there is definately an art to doing nothing.
Down time is not a sport, and if creativity is a treadmill then you are going to the wrong gym.
I just spent last weekend in Paris with my gal, sitting in cafes, walking, laughing and people
watching. We came back extremely refreshed and inspired.
I also realised while there that it was the first time I had travelled abroad in a long time, just to hang out,
rather than for work, an opening or to be part of an event. No laptop, no phone, no worries x 2.
Paris seems to be the perfect place to do this.
We were lucky enough to hit the Pain-O-Chokolat party in Pigalle, which Fats covered on his blog. It was refreshing to be at a street party with such a diverse, happy, party crowd. Drinking wine on the street and watchiing a couple of hundred locals jump up and down to french beatboxing, teenage girls chasing young guitarists for autographs, sebastien tellier rockin up on his hire-bike, locals joining in from balconies and restuarants.
The very good vibe was only slightly marred by some american rapper who hadn’t quite picked up on all this and decided expletives, gunshot samples and having his arse touched up as he was held aloft by young parisian boys was the new religion. Anyway P-O-C crew are opening a new boutique on the spot, PIGALLE, so good luck to them with that, and thanks for a great evening.
We passed a couple of gallery openings that had live bands playing, still after midnight, and as we got back to our hotel that night, there was a street party outside, from the bar below, which went on until about 3am. Paris is indeed a liberal city, where you are more likely to hear the roar of a harley davidson than  a police siren.

Because the subway runs directly under, following,  the streets, it is quick and easy and v cheap to get around.
Also noted they have the public bike hire system, where you buy credit, take a bike out of the rack and then you can leave it in another rack on the other side of town. It works. People use it 24/7.

When ever you tell people your going somewhere, Its inevitible that they will suggest the best place to
eat/drink/go or do. After pretending to listen for five minutes about some awesome shrimp mojito joint, nod politely and say yes, i’ll be sure to look that up.

I would just recommend the city as a whole.

I guess like with most cities, all the good stuff, is the local indie places that don’t get a look in in hip-guides-to or super-city-websites. Its the atmosphere of discovery , pace and place.Women outsmoking men, swallows at sunset, peeling paint, calm, humour , signage, apparent simplicity, kissing in the street and all the stuff that you can’t  package, rebrand or even really describe.

Something like a cross between architecture and perfume…..

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 13:38 and is filed under Common stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.