In the birthplace of French jazz, our neck of the woods, comes the 12th edition of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Jazz Festival, dedicated this year to all things to do with the piano. Expect loads of concerts of course, but also quirky events like the « live jazz and chocolate tasting » session! Here’s all the info… (lire la suite / continue reading)

A group exhibition of 50 rarely shown exponents of naïve art from around the world… (lire la suite / continue reading)

Owned by the Paris city council, the Ecole du Breuil is nestled in the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern edge of the city. Not normally open to the public, their open days are a great, free event.

On offer is free gardening advice, pony rides, guided visits, homemade cake to taste, a plant sale, an art installation, a vertical vegetable patch and much, much more!

photo by Олександр used under cc licence

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The official contest for the best baguette in Paris has just awarded the 2012 top prize to 37 year-old Sébastien Mauvieux, whose boulangerie can be found at 159 rue Ordener (here). Yep, that’s right on the other side of the city from our hotels, unfortunately.

And it’s the sixth time in five years that the winner is as far away from us as you can go without tripping over the city limits. Bah!

Anyway, if you want to know what the winning criteria are, or have a look at a map showing the top ten bread shops from the last five years, read on…

photo by actappan used under cc licence

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For this year’s Monumenta, the biggest art installation of the year in Paris, 74 year-old Daniel Buren will taking the reins, once again at the Grand Palais, one of our favourite venues in the city. (lire la suite / continue reading)

Click the photo to read the accompanying text and see more work from Laurent Lafolie.

It’s quite odd to have lived in a city for twenty years, thinking you know almost everything that’s great about it, only to realise that something everyone else is talking about has, somehow, passed under your radar. L’Epi Dupin, for example, has been in the same spot, quietly doing its thing and getting pretty rave reviews from both tourists and foodies, since 1995. How did that happen?

Anyway, please find below our admittedly very late review (i.e. a decade-and-a-half late) of a small restaurant on the Left Bank with a global following and severely yummy food.
photos: JasonW
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Free (apart from the temporary exhibitions, like the one about Atget), and huge, the musée Carnavalet is truly fascinating, with the whole history of Paris learn and look at – signs, maps, models, paintings, furniture, whole rooms recreated and even a perfectly preserved Art Nouveau shop.

Here’s our tour of the great museum…photos : JasonW (lire la suite / continue reading)

Focusing on the last millennium in the history of the pharaohs, The Twilight of the Pharaohs brings together over 100 objects lent by the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and many others…

© Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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This annual water-themed festival has a serious side (how flooding could affect the Paris area) and a fun side, with boat trip, shows and music. Oh, and it’s called the le Festival de l’Oh.

If you’re looking for a weekend of great events by the waterside, this could well be it. Here’s all the info… (lire la suite / continue reading)