All stories about "Paris"

Parisians are notoriously dedicated to the outdoor consumption of their cafés and apéros (kind of like Californians are dedicated to wearing shorts in the winter on the East Coast) to the point where you can see them huddling under heat lamps in mid-January. Needless to say, the sidewalk café culture gets a lot more enjoyable as the temperatures rise and the layers shed. The great boulevards are lined with chairs and tables conveniently arranged for people watching, but real gems are hidden in narrow streets. The true joy lies in finding the ideal time of day and street angle to catch the rays in your sunglasses. Gridskipper has done the legwork and found the sweetest cafés in the sun around Paris after the jump.

  Comments

Everyday on Gridskipper we give you a new map. Some are new, some are fetched from our archive, newly updated. Happy Gridskipping. So you've heard all about our clubs échangistes but aren't exactly sure how to get in there? Fear not, little libertine! Paris sex clubs are actually quite welcoming, what with their Western theme nights and all-you-can-eat buffets. First-timers and those without the courage to coucher appreciate the "no means non" policy and acceptance of voyeurism. So when you find yourself ready for a Michel Houellebecq sort of evening, remember our map and warm up with this inspiring video from Stereo Total.

  Comments

As the temperatures rise, residents of Paris look for any opportunity they can get to head out of the sticky, smelly city to their country houses. For those unlucky enough to be without connections in the provinces (like poor Mr. Houdini here on the left throwing himself in the Seine), there are always the municipal pools of Paris -- with a measly entry fee of €2.60 for most facilities, they won't break the bank. Getting a book of ten passes will cost you even less per ticket, leaving you more money to spend at the places we recommend nearby. Take your pick from our selection of outdoor pools, open-roof pools, and sunbathing terraces, all within the péripherique.

  Comments

In every major cosmopolitan capital one is faced with countless options in the form of culinary temptation. And Paris is no exception. From Foie Gras-filled crepes, to multi-tiered macaroons, there are plenty of places to get ones foodie fix. So, to help narrow things down a bit, five not to be missed French dining experiences in the City of Lights.

  Comments

Paris rat-catchers tackle rodents. Officials in Paris have launched a citywide campaign to eliminate the 8 million rats living below the City of Lights' surface. Ew, nothing cool or cute about that (except maybe a BBC photo editor's choice of putting a Ratatouille still as the article's accompanying image).

  Comments

Every so often a book is published that makes you ask yourself: how much weight did the author put on researching it? Jamie Cahill, author of the recently published Pâtisseries of Paris, has compiled the city's best pastry shops, bakeries, ice cream shops, chocolatiers, and salons de thé. Many of them happen to be concentrated in Saint-Germain, which has a sort of cruel irony to it, as this former intellectual nerve center of Paris has undergone a transformation in the last 10 years to become the center of a very expensive, very chic fashion scene, putting the Rive Gauche in YSL. But it's time you learned the sublime tension of consuming millefeuilles while not gaining mille poids. Cahill's publicist, by the way, reassures us that even after four years of this research, plus a professional pâtissier's course, plus two children, Cahill has managed to stay a size 2. "But that's another story," we are told. So, Jamie? What's the story? We'd love to know.

  Comments

As we mentioned last summer, Paris provides free Wi-Fi access from more than 260 public parks, gardens, and monuments. A beautiful idea, but those of us with real work to do need a table and a beer. Helping us out are a number of cafés and bistros that serve free Wi-Fi along with their liquid offerings. And profiling these joints is a nifty little website that rounds up more than 140 hotspots in Paris and plots them on an easy-to-use map. Cafés Wifi selects their monthly favorites -- those cafés that provide a free, fast, and always working connection, along with pleasant working atmosphere -- and reports on the price, the clientele, and the number of electrical outlets. It's a freelancer's wet dream. This very article, including the photo, was posted from #4, la Fée Verte.

  Comments

Springtime in Paris, blah blah blah. Despite their proclivity for swing clubs, kinky saunas, and other libertine pleasures, it turns out the citizens of the supposedly most romantic city on earth aren't all born Romeos and sex kittens. Love coaches, bondage, spanking, and sex toy lessons at the city's chicest sex shops: here's a list of useful addresses where Parisians go to keep up their reputations as the sluttiest people on the planet.

  Comments

"Le Grand Véfour. Maxim's. La Table de Joël Robuchon. None of these venerated restaurants are on Alexander Lobrano's list of the 102 best in Paris. And that's one of the reasons I love his new paperback Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants. Lobrano, the European correspondent for Gourmet magazine, has lived here and written about food for 22 years, so he's qualified to call those behemoths overrated. Which establishments do hit the mark?"

  Comments

Between now and mid-July, there are more than 40 great indie pop/rock concerts coming to town. That's good news for music lovers who are living or traveling in Paris this summer. To help you map out your evenings (and buy tickets in advance) we've tagged the 40 best shows on this Google calendar. After the jump, we present videos for our favorite 25, and name the Top Ten concerts of the summer. (photo)

  Comments

There's a reason why New Yorkers are still spending their sad little dollars in Paris: the food here is better. Backing us up on that one is Restaurant Magazine, with their just-released update of the World's 50 Best Restaurants. The City of (Culinary De)Light captured more of the 2008 top spots (8) than any other town. As for NYC: only five of their restaurants made the cut, and four feature imported French chefs. While nay-sayers have long decried France as losing its culinary edge, les trois couleurs took home more rankings (11) than any other country, including Spain (7) and the UK (6). The World's 50 Best list was formulated by a jury of 651 well-respected food professionals. Restaurant's selection of Paris addresses, with accompanying description from the magazine, is waiting after the jump.

  Comments

Popular legend has it that the couple in the famous Robert Doisneau photograph (you know, the one everyone had up in their dorm rooms in college) didn't' even know each other. He's just back from the war and they're really glad the Allies won. That's the story, anyway, but it's not true. (It was actually taken in 1950, when the two were lovers.) But that doesn't mean Paris isn't a really great place for kissing someone you just met. If you don't have a regular snogging partner, that doesn't mean you should go un-snogged! Not when there are plenty of single (and not-so-single) dragueurs out there in the thick Parisian night just waiting to make out with a stranger in a bar. Why shouldn't it be you?

For the fainter of heart, those not quite up for a sexual sauna or a club échangiste, may we suggest the following establishments as surefire spots to score a little PG-13 action.

  Comments

Clotilde Dusoulier from Chocolate & Zucchini has developed an enthusiastic following in the five years since she started her Paris-based food blog about her adventures in the kitchen. Her first cookbook, Chocolate & Zucchini, was published last year. And out this week is Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris, a very personal guide to restaurants, markets, food and wine stores, as well as tips on how to understand the Parisian shopkeeper or waiter. Clotilde shared with us some of her favorite places to go when she's not in the mood to cook. All in Montmartre, they include four spots from the book and two additional neighborhood watering holes she selected just for Gridskipper.

  Comments

France is the largest cosmetics-producing country in the world. The market for organic cosmetics is estimated at around €150 million, and just about everybody is trying to get in on the action. You can find organic and all-natural cosmetics from around the world scattered all over town. We've told you where to go for organic salon treatments, but for all your at-home beauty needs, why not make it easy on yourself and check out the following list of top addresses for beauty buys that are 100% naturel.

  Comments

The Parisian in-crowd has decided it's glamorous to be earth-friendly. Notorious for their crusade against generically modified food, the French have increasingly lent their inimitable style and panache to the pursuit of an organic lifestyle. Over here this sort of thing is called bio, and it's pronounced bee-oh, like what happens when you don't wear enough organic deodorant.

This week, Paris will host its first exposition entirely dedicated to sustainable consumption and all that that entails: Planète Durable runs from April 10-13 at the Porte de Versaille (Hall 4). 1€ of each entrance fee will be donated to the NGP Planete Urgence, an initiative based in Indonesia, where a tree will be planted for each euro they receive, in order to reduce global warming. The Salon will feature a "green dance floor" -- where dancers stomp on the floor to create energy which will then be transformed into electricity to provide music and light.

  Comments

Sure, it's possible to find a good baguette in the Marais and other quarters. But true connoisseurs climb the hill of Montmartre to encounter the city's most impressive concentration of bakeries. The recently crowned winner of the Best Baguette in Paris is here, along with a slew of others who are regularly ranked as leaders in the craft. A warm baguette from one of these spots is one of the best pauper's lunches in town. (Naixn/flickr)

  Comments

Paris has its share of cold, corporate, kitchenette-laden apartment hotels for businesspeople on a budget. But that's not what we're talking about here. A few more high-end properties have opened up in Paris over the last few years, offering people who want to rent an apartment the conveniences of someone else's home without the inconvenience of their clutter and unpredictable housekeeping standards. The following list of rental apartments in Paris includes both agencies that specialize in renting well-screened apartments (often for the expat investors who rarely use them) as well as a handful of designer spaces where you can make yourself at home without worrying about your absent host's mail, cat, or unreliable Wi-Fi. These top rentable Paris apartments are for those who are tired of dealing with the crazies on Craigslist -- including luxury digs with an Eiffel Tower view and a hip, new affordable space by Stella Cadente designer Stanislassia Klein that's on the Canal St-Martin.

  Comments

The 2008 Beijing Olympics are still four months away, but they've already started with a bang. Activists who oppose China's occupation of Tibet have been holding huge protests as the Olympic torch makes its customary pre-games lap around the globe. In the past week, the torch toured Paris and London with an entourage of local policemen and Chinese security personnel. In spite of all the guards, protesters forced the torch to be extinguished for the first time in modern Olympic history. If you want to get in on all of the "Free Tibet" fun, the Olympic torch will be stopping in fourteen more cities between tomorrow and April 29th. The good people at Google have made a map showing all of the remaining cities along the torch's route. The tour includes such exciting destinations as San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and the hometown of everyone's favorite despot -- Pyongyang!

There's still plenty of time to plan a trip to go protest the torch in any one of these great urban oases. Protesters get to meet other cute politically involved types and rub elbows with the world-class athletes who carry the torch, all while enjoying the fun of screaming and flinging yourself at angry law enforcement personnel. So why not fly around the world following the Olympic torch and going apeshit? It's all for a good cause. It's kind of like the civil rights movement, with sightseeing instead of big dogs and high-powered hoses.

  Comments

It may be true that you get as much design as you pay for, but there's no reason that travelers with a bit of cash should stay in a dusty, dated Paris hotel room. Non-astronomically priced, clean and modern rooms with a bit of personality and style are increasingly available. There's now no shortage of designy hotels on both banks for those who want to sleep in a well thought-out space. Here's a selection of hotels in Paris for the design-conscious with a budget of less than €200 a night. (You may also want to check out our list of modern and moderate hotels from last year.)

  Comments

It's not hard to find cheap eats in Paris's tourist-packed Latin Quarter. These winding streets are home to hundreds of stalls selling crêpes, grecs, and panini. But bargain hunters (and those suffering from weak dollar syndrome) don't always want a stand-up meal in the rain. In addition to the neighborhood's foil-wrapped options, there are a handful of sweet value spots where you'll find warm lighting, traditional fare, and decent wine. The restaurants featured here have the French atmosphere you're looking for and cost less than €20 per person.

  Comments