Paris Concept Shops: Usagi

I’m a sucker for a good “concept store,” although I’m getting a little tired of the term.  Can we come up with another name for them that sounds less – pretentious?  Regardless, all the aspects that make them distinct from “regular” stores are also what make them so fantastic.  You can find things you’ve never seen before, and perhaps products that are exclusively sold in that store.  As far as gift-buying goes, these types of stores are the place to go.

I stumbled across this gem, called Usagi, on a dreary, rainy day a few weeks ago; one of those annoyingly cold days that just doesn’t belong in July.  The minty green colour of the facade and image of a doll-faced girl with “bubbles” in her eyes immediately caught my eye.  I didn’t have time to go in until a week later, when it was much sunnier. When I did finally step through the door, I politely asked if I could take some photos of the place for my blog.  I was fully prepared for rejection, assuming for some reason that I wouldn’t have enough authority (?) to step in and photograph, but the man who helped me was more than welcoming.  Gideon was his name, a painter and musician hailing from New York (you can see his work here).  It’s always a pleasure to come across fellow Americans while out and about in Paris, and honestly, it’s not that hard of a thing to do – this is a very international city.

Read more

Wandering Wednesdays

I’m sure you all have been positively aching for some charming snapshots of Parisian streets, so I’ve hooked a sister (or bother) up!  :p  To be honest, this collection of photos didn’t actually require much “wandering” at all – they were all taken within a couple blocks of one another, on streets I’ve visited many times before.  But that doesn’t mean they’re familiar to you readers!

Odette is one of the cutest pastry shops in this city, so much so that it almost warrants the use of the term “adorbs,” but I won’t subject you to that kind of debauchery at this time.

As for the song above, it’s a classic from my high school days.  The song reminds me of summertime, so it was an obvious choice.

Read more

Friends in Town: How to Spend a Day in Paris

It feels strange to say that this weekend, some friends from California were “in town,” as if Paris, with all its aura and majesty, is just a “town” that people casually enter and exit. I suppose it has kinda reached that status for me, it’s just the place I live now.

Nevertheless, I was super excited to show them around, and wanted to make sure they had the best, least gimmicky experience possible.  You can use this as a very rough itinerary for your own travel plans to Paris, because I think its a pretty good, non-overwhelming day.

Read more

Wandering Wednesdays: Latin Quarter & Hydrangeas

I’ve been trying to get myself out into Paris at least once a week lately, as the home-commute-work-commute-home routine gets old really fast, and I’ve succeeded so far.

First, I wandered around Beaubourg and stumbled upon AntiCafe, which you can read about in my previous post.  Great Success.

Then, on different day, I met a friend at Place Monge, indulged in a crepe the size of my head at Au P’tit Grec on rue Mouffetard, the interior of which is hung with vines, and then strolled through the surrounding streets while UBER-overindulging on a Nutella crepe for desert.

Read more

AntiCafé: A Fresh take on the Coffee Shop

One of my favourite things to do when I was at college in Long Beach, California, was to sit at a coffee shop for hours, either talking with a friend or studying.  I particularly loved Portfolio CoffeeHouse;  They used to have this old, heavy desk, full of drawers.  It was the perfect place to plop down with a stack of Art History and theory books from the library and write my research papers, which inevitably, were left until the last minute.  I was a good student.  :p

I’ve always felt like there was a serious lack of these kinds of places in Paris – communal living rooms where one can have a capp, nibble a scone, and relax.  Yes, Paris is rife with cafés, the kind of cafés with little round tables and rows of wicker chairs facing the street.  These are great, but they just don’t have the same purpose, vibe, or possibilities of a coffee house.

Read more

Visual Diary – Anonymity of the Crowd

It seems like I can’t start a blog post without mentioning the weather.  It’s been a strange combination of rain and sun, like the sky just went through a breakup and is alternating between debilitating depression and sheer joy of what possibilities lie ahead.  I’ve never experienced a true spring, but I think this might be it.  I’m starting to miss the sun of California a little more now.  I’ve been slacking on the blog, feeling unmotivated, discouraged, and uncreative since I started a babysitting gig.  I haven’t been enjoying myself the past few weeks, but I’ve managed to gather some images for this Visual Diary… they are one of the easiest and most natural types of posts for me to write.

These pictures show the bipolar nature of the weather over the entire month of May, but I think they also reflect the detachment I’ve been feeling lately.  Only one image contains evidence of a human presence, instead focusing on solitary motifs or inaccessible constructions.  I’ve been feeling invisible in the world lately, when I’m in the busses and trains, I can just fade into a corner and almost not exist.  The foreign conversations around me mean nothing, so that it all becomes white noise; I avoid eye contact in public transportation because supposed cultural rules taught me that looking at a person in the eye can come across as either creepy or flirty; I walk past the same restaurants, shops, and train stations everyday, but I don’t know anyone; I see little windows on buildings bedecked with flowers and wonder who could possibly live there and what their lives could possibly be like, and if they’re happy; I’ve become annoyed with the French people and their way of life; and I wonder why I’m here and no longer really believe that I’m strong or interesting or cool for moving here.  Even though I blend into the crowd, looking and acting like a Parisian, I feel more disoriented and alien than ever.

Read more