Absinthe, the crazy drink

Today we are going to talk about Absinthe because somehow it was part of French history through artists and Parisian intellectuals ... no other drinks have had a such romantic story and have been prohibited with so much fervor.

From ancient times until the 19th century, Artemisia Absinthium is an ingredient in many medicines. Also vermifuge and antiseptic, its applications are many.

This drug use could go on much longer if one day, a strange encounter was made in Switzerland at the end of the 18th century. An adjutant bought the formula from a doctor.
He went into partnership with his son-in-law Henri Louis Pernod who will forever be associated with absinthe.

For 30 years, absinthe remains a regional drink until the conquest of Algeria by France. Effective against malaria and dysentery, absinthe becomes popular with soldiers. When they return from Algeria, everyone starts to enjoy the drink.

The drink also moved across France for more than half a century, with its ritual of the spoon.
In 1870, the advertising about Absinthe is crazy, the artists make it their muse, the newspapers can't stop talking about it and distilleries are multiplying.

The demand and consumption of absinthe continues to grow especially with artists, it is gradually becoming a symbol of alcoholism and a vehicle for crime, tuberculosis, domestic violence and the decline in the birth rate!

In France, a decreebans the sale of absinthe in public institutions, as well as the production and fabircation in 1915.

In Switzerland in the Val de Travers, the production never really stopped despite the ban.
Today, all absinthes are available but are not necessarily easy to acquire in trade.

Sources: L'Heure Verte and Virtual Museum of Absinthe

You can't miss that store in Paris!

Have you heard of Lilli Bulle? If not, it's a shame but no worries it isn't too late!

Lilli Bulle is an adorable store in the 11th arrondissement, on 3 rue de la Forge Royale.

They sell objects and clothes for kids at the store.
But the two girls - Anne Christelle Beauvois and Anne Rodes - also have a blog.
The store was opened on September 2000 and the first blog entry is from March 2005, so quite early for a French blog. The blog is called it the Blogobulle!

You can buy, order, discuss and comment the objects online.
Very convenient for those who can't come to Paris to shop. There are pictures of the items and you can ask all the questions you want.

They also sell handbags for grown-ups like us.

This is the place to go for your Christmas gifts!

Same Paper Play Again

"Same Paper Play Again" is a new design object brought to us by the French designer Clement Eloy.

Because recycling is a responsible and major act for our planet the artist find a less boring way to do it. It's even fun.

Via 18h34.com

Viaduc des Arts - A garden in the city of Paris

Viaduc des Arts is one of these places that we don't talk about enough and it's a shame because it's awesome! That's what I think everytime I pass by there.

In the early 1980's, rather than destroy a work of art and erase the capital's industrial memory, the city of Paris decides to build a planted promenade of 4,5kms where the old Paris-Bastille railroad used to be during the XIXth century.
In 1990, Paris decided to conduct all operations related to rehabilitating the Viaduc; a project centered around the theme of artistic professions and building several "real estate islands" with living spaces, businesses and offices.

It's a 3,7 hectares between Bastille and Reuilly, centered around the old SNCF Viaduc.
There are 2 restaurants, 2 parkings lots, a 1,5km promenade - called la Promenade Plantée - and 45 amazing working studios.

Since the rehabilitation of its vaults and the creation of the Viaduc des Arts, the Avenue Daumesnil became a prestigious window of the French art's craft industry and the guarantee of its manufacturing techniques and contemporary creativity.
The Viaduc des Arts has acquired an international fame, as for the quality of its works everyday patiently created than for the great names constituting the chain of its vaults.

A tour of the best studios at the Viaduc is available on gridskipper.com

Thanks to Payton Chung and Anton Klimovsky for their great shots.

Braille on walls

Have you heard of this guy? "The Blind", "L'aveugle t'a vu".
I don't know too much about him but he fascinates me.
He puts braille on walls, in the streets, on the museum's facades or churches.
On his MySpace, there is a braille dictionnay so you can decode his art work.
He's a young 24 years-old guy, living in Nantes (France).
Well if you catch him sometime, please ask him some questions because I'm dying to know more about his art and himself.
The pictures are taken from his website, there are more to see.

If you wonder where braille comes from? Here is what I found on wikipedia:
Louis Braille was the inventor of braille, a world-wide system used by blind and visually impaired people for reading and writing. Braille is read by passing the fingers over characters made up of an arrangement of one to six embossed points. It has been adapted to almost every known language, except Asian languages based on characters. He was also blind.

Cafe-philo in Paris

A “philosophy coffee” is an open to all philosophical discussion, organized in a coffee place or another public area. A café-philo is not an abstract conversation in a bar where one "to set the world to rights", as its name could let it believe, but rather a meeting with organized discussion, with a quite precise schedule, a selected subject and a qualified organizer. The subject is often decided jointly at the beginning of the meeting, on a list of proposals of the participants. Everyone can take part, enter and leave in it to its own way, which contributed to demystify philosophy and encouraged thousands of participants to look further into their thinking, to join again with the philosophical reading and to speak in public.
This phenomenon appeared in Paris and is compared to the literature meetings happening in XVIIIth century with Sartre and his friends.
Le Petit Ney -> It’s a small café-philo created and managed by inhabitants of the area. Opened to everyone who wants to come, traditional family cuisine is served there. All the drinks are fair-trade issued.
Metro station: Porte de Clignancourt
L’Ogre à Plumes -> It’s a place dedicated to literature. One can eat, drink, and read in the middle of comfortable bench seats and bibelots. Le Poisson Soluble is the association which takes care of the animations.
Metro station: Oberkampf
Café des Phares -> Marc Sautet was one of the pioneer of the café-philo, he animated one every Sunday morning, he died in 1998. But the café is still there and is one of the most important one.
Metro station:Bastille
Café des Deux Magots -> Nowadays the coffee place wants to keep the intellectual animation from the past century and organizes some café-philo on Sunday morning. They also organize, each year, a Deux Magots Award in arts, architecture, literature …
Metro station : Saint-Germain-des-Prés
L’Entrepôt -> Saturdays and Sundays are booked for jazz concerts or photo shoots. The café-philo takes place on Sunday mornings; the topic is usually taken from a movie. The food and the drinks are just fine.
Metro station: Pernéty
Thanks you to cdn_in_paris for the great picture

Funny expressions using "french" in English

As a French person, I’m always surprised to see how the word “French” is used in some English expressions or sentences.
I’ve done some searching and here are the results:

French fries: It’s actually from Belgium and not France but in XVIIIth century, the borders were not so clear.
French kiss: We call it “kiss” here.
French manicure: French manicures may have originated in the XVIIIth century in Paris and were popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
French press: The only French presses I have ever seen in my life were in the US.
French toast: They are called “pain perdu” (lost bread) in French. It comes from medieval times and was a way to use the old bread.
French dressing: French dressing is only called “vinaigrette” in France; mix of vinegar, oil, mustard and salt/pepper.
French bean: It is long, green and slim; called “haricot vert” (green bean) in French.
French horn: It seems that earlier horns and some horns used in Austria and France still use pistons but not the ones now-a-days, which make them “French”.
French bath: It consists in not taking a shower and spraying perfume instead. Funny to see how bad hygiene reputation French has!
Pardon my French: Whenever you swear, this will excuse you. Is it because we swear a lot in French?

The Most Impressive Photo of Paris

When the Granville-to-Paris Express left Granville at 8:45 am on the morning of October 22, 1895 there was no reason for the crew and 131 passengers aboard to expect anything but an uneventful trip. After all, the train - consisting of a locomotive and a dozen luggage, postal and passenger cars - departed on time and was being driven by Guillaume-Marie Pellerin, a 19-year railroad man.

But as the Granville Express made its seven-hour and ten-minute passage, Pellerin found the train running several minutes late. In an attempt to make up time, Pellerin approached Gare Montparnasse in Paris at cruising speed, a decision that would require him to utilize the Westinghouse (air) brake to safely bring the train to a stop. When the Westinghouse brake failed, the locomotive brakes were insufficient, and the resulting accident has been immortalized in one of the most enduring photos in transportation history.

However, Pellerin wasn't the only crewman found to be at fault. Conductor Albert Mariette was pre-occupied by paperwork during the train's approach to the station and made no attempt to apply the hand brake until just before the Express crashed through the buffer stop. From there, the locomotive plowed 100 feet across the concourse, through the station wall, and onto the terrace outside before plummeting 30 feet down to the street below.

Considering the spectacular scene, fallout from the accident was minimal. Although the locomotive and forward luggage cars were badly damaged all the passenger cars remained inside the station. As a result, only two passengers and three crewmen suffered serious injuries. There was, however, one fatality on the street, as a newspaper vendor's wife, Marie-Augustine Aguilard - standing in for her husband at his newsstand- was struck by a falling piece of the station's masonry.

Both Pellerin and Mariette were fined - 50 and 25 francs, respectively - and Pellerin was sentenced to two months in jail. More than just a dubious legacy, the duo's negligence gives new meaning to the phrase, "The train is leaving the station."

More than a century later, prints and posters of the definitive photo of the wreckage still sell the world over.

Source: HERE

A real "French fairy tale"

Have you ever heard of Sofia Boutella? If not, you should definitely read the following...
She is an amazing dancer. She's french and started to dance for her early years, back when she lived in Algeria. Her life is a real fairy tale. She acted in several French movies before being noticed by bigger agencies and artists.
She has featured in Nike ads and she is one of Madonna official dancers.
If you want to read more about her, HERE

Show off youself on your walls!

The vegetal wall (Mur Végétal in french) relies on a new way to grow plants without any soil. Since its weight is very light, it is possible to set up the vegetal wall on any wall with any size. It can be outdoor or indoor.
And trust me, the visual effect is absolutely stunning!
Patrick Blanc is a french botanist who won many prizes over his career. He is the inventor of the vegetal wall.
The list of walls, this artist has conceived, is very long.
Here is some of his creations:
- Club Med, Paris
- Nexus Headquarter, Paris
- BHV Homme facade, Paris
- Babyliss Headquarter, Paris
- Quai Branly Museum, Paris (A great museum which will probably be one the next blog spot)
And so on...

Here is the Patrick Blanc's website.

What you have always wanted to know about Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf was one of France's most beloved singers and became a national icon.

Her singing reflected her tragic life, with her specialty being the poignant ballad performed in a heartbreaking voice.
The great love of Piaf's life, the married boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in an October 1949 plane crash, on a flight to see Piaf. Their affair made international headlines.
Piaf was later married twice. Her first husband was Jacques Pills, a singer. Her second husband, Greek Théo Sarapo, was a 26-year-old hairdresser-turned-singer and actor, 20 years younger than Piaf. They married in 1962.
In 1951 she was involved in a car crash along with Aznavour, breaking an arm and two ribs, and thereafter had difficulty breaking serious morphine and alcohol addictions.
At the early age of 47, Piaf died of liver cancer on the French Riviera, on October 1963, the same day that her friend Jean Cocteau died. She had slipped in and out of consciousness for the first two months after her marriage to Sarapo, before dying.
It is said that Sarapo drove her body back to Paris secretly so that fans would think she had died in her hometown.
She was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris, where her grave is one of the most visited.

A french movie is dedicated to Edith Piaf, La Mome. It is said to be very realistic and emotional.

Sources
Fan website
Wikipedia
A Video of her so-famous "La Vie en Rose"