November 18, 2011 by Marisa Williams
You’d think that as a travel photographer who’s endlessly enamored of Paris, finding infinite inspiration for things to shoot in the City of Light would be proverbial cake. Well, you’d be wrong. At least where this Francophile photog is concerned!
My problem with Paris (and what a wonderful challenge to have) is that after so many visits, what was once a mysterious new wonderland to discover and dissect through the lens is now a favorite, intimately familiar old haunt. So when I found myself “stuck” in Paris for two weeks last spring per that little volcanic kerfuffle in Iceland instead of down south in new-to-me Nice, I was actually un peu perturbed.
After settling into the reality that I’d be in Paris awhile — and potentially a really long while if that blasted Eyjafjallajökull didn’t pipe down already, I finally began to relax and reflect on how best to start a fresh relationship with this city I had captured through my lens so many times before. In the end, I don’t know what I was so worried about! With a few simple adjustments to my habitual Paris routines, seeing the city anew was easy.
Even though you’re not in Venice, go ahead and get lost.
Armed with my trusty copy of Michelin’s Paris par Arrondissement, I wandered sans worry. One of the most important things I learned was to take the time to explore and absorb at a leisurely clip – day or night. Rather than defaulting to the subway, the bus became my primary mode of public transportation. Better to survey large, unfamiliar chunks of the city that way, and scout new nooks and crannies to tackle à pied. Similarly, if I did ride the metro, I used it to reach pockets of Paris that I’d never seen or strolled before. It was fantastique.
Get up early, or stay out late.
As on any trip, I set my alarm to rise and shine before the sun and the city. I love doing this and particularly in a place like Paris, both for the dreamy photo opps and for the priceless experience of watching timeless cityscapes come to life. Plus it’s just about the only way you’re going to score some private time with landmarks like La Tour Eiffel. Unless you’re willing to stay out way after dark, which isn’t really my thing, but man — talk about interesting photo opportunities. Continue Reading »
Posted in Arts, Travel | 7 Comments »
October 12, 2011 by Adrian Leeds
Navigating the real estate scene in France can be tricky — even more so when you are unfamiliar with the labyrinthine bureaucracy and unusual quirks the French can be known for. Adrian Leeds, who specializes in helping Americans negotiate the market to secure their dream pied-à-terres in France, just recently ventured into the market in Nice. She shares a few anecdotes from her colorful experiences here. -Geneviève
Years ago I set my eye on the goal of purchasing a “pied-à-terre” in Nice for a long list of reasons:
1. Nice is nice. Let’s face it, it’s the Riviera, the Côte d’Azur, the land of the rich and famous with the blue Mediterranean Sea, balmy weather, palm trees and Italian flavor. What could be so bad?
2. Property in Nice and its environs is increasing in value on a steady basis. With an international airport and an active port, the blue coast is France’s second hotspot after Paris. This makes Nice, and just about all of the coast, an excellent real estate investment.
3. R and R…the moment one lands at Nice’s contemporary and easy airport, and you head toward Nice down the Promenade des Anglais under the swaying palms with the sea at your side, the stress just melts away. Traveling to Nice from Paris is fast and inexpensive, making weekend getaways about as easy as it gets — a perfect antidote to the cold, gray, rainy winters in Paris.
4. Rental potential of vacation apartments, particularly for the North American market, is ripe for business. While the British and Italians are well served by their own compatriots, Americans have been overlooked. Americans want and expect a higher standard of luxury and service than their European counterparts know how to provide. From a business perspective, Nice was looking awfully nice. Continue Reading »
Posted in Homes, Travel | 11 Comments »
October 6, 2011 by Amy Thomas
Ladurée macarons in their sleek box (Louis Beche)
For years, everyone—especially New Yorkers—has been clamoring for the death of the cupcakes. Let those pastel-colored, frosting-slathered, sprinkled-adorned, oh-so-cute sugar bombs be over! Can we puh-leeze move on?? And it would appear, with Ladurée’s arrival on Madison Avenue, New Yorkers may finally get their wish: the macaron could soon trump the cupcake as the sweet du jour.
Ladurée’s new NYC store, and its line of fans (Amy Thomas)
Of course Parisians are well acquainted with Ladurée, the 149-year-old salon de thé that purportedly invented the macaron. But with the exception of savvy New Yorkers who used to raid the Champs-Elysées store for a box of Technicolor two-bite treats, and then proudly parade their pale green shopping bags around the Upper East Side, the French brand has remained an exotic import to New Yorkers. Which explains the two-hour queues.
To be fair, by the time I made it to Ladurée, three weeks after it opened, the line was down to a 15-minute wait. As if I were a macaron virgin, the dauntless teenager in front of me who had previously waited hours for a Ladurée hit, told me the sweets “were totally worth the wait.” Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Travel | 12 Comments »
September 13, 2011 by Bryan Pirolli
Paris might be our one true love, but there is always room for summer flings. As the season of summer getaways winds down and our very own Erica Berman soaks up the pasta and capuccino in Genoa, Bryan Pirolli tells us about his (short-lived) love affair with another irresistible Italian city: Napoli. – Geneviève
Shades of Italian architecture
I did a very bad thing. I left Paris to spend some time in Naples. There are some jealousy issues there.
Since I moved to Paris, I have never spent as much time in another European city as I have in this Italian port town. After just a week of feeling and acting like a local, I knew I was in love with Neapolitan culture. People actually stop you in the street to help you, to recommend which souvenirs to buy, or which beach to visit. Literally, pull up a chair and join the street sitters – it is Mediterranean culture at its best.
Everyday life – Italy
On my last day, I feared returning home to my first love. The piazzas, the sun that turns your skin a leisurely brown, the gesticulating yet welcoming Italians – how could I leave this? Paris all of a sudden seemed lacking in so many Italian essentials – and not just the perfectly ricotta-filled cannoli. What’s worse, I knew Paris would be able to smell my new Italian love affair all over my clothes.
A Genovese stoop
Thankfully, as I started walking through the City of Lights again after my week of Italian bliss, the familiarity of it all made me feel at home. All of the things I usually take for granted stood out a little more –the things that, as a visitor, I didn’t have with my Italian fling. Continue Reading »
Posted in Italy tips & suggestions, Travel | 7 Comments »
August 22, 2011 by Ariel Kocourek
Spending a summer in Paris is a dream come true, but as the Parisians rushed away to enjoy the famous French summer holidays, we got a bit envious and started dreaming of our own escape into the countryside. Thankfully, we were in for a treat: a day trip to one of the most famous regions of France…Champagne! We were invited along by Sydney Kruger, owner of A Tasty Side to Life, a private tour service that specializes in unlocking doors to some of the best small producers of the region.
Picked up in the morning by a private driver, Sydney, a girl who knows her way to my heart, had croissants waiting for us in the car. As we made our way out of Paris to the fresh air of the countryside, she filled us in on the history of the region (still one of the least visited in France), and gave us some great information on how champagne is actually made. By the time we arrived at the first vineyard, we had enough knowledge to taste like the pros. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Tours and Classes, Travel | 6 Comments »
August 3, 2011 by Charlie Almond
Corsica: the (not-so) hidden gem of France. It’s that droplet in the Mediterranean, the little spot on the map that’s always got better weather than you. It’s a small island spattered with tiny coastal towns, separated by mountains with winding roads so narrow, a pair of mountain goats would have to walk single-file. My girlfriend’s people come from there, so we decided to take a trip to discover this place, these people, and if possible, avoid any mild-mannered political arson that might come our way.
Now, to imagine a Corsican, take a French person who talks like an Italian and spends all day at the beach, et voila! Corsican identity is fierce. You can’t find a store, street, or product that doesn’t bear the proud Corsican flag. Corsicans admit they’re known for being a bit lazy, but certainly not lacking in ambition. A common postcard has a Corsican flag running up the Eiffel Tower with the motto: “yes, we can”.
As you could assume from the place that brought us Napoleon (the dude, not the dessert treat), Corsicans are tough. You’ve never seen so many serious faces relaxing at the beach. There’s also quite a bit of mafia down here. The term ‘vendetta’ was basically started in Corsica – or Sicily; there’s actually a pretty serious vendetta going on about who really started it. On the flip side, Corsicans are a genuinely welcoming people – all you need to win their affection is to share their appreciation of their homeland. Continue Reading »
Posted in Travel | 18 Comments »
July 8, 2011 by Erica Berman
Eco House Tremeoc Brittany
Summer is here and the crowds are starting to flee Paris for the coast. As I tend to do things in reverse and will be staying in Paris this July to enjoy all of the amazing summer festivals and events, I hit Brittany for a two-week jaunt in May, just before the summer throngs descended upon its lovely shores.
Canal Nantes – Brest
After searching long and hard, mere days before our departure, for last minute lodging that would be not only earth-friendly and green, but appealing and available, I stumbled upon two different eco-homes in Brittany that were, amazingly, available for our dates. Note to self: Planning in advance can be helpful, but if you are willing to chance it, great places that are still available are often ready to discount in the spring. Plus the weather is fabulous and the beaches are empty!
Ground House – Mellionec, Brittany
Our first week was spent in the Ground House , located in the center of Brittany’s rolling green farmland in the town of Mellionnec, one hour from the ocean. This completely self-sustaining eco home, built into the earth on one side and full of huge windows overlooking the garden on the other, was just the thing we were looking for. Built by its English owners and featured on the famous UK show ‘Grand Designs‘, this passive solar house was built with salvaged materials and features an organic garden, a compost heap, dry/composting toilets, and solar heated rainwater for hot water.
Canal Nantes Brest / Farm Centre Bretagne
Not well known, the center of Brittany (Centre Bretagne) offers an abundance of hiking, walking and biking options. Additionally, we were pleased to discover that the area immediately surrounding the Ground House is a serious haven for bio (the French word for organic) fans, with an organic grocery store, a couple of organic restaurants, local artisans, organic shops, and markets where local farmers sell their produce, meat and dairy directly. Continue Reading »
Posted in Green, Homes, Travel | 6 Comments »
July 1, 2011 by Maggie Battista
Like a foulard worn just-so around the neck of a Parisienne in jeans and a t-shirt, thank you notes can add a touch of class to otherwise banal encounters. In fact, gratitude is experiencing a serious comeback, thanks in no small part to Leah Dieterich, an advertising creative director and writer who just last month released her book, thxthxthx: Thank Goodness for Everything, based on her popular blog of the same name.
Leah is visiting Paris at this very moment, falling in love with all the little things that make this city so perfect. And, lucky us, she’s agreed to write a note exclusively for the Hip Paris blog. This note in particular made me personally smile, as it’s sometimes a bit of a struggle to keep Parisians engaged with my very poor French…
Continue Reading »
Posted in Travel | 6 Comments »
June 2, 2011 by Steve Brenner
Steve Brenner and his wife Linda Martinez moved to Rome with the dream of opening an eco-friendly hotel and indulging in delicious Italian food. Here, Steve shares his tips for getting our attempts at Italian cuisine to taste a little more like what comes out of an Italian mamma’s kitchen…-Geneviève
Pasta Carbonara (no cream!) and garlic: two Italian staples (Ghirson; Sivandsivand)
Everyone agrees – Italian food tastes better in Italy. Part of this is due to the superiority of the ingredients when bought locally. When you buy mozzarella in Naples or Gaeta olives in Gaeta or pecorino in Pienza, you are partaking in an experience that will not be the same even just an hour or two away. In Australia or the US, or any other really big country where things are produced to last long distribution distances, even people who live near the source are eating something made to withstand days of transport. A tomato in California or an orange in Florida tastes the same as they would in Montana.
Spaghetti Vongole; A typical Italian doorway (Erica Berman)
Yet there’s another reason Italian food tastes better in Italy – it’s the cooking techniques that are not easy to adopt elsewhere. It’s not about precision and elaboration. Instead, it’s about knowing what to leave out and how to combine a few simple, but seriously tasty, things for maximum flavor.
If you read non-Italian language cookbooks in an attempt to find these secrets, look out – you are being deceived. Perhaps it’s a conspiracy by Italian grandmothers to keep the uniqueness of the Italian kitchen from being too accurately reproduced outside the boot, but the truth is (and I may be at risk with the food police for spilling this information) Italian recipes are not reproduced faithfully by English speaking writers. Italians would almost never use 1 whole onion in a pasta sauce (and Italian onions are about 1/4 the size of an American one). Two tablespoons of oil? Ha! I guffaw when I see a recipe that asks for 2 tablespoons of oil. I go through about a liter of oil a week.
An example of this can be found in a quick search for the Pugliese dish – orecchiette with broccoli. A Google search of “orecchiette with broccoli recipe” in English and a search of “ricetta orecchiette con broccoli” in Italian turn up two very different recipes – the English one calls for 2 tablespoons of oil and 4 cloves of garlic, while the Italian recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of oil and one glove of garlic.
I learned to cook in my early 20′s because I was living in Italy with no money. If I wanted to eat cheaply, I was going to have to fend for myself. So I asked lots of questions and kept my eyes open and found that Italian cooks are very willing to share their “secrets”, because there aren’t many actual secrets. They make things the way they’ve always made them, true to tradition with subtle varieties based on location and availability. When Italians ask their Mamma, who learned to make orecchiette from her Mamma, how much garlic or oil needed to make the dish, she would say, “poco e tanto”. If I asked my mother, she’d email me the recipe. Continue Reading »
Posted in Food, Italy tips & suggestions, Travel | 13 Comments »
May 23, 2011 by Badaude
HiP Paris friend, contributor and wonderful illustrator Badaude is coming out with a gorgeous book, London Walks, chock-full of witty drawings and snapshots into the lives of Londoners. In honor of the book launch happening next Monday at Shakespeare & Co, we asked Badaude to give us her top spots to hit up in London for a weekend getaway… Check out her list below for the places to stay, eat, drink, shop and stroll. PS: And if you’re in Paris, feel free to stop by Shakespeare & Co next Monday night to celebrate the launch of London Walks and more! -Geneviève
Badaude’s new book, London Walks
Stay at The Zetter Townhouse:London’s newest and hottest hotel is a clutter-chic bijou Georgian townhouse in the quiet square behind the original Zetter Hotel. Bedrooms are a riot of eclectic 19th century fun. Mine had a bedhead and wall panel taken from a French 3rd Republic carousel, an ipod dock housed in a red retro radio and, most stunningly, as well as the state-of-the-art drench shower in the bathroom, a mahogany-pillared bath set into an alcove in the bedroom.
Downstairs mixologist Tony Conigliaro’s hot cocktail bar looks like a London pub (busy Victorian paintings and pleasingly eccentric taxidermy) only more comfortable. Kick back on one of the cozy sofas and let staff serve you tapas-style snacks as you study the innovative drinks menu. With so many clever inventions it was a tough choice, but I wasn’t disappointed when I ordered a Somerset sour (apple brandy, cider, gomme and lemon) – a heavenly ice-cold balance of sweet and sour. My date went for a sharp Richmond (Chivas Regal, apple honey & Lillet blanc ). Both arrived in cute retro glasses — the perfect finishing touch. We picked at a platter of delicious pates and Parma ham, fresh buttery radishes, English cheeses and sardines on toast pimped with a pimento puree, accompanied by a carafe of aromatic Jurancon sec (£30 for 50cl). We felt too full to make use of the bar’s table tennis room afterwards.
Rooms from £185. The Zetter Townhouse Website.
Eat at: St John.This is hardly news to residents, but if you only eat out once in London, you won’t find an experience more British than Fergus Henderson’s legendary ‘nose to tail eating’. If the whitewashed restaurant pushes the abbatoir look a little beyond your comfort zone, the meaty menu lives up to the ‘everything but the squeak’ premise. The last time I was there I had a roasted marrow bones with parsley salad (£7.10) followed by Calf’s liver and shallots (£18.40) . Was there a part of the menu that wasn’t offal? The British cheeses and Eccles cakes (£6.80) were sublime.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Arts, Travel | 4 Comments »
