The sound of... musicals

A few years ago if you wanted to see a musical in Europe you had to go to London, period. Things have changed! Now you can see a lot of interesting productions in one of our many theaters. That's precisely what I did last night when I went to Mogador to see Le Roi Lion (The Lion King). I must say, I'm not a big fan of these shows, but this one really made me change my opinion. The costumes are stunning - I'm talking stunning! - the scenery is breathtaking and the French adaptation is really well made. Nice way to start my weekend ;) Here is a little clip.

Glass Hail!

It's the coolest effect I've ever seen in a shop window! This stunning scene belongs to the Galeries Lafayette, one of the largest department stores in Paris, and it's part of their Christmas decorations that started at the beginning of the month. Like several of you noticed, Paris is not the most decorated city in the world for Christmas (far from that!), but some of the decorations are really outstanding. I really look up to the people who are creative enough to come up with ideas like this.

Water of Paris

From what I understood from yesterday's comments, everyone seems happy after the US elections! I thought of celebrating the event with a little glass of a typical Paris beverage: water! As a matter of fact, the Paris town hall has been promoting tap water for several years now, and they even just opened a water museum in the 16th arrondissement where I photographed these 3 really cool pitchers (designed by Pierre Charpin). The whole purpose of this PR campaign is actually to let Parisians know that their tap water is just as good as bottled water, that it's much more environmentally friendly than bottled water and that it is about 300 times less expensive than bottled water! More here - in French - if you're interested.

Straw Vote at the Harry's Bar

It's a tradition that has almost never ceased since 1924: the "straw vote" at the famous Harry's Bar... The principle is simple: any American citizen (who can show an American passport) and who is older than 18 can participate in the vote. The results are posted in front of the bar (and on the Web site) every week leading up to the election until the very final moment (I took this photo at 7 pm on November 4th Paris time). The interesting part is that ever since 1924, the straw vote at Harry's Bar was wrong only twice: in 1976 (Ford/Carter) and in 2004 (Bush II/Kerry). At the time I'm posting this photo, I still don't know if they were wrong a third time...

French Obamania

During my stay in the US last week, I often got the question "and what do you think about the US elections in France?" I kept saying that there was very little discussion among the French, whether they traditionally support the right or the left wing, about 80% of them would vote for Obama if they were Americans. Last evening (Monday) there was even a small demonstration on the Trocadero esplanade in favor of him (yes Suzy, the little blue ray above the head of the woman in the middle belongs to the Eiffel Tower!). Will he finally be elected? We'll soon find out ;)

Cynical, but beautiful

I know, this looks like a very basic message - kinda like "aren't we treating men like consumable goods nowadays?" but I loved the graphics. It's not really a graffiti but a printed paper glued to a vent pipe, that I photographed in the Beaubourg area. The garbage can is typical of Paris (with its transparent plastic bag to avoid bombings - that is, to avoid that terrorists hide a bomb in it). It's not exactly the best photo I could choose to start the week, but it really caught my eyes. BTW, I have no idea who did that, so if anyone knows...

The right time

As I'm currently trying to recover from my jet lag (It always takes me ages!) I don't think I've ever showed you an interesting piece of art by sculptor Arman called "L'heure de tous" that has been installed in front of the Gare Saint Lazare in 1985 (which explains the little pigeon "offerings" that you can see on it...). The clocks don't actually work, they are just for the purpose of the sculpture. Incidentally, today is also the day Americans switch to give up DST (Daylight Saving Time) and return to normal time, so if you're from the US, everything should be back to normal with Europe and PDP in particular! Have a great Sunday.