French Pop Art

Having moved on from a universal idiom of danger the skull and bone emblem have become quite trendy. Decorating many a person widely unaffiliated with piracy, at least piracy in it's older non digital form it's now very popular part of art in the pop and underground cultures. Here in Paris where this culture is on the rise one can see many creations like this in small art exhibits all around town.

Often these exhibits are free and and held at bars and they display mostly from small scale artist with barley a website to sell from (http://xxxprod.com/). Despite this cost are relatively low which may be something that prevents it from being a real source of income for these struggling artits. After all it's not real art if it's not expensive like one successful artist told me ;)

Either way it's still way more in my liking than heap of diffuse classical style oil painting adoring many well off homes and such. After all video game art and pop art does have another appeal to the kinds having grown up with Famicons, Amigas and what not's as their biggest sources of art and inspiration.

Something that is quite nice it that they are mostly free. So why not enjoy a day in Paris checking out the free art scene. There is plenty of street art to find around town and combined with these small scale pp culture exhibits a day or two could easily be spent taking in the flora of alternative coolness.
And don't miss the game art post it war as can be seen on many windows around Paris.

Uberkampf and Montparnasse are usually good streets to find this type of art.

One of my favorites which I would get if I could. You can find it here.

The French Food Cou(r)ture

Some of the delicious macarons. From the left on the back row: Mr.Rasberry, Mrs pistagio, Mrs.pralie and Mr,Choco orange. I just could't hold of biting into this chocolate orange one  so  you'll have to be content with this jaws survivor of a macaroon.

Many species have survived by being successful in a specific niche. This can be translated to many things, businesses and all kinds or random things. In japan there is a saying that a restaurant can't possibly be the best in all types of cuisine and so they only offer a special type, well plus some extras. In Sweden it's not really the case. Sure we have a couple of places that do that in a way but they are few and more often than not focus geographically rather than culinary technical. For example a Swedish "Cafe" would most certainly serve a variety of small food none being really good. If you're lucky they have a few nice items on the menu but most of it usually quite crappy. As a cafe for small food AND coffee it the same back in Sweden. I've never been to one that has exquisite samles of both.

la patisserie prefere de Stephanie in Versailles, Darras. Where we did our cake hunting.

 Here in Versailles and France they do it a bit different. It's almost like an American or Asian style food court. Albeit they would never admit to it being like that comparing themselves to such low standards... What you do it visit your favorite patisserie (pastry shop), or boulangerie (bakery) to get your favorite coffee companions and then head to your Cafe of choice to enjoy all of your earthly indulgences at once. It's almost like Benders realization of human pleasures in Futurama.

This is something very frowned upon back home in Stockholm. If I did that I'd expect to be reprimanded harshly or maybe even threatened to be thrown out. At the very least angry looks would be in order. Here the philosophy is that as they don't provide it you are welcome to bring it.

More examples of sugary overload. So good and so bad at the same time.

It resembles the South African wine culture of it being very common to bring your own wine instead of the restaurants. I have to say that I'd really like to have more of this back in Stockholm and Asia too.

On the topic of brothers in arms with coffee I figured while here I'd do as the Romans and in this case dine with the macarons. After all how more of a french desert can one be?

Finally hitting up the Cafe after loading up on sweets and a salt little quiche.

Down and Dirty

Over the last few years I've hear more and more about things like organically farmed, locally produced, farmers markets and such. So I figured I'd go check it out. Well at least a version of it. Here in France there are farmes letting you pick your own stuff and buy it by weight. It's a interesting take on it.

From a business perspective it does kind of customer source some of the picking work. After all letting the customers do some of the work has proved very successful for companies like Ikea. But relabeling it and selling the experience I have to say is quite brilliant. I don't think a lot of people want to muck around around in the dirt all day, every day. Every once in a while though, it's nice to get down and dirty, to feel good about yourself.  But what I'm thinking is if the concept is exportable and expandable. Will this work in a not so strong economy and wound it work in other places?

Either way I'd love to have a farm or a "ferme" like this back home. I think my home town of Täby, Sweden would be a perfect place to have it. After all we have some pasture, fields for horses and definitively enough farmland. 15 minutes away from Stockholm city center and being a habituational center of many a academic family it could prove to be very successful. I know that I for one would gladly pay a bit less than in the supermarkets and do the work of picking my own veggies. After all if you only spend a few minutes doing it every week it's way more of an added bonus and an indulgence in the slow, quaint pace of life.

Although our visit was quite short, this time I got to eat a bunch of delicious apples off the trees and came home with glorious spoils of conquest worth much more than the 9€ something I paid of my little playtime in the dirt. In fact it reminded me of this 4H camp I went to as a kid. Also of my own garden back home growing up.

Either way, if you have the opportunity try it out. Yeah the 4H camp too, oh and also my dads little back yard veggie and herb garden. Let me know if you're planning to visit first though ;)

Sunday, Luxemburg Gardens

Sunday is a lazy mans days and it's no different in Paris. Like If you're like me and feel there are just to many lazy days in the world and can't wait to get back into gear and stress about.. Hay! that's not me but if it's you, this post might not be for you.

A favorite Sunday pastime of the Parisians is to just relax in the part. Enjoy a pick nick or some ice cream among the trees and the birds. One prime destination for just this is Jardins du Luxembourg (or Luxemburg Gardens). It's still quite busy as Autumn knocks on the door and in the air there is a sense of squeezing out the last bit's of summer before another season takes it's place. After all the trees have already begun to change color all though be it, sporadically.

At the center of it all is the nice fountain and pool of water which is one of the sunnier places to lounge around. The mini pond is often filled with radio controlled sailboats and kinds of all ages resting on it sides. My suggestion is that you come a bit earlier to grab one of the many chair or stools inhabiting the park for a more adaptable and enjoyable setup. Preferably with you feet resting on something =)

Paris is always a main destination for tourist and you will with out a doubt spot your fair share of the horde here. The majority of visitors are still french and it's considered a very french thing to do to. So to Enjoy this favorite and FREE pastime of the french, head to the 6e arrondissement (6th district). It's hard to miss with it's 224.500 m2. It's history stretches back to 1611 but I'll just say that's it's a nice palace, gardens and fountain to have as your pick nicks backdrop.

The God, the Man and Chinatown

Finding out that a bladder thumps an alarm clock when you need to get up on a Sunday morning is truly no that interesting but hay it works. Either way things are slow on Saturday mornings in Paris. In fact I think things are slow almost everywhere on Saturday mornings. Since I misses the word stay in bed day by a week I figured it was time to get up and breakfasty. Well right after I discover the man the myth the legend wallpaper of our friends computer.

After finding only one rather expensive boulangerie we decided to only get a "tie me over snack" or a croissant (made of yeast dough layered with butter and shaped into it's crescent shape) and a pain au raisin (a variety of the coissant or the pain au chocolate with raisins instead) to last until our pick nick lunch.

Having a few hours to spend we figured it was time to get out of France, it was time to get Chineesified. After all it's definitively a place where there is less relaxing on Sundays. So off we went to Asia, where the bustling is on and the clutter and grit is king. Well actually we just went to the "13e arrondissement" or slight south of place d'Italy. We traveled far and wide and arrived at Tangs original supermarket. It was actually my intention to hit up the shoot off since it's closer but hay a nice stroll through china town ain't a bad thing. After all it might be the most Asian you get to experience in Europe anyway. Although it's quite Chinese and Vietnamese influenced. Partly because of the french Indochina history. In fact so much so that one of the workers had never even heard of Japanese curry...

Either way the 13th is filled with cool and gritty small shops and places which gives a good comparison to other china towns around the world. Maybe china tows are becoming what some people consider hard rock cafe's. A place to visit anywhere you go.

Burlesque le Paris

Burlesque has actually been around for a long long time. Early mentions in literature puts it roughly 350 years back or so. But this post is about Neo burlesque a remade romanticised upcomming of the glam and show days of the pre prehabition days of old America.

The feathers, the shoes and the glitter. It must be a titan of an upkeep. Was what I was thinking as I slipped away into darkness on the couch of one of the Burlesque dancers. But on the other hand that is kind of what makes the whole thing interesting. Like "Dita von Teese", famous burlesque dancer and former wife of Mr.Manson said. It's putting terse back into stip terse. To me its quite different from the stip teases or shows I've seen earlier. The version I enjoyed this night was more of a cabaret with tease elements. It was the show and the showmanship that the crowed enjoyed.

One thing that dawned upon me was something that was pre-shared to me by my girlfriend, was the mundanity of the girls physical, well health. While many premiere skilled strippers and pole dancers work hard on their physical attributes, often with the aid of artificial means these women where your very natural ordinary women. Well at least they looked like it.
Ranging from exotic, teasing to humorusly kitschy or uniquely inventive, they all put on a good show. Including the comedian/sexy hostess.

The crowd is in contrast to many other "sensual" shows around the world not all male and in fact there might have been more women occupying the plush seats of this illustriousness and elegantly simply little theater in the fancier districts of Paris. In Fact it was Stéphanie Portier who brought me here. Here is a clip with more info on French Neo Burlesque. Obs, it's in french.

Although the US was the birthplace of "Neo Burlesque" the French puts on a good show and shows some new and inventive styles too.  definitively recommend you to go see a show like this if your ever in Paris. Check out Burlesque Paris for more into.