Paris for free

When you have been travelling as long as us - you start to get a wee bit money conscious when entering cities like Paris. . where a lunch can set you back 30euro for 2 sammies and 2 cokes ( it didn't happen to me I swear.. sigh). So what you need is to fill the day for free.

First you need a map of Paris - with this in hand - you can step out of your door and just get lost - because seriously - most of the city is WALKABLE and really fun to see what you can find.


So we decided to walk to the famous Porte de Clignancourt flea market first thing in the morning.. about 1.5km from our place. We wanted to beat the crowds as they have up to 200,000 people visit in the weekends. Well.. we got there early and the owners got there late.. why.. because Paris is on holiday right now and only about 25% of the stalls actually opened. The ones that did were amazing though, with antiques you can only dream of. They were once very affordable - but this market is so famous now that prices are probably in the realistic region for such a place.



Home for a bite to eat. Now that looks like a cheap sammie ;)

And then off into the city.
The sun is shining bright and strong - so the place to go would be a park - how about the jardin des tuileries.. Ok.
As you entered you are wowed initially by the fun park that presents itself to you. Very classic in some respects.



But.. after a few minutes of people watching you move into the park - which in this light and heat is really quite stunning.

Close by is a pond where kids come with parents to hire toy sailboats that they push around with sticks hoping for the racing line on the right breeze.


By this time you are pretty damn hot. Pretty lucky then that there are chairs positioned for your leisure time - so take a seat with the other over heated Parisians and just take a minute by the water and suck in the scene.


Well - we are relaxed and it is about 7pm - so what are we going to do? How about a walk down to l'Hotel de Ville where in the main square there is a super concert going on with the world famous in Paris 'beat torrents' armed with turntables and matching macbook pros - they are AWESOME!!! below is a clip we recorded of them playing;






The way we found out about this was on our walk in the early afternoon - we were passing this stunning architecture when this incredible noise fired up - it was the beat torrent sound check and they were putting on an awesome teaser show.. louder than I've ever heard any setup before! The concert started at 8 and we knew we had to be there - here are a few shots from light to dark.

This is the gig around 4pm as they are setting it up doing their people attracting sound check;

The people are starting to rock pretty hard as they get into the vibe - especially as they drink hardcore.. on a side note - the guy in front of us decided to sit down and draw a portrait. Anyone had that happen to them at a concert before?



The party is in full swing - these guys are tearing it up! If you click on the image and look close you can even see someone crowd surfing. Shame I didn't take the picture of the girl who bent her boyfriend over so she could pretend she was the DJ and his ass was the turntable.

The apartment on the mount of martyrs

As you may have gathered from the last post - we are very lucky to have a place to stay in Paris. So I thought I would show you the Parisian headquarters. We are positioned in Rue Ravignan which is the heart of the hill.

First you should know that we have to climb 6 stories of fairytale styled stairs before getting through the door.. at the end of the day and 20kms of walking it ain't a pretty sight seeing us swaggering up the flights knocking into wall and then rail. Here's the vertigo view looking down from up.. lordy

Let me take you into our tight front entrance. So the camera here is looking towards the door - it opens onto the kitchen bench.

Lets rotate 180 and enter the living room.

You see the door in the distance - OK - let's move into the Boudoir where Desh can model for us.

What's out the window you ask? Just our jandals.. sorry I think you call them sandals here so as not to reveal our identity!! hah ahhahahahah


And of course a view to the centre of our apartment block - so long and narrow - fantastic!


If we angle up slightly you will see that we look direct onto the rooftops - I actually love this view - as the chimneys of Paris are everywhere - and dominate us with their classic style.

Chasing Amelie

We have arrived straight into the heart of Paris. We have been lucky enough to look after a very Parisian apartment in Montmatre. Hey Montmatre, does that ring a bell? Yes.. it does! Well many artists have lived in residence here through the ages such as Dali, Monet, Picasso and van Gogh. Hey, that isn't current enough, the Moulin Rouge?.. no.. OK..so let's move to today. The film world has also embraced Paris's sole hill for it's very cute appearance. One such film that comes to mind is Amelie. We actually live 20 metres away from the grocer that Amelie visits to buy her daily nuts and 1 fig. Let's check it out.


The scene from the movie




What we saw of it today.. Interestingly.. there are soooo many tourists in this area, but this was the only area left tourist free >> our little secret. As you can see, not much post production went into it .. Mmmm ?



Would you like to buy a postcard to go with your lemon?

Let's move onto the Sacre-Coeur where Amelie leaves a trail for our friend to follow.



And.. what did we find apart from triple the tourists?


Hey - most people go for the site.. we go to match scenes.

Alright - so let's show you around these scenes a little further to give you an idea of how many people visit and what you can see.

The view of Paris from Sacre-Coeur. You can't actually see the Eiffel Tower from here - but if you peak between a fence and a tree to the right you can.


The tower as promised - just had to climb a fence to give you the rooftop view.

The crowds flocking to watch a busker perform on the stairs - I imagine he earns more than most of us just through tips.. Amongst the musicians are also flocks of artists who fight each other to draw your portrait - living the true Montmatre struggling artist dream.

Hey - Spot the odd guy out? Nothing odd about this scene in Paris - we all dance the streets - and warming up beforehand is important.

Finally - just to give you an idea of foot traffic.. only 27 million tourists visit Paris per year.. not many really is it ??

Does size really matter

Everywhere we go is a canvas for graffiti - what I really love though is the scale that people work to. I mean, seriously .. look at the scale of this bad boy! The second shot shows the detail of the dripping paint as if this colossal 3 storey high spaceman is melting over the city.

Let's compare it to another piece on the same street.. equally as beautiful, but blink and you may miss it.. existing on a 1/1 scale.



On a side note. Imagine being a kid in a city with candy/toy vending machines on every street containing wee treats! Berlin is your place. It is like a time warp - every jaw breaker is dimly visible through the beaten yellowed window - like they have been sitting there through all time waiting for a sucker who can't resist spending 20c on a 30 year old jaw breaker.

Today I found a gem. This one promised a miniature 'Rapper' of your own for 50c!! Bargain.. except that the other day I pumped 2 sessions of coins to win a skull from another box - and instead got a pair of earrings and 2 tiny stickers.. Grrr.. to be a kid again.

You have to love their humour - check out photo no.2.. 50c buys you '50 cent'

Urban affairs

Berlin is a bathing ground of spare space.. that is a huge attraction to artists of all kinds to move here and create their projects.. so much so that it is bordering on being a cliche if you do so.
Districts such as Wedding were described as being the heart of Berlin in the 1960s - but then labeled the city toilet in 2001.. why?? Because trend dictates living.. if people find the new cool, then the old cool becomes unwanted.

In this case we have a temporary exhibition in a building that is about to be demolished. What makes this space incredible - is that this building is 4 storeys of tiled baths, lockers, changing rooms and a huge empty swimming pool. With no such thing as Osh existing, a collective of artists can come in and do what they like.. whether they wield a jack hammer or just sellotape.

With names on the flyer that I have been hearing about since the late 90s such as Mode 2, Delta and Banksy - this simply couldn't be missed.


You can see here the artist has smashed up some bath house for use with 3d sculpture




This is probably my favourite use of space. The artist does fantastic graffiti based on animals - usually in xray view showing organs etc. But here he has got the bird outer on one side of the cupboards - but when you open the cupboards 180º there is another illustration of the birds innards.. pretty cool stuff. Didn't really capture it with photo - but you can see a girls arm rotating the doors to give you an idea.


Same artist - giant dead bird

Remember Banksy hype? Well here he is - a little print in the corner. I've got to say - I still love his work though - - and it shows what a massive influence he has had on the graffiti world - when almost every piece of stencil art in this exhibition has been taken from a Banksy piece at some stage along his extensive revolution.

If you were looking the wrong way in that room you would have missed it..