Chill out!!!

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Sometimes you wonder... what can you expect more in life when on your table there is an amazing foie gras anda spectacular smell of flowers? My father's collection of cigars wasn't touched ... only pictures were taken. I do not like the smell of cigars...I prefer the one of wintersweet!

Round and round and all around!

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This year I didn't buy any gifts! I decided to get myself some dvds ("Paris", "Paris e t'aime" and "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis") and an annoying toy for my dog Tiger...we had to drink some mojitos to relax!!!

In, On and Out[side]

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On the table a funky glass, in the kitchen my mom's famous cabbage (yummy) , outside the snow on the pomegranade tree!

Colors, compositions and...Amaretto Disaronno!

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Christmas days are over! Maybe not!!

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Christmas days are over! Colors, textures, compositions, are going to be missed...or maybe not! The food marathon will be going on until New Years day...then I will surely start dieting!!!

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!!
I'll be with my family eating a lot for two days!!! I will take hopefully tons of pictures and I will be posting again soon!

And so this is Christmas...2

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Last day of work! I've decided to change my plans for celebrating Christmas. I wanted to go party around the city the 23rd and the 24th and celebrate Christmas day with my family. But I partied a lot during the past weekend and I am very tired (of partying too much!!!). So...24th with my extended family (cousins, oncles, aunts, and the more you have the more put it!!!). And 25th huge lunch at my parents! I am getting old! I can't party like I am still 20 years old!!!!

First "Christmas-Dinner"

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I believe that non-fully-planned dinners are usually the best ones! We decided to plan one just a couple of hours before! Apéritif, chicken with mushroom cream, roasted potatoes and obviously couple of bottles of good wine! Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Photographic analogy

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late afternoon - early morning
decoration - protection
angels - walls
protection - protection
opera - castle
from the street - from my bedroom
Paris - my town

What I got!!!!!!!

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In the previous post I didn't tell you what I actually got in my suitcase coming back home! First of all let me say one thing: since I left LA I've never had the chance to speak english here in my home town so, I love to read in english almost everything I buy, especially fiction. But, since I'm swiss (!!) I have the luck to speak italian (mother language), french and some german. so, when I am in france, I try to buy french books, at least those that are originally written in french.
I love then to sit down in a café, with an espresso and read.
These are the books I bought in Paris:
1. Saul Leiter (Photo Poche) . Photography book (in french)
2. "Ce jour -là" , Willy Ronis (Folio) . Photography book (in french)
3. "Le testament des gouttes de pluie", Einar Mar Gudmundsson. Fiction (in french) English version.
4. "Le bateau du soir", Vonne van der Meer. Fiction (in french). English version.
5. "Le spectateur émancipé". Jacques Rancière. Non-fiction. (in french). Not yet translated but check out his other titles.
6. "Les Mystères de l'ile Saint-Louis". Roger de Beauvoir (in french).
Then I got to the airport and I needed something to read since all these books were already checked in and so I got 2 other books:
7. "City of Bones". Michael Connelly. (in english)
8. "Chasing Harry Winston". Lauren Weisberg (in english)

The city of books!

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Premise: I love reading. I love books. Everytime I go somewhere I have to watch really carefully what I put in my suitcase. Not too much since I know that, when I come back, the luggage is heavier because it's filled up with books. This time I decided otherwise. I left home with a lot of empty space, just in case! But I promised myself not to buy the very heavy exhibition official books! And that's what I did! But obviously walking around a city where you find bookstores at almost every corner was a very hard job. Temptation is a very tricky thing! I love all those little bookstores in the streets of the Latin Quarter. I went inside each one of them, even those specialised in medicine books!! No kidding!!!
Books, their cover design, their smell, the stories they hide inbetween their covers, how can you just walk away from them??
These two shots where taken close to the Sorbonne University. Books were stored in these drawers that actually come out from the facade of the building! To tell you the truth I didn't buy any...at this particular store. But I would lie to you if I told you I came back home empty handed: I left switzerland with a 9 kg suitcase. I left Paris with 16 kg...!!!!

"La complainte de l'heure de pointe"

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Interesting to see low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of stations throughout the city of Paris. Part of a program that aim to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place. Even with the very cold weather people use them all over the city. When I saw these stations full of them I couldn't stop smiling and I would start whistling Joe Dassin's song "La Complainte de l'heure de pointe (À vélo dans Paris) "!!!!!! Just listen to it, it's actually very funny!
....I have his cd in my car... most of my friends won't jump on it!!! But I love some of his songs very much!

Paris la Belle!

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"Paris la belle" is the name of the exhibition held at the Hôtel de Ville retracing the work of Jacques Prévert, including photo collages, screenwriting and poetry . Unfortunately I couldn't go. Actually, that's a lie! I would have gone if there wasn't, everyday, that huge line at the entrance that reminded me the one when the first Mc Donald's opened in Russia! Too cold to be outside waiting!!! Looking at the billboard hanging on the wall it was already a very surreal momentum, with the lights of the beautiful building giving the ultimate touch to it!

By the Louvre

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At night things assume a total different characteristic. These were shot by the Louvre. I passed by during the day but, for some reasons, the image of this fragment of urban reality didn't catch my eye. The city at night doesn't obviously have the same personality as during the day!

And so this is Christmas...

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I am not really into Christmas decorations but these, displayed at the Galeries Lafayette, are breathtaking. It's funny how there are complaints about the economy all over the world but, during Christmas noone seems to care. At least with decorations! Power of consumption???

Roof or new ground?

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Looking at he city from above makes me always wonder: Is what I see the top of it, the end of vertical urbanisation or is it simply a new beginning, a new ground? A different point of view, looking down, instead of walking through the streets looking up. Every city has something hidden, even on top of its buildings. Everytime I look at roofs "Rome open city" come back to my mind.

Thoughts, coffee and consumption

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Museum: the nest of cultural journeys. A place to view. A place to interpret. A place where reality assumes a different image. An image that is ultimately up to us to read and understand with our personal interpretations, associations and rememberances. But yet, the museum, it is also a world of consumption. After I go through the museum spaces, no matter in what city I find myself in, I end up first at the museum café and then inside the museum store and/or bookstore. The "psychological-trip" inside a musuem is very tiring. You wander through spaces and images / objects / sculptures trying to interpret and define whatever message the artist is trying to express. A message about screwed up society, about history, about politics, about nothing at all! Sometimes the the dual realationship between actor and spectator becomes a blurred entity. And I start thinking about who is in fact the real actor??? The piece of art stealing our curiosity or us, the viewers, trying to make sense all we see??? I need coffee really bad! And also a cigarette! But no smoking anywhere!!! Well, I just drink my tiny espresso and write down my thoughts. I ultimately end up at the store. The place where art becomes consumerism. Books, watches, t-shirts, mugs, rings, notebooks and even artsy shoes become the missing piece of the "culture-momentum-day" puzzle. People buy. No matter what. And they all go back to their hotel happy. With their museum bag, which is, for some, as fascinating as the Bloomingdale's small brown bag!

Ron and Starbucks!

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Ron Arad and Starbucks's Vanilla Donut! Just a delirious / delicious similarity! Form and taste vs. form and space!

No Discipline - Ron Arad @ the Pompidou

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First stop Centre Pompidou. Amazing exhibitions here! The main one Ron Arad's "No Discipline". Intriguing, colorful, beautifully presented...without discipline!