I’ve done it! I finally tried Velib!!

It’s surely very useful when it’s 3am , there’s no more metro running and you don’t want to take the night bus… Except that between 3am and 4am some of the station “reboot” during 15min…

Since that experience, I wonder if I should buy a bike… And then comes the good news : next saturday (12th september) a second-hand bikes sale will take place  near metro “Pont Marie”. Actually that will be the opportunity to see lots of animation around bicycle !

All useful informations are on the Mairie website.

Another exchange/sale of second-hand bikes will take place the week after (19th september) in front of “Mairie du XIV”, there again, go to their website for all informations.

See you on the bicycle lines!

What to expect with the rentrée so close?
Lots of things, I’d hardly know where to start!
Here are a couple things off the top of my head:

Starting on Sept. 15th, the Festival d’Automne
Starting on Sept. 18th, a new exhibit at the Cernuschi museum “Les buddhas du Shandong”
On Sept. 19th, there’s the Techno Parade.
On Sept. 19th and 20th, there will be the Journées du Patrimoine.
From Sept. 18th to 20th, it’s Sud-Ouest sur Seine.
On Sept. 26th and 27th, it’s la Fête des Jardins.
Until Sept. 27th, go to the CLAMP manga exhibit.

So enjoy these last few days of peace and quiet ;)

Wonderful Kandinsky exhibit at the Centre Pompidou is open from 11am to 11pm daily until 10th of August (Monday!). The price is steep (12€) but gives access to all the exhibits and the museum, so allow time to enjoy it ;) And don’t forget your camera for the great view of Paris rooftops you see on the top floor!

The name Gustav Eiffel is synonymous to the iconic Eiffel Tower of Paris, of which the latter celebrates its 120th anniversary this year. It is therefore, a fitting tribute, that an exhibition is currently taking place at the Hôtel de Ville to pay homage to Eiffel.

While the exhibition is chiefly related to the design of the Eiffel Tower, the building processes, modellings and the likes, some of Eiffel’s other works were also on display. Drawings and blueprints, models and armatures of bridges and Statue of Liberty were also on exhibit.

A model of the Statue of Liberty's armature; a painting of the construction of Statue of Liberty

The exhibition hall is largely divided into two sections, of which a smaller on to the side showcases Eiffel’s various achievements. In the larger part of the hall, the predominant topic is that of the afore-mentioned famed tower by the River Seine.

The display is also supplemented with works that have been inspired by the aesthetically symmetrical steel tower. From various proposed modifications following the original expo to the series of 36 views of the Eiffel Tower by Henri Rivière (of which incidentally, there was an exposition of his works at the Bibliothèque Nationale recently), and from paintings by Robert Delauney to photographs by Man Ray.

The exhibition runs from Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 7pm, at the Hôtel de Ville. It closes on Sundays, as well as on public holidays. There is no admission charge.

It is initially slated to run from 7 May to 29 August, but is now extended to 30 September. There are also exhibition tours for adults every Thursday at 11am, of which booking is required. Please call 01 42 76 51 53 for reservation and/or further information.

Coincée à Paris cet été, j’essaye de trouver le moyen d’avoir de micro vacances ici et là…

Comme chaqué été, il y a bien sur Paris-plage pour ma part, si vous trouvez les quais de Seine trop peuplé pour être agréables, allez voir du coté de la nouvelle “extension” le long bassin de la Villette (métro Jaures ou Stalingrad) où a aussi lieu L’été du canal. Transat, partie de pétanque ou “bal barge” vous trouverez forcément de quoi vous occuper.

Si vous êtes sportif ou plein de bonnes résolutions, je vous conseille de tester la gym suédoise des courts gratuits ont lieu jusqu’à la fin du mois dans les parc de Choisy (mardi, jeudi à 19h) et Montsouris (lundi, mercredi à 19h, samedi à 11h). C’est mon coup de coeur de l’été ! L’ambiance est sympathique, on se défoule en musique et en plus pas de courbatures ! enfin à part après le 1er cours…

Et vous vous faites quoi cet été?

Oooooooooo

Aaaaaaaaaa

Er… where’d the tower go? (Part of the finale)

The open air movies are back at Parc de la Villette and this year, it’s free once again (after the disastrous fee-paying season last year) to encourage cultural appreciation of world cinema.

This year, the season runs from 15 July to 16 August, daily except Mondays. Movies start at nightfall, around 10pm-ish. Here is the programme for this summer:

• Wed 15.07.2009 – Le Nouveau Monde (aka The New World) – 2h16 – USA (2006)
• Thu 16.07.2009 – Hana-Bi, feux d’artifice (aka Fireworks) – 1h43 – Japan (1997)
• Fri 17.07.2009 – Pirates des Caraïbes / La malédiction du Black Pearl – 2h20 – USA (2003)
• Sat 18.07.2009 – Profession : Reporter (aka The Passenger) – 2h04 – Italy-France-Spain (1974)
• Sun 19.07.2009 – Vera Cruz – 1h35 – USA (1954)
• Tue 21.07.2009 – Les Promesses de l’ombre (aka Eastern Promises) – 1h40 – USA (2007)
• Wed 22.07.2009 – Voyage en famille (aka Familia Rodante) – 1h43 – Argentina (2004)
• Thu 23.07.2009 – Le Mariage de Tuya (aka Tuya’s Marriage) – 1h32 – China (2006)
• Fri 24.07.2009 – L’Aigle des mers (aka The Sea Hawk) – 2h02 – USA (1940)
• Sat 25.07.2009 – Into the Wild – 2h27 – USA (2007)
• Sun 26.07.2009 – Little Sénégal (aka Little Senegal) – 1h38 – France-Algeria (2000)
• Tue 28.07.2009 – L’Épouvantail (aka Scarecrow) – 1h52 – USA (1972)
• Wed 28.07.2009 – Capitaine Achab – 1h45 – France (2007)
• Thu 30.07.2009 – Planète interdite (aka Forbidden Planet) – 1h38 – USA (1956)
• Fri 31.07.2009 – Broken Flowers – 1h45 – USA (2005)
• Sat 01.08.2009 – Le Secret de Brokeback Mountain (aka Brokeback Mountain) – 2h14 – USA (2004)
• Sun 02.08.2009 – Buud Yam – 1h37 – Burkina-Fasso (1997)
• Tue 04.08.2009 – Mulholland Drive – 2h26 – USA (2006)
• Wed 05.08.2009 – Golden Door (aka Nuovomondo) – 1h58 – Italy-France (2006)
• Thu 06.08.2009 – Little Miss Sunshine – 1h40 – USA (2005)
• Fri 07.08.2009 – America America – 2h48 – USA (1963)
• Sat 08.08.2009 – Trois enterrements (aka Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) – 2h – USA (2005)
• Sun 09.08.2009 – Le Grand Voyage (aka The Great Voyage) – 1h48 – France-Morocco (2004)
• Tue 11.08.2009 – Le Fanfaron (aka The Easy Life) – 1h45 – Italy (1962)
• Wed 12.08.2009 – Macadam à deux voies (aka Two-Lane Blacktop) – 1h42 – USA (1971)
• Thu 13.08.2009 – In This World – 1h28 – UK (2003)
• Fri 14.08.2009 – Monsieur Schmidt (aka About Schmidt) – 2h05 – USA (2002)
• Sat 15.08.2009 – Amistad – 2h35 – USA (1997)
• Sun 16.08.2009 – Fitzcarraldo – 2h37 – Germany (1982)

For more information, check out the official website at Parc de la Villette. Also, don’t forget to check the weather forecast before heading out. ;-)

La Défense Jazz Festival has been running for the last couple of weeks now, but this week is the high point of the festival, with jazz à la carte performances on a daily basis at l’Esplanade de La Défense, as well as the National Jazz Competition of La Défense.

Here’s the full programme for the remainder of the festival this week. For ease, know that:
- the midweek performances (Monday to Friday) will be at noon (just right during lunch break)
- the competition : 5pm to 8.30pm on Friday 26 June and 1pm to 4.30pm on Saturday 27 June
- Saturday 27 June show will be at 8pm
- Sunday 28 June show will be at 7pm

Of course, as previous years, the shows are all free, hurrah!

Some of you may remember from last year, especially since I made a post about it, the Academic pride is a demonstration for all academics nation-wide to proudly assert their work (and also complain about the ongoing changes the government is trying to impose on them). All the info can be found in French here about the meeting etc. It will be held on June 4th and the start is at 14h from the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

Ne ratez pas ce soir !