May 2009
2 posts
Looking for real Paris vacation tips?
Buy my guidebook, ACCESS Paris (HarperCollinsPublishers) or visit http://voyagiste.wordpress.com/
April 2009
15 posts
Hot shop: Gertrude
Gertrude. As the name implies, this is your one-stop shop for all manner of things so marvelously useless, overpriced and intrinsically hideous they’re instantly hip. Expect digitial doodads no bigger than a thimble, CDs mixed by robots, and an array of faux-exotic cosmetics (the likes of Aveeno oatmeal soap are presented as imports with prices starting at $61 per item). Are those burlap...
Hotel des Trois Salopes
Hotel des Trois Salopes. (Inn of the Three Bitches). Surly service isn’t just the rule at this Left Bank wonder hole, it’s the main attraction. You’ll be greeted with a glare and a growl from one of the three La Hore sisters, each of whom is convinced she’s the biggest bitch of the three, before another of them deigns to check you in. Each of the 9 rooms and broom closets...
Great eats for the hard of hearing
Le Sans-Oreilles. Literally, translated, this restaurant’s name means the no-ears. And while the waiters aren’t really deaf, that’s a nod to the tradition of reversing and/or totally ignoring customers orders and/or special requests. Here as nowhere else in the French capital, it pays to dine with a strategy: If you want steak frites, for example, try ordering the codfish....
“In France, the idea is that working is stupid. You’re taken for an idiot...”
– Guy Savoy, on opening a restaurant in Las Vegas.
Le department store "must"
Le VHD. This might be the store for you if you’re the kind of shopper who goes gaga over Montgomery Ward. Because with five floors stocked with everything from last year’s ready-to-wear to this year’s glue guns, this is where it’s at. Washing machines, wrinkle creams, door handles: it’s all here and it’s all made in China. Don’t miss the legendary basement...
“Some places are better off stripped.”
A shop with sparkle
Bacarat-4-Boyz. This pop-up shop is set to drop in early 2010 in a riot-friendly ‘hood in northern Paris and will offer an exciting range of men’s chandeliers and related crystal accessories, all geared toward the growing French thug market. Belgians not allowed.
This new spa is cheesy by design
Spa Fromage. At last! The long-awaited Spa Fromage has finally opened its healing, redolent of rennet doors. The story: When 22-year-old Lydie de Duncey was just a girl growing up on her parents’ dairy farm in Normandy, she noticed all her friends had great skin and one thing in common – they all ate a lot of Brie. So she went one step further and took to dunking her head into the family cheese...
