Something for the Weekend (5th – 7th March)

The first weekend of each month is the date for a series of regular events, but I've also listed a last chance and a couple of random fun events!

If you have any events or activities you think should be promoted or which you would like to promote yourself, please add them in the comments. Let me know also if you have any events in the coming weekends you would like to promote.

Regular Events
Free entrance to museums

All state run museums are free on the first Sunday of each month, which can lead to big crowds, but can also be the opportunity to visit some of the lesser-known establishments. A full list of the museums concerned can be found here.

A Disco on Ice

The first Friday of each month sees one of the most surprising events in the capital - live bands and a disco in the middle of an ice-rink. This time round the organisers are Tiger Sushi, who have invited Joakim Guillaume Tessier, Principles of Geometry and The Death Club to perform sets.
http://www.pailleron19.com/
Friday 5th, 8.30pm

Brunch Bazar
A massive success first time round, it would probably be a good idea to turn up early for the second edition of the monthly Brunch Bazar at Le Comptoir General on the Canal Saint Martin. As for the first event, there will be stands, dancing lessons and workshops as well as food and drink (which quickly ran out last time apparently).
http://www.brunchbazar.com/

Last Chance
La Splendeur des Camondo
In his book, Le Dernier des Camondo published in 1997, Pierre Assouline argued that the inscription ‘Mort pour la France’ on the Camondo family mausoleum should be changed to ‘Mort par la France’. It would perhaps be a more truthful epitaph for a prestigious family that was shockingly treated by the country, with the last remaining members all dying in Nazi concentration camps.

The family home is now the rather sad Nissim de Camondo museum, but the exhibition at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsm, which ends this weekend, shows the incredible legacy they left behind and how much they donated to the French state. The fascinating tale of the family is told, from Constantinople in the 19th Century to the tragic conclusion in 1945, alongside the works of art (including Degas, Manet, Monet and Renoir as well as Chinese and Japanese sculptures) they accumulated during their lifetimes.
http://www.mahj.org/fr/3_expositions/expo-Splendeur-Camondo.php
Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, 71, rue du Temple, 75003
Friday 11am to 6pm, Sunday 10am to 6pm, closed on Saturday

Random Fun

Le Salon de l'Agriculture

If there's one event in Paris which takes you to the heart of France is it most certainly the Salon de l'Agriculture. It's an incredibly popular event, not only with the general public who fight to taste regional specialities or admire the many animals present, but also with politicians who are obliged to visit if they want to keep a good image in the country!

Porte de Versailles
Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015

Friday 9am - 11pm, Saturday & Sunday 9am - 7pm

Oyster Party at Le Rubis

I wrote about the place last weekend, and here's an event that might help you to discover the bar if you are in the neighbourhood. Oysters, wine, music and good company!
Saturday 12pm

140 Rue Saint Maur

Blogger's Delight
Blogger's Delight organises electro events with line ups of performers who have been heavily featured on blogs 'and beyond'. The evening will probably be much like others in the city but I've put it down here because I like the name!
Social Club
142 Rue Montmartre
Saturday 6th, 11pm, €15

The City in Sepia

Every now and again I come across a website that I know is going to take up far too much of my time. SepiaTown is most definitely one of those. The idea is a simple one, combining Google maps with historical photos, but the philosophy behind the site runs much deeper than that. Here I speak to Jon Protas, one of the three founders of the site, about his plans for the project and about how individuals can help recreate history.

Why did you create SepiaTown?
I was sitting on a rooftop in Amsterdam in 2005, daydreaming in that Amsterdam kind of way, and had a sudden urge to be able to see the city skyline with all the modern buildings blocked from view. I pictured a viewer that would be a historic image but with holes cut out for the buildings that were still standing in modern times. After thinking about it for a year or two, and not coming up with anything more practical than a kind of Viewmaster, the release of the iPhone made it clear that a website and mobile app were the best approach. I got in touch with designer Eric Lehnartz and developer Eric Warren, and after about a year of intensive work, we finally launched what we think of as the site in its earliest form, while we continue to develop new features like the mobile version, filtering by date and media type, and others.

What cities are featured so far? What will be featured in the future?
We launched with six cities; Paris, New York, San Fransisco, London, Moscow and Amsterdam. As for the future, well there's no limit. We built SepiaTown because we wanted anyone anywhere to be able to see the past in an instant. Anyone can upload images, which, if you choose, can be accompanied by a link to your site.

What purpose do you think your website will serve?
We'd like it to do a couple of things: bring history to life in a completely new way by giving people a site-specific window on the past; and inspire history lovers around the world by giving them a place to put their historical images, which we hope will lead to a broader and more complete picture of history as it was lived.

Before and after shots using an image of my street taken from SepiaTown and a photo I took last Sunday afternoon. It is interesting to see that McDonalds has replaced a dentist! The tramway is long gone and you no longer see horses on the streets of Paris, but very little else has changed.

How do you see it developing in the future?
First and most importantly, we hope that more and more people will upload material. That's the key to the future of the site--a history that's built by the public, using material from institutions and private individuals. Our plan is for institutions and archives to come to think of SepiaTown as a place that can help them to reach a wider community. We'd like SepiaTown to become the first place people go when they want to see how a place has looked through history. We see it becoming an educational tool, and a way for students to become more involved in their own local history, and we think it will give travelers a cool new way to tour the world, either sitting at their computer or by using their mobile devices while they wander around a new city.

There seem to be no suggested dates on the site. Where does history start or stop?
We have a rough sense of the cutoff date of modernity as being 25 to 30 years ago; this seems to be long enough for there to be real visible change in architecture and design that makes it a clear difference to the eye. We don't really have a maximum age; we'd be very happy to see people uploading old drawings of ancient Rome, for example, or sketches of setlements in pre-colombian America.

A picture of the Boulevard du Temple by Louis Daguerre from 1838, the
earliest photo to feature a human (here having his shoes shined).

You talk about wishing to 'map a virtual past'. Do you think it is important for cities to keep traces of how things used to be?
I'm not sure it's the responsibility of cities to do that, although it would be great if they could and would. In a way we're inviting people to take responsibility themselves and upload their own collections, or seek out publicly owned images to share.

We definitely believe that historical archives, as guardians of public memory, have some level of responsibility to share that memory with the community--not just in their immediate area, but the larger world. Most archives want to do this, and many of them spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out ways to reach the public. We think that SepiaTown can help them.

The project is interactive and community based. Is it important for you to involve as big a number of people as possible?
Definitely; the more people who are involved and who tell other people, the more images we hope will fill the maps, and the more complete the picture of the past we'lll be able to provide.

Our ideal is for people in small towns and foreign countries to be thinking "these photos from the Library of Congress are great, but my grandfather had a stack of old pictures from when there was only one street in town. Why don't I upload those?"

That's what we hope will happen as people learn about the site and start wondering where their slice of SepiaTown is.

Is it your intention to extend the service to include film and sound archives?
We're working on that right now. Sound, film, 3D images,and ephemera such as posters, souvenirs, etc, pertinent to the location will all have a place on the site.

http://www.sepiatown.com

Unearthing a Gem

I'm a firm believer in supporting local businesses, so I was delighted to see the renovations that had taken place in a neighbourhood café bar. 'Le Rubis' on the Rue Saint Maur looks like the kind of establishment that has been run by the same family for generations, but this atmosphere is actually the result of the hard work of the new owners.

In Paris it is fashionable to be retro, but most bars or restaurants buy their nostalgia from flea markets. At Le Rubis, the retro decor is completely original, but had to be dug out from behind more contemporary trimmings. It is the rebirth of a 1930s relic, and is now a wonderful art deco environment.

Finding a name for the bar was a simple job. 'Le Rubis' was the name of the original establishment and is still clearly visible, most notably on the door handles and on the magnificent lettering above the bar. It also gave the owners a theme to work on for the decoration, with the walls taking on the raspberry-red tones of the gemstone.

I'm delighted that the structure has at last found a resident who respects its history and design. The bar is the street-level entrance to a wonderfully atypical building which looks a little like a vintage cruise liner. Signed on the outside by its architect, the seemingly little-known J.A. Fouchet, it dates from 1936.

The inside is dominated by an island bar which echos the curve of the building and the road outside. The owners, three associates called Valérie, Marie-Caroline and Stéphane took the decision to cut off one end of the bar so that people could circulate around it. To one side, red bench seats add a slight American-diner feel to the place, a sentiment that is enhanced by rock-inspired decoration and music.

This love of music provides the only frustration for the new owners. The room is not soundproofed, meaning that live concerts would be impossible, 'except perhaps for some acoustic concerts from time to time' Marie-Caroline tells me.

I will come back regularly purely to drink in the atmosphere of the bar, but how do the owners hope to attract other regulars in difficult times and in a district where competition is legion? The choice has been to create a multi-functional space, with breakfasts in the morning, a limited but 100% homecooked lunch menu, goûters and tea in the afternoons, and a more traditional pub ambience in the evening.

"We really want to organise some regular activities" Valérie tells me, "perhaps some quizzes or even bingo!". The idea sounds like a good one to me, and somehow entirely appropriate. There is something a little out-of-sync about the bar, a slightly provincial feel that sets it apart from its noisier and more trendy neighbours on the Rue Oberkampf. This difference can also be summed up in one other word; it is authentic.

Le Rubis
140 Rue Saint Maur, M° Goncourt

Something for the Weekend (26th – 28th February)

It’s the last weekend of the month, when traditionally money is tight before payday. Don't worry though as here are a selection of activities that won’t cost you a centime!

If you have any events or activities you think should be promoted or which you would like to promote yourself, please add them in the comments. Let me know also if you have any events in the coming weekends you would like to promote.

Brunch on the Metro
I’m a little sceptical about most social media happenings, but this one sounds as if it could be fun. A group will meet at 1pm on Sunday at the Charles de Gaulle Etoile Metro station on the Line 6, loaded up with everything necessary for a brunch picnic. The group will then get on a Metro at exactly 1.15pm and head off in the direction of Nation, sharing all provisions during the trip. Being outside for much of its length, and crossing the Seine twice, it is also one of the most picturesque lines in the city! The event is open to anyone who wants to join in, and it could be an interesting way to not only meet a few people but also to taste some nice food!
More information here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=334190787744

Get Fit for Free
Winter is coming to an end and it’s time to start stretching a few muscles again. Is there anything more inspiring to do though than just jog around the park? Here are two ideas:

Boxing
Each Saturday morning between 10am and 11am, women in Paris can sign up for free boxing classes at the Forum des Halles. The classes are run by specialists from hip gym ‘Le Battling Club’ (which bases itself on the traditional New York Boxing Gym) so it should be a good work out!

If you are interested you first need to fill in this form and and return it before the Friday preceding the Saturday you wish to attend. Note however that you will also need a doctor’s certificate proving that you have the necessary physical condition (normally a formality, but a time-consuming hassle none the less).

Capoeira
This Brazilian combat sport is less physical perhaps, but certainly no less strenuous. Within the framework of its Grand Mix du Brésil festival, the Musée du Quai Branly is organising an ‘Atelier Capoeira’ with members of the ‘1 Autre Monde’ company on Saturday 27th at 12pm. The good news is that there is no need for a medical certificate here!

Musée du Quai Branly
37, quai Branly 75007, M° Alma Marceau

Going Chopin
To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Chopin, pianists at the Salle Pleyel (along with another venue in the town of Chateauroux) will be playing the entire works of the composer over this weekend. The Salle Pleyel will cover the years 1838-1849 on Sunday from 2pm to 11pm. Entrance is free, but actually getting in and being able to find a seat might be the most physically demanding event of the weekend!
Salle Pleyel

252 rue du Fb St Honoré, 75008, M° Charles de Gaulle

If you can’t get in, note that an exhibition on the composer will be starting on Tuesday at the Musée de la Vie Romantique. The location is well chosen as Chopin was a regular visitor to the house which belonged to the painter Ari Scheffer.
Musée de la Vie romantique
16, rue Chaptal, 75009
2nd March - 2nd July, 7€

Works Constructed: 1948 - 2009

This exhibition at the admirable Pavillon de l'Arsenal is a fascinating look at 58 iconic post-war constructions in Paris. Using photos, plans, models and prototypes from the architecture collection at the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition also tries to give the artistic, social, political and economic context behind each structure. Buildings featured include the CNIT at La Defense, the Montparnasse tower, terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle airport, the Parc de la Villette and the Institut du Monde Arabe.

Until 28/3/2010
Pavillon de l'Arsenal

21, boulevard Morland, 75004, M° Sully Morland

Free entrance!

School of Rock

On both Friday and Saturday evening, the Gibus club, a mythical rock venue in the city, will be hosting six young bands. Entrance is €5 or completely free if you respect the 'winter sports' dress code!
Les Espoirs du Gibus
Le Gibus
18 rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75011, M° République

Les Lundis de Lutece

This Monday saw the launch of a new event, Les Lundis de Lutece, at the Baron Samedi bar. Run by DJ and amateur historian Sylvanie de Lutèce, the happening features a themed presentation on the history of Paris followed by a funky DJ set!

The event sounded like a fantastic idea, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. Who goes out on a damp Monday evening in February? Pulling up my collars I wandered down to the Baron Samedi, one of the friendliest and most interesting bars in Paris, and was surprised to find the place packed, with around 50 people occupying all available spaces.

Everyone’s eyes were on Sylvanie de Lutèce, dressed for the occasion in the Titi Parisien style of flat cap, striped top and red neckerchief. Hunched around wooden boards of dried meats and cheeses, and with beer or wine in hand, the audience was nevertheless as quiet as a library as our host got the conference underway.

‘Gangsters de Paris’ was the evening’s theme, a look back at some famous affairs from the beginning of the 20th century. The venue was well chosen as it is situated close to the home of the first topic discussed, the infamous ‘Apache’ gangs who stalked Belleville at the turning of the new century. Sylvanie de Lutèce was able to point out local landmarks that featured in her story, and kept the audience gripped with tales of sharp-dressed hoodlums and ‘marmites’, the girlfriends of the gang members who often gave as good as they got.

The second subject was the Bande à Bonnot, a Belle Epoque anarchist group who were the first ever to use an automobile to escape from the scene of a crime. With the help of mug shots of the gang members and short film sequences on her laptop, Sylvanie de Lutèce rattled off the tale until the final, inevitable, sticky end of the gang.

Despite being propped up against a wall for an hour and a half I didn’t see the time pass. This was not a studious and dry lecture to a group of yawning undergraduates, but rather the sharing of a passion. Questions were encouraged and good-humoured remarks were regularly fired in by the audience. Sylvanie de Lutèce was a bundle of energy and enthusiasm, with an impressive and well-researched knowledge of the evening’s subject.

I’ve already booked a front row slot for the next conference!

Les Lundis de Lutece will take place on the last Monday of each month at the Baron Samedi bar, 12 Rue des Goncourt (75011) at 8pm. Future themes include La Commune, Les Femmes Révolutionnaires and La Mondaine. For more information, see http://www.myspace.com/histoiredeparis.