Invisible Paris Walks - now available on Windows 7 smartphones!

The Invisible Paris self-guided walks, previously available in PDF format and as downloadable iPhone guides are now also available for those with Windows 7 based smartphones (see screenshots below)! The three tours currently available are the following:

• From Sainte Rita to Saint Lazare - women in Paris
• Contemporary architecture
• Street art in Belleville

Click here to download the walks in Windows 7 format.
Click here to download the walks in iPhone format.

The smartphone versions of the walks are not free downloads, but for just a couple of dollars, euros or pounds, you get all three walks and access to any future walks I publish (and I'm working on it, I promise!). If you don’t have a smartphone though, don’t forget that PDF versions of the walks are still available - for free - at http://invisiblepariswalks.blogspot.fr/

Something for the Weekend (19th – 21st November)

Despite the probable post-Beaujolais hangover, Paris will be staying up late this weekend. Find out why - along with the full list of other suggestions - on the Paris Weekends blog.

La maison de Jean Veber

At the end of a row of attractive townhouses on the Boulevard Pereire stands one that seems to have come from another place and another time. If this is the case, it is also true for the home's original owner, the painter and caricaturist, Jean Veber.

Born in Paris in 1864, Jean Veber was trained as a painter before being tempted by his brother Pierre into producing caricatural sketches for various publications. As a fervent patriot, Veber began by attacking Otto von Bismarck before moving onto his favourite target – the English.

Veber worked at a time when anglophobia was prevalent in France, but the behaviour of the British army in the Transvaal during the Boer war gave him ample material to work with. He was particularly scathing of the 'reconcentration camps' they created, and was quick to contrast his brutal images with the misleading words of the British leaders. Veber went as far as sketching the features of Edward VII on the buttocks of Britannia, an image that was censured and which not surprisingly caused something of a scandal.

Lord Kitchener portrayed as a toad, praising the 'pacifying' effect of the reconcentration camps.

Veber himself would later gain first-hand experience of war, signing up himself for action in the First World War despite being aged 50 when the conflict broke out. He published a book of letters and memoirs about his experiences in the trenches called J’y étais – un peintre dans la guerre which was much praised and is still available today. He was eventually discharged in 1918 after being severely gassed, an affliction which would eventually bring about his death – in this house on the Boulevard Pereire – in 1928.

If Veber's life and work has been well documented, little has been written about the house in which he lived. Today there is just a small and barely legible plaque marking this building out as his home, and it doesn't seem to be earmarked as a heritage spot to protect. It is owned today by an architect, but remains in a pleasingly scruffy condition, irratating its smarter neighbours with its irreverence. What is most remarkable about the building though is the presence of a mashrabiya on the second floor. It is not clear why this feature is here, but then little about the building is ordinary.

The lower floors seem to be the living quarters, secondary in importance with their small windows, but the reason for this house's existence is the top floor studio with its mysterious mashrabiya and glass roof. Veber continued to paint throughout his life, producing a series of often odd and disturbing canvases, and this atelier would have been where he spent most of his time. He has been viewed as something of an inspiration to the surrealists and science-fiction writers who came after him, and looking at his home, it is easy to see why!

The ugliest sculpture in Paris?

I'm a self-proclaimed fan of brick, but I have never really been convinced by its usage in public art. A good example of the reason why can be seen with Pierre Sabatier's wall of lava next to the Porte de Champerret.

The installation is not without merit. The juxtaposition of forms and textures are interesting, and there is a certain organic feel to the piece - especially now that nature has clamped itself onto the creation - but the ensemble to my eyes is ugly almost to the point of repulsiveness.

Perhaps it is unfair to class the creation as a sculpture at all. It was placed here in the early 1970s, and was part of an urban regeneration project that also included the covering over of the périphérique and the construction of an underground exhibition centre. It is a fully-functional wall, marking the outer limit of a small park (more a kind of scrubby urban plot that attracts only city outcasts), but it is impossible to overlook the sculptural aspect of the piece.

But just what are these strange forms? Sitting alongside the Square de l'Amerique latine, the wall is apparently supposed to represent the Andes mountain range, with its peaks, depressions and volcanic flows. An interesting idea, but one that seems to have born poorly executed. Perhaps though it is simply a creation that has come to the end of its life-span. The lava flow certainly looks today like a cast off from a low budget science-fiction filmset, and the brick wall is in a very sorry state.

At certain points chunks of brick are missing, but the biggest crime against the material is that several different colours have been used in the various repair jobs performed over the years. Diluted tags and grafitti have left traces across the surface, and even the lava seems to have been put in the wash with something of a clashing colour.

Can the artist be blamed for the condition of his creation 40 years after its installation? I find it difficult to believe that it was ever attractive, but it certainly could have been looked after better. I think it unlikely that it will get a second chance, but I imagine that few people would mourn its passing if it was replaced in its turn by another urban regeneration project.

Something for the Weekend (12th – 14th November)

A long weekend for many in France this weekend following a public holiday on the 11th, but also one that promises to be cold and wet. Perfect then for a weekend of crime novels, film noir, prisons and science fiction!

See the list of events on the Paris Weekends blog.