Printemps, one of the top specialty stores in Paris. Eva is the International Media Relations Manager of the store and when I met her, I was impressed with her enthusiasm and passion about her job. I thought that she was an ideal candidate for Parisian of the Month.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in Cotonou, in Benin,West Africa and grew up in France.
How long have you been living in Paris and how long have you had your job?
I’ve been living in Paris most of my life except for 7 years that I spent working abroad (London, Tokyo, Mexico…) in order to gain a real international experience, familiarize myself with different media scenes and market dynamics – which is crucial for my job. I’ve been working as International Media Relations Manager for Printemps for 2 and half years now.
What part of your job do you like best and which part do you like least?
I actually love every aspect of my job especially the relationship-building one: meeting with journalists from the four corners of the world, exchanging views, ideas with them, informing them about Printemps of course, but also giving them my insider’s view on aspects of the French culture they might not be aware, and vice versa. My challenge remaining to constantly surprise them, proving them wrong for instance about stereotyped ideas they might carry out about who Printemps is and isn’t. I also love writing a lot, working on strategy – which basically means exploring new paths to get our messages across -, organizing events – which I rarely do at Printemps for we have a dedicated division – and so on.
Maybe the part that I don’t like as much is whenever I have to do some representation work at press parties – which basically means “just be there and smile”. That’s the part of the job I believe has participated to create the cliché of the pretty but brainless PR girl (the profession still being predominantly feminine). The truth is that I actually attend those parties to be able to provide any useful information about the company to the attending journalists, but at the end of the day, most of them being there to chill and enjoy, that’s what I end-up doing: just be there and smile!
What's the biggest event you've planned so far?
I haven’t really planned any big event so far at Printemps, because like I previously mentioned, we have a dedicated department for that. All our events are handled by our external communications division. They are the experts.
My big events are all meetings I have with the top world fashion, beauty and luxury journalists I regularly get the honor to welcome through tailor made in-store tours or target presentations about Printemps.
Each of them is a golden opportunity to make them understand what makes Printemps so special in the Parisian department stores landscape and make it visible towards potential clients.
What makes Printemps stand apart from other shops like Le Bon Marche and Galeries Lafayette?
First, the positioning: Printemps is not any longer the department store as it was invented back to the nineteenth century. It’s the specialty department store in fashion, beauty and luxury in Paris with a positioning that’s getting more and more upscale.
Second, Printemps has a real fashion and avant-garde orientation that leads the store to showcase brands like nowhere else in innovative shopping-floors, to create some of the most outstanding windows in the world of retail and design hip concept-events! This idea of fashion and modernity are key to understand what makes Printemps stands out. It goes beyond clothes, shoes or make-up: it’s the idea to apprehend everything with style.
Last but not least, its identity: saying that Printemps is a department store is like saying that the Eiffel Tower is a hunk of steel. With 80% of its clientele that’s French, Printemps is probably the most Parisian of all international department stores, but it’s more than that. For generations of French, Printemps is a cultural icon which history belongs to the national heritage. Our buildings and façades are registered as historic monuments; the store was the first to settle electricity (less than 3 years after it was invented), to implement elevators, a switchboard, launch into mail order, create a male confection area, and to create animated windows! In 1920 the store put living tigers in its windows, last year it was Karl Lagerfeld in person in one window fabricated by him! Where else can you see this?
That pioneer spirit truly defines Printemps’ identity.
What are some of the special things in the store that one shouldn't miss?
Without hesitation:
Our luxury floor – the only floor devoted to luxury and a genius concept gathering the avenue Montaigne, Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Place Vendôme on the same floor with great exclusivities like De Beers (in national exclusivity);
Fashion & Luxury, our new designers floor: 3,000 meters of pure sophistication and the most international portfolio in town, with this fall, a collection of “must-haves” created by the hottest names in fashion exclusively for Printemps (Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Yves Saint-Laurent, Givenchy, Alberta Ferretti, Stella McCartney, Agent Provocateur, Ann Demeulemeester and more);
Our shoe floor – the only floor devoted to female shoe wear in Europe, 3000 meters a pilgrimage for the shoe addict;
Our beauty department is the quintessence of glamour – featuring the biggest beauty boutiques in France - and a one-stop shopping for the best niche brands, like in the Scent-Room – our exclusive concept devoted to the rarest of fragrances. The best spot if you seek a fragrance that you could use as a signature.
Printemps de l’Homme - our men’s fashion building: 7 floors of cutting-edge fashion organized by lifestyle and showcased in a space that expresses all of the codes of the men’s world. Probably the most complete men’s offer in Paris, with a bonus: the only branch of the Nickel Spa, custom-made and custom-order services for shoe and suit creation and a restaurant designed by Paul Smith.
That list wouldn’t be complete without our panoramic terrace: if you want to enjoy a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower, the Opera House, Montmartre, the Madeleine Church and more… there’s just one address: the 9th floor of Printemps de la Maison (our housewares building). Unforgettable!
What are your favorite things to do in Paris in your time off from work?
Spending good quality time with family and friends, socializing with people from all nationalities and backgrounds, attending gigs, going to the Pompidou Centre, checking new CDs and books at the FNAC (I’ve been a FNAC fan since the age of 12! To me, it’s really emblematic of what I like the most in the French Culture: that idea that the best of culture should be accessible to the broadest number of people. [I probably love the Pompidou Centre for the same idea] You find at the FNAC treasures of foreign literature and world music that can’t be found anywhere else. The fact that it’s not only commercial-oriented makes the concept of FNAC unique in the world!) and going to the movies. I’m basically curious about anything cultural that allows me to learn more about the world that surrounds me and me.
What's the most important thing you want to communicate to your customers about the store?
Forget everything you know (or believe you know) about Printemps. Chances are you’ll be wrong! Printemps is a key part of the Parisian fashion and cultural landscape, a shining example of the French heritage and as such a must-see for the visiting tourist! Probably the “sexiest” monument in town!
If someone had only one day and night to spend in Paris on an unlimited budget, what would your idea of the ultimate Paris fantasy?
Book the store and organize the hippest party on our rooftop terrace! Great music, food, company and the best view of Paris! What else would you want?
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Passage D’Enfer means literally hell’s passage. Located in Montparnasse off the Blvd. Raspail in the 14th arr., it is anything but, a country-like lane with charming attached cottages/townhouses. Rich with artistic former residents, Poet and writer Arthur Rimbaud, Japanese painter Foujita, sculptor Nikki de St Phalle, and sculptor Cesar, who currently has a major exhibition next door at the Foundation Cartier, have all lived on Passage D’Enfer.
Passage D’Enfer
Blvd. Raspail & rue Campagne Premiere
Metro: Raspail
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
This door is a paradox: old & bold on the exterior and steel & modern on the interior. I love the steel gray lacquer color on the front door and the intricate iron work on the gate with the magnifying glass. The mixed use building is across the street from the Luxembourg Gardens.
46 rue Vaugirard
Metro: St. Sulpice or Odeon
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Friday was mine and Vincent’s third anniversary of moving to Paris, but for some reason I was not in a celebratory mood and in the August pre-vacances doldrums. A new friend, Soloman Lam, who I met through my blog, made plans to go to a restaurant that had live entertainment in the 9th arr. near the Grands Boulevards. Soloman, a law student from Toronto, was living here for three months and working as an intern at the Carnavalet Museum. It was his second to last night in Paris and he wanted to do something festive so we thought this was a good place to celebrate my staying and his going.
Au Limonaire, billed as a bistro of wine and songs, is located in the Cite Bergere, a hidden passage in the 9th arr. off rue Faubourg Montmartre. We arrived at 8:30PM so we could have a leisurely dinner before the entertainment started at 10PM. The bistro was typically Parisian with a dark red façade and beat-up tables and chairs outside with lively people having drinks. We sat inside and had a suitable two -course dinner for 25 euros a person including an excellent red wine. The show started at 10:30PM and the first act was a trio, two female singers/musicians and a male musician. Their catchy name was Juja Lula and their smooth, modern, but definitely French style matched their name. Next up was the gorgeous Romain, a crooner who strummed the guitar, killing me very softly with his sexy, smoldering looks. He had the rare soft but also strong sound of the old-fashioned French pop singers even though his music was totally contemporary. His melodic and haunting voice swept me away. We all swooned over him and when he recited a poem he had written, we almost melted on the spot.
Romantic Romain
Yannick Delaunay, more of a folk/pop singer, closed the show and did a few sing along with the audience songs. Although he had a pleasant voice, he was no match for our sweetheart Romaine.
We left at about 12:30PM and we showed Vincent the Follies Begere theater. We stared at the art deco palace in all its old glory and imagined a bygone era of showy but tasteful showgirls, classy singers, and of course Josephine Baker swinging her then scandalous bananas.
The evening lifted my spirits and I thank Soloman for getting me out of my doldrums.
Au Limonaire
18 cite Bergere, 9th arr.
Metro: Grands Boulevards or Cadet
Tel 01.45.23.33.33
Open 8PM
www.limonaire.free.fr
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
How to beat those days of Paris heat? Think cool. Turn on your fans and imagine umbrellas fluttering near a sparkling sea, dancing laundry that smells like the sun, fish so fresh they're sold mid-sentence, and those intricately carved red-tiled southern roofs that are synonymous with a gentler way of life. If the warm asphalt, aquagym, and boule dust of Paris Plage doesn't quite do it, head south ... like thousands of Parisians do. (Or wait until October when the Côte d'Azur is really beautiful and quiet.) Bon voyage—real or imaginary.
Meredith Mullins is an internationally exhibited American photographer, currently living in Paris. Visit www.meredithmullins.artspan.com to see more of the Paris images. Her award-winning book, In A Paris Moment (click here to order), and her 2009 Paris Calendar can be ordered online or in bookstores throughout the U.S. Original photographs are available directly through the artist.
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
Vanves flea market is the alternative flea market to Puce de St. Ouen/Clingancourt. I went last Sunday and what I like about Vanves is the small scale and easy accessibility compared to Pte. St Ouen. Although the Puce de St. Ouen/Clingancourt is still one of the best in the world, it can be daunting and overwhelming if you don’t know your way around. I have had many tour clients who went on their own, who came back daze and confused, wishing they had hired me to show them where to go.
Vanves is pretty straightforward and easy to navigate. It’s two long blocks with open stands with everything from buttons & bows to Elvis concert posters. I collect decorative balls and was pleased when I found pretty metal & mother of pearl ball for only 7 euros (It was marked 8 but I fairly bargained down to 7). One stand that I got a kick out of, had rows of eerie headless, naked doll torsos symmetrically lined up all around it, looking more like an art installation than a flea market stand. The stands were eclectic in their selection and there didn’t seem to be any particular sections with one type of merchandise. There was mostly bric-a-brac, jewelry and small items, with only a few furniture stalls. Things seemed fairly priced and the vendors were open to bargaining. In terms of practicality of price and size of things/cash & carry, I think Vanves may be is a wiser choice, than Clingancourt.
Another plus about Vanves is the excellent, fresh food market nearby on the Blvd. de Brune with a good selection of fresh produce, rotisserie chickens, mouth watering fish, appetizing prepared foods, and ripe, smelly cheeses.
Valley of the Dolls
Vanves market will now be one of my Eye Prefer Paris Tours, so if you want to hunt down some good flea market bargains and eat your way through the food market on a Sunday with me, I would be very happy to lead the way.
Vanves Flea Market
Ave. Georges-Lafenestre & Ave. Marc-Sangier
Saturday & Sunday 7AM-2PM
Brune Market
Ave. Georges Lafenestre and rue Général Séré de Rivières Thursday, 7AM to 2.30PM & Sunday, 7AM to 3PM
Metro : Porte de Vanves, line13
Note: Thanks to the two readers who informed me that the left eye on the statue of Luis Vaz de Cameons is not winking. He lost his left eye in a battle.
My seven euro bargain
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com
I was strolling through the 16th arr. last Saturday to familiarize myself with an area I don’t know that well. At the base of a stone stairway leading up to the Ave. des Camoens, near the Trocadero, I discovered a striking and amusing statue of Luis Vaz de Camoens, a Portugese poet (1524-1580). His best know work is “The Lusiads”, a modern epic. I did some research but couldn’t find out Camoen’s association with Paris, since he never lived here. What is amusing is his left eye is winking.
Across the street from the statue I noticed on top of an elegant building a group of white stone cherubs on the top floor. It’s as though the angels were up are up there to protect Paris.
Luis Vaz de Camoens Statue
Ave. des Camoens, 16th arr.
Metro: Trocadero
I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.
I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.
Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com