Paris treasure hunt 2010 – July 3!
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 – In search of the eternal roses – Rules of Paris treasure hunt]
French air enthusiasts hope to restart Concorde engines
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. … 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.
Hôtel Drouot is pure theatre
The auction rooms at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris date to 1852. They’ve been modernized since then, but the general atmosphere probably hasn’t changed much. On any day of the week, a throng of characters straight out of a Maupassant novel can be found bidding for dusty treasures straight out of the proverbial Old Curiosity […]
The very force of globalism has kept French local
Do It Yourself Culture… by Michael Kimmelman
Poisson d’Avril
April Fool’s day is said to have French origins. In 1564, France reformed the calendar, changing the beginning of the year from the end of March to January 1st. For those who resisted the new calendar and adhered to the old traditions, paper fish were playfully attached to their backs and they were fondly dubbed […]
Paris, via a 19th Century Guide
From the New York Times…
I always thought Paris was the “City of Light” due to lights of the Champs…
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 ]
France Miniature
Our friend Patrick Mikla always surprises us with ‘inside’ discoveries of Paris and France. From the time we met him some 15 year ago, I can remember each and every one of our adventures. The latest is France Miniature. He took the day off and took us Élancourt, a town about an hour drive outside […]
Marie Antoinette et Hameau de Reine
Finally visited the Hameau de Reine. Expected a small garden and of course, it’s fit for a Queen. It even has a little farm and a zoo. Lovely for kids to visit and the houses on the property are actually for normal people.
What is it Quiz #2 – common objects in Paris
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.
