39Vaugirard

Maybe I can live here, now.  Perhaps after almost two decades of coming here and traveling elsewhere, I’ve become, as John Berger once said, ‘a patriot of elsewhere.’  I don’t need to live in San Francisco anymore, though I want to have a home there.  I can now have a home here, rather than just a piéd-a-terre.  Or perhaps, I’m finding that Asian culture has completely infiltrated Paris.  There is now K mart, the new go to Asian supermarket in Paris for Korean food as well as Japanese products.  Our friend Laila introduced us to a great ramen place and took us around this gentrifying quartier.  I said ‘K Mart in Paris?”  She said, ‘Non, a Korean Mart in Paris!’

KMart is the only place I know of where one can purchase kimchi and soft tofu in Paris. Alongside the sushi grade fish and the fresh meat counters is the produce shelves with shitake, enoki and shimeji brown mushrooms, daikon radishes, shiso leaves, fresh ginger, red and green chillis… Also, don’t miss the supermarket cafeteria for a quick lunch or food to go.

K mart
6-8 Rue Sainte Anne
75001 Paris
tel: 01.58.62.49.09
Metro: Pyramides, Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre

Wall and rock climbing in Paris, along the banks of the Seine?  Is this just at Paris Plage or hidden somewhere year around? I think this video I found (on a link farm site) was from 2006, but looks pretty cool. We’ll be in Paris in August, so we will look for it if it’s still there.  Paris is always an adventure.

We’ll miss it again this year, but sounds like great fun!

Come and hunt Paris treasures. The treasure hunt is free and open to all. You can enrol here or in front of the town hall of the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 18th, 19th and 20thdistricts and Saint ouen on July 3rd. The surreal adventure organized by Paris City Hall will be a unique way to discover the city, its secrets and its inhabitants.

[From Les Trésors de Paris 2010 - Paris treasure hunt]

I always thought the death of the Concorde was vastly unfair. Though I know post 9/11 and a cratering air travel market didn’t help, the Concorde flew without incident for 30 years before tarmac debris brought the first one down.

The Concorde to me, as to many others, was more than just a very fast plane. It was a combination of fantasy, luxury, and tech triumph. It also was an aging symbol of American barriers to free trade. The SST was banned from inter-continental flights across the US based on concerns for sonic booms (though promises were made not to fly at supersonic speeds).

I was lucky enough to fly on the Concorde over a Christmas holiday and the flight was everything I imagined. It was a rarefied world where only top shelf champagne and caviar were served. The cramped seats were mostly filled with time-obsessed executives who needed to buy the extra hours at whatever cost. I was lucky to be on vacation, on home leave from an international assignment, and happy to soak up all the luxurious attention.

I hope that despite the claim that they only want to see the Concorde roll on it’s own power on the Le Bourget tarmac, that someone has a plan to get the bird back in the air. It’s nice to think that technological marvels of the space age could still come back, and in finding the past, we could sew the seeds to a more hopeful future.

LE BOURGET, France — A French aeronautics association Saturday examined the engines of a Concorde passenger jet at an air museum outside Paris to determine if they could be used again.

“The objective is not to get it (Concorde) to fly again but to get the engines working again, hoping one day to see it taxi on the tarmac for the pleasure of visitors to the museum,” said Frederic Pinlet, head of Olympus 593, named after the Rolls Royce/Snecma engines used on the aircraft.

[From AFP: French air enthusiasts hope to restart Concorde engines]

And here is has to do with the Enlightenment and the brilliant people living the city:

Paris has many nicknames, but its most famous is “La Ville-Lumière” (most often translated as “The City of Light”),[15] a name it owes first to its fame as a centre of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, and later to its early adoption of street lighting.[16]

[From Paris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Here’s a tricky one, since you usually see it in a different color. When I snapped this picture with my iPhone, I wished I was getting the couleur normale,

but now I’m glad it’s a bit off.

If I had prizes, I’d give them away, but this quiz has more to do with smug self-satisfaction.

Extra points if you know what words the letters say.

I never knew this but I’m glad I found out here, rather than at poolside. In French public pools, to avoid swimming suit-like attire (cut-offs, shorts or worse), men must wear Speedos.

So Alton Towers has banned embarrassingly titchy swimming trunks at its water park. But spare a thought for France, where the opposite is true: local authorities regularly force men to ditch their Bermudas and parade in skin-tight budgie-smugglers for the greater public good.

In French public pools, from the racing lanes of Paris to the open-air lidos and water parks of the south, anything bigger than Speedos is banned and you must hoist yourself into a posing pouch as a civic requirement. French changing rooms are littered with the broken dreams of prudish males abroad who thought they could sneak in a few lengths without showing their contours.

[From Why Speedos are still huge in France]

This sounds like another attempt to shore up French industry, but it does have a certain logic in a country trying to welcome differences, but at the heart, trying to make everyone into a Frenchman.

Our friend Pierre surprised us by inviting us for a Sunday brunch at Kong. Our daughter was delighted with the manga-inspired witty decor of Philippe Starck. We were wowed by the panoramic skyline views. Food was nice enough but definitely an ‘inside’ experience, especially its kooky, disco-ball-and-kid-sumo-adorned bathrooms. Apparently, It was featured as a chic eatery in Sex and the City.

1 rue de Pont Neuf, Paris, 75001. +33 01 40 390 900.

One of the many luxuries of spending lots of time in Paris every year is freedom from the tyranny of “must-do” lists. Some days we don’t leave the apartment at all, bathing in the Buddhistic calm that comes with knowing that it’s all outside the door if were just to open that door.

At the same time, we also like to visit small Paris museums since they are as varied and plentiful as snowflakes, and usually provide a new perspective on French culture and art. Here are five museums (including one X-rated) that we haven’t been to, but will add to our “maybe today” list when we inevitably have to leave the apartment for coffee and orange juice at some point. And they often give us added incentive to get out of our neighborhood to see something different. Only one of these little attractions is in the 6th, just down the way on the rue Monsieur le Prince.

1. Musée d’Histoire de la Médecine.

Address : 12 rue de l’école de Médecine, 75005
Opening Times : 14:00 – 17:30 Monday to Saturday.
Price: € 3.50
Website: http://www.bium.univ-paris5.fr/musee/
2. Musée des Arts Forains

Fairground equipment from the 19th century. It’s used mostly as a backdrop to corporate events, but if you can organize 15 people, you can make a group visit.

Address : 53 Avenue des Terroirs de France, 75012
Opening Times : On appointment
Price: On appointment
Website: http://www.pavillons-de-bercy.com/EN/museum-fairground-art.html

3. Musée de la Préfecture de Police

Famous crimes and criminals in this hard-to-find museum inside a police station. You may have to ask a flat foot how to find it.

Address : 4, rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève 75005
Opening Times : 09:00 – 17:00 Monday to Friday, Saturday: 10:00 – 17:00; Closed on Sundays
Price: Free
Website: http://www.prefecture-police-paris.interieur.gouv.fr/connaitre/musee/musee.htm

4. Musée de l’Erotisme

Tasteful and informative, this museum is limited to adults over 18.

Address : 72 Boulevard de Clichy 75017
Opening Times : 7 days a week, 10am to 2am!
Price: 8 Euros (3 Euro reduction from website)
Website: http://www.musee-erotisme.com/fichiers/home.php?lang=en

5. Maison d’Auguste Comte

Apartment of the founder of Positivism and modern Sociology. Good view on how middle class lived in the 19th century and good counterpoint to the Jacquemart-André house/museum.

Address : 10, rue Monsieur le Prince 7500
Opening Times : Wednesday 2pm – 5pm
Price: Free
Website: http://www.augustecomte.org/site/index.php?id=34

For more description, see 5 Unusual Museums in Paris