fluoro in Paris
In Paris, it is often discussed that anything can be interesting as long as there is a story to tell.
Walking the streets on an early Sunday morning you can understand why. The buildings, the cafes and facades of the finest fashion ateliers, allow you to weave your imagination visualising where some of the world’s greatest icons and artists once lived.
The city of lights still boasts an exceptional population of around 2.3 million people and over 10 million that extend to the suburbs, filling the Paris streets with bustling cafes, galleries, exhibitions matched with black-wearing personalities with lit cigarettes in their hands.
Whether you choose to walk the streets, cycle, take the bustling metro or hire a private car, your experience of this city will depend on your ability to keep up with the vibrant and passionate nature of its people and landscape.
For a city that lives through the night and indulges in chocolate bread for breakfast, this fast paced city of maximum hedonism will leave you blinded by the vastness of your own imagination.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Pablo Picasso
Often judged for its rich history and referred to as the ‘museum city’, there is much more than just a compilation of clichés such as the Louvre or the obvious Eiffel Tower (which are still in fact quite remarkable pinnacles) that are to be discovered.
As people shuffle around contemporary Paris, so do the levels of modernity and new ideas. Neighborhoods such as Le Marais and Strasbourg St-Denis keep you looking for a change in this multi-cultural boiling pot of influences.
Seldom do you notice people walking and eating or holding a takeaway coffee as they rush for the next activity for the day. Time is sacred when it comes to a rendezvous with a friend or business colleague, suggesting that good ideas (design) are the roots of meaningful relationships and time.
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Coco Chanel
Take a walk down Avenue Montaigne and preview the latest collections from the largest fashion houses or simply gaze at the display of graphic fashion campaigns that decorate the streets, giving you a feel of the next season’s collections. Take a break on a park chair in the Tuileries Garden and watch a display of elderly couples play Pétanque or simply have a coffee at your favourite cafe and watch the free runway show of street fashion pass you by.
The irony of Paris lies in its extremities where at times you can feel like you’re on a film set from the 1920s to the sterile neon lights of a contemporary art gallery. Your experience of this wonderful ‘city of lost poets’ will teach you the nature of reciprocal generosity: it gives to you as much as you give to it.
Smile, speak gently, be responsible for the energy you bring to the street and if you don’t speak French, at least master the word, Bonjour!
