The ParisSharing Blog

Archive for May, 2010

Coffee plants, mustard plants, and the Arc de Triomphe in the background ? There is no post-editing nor any monkey business involved. The photo was taken today on the Champs-Elysée. It also happened to be the hottest day so far this year in Paris, .

The entire Champs-Elysée was closed to traffic and open to the masses. Masses there were….hundreds of thousands weaving their way between wheat fields, cabbage patches, and pineapple plantations. The massive operation, callled “Nature Capitale“, was organized to promote biological agriculture.

For your next trip to Paris, why not stay in a real home? Whether you prefer the privacy of a vacation rental, the sociability of a home exchange, or the conviviality of a Bed and Breakfast, Paris-Sharing.com will open the doors for you.

Museums in Paris were swarming with visitors into the wee hours last Saturday night, the one night of year during which the city offers free admission. The Grand Palais was open to the public for a rare and surprising evening of bubbles by the millions. You may think that we already have enough bubbles as it is, with financial and real estate markets, and now government deficits, bulging out of control. The bubbles to which the Grand Palais treated us, though, were nice bubbles, lovely and fragrant.

Under the immense glass roof of this grand exhibition hall built during the Eiffel period, special machines were spewing out perfectly shaped and delicately fragranced bubbles fort the masses. As described on the official Grand Palais website : “The Nave will be staging a magical event entitled NoctamBulle for which perfumer Francis Kurkdjian is creating a collection of scented bubbles combining floral, fruit, herbal and honey fragrances with a sound mood created by Béatrice Ardisson.” Ah, not just any bubbles you see !

Did you ever wonder what the inside of French high school looks like ? Not just any French high school, but the oldest and most prestigeous of all, located down the block from the Panthéon. You have to be seriously endowed (in some form or another) to be admitted to this school, and you have to have a strike of luck just to set foot inside.

I recently made it past the doors, invited to a special exhibit of contemporary hand-crafted books (see example). You will notice that the interior courtyard reminds one more of an abbey than a school. That is in fact what it was, beginning with the year 502 under Clovis. Things have changed a bit since then. It was only after the Revolution that the premises became a school. Think of any famous Frenchman and chances are he or she went to this school. You can check this list for example.

Paris 26 gigapixels is one project that has received quite some well-deserved buzz. So, in case you haven’t seen this yet, here is yet some more buzz.

In a nutshell, this new website provides you 360° panaromic view of Paris such has never been seen before. Nor does it exist yet for any other city in the world. Enjoy !