Feiyue - Chinese sneakers in Paris

Found my favorite brand of sneakers in Paris. A French company has given rebirth to the old Chinese Brand of sneakers - Feiyue. They have been making sneakers since the 1920th. That is the model that you see right in front in white and the coolest one with a real vintage feel to it.  The shoes are around 50 Euros each.
I have only bought mine in China before but was happy to find out that the only store outside China is actually in my own neighbourhood.
Boutique Feiyue
31 rue de Charonne
75011 Paris
01-55287175

Shakespeare and Company - My favorite English bookstore in Paris

Ever since i lived in Paris as a young man and read " A Moveable Feast" By Hemingway I have enjoyed to visit the bookstore Shakespeare and Company. I his book I learned about this store that was opened in 1919 by Sylvia Beach. Back then this was the hangout of writers as Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, F. Gertrud Stein,  Scott Fitzgerald,  and James Joyce among many others. During the German Occupation it was closed and never opened again until Mr George Whitman opened again 1951 at 37 RUE DE LA BÛCHERIE where it is still located by the river Seine in the Latin Quarter. Here many young people come to work and stay as well. There are beds spread out over the 3 floors, the first floor is the bookstore and the second floor houses the collection that you can read on the premises.
As the store is opened until late in the evening 23.00 this is a great place to find a good book before you go home or back to your hotel. The bookstore was also featured in the film "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen.
Hope that you will enjoy it as much as I do!

Le Bistrot du Peintre - A nice café on the hip Rue de Charonne, Paris

The 11th arrondissement in Paris is the new Marais and Rue de Charonne is one of the street were you can see that happening.
The Café and Restaurant "Le Bistrot du Peintre" was opened in 1902 and and is on of the places from that time in Art Nouveau style that is protected to stay so. It's location on the corner of Rue de Charonne and 116 Rue de Ledru-Rollin is just perfect. Here you can come for your morning coffee, lunch, afternoon coffee, aperitif, dinner and after dinner drinks. It's always a nice place to be. I love to sit here and just read a book with a coffee in the afternoon. Here you find the real Parisian way of life!
Tel 01 - 47 00 34 39

Montparnasse Cemetery - The Cemetery of the famous artists and writers of Paris

The Montparnasse Cemetery was founded in 1824 on the place that was back then a place for 3 farms.
Montparnasse was in the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century the place to be for the artists and writers. It is here the we find the places written about in Hemmingways books or places  we find on paintings or photography from that time. It was in Montparnasse that people like Modigliani, Man Ray, Brancusi among others lived and worked so it is natural that we find the graves of many of them here. As you can see Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre has their final resting place here. So does Dreyfus, Samuel Becket, Zadkine, Soutine Marguerite Duras and Serge Gainsbourg as well. Picasso lived and worked close by but is not buried here.
The Cemetery is located close to the Edgar Quinet Metro Station and is open daily.

Promenade Plantée - The High Line walk of Paris

The origin of The High Line in New York is the Promenade Plantée in Paris. When the new Opera House at the Bastille was constructed in the 80th they had so stop the train on the Vincennes Railroad. They then decided to use the old elevated tracks as a promenade. The Promenade Plantée was inaugurated in 1993 and has since then been a very popular place to walk, play or to jog the 4,5 km from the Bastille to Vincennes. I really love this place and as it is not far from my place I do go there for a walk when I can. To enter you just walk up on the right side of the Opera House from the Bastille and when you get to the rail tracks you get up on the first staircase. Being 10 meters above the city you have a different angle and as you walk you pass many beautiful typical parisian houses. A true gem in this lovely city any time of the year.

Paris Plage - the beach in the city!

Every year since 2002 the river banks of Seine is blocked of for cars and the roads are turned into beaches. They fill parts up with sand and fill it with deck chairs and umbrellas. Some pools and showers  are installed as well as cafés and places were you can eat. There are games and sports that you can get involved in and the thing is that not everyone can afford to go to the beach so lets bring the beach here instead.
Paris Plage usually lasts for one month from around the 20th of July to the 18th of August.
Just bring your swim trunks or bikinis and enjoy some time at the beach!

Stravinsky Fountain - The first modern fountain in Paris!

This fantastic fountain next to the Centre Pompidou in the centre of Paris was the first modern fountain in Paris. It was first inaugurated in 1983 and it is a 580 square meters big fountain made by the Niki de Saint Phalle and her husband Jean Tinguely. Jean Tinguely had first made one in Basel that the had gotten very famous but it was a new thing to put Niki de Saint Phalles sculptures in it. The fountain is located on the Stranvinsky Square and I really like to sit on one of all the cafés next to it and have a coffee and just enjoy when all the parts moves and sprays water in the summer. All the 16 statues represents different parts of one of Stravinskys major work of music - The Rite of Spring. In the front you  can see the Firebird that streches out it's arm. It's a - Don't miss in Paris!

Panda Belleville - Great Vietnamese Sandwiches!

Sometime it just happens! You find that exact taste of something you have had in another country. This place in Belleville in Paris serves food that really tastes like you are in Vietnam. The place have a few tables if you want to eat there but most people come here to pick up their great sandwiches. For 3,5 Euro you get their big baguette ( that is a bit softer then the normal French baguette like the ones made with rice flour in Vietnam) filled with a big selection of things. I can really suggest the one with warm beef fried with onion, pickles carrots, peppers and coriander. It's just great! Prices are rock bottom and tastes are tip top!
16 Rue Louis Bonnet, 75011 Paris. Metro: Belleville

Rue Dénoyez in Belleville - The hipster street in Paris not to miss!

If you want to visit another part of Paris and skip the Latin Quarter that was the place to be over 50 years ago, then head with the metro to Belleville. This part of town has in the last years started to be the place for the cool hipsters with no kids! There are new restaurants pooping up every week and you can have food from all corners of the world. From late afternoon until 02.00 in the morning the Rue Dénoyez is the place to have drinks. The Follies bar is the best with nice and quick waiters. Is this the place in Paris were the drinks are served the quickest? The prices are also some of the lowest! You just have to love the Follies if this is your "cup of tea" A mix of Paris and Berlin!
Follies is to be found in the corner o Rue Dénoyez and Rue de Belleville.

The Louvre - Paris. How to avoid the long lines to get in!

Going to the great museums of Paris usually involves a lot of waiting in long lines to get in and once you are inside you have already spent some of your energy. If you are a group of people more then 10 you can simply make a group booking with the museum but it is rather costly. The best way is to go to buy your ticket at a FNAC store before you go to the Louvre. The FNAC stores are located all over the city but as a tourist it is most likely that you go to Champs Elysées or in the Latin Quarter. You pay about 2 Euros more for the ticket there but you save from 1-2 hours on a busy day at the Louvre waiting in line. To get into the Louvre there is one entrance by the pyramid and one from the shopping center under the Louvre. The entrance to the shopping  center is just by the small Arch of Triumph. If you do not have a ticker you have to wait in a long line to get through security checks but with a ticket you can get into a VIP line. Then when you are inside you have to wait in other lines to buy your tickets before you can enter. With your ticket from the FNAC in hand you can skip all that waiting in line! A suggestion is also to go to a restroom before you go inside the museum as those also have long lines. Now you have energy for the great collection!
FNAC Galerie du Claridge
74, avenue des Champs-Elysées

FNAC 77/81, bd St-Germain Paris 75006

Chapon Chocolate - Paris (winner of the best chocolate in Paris award)

Paris is full of places were you can find good chocolate. What I think makes Patrice Chapon Chocolate so special for me is that you can buy different kinds of Chocolate Mousse by the scoop to bring home. It is absolutely fantastic!
Don't miss this place if you like chocolate!
Chocolat Chapon, 69 Rue de Bac, 75007
http://www.chocolat-chapon.com/site.h

Fondation Beyerler, Basel, Switzerland

Just outside Basel easily reached by tram number 6 from the city center you find this small but great museum of modern art. For over 50 years the art dealer Mr Ernest Beyeler collected art. He then decided that he needed a place for his collection. He contacted his favorite architect Renzo Piano that has also made the Centre Pompidou in Paris to make this museum to house his private collection. The Fondation Beyerler has a nice collection of Andy Warhol, Giacometti, Monet, Mark Rothco, Calder and Miro among other great names. In the garden there is a nice cafe where you can sit and have a meal or a drink afterwards. A must visit in Basel!
http://www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/Home