Another week, oh how time flies. January went by in no time, and there are signs of spring in the air. Maybe a tad too much red and pink for the upcoming Valentine’s Day, maybe a combination of red from the festivities of upcoming Chinese New Year. Do you know, this year, both these days are on 14 February?

February’s Special

• Dana Boulé pays hommage to Paris in February.
• Chinese New Year festivities in Paris begins today with an exhibition at the Centre Culturel de Chine until the end of the month. There will also be other events including parades to look out for. We’ll also keep you posted.
• The Freemasons Museum is reopening next week on Thursday 11 February. This museum is bound to be fascinating, if my visit to a Masonic Lodge in Dublin was any indication.

Events in Paris

• Daniel Rose has got everyone – well, at least the foodies – excited with the opening of Spring Boutique and according to their blog, happy hour Little Saturday runs every Thursday from 5.00pm to 9.00pm. And as a bonus, there’s free event Voyage en Saveurs this Saturday 6 February, from 11.30am to 8.00pm.
• Something fun, especially for kids, and a chance to get to know the sharks better. Dans le sillage de requins is running at the Porte Dorée Aquarium until 6 March 2011, so plenty of chance to get there.
• Big into manga? Here’s a trade show that’s just for you this weekend!

Other Interesting Tit-Bits

• TEDx Paris 2010 took place at the end of last month but you can catch the videos online now.
• Do you know there is a fish spa in the city now? You know, where you sit there and let little fish gnom their way through dead skin. I was told it’d be a wee bit ticklish.
• Oh, there’s also brand new Brunch Bazar which seems fun-packed, with food, lessons and workshops.
• Ann Mah’s first novel, Kitchen Chinese, will be released next week on Tuesday 9 February and this honorary Parisian is embarking on a book tour which will come along to Paris by Wednesday 10 March 2010.

Ok, I have to grant you this picture was definitely not taken this week: such clear blue skies… Also, when would I have had the time to go to La Vilette? Still I thought it was a nice picture.

Last week

• A recap of Fashion Week on Mademoiselle’s blog

This week

• Ponies running wild along the motorway and the périphérique? It happened last Saturday! Fortunately, there were no casualties, just an impressive scene.
• A short recap of the President’s show on TF1 on Monday
• Last days to enjoy a special deduction for Versailles: 2 “passports” for 1! Until the end of the month, for visits in Frebruary
• This week is also the stage debut of Eric Cantona, with “Face au Paradis” at the Marigny theater co-starring Laurent Deutsch!
• Towards a ban of the niqab/burqa in public service areas? At least that’s what came out of the Parliamentary Commission on the topic

Next week

• Some Chandeleur guidelines! Happy crêpes day next Tuesday…

Later on

• Calais wants to be British? Well, at least they’re trying to profit from the 2012 Olympics in London… I hope it works out for them. Paris is not the only worthy place in France! (Even though I’m personally o so happy the JO are not in Paris, phwew!)

Random

• A NY Times paper on 2 famous Parisian “family” restaurants: La Tour d’Argent and Taillevent, both led by a third-generation family member.
• A very moving paper about Haitians in Paris trying to cope with the earthquake from afar.

Doesn’t this concept seem odd? I’ve always knows people riding bikes as having to follow the regular “code de la route“. Which meant, among other things: riding only one way on one-way streets and no riding on sidewalks. This could be very frustrating for those rinding on bicyles as it would mean a number of detours instead of taking the shortest route. (Not all were deterred though and I’ve often seen both people riding their bycicle in the wrong way on one-way streets and people riding their bycicle on the sidewalk… Some even assuming they should have priority on the pedestrians!)

Anyhow, it seems that, in order to favor bycicle use in Paris, one-way streets will become two-way by bicycles, thanks to an extra bicycle lane! All the info can be found here, where there is even an animation to illustrate how cars and bicycles will be moving along with these new paths. I’m sligthly worried about people not thinking to check BOTH WAYS before crossing such streets… But apparently, these lanes have already been in place in a few areas and things have been going well, with cars riding more slowly for example.

By the end of this year, almost all one-way streets where speed is limited to 30 kph should be equiped with the extra bicycle lane. I feel this could make quite a change for those using bicycles and encourage some who didn’t use bicycles before…

Wow, this is my first metlinks for 2010! Doesn’t it feel weird to write 2010? Well, I’ll get used to it soon enough I hope… Anyhow, here are some things that caught my attention this week, in a completely random order.

• For the past few months, a group has been living illegally in a luxurious mansion off place des Vosges as a way to demonstrate against the difficulties of students and others to find decent and affordable places to live in Paris. A sentence has recently been passed by justice that they will be forced out of the building. You can follow the whole story on the press review of this group’s website
• A lovely shot illustrating this week’s weather: Eiffel tower shrouded in mist…
• The possibility of a public transport strike on Feb. 3rd is looming…
• Watch for all the closing exhibits at the end of the week! Among others, Teotihuacan at Quai Branly will stay open every day until midnight before it ends on Sunday…
• But of course there are many more to come. Here is a proposed recap of upcoming exhibits!
• Three concerts are organised in Paris in order to support victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
• What about the soldes? Did you go crazy? Here’s the Figaro’s take on their success for this year.
• Neat post by David Lebovitz about mistakes onemight make while ordering in a Parisian restaurant.
• A funny mistake or maybe we should indeed make line 14 doubly automatic??

Street art: Jef Aerosol left his mark just off Rue Mouffetard, 5th arrodissement.

Dimanche, je marchais dans le jardin du Luxembourg et voilà que ma route est coupée : des cordons de sécurité bloquent l’accès à la partie centrale du jardin (toute la partie basse autour du grand bassin)…

La vue est originale : le centre est totalement désert, un fait rarissime, mais on peut voir les passants à droite dans la zone qui reste ouverte…

Je n’ai pas encore réussi à déterminer pourquoi cette zone était fermée, l’enquête est en cours.

———–
Part of the Luxembourg gardens was closed on Sunday, a mystery but also a rare moment of quiet.

Two weeks into the new year, and nearly a month since the blanket of white snow descended Europe-wide, the Arctic chill is finally going to ease off a little. We’re starting to see temperature around 1-3°C (yay it’s greater than 0) but there’s no telling exactly how long will this reprieve be. Brrr…

In The News

• Is the nightlife of Paris heading towards extinction? New York Times argues it is so.
• Pal Sarkozy (that’s the papa of Nicolas Sarkozy) has landed an one-man Surrealist art show in Espace Pierre Cardin in April. And the centrepiece of the show? A large canvas featuring his daughter-in-law, Carla.
• All the kerfuffle over Christmas attempted terrorist attack on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit has now seen rippling security tightening worldwide. The French civil aviation authority will begin implementing the body scanner in Paris at the end of the month on an experimental basis.

Lifestyle

• What is the favourite word used incessantly by Parisians? “Putain!“, claimed Olivier Magny.
• Are you a creature of habit when it comes to eating out? Or are you the adventurous kind who are constantly in search of some place new, you’re trying to challenge François Simon for his job?
• In the mean time, is wine bar the new trend for dining out? Here are a few of the best wine bars that you could check out next.
• Looking to pamper yourself a little in the new year with some Chinese foot massage session in your own home? At €40 an hour, it’s not too bad a deal and quite nicely, you have no need to go out in the cold!

Exhibitions

• Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson (not to be confused with Fondation Cartier) is hosting an exhibition of the works by the renowned photographer Robert Doisneau from 13 January to 18 April. Not to be missed!
• “Au détour de Jourdain” is a photography exhibition by Farida Hamak, and will be open to all (free of charge!) at the Centre Culturel Algérien. It runs from 13 January to 6 February.
• When children become the young models in which their parents try to capture their essence of lives in paintings – “Les Enfants Modèles, de Claude Renoir à Pierre Arditi” is currently on exhibit at Musée de l’Orangerie until 8 March.

Happy New Year! We trust you had had a good winter holiday, and tell us, did you become a king/queen yesterday? And how have your first week of the year pan out so far?

New Year

• Did you make any new year’s resolution(s) for 2010? Penelope felt hers look rather familiar…
• January means winter sales! Les soldes officially started yesterday, and if you need a little navigation help, check out its official website. By the way, there’s extraordinary opening hours until 9 January.
• Zeva of Paris BAO, featuring Sharon Bowman, introduces 10 great champagnes for the new year. Who says champagne is dead?

Special Requests

• Adam took on a special request from one of his readers, featuring photographs of a location dear to a New Hampshire man. Adam has also generously offered to research and feature similar requests.
• Don’t just chuck them – recycle your Christmas trees instead. There are 95 collection points around the city, and get them in before 24 January.

Culture

• A few days before Christmas, the catacombes of Paris have reopened after a few months of closure, to deal with the aftermath of vandalism. Hurrah for the reopening! That place is spooky but cool spooky.
• From 13 January to 21 February, the Monumenta Project at the Grand Palais will feature an exhibition of the works by Christian Boltanski.
• The 260 black and white columns by Buren at Palais Royal took approximately €1.5 million to install, and to restore them, another €4 million was put through! The restored columns will be inaugurated tomorrow, Friday 8 January.

In The News

• The folks from UK are chiming in on Sarkozy’s call for les grandes écoles to admit more students from low-income families.
• What defines “Frenchness”? The motto of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité? As the debate of French national identity continues, foreign press including BBC, The Guardian, LA Times, Huffington Post and Sydney Morning Herald publish their pieces on the issue. The most curious article, in my personal opinion, is that from The Independent, which admittedly is not all about the identity debate but touches on Sarkozy’s remark on the meaning of fraternité – then promptly blames Parisians of the ills of society in the form of rudeness.

Tis the week between xmas and the new year and things should be pretty quiet in the city. But are they really that quiet? Let’s see…

This week

• Disappointed by the xmas presents? Why not sell them on the web?
• The end of the RER A strike last week-end and some traffic on RER C between Paris and Juvisy should also be noted.
• Yves Rocher, founder of the brand that wears his name, died last saturday at 79.

This year

• Taking it easy with our 3-year-old smoking ban? This article mentions growing numbers of people starting to ignore the ban…
• The tradi to overthrow the baguette?

New year!

• Details on what metro will be running at what time on New Year’s Eve. And for free!
• Did you check out the Eiffel Tower light show? It runs up until 31th so don’t miss it!

Next year…

• New rules to liven up Parisian dance scene?
• 2010 in Paris means it’s been 100 years since the last major flooding (floodings that used to appear on a 100-year cycle basis…) To commemorate this event, an exhibit will begin on January 20th at the Pavillon de l’eau
• Prices will be on the rise as well… SNCF trains for example, but also taxi rides and many more things I guess…

http://31decembreaparis.com/ propose de retransmettre en direct les festivités parisiennes du nouvel an donc où que vous soyez vous pourrez en profiter !

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has got some holidays to enjoy now… I’ve tried to keep up the metlinks but this week will be a “short edition” as I’m late to head over to my mum’s place already!

This week

• Pictures of the snow last week in Paris
• A recap of the train issues in Paris this week: Eurostar, RER A and C… I’m glad I was staying home under the duvet!
• Eurostar vs. Eurotunnel, who’s at fault? A recap of what was going on in the tunnel last week.

Misc

• A picture of the city’s oldest tree apparently planted under Henry IV! I must go have a look!
• A take on Parisian macarons. While there may be some truth in this post, as a Parisian woman, I’m not sure I agree. I may be fat (depends on your point of view I guess) but I don’t care and I eat my macaron from any number of places… But maybe that’s just a “subversive act”?

Next week

• A few suggestions on how to spend New Year’s Eve in Paris

Here are the two weirdest decorations I’ve seen in the streets of Paris. They both happen to be quite near the rue d’Ulm, known for its occasional odd activities indeed, but I’ve spotted the one late last week and the other yesterday…

Here is the bear-can xmas tree? A lot of effort really went into this as 3 trees / bushes were decorated, almost every single branch having its bear can on top of it… Quite impressive if unfortunately not eco-friendly…

I would have thought the cable between the buildings to be meant for xmas decorations but when I looked up, I only saw that pair of shoes… I really wonder why / how they ended up there…

Si vous connaissez vraiment bien vos piscines parisiennes, ce concours est pour vous ! Vous avez jusqu’au 4 janvier pour associer chacune des 15 photos proposées à la piscine où la photo a été prise… Bon courage !

A slightly early edition of Metlinks for this week, because I want to give a special shout-out to Bij, who has a big big day ahead of her today. No, not a wedding, silly. Nonetheless, good luck home girl!!

Winter Activities

• It’s winter wonderland for the kids between 3 and 17 years old at Charléty Stadium, from 19 to 31 December. Charléty sur neige opens daily (except Christmas Day, of course) between 1.30pm (1.00pm during weekends) and 6.00pm. Note though, the last entry time is 4.30pm. And oh, this is completely free!
• Christmas in Paris is not the same without a stint of ice-skating in front of Hôtel de Ville and/or by Gare Montparnasse. From 18 December to 6 March 2010, it opens daily between 12.00pm and 10.00pm during the week, and between 9.00am and 10.00pm during weekend and public holidays.

Delicious Goodies

• A short list of chocolatiers in Paris, including Patrick Roger, Jean-Paul Hévin, Patrice Chapon and Michel Cluizel.
• Have you seen Pierre Hermé’s Christmas Specials? Oh what I wouldn’t give to have one of the buches de Noël, or the flocons, or the limited winter edition macarons. Check out this PDF of their festive offerings.
• This is perhaps the most sumptuous pastry feast video that I’ve ever seen.

Menu For Hope

• Food bloggers worldwide come together at this time of year to make Menu For Hope a success year after year. David Lebovitz is hosting the edition for Europe and UK, and many Paris-based food bloggers are offering amazing items for bidding.

Unfortunately, Les Grèves

• This month has been a barrage of strike actions one after another, not to mention the on-going ones among the museum workers. The foreign press weighs in on the issue too.
• On the other hand, Anne discovered while the strike may be taking place, the entry may also be free and the ticket requirement waived. (I don’t know though if this is the case every time such an action takes place, so don’t quote me on it!)

Do You Know..?

• Many of the metro stations in Paris are culturally rich, and adorned accordingly to the stops or to the history behind the names of the stops. Have a read at this very interesting article.
• Let’s learn some French expressions with podcasts by Katia and Kylie Mac. The girls are fun and sassy, often accompanied by “Frog”.

We mentioned previously that the Musée du Luxembourg is about to close.

There have also been all the strikes affecting Beaubourg, the Musée d’Orsay, even the Louvre or Versailles… (Most museums seem to have reopened though some are “free” because of strikers blocking the cash desks.)

Anyhow, now, it’s time for the Palais de la Découverte… I know this has been under discussion for a while: closing the Palais before it’s grown too “dusty” and that the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie “does the same thing”. Apparently, the decision has become official that the Palais de la Découverte will die at the end of this year. Whatever remains are left will be integrated with the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie. I’m quite curious ready about the current exhibits: this week, “The hunger of dinosaurs” was just launched and it’s supposed to run until May. The few images I’ve seen seem striking, I hope many will be able to enjoy that exhibit.

If you think it’s a shame for the Palais de la Découverte and its traditions of bringing science to the large public, in its own way (because it’s not “just like the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in old and shabby”!), then you are invited for breakfast over at the Palais de la Découverte: every day (except on Mondays when it’s closed) from the 8th of December from 9am30 to 10am in the Hall d’Antin. Just bring your thermos of coffee, your croissants, etc. to show support or take part in what seem to be the last days of this institution…