Reflections on France (part 3): Feeling Social

No trip to France would feel complete without sampling some of the many sumptuous offerings Paris has to offer. Here, flavors are numerous, but my favorite taste is actually a taste of the nightlife. In search of just this I discovered with the other designers/exchange students a place cool enough to warrant repeat visits: Le Social Club Paris. Near the Bourse Metro stop at 142 Rue Montmartre, the club is an underground venue featuring a variety of well-known DJs catering to the still-flourishing electro scene in Paris. It has a number of chic (albeit expected) club-style lounge-booths, a large bar, fantastic sound system and most importantly great music. Décor is inspired by the would-be lovechild between Daft Punk and the movie Tron. So, if you're looking for some fun Parisian nightlife, I definitely recommend Le Social Club. Who knows, you might even meet someone...

Check out my own documentation of debauchery above and this cool making-of vid below!

Reflections on France (part 2): Early Morning Apparitions

During the last several weeks of the INSEAD exchange I was working on an extracurricular project with three MBAs (a business model competition sponsored by L'Oréal, in which our team placed 3rd out of an initial pool of nearly 15,000 teams globally!) In the final days before the competition we logged long hours while our normal class schedule required us to meet very early and/or very late. It was on one such early, misty morning I experienced something that genuinely alarmed and affected me.

The walk from my house to campus was about 25 minutes and took me through one of the oldest neighborhoods in Fontainebleau, an area of narrow, cobblestoned pedestrian streets. It was probably 6:30am, none of the stores were open and the streets were completely deserted. I walked alone, looking at the cobblestones a few paces ahead and mentally preparing for the tasks soon to be undertaken. As I continued I somewhat absently noticed there was a couple walking in the other direction about 10 meters ahead, coming toward me through the light fog. Without paying close attention it appeared to be a middle aged man about my height and a female companion, either a girl or shorter woman. They were walking arm-in-arm and were both dressed in muted earth tone clothing. As they neared I raised my eyes to take a more thorough note of them, and perhaps give a small gesture of greeting to the only other people braving a chilly spring morning. At a half glance they appeared unremarkable in every way...except one.

As my eyes came up to meet them they vanished into thin air. Naturally I was startled and stopped dead in my tracks. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? There was no street or alley they could have disappeared down; all the store fronts remained shuttered and locked. Everything remained perfectly quiet. Quickly looking all around I confirmed there was nowhere they could have gone. They had simply disappeared! And that wasn't all. At the very instant I witnessed it a strong chill ran through my body, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and the temperature seemed to drop 10º. I said something out loud, probably along the lines of, "what the f*#@? that was weird!", turned, and continued on my way.

THE CHECKLIST

Where I've been and where I most want to go...
Already visited (18):
Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Grenada, Hungary, Jamaica, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States

On the short list (15):
Alaska, Australia, China, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey

The World Is Flat!

In 570 BC, the famous mathematician Pythagoras (best known for the Pythagorean Theorem for finding the values of a right triangle) theorized that the Earth was round. At the time this was pretty radical thinking. However, given evidence such as the curved horizon of the ocean, the fact that a sphere is the most stable geometric form, and the clearly observable shape of the shadow cast by the Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse (seeing is believing), the scientific community began to take note. It was not until Columbus' famous expedition in 1492 that the then 2000-year-old theory was proven.

However...

Now Jack van Wijk of the Technical University of Eindhoven uses math again to show us iterations of what the world would look like if it were indeed flat. Enjoy this simple but beautiful animation.

Reflections on France (part 1): Curious Corners

This is the first of what will likely be a short series of posts reflecting on my brief but sweet experience living in France. I reserve the right to arbitrarily move between genuine, considered cultural observation and outright mockery. However, having said that, I have no discernible agenda and will most probably find a balance somewhere in the middle. My aim extends only so far as providing an informative whilst entertaining overview and I will try to exercise my savoir-faire. Now then, on to the point...
It is with real interest and nearly genuine concern that I feel I must report: the French seem to have an inexplicable aversion to inside corners. It took me some time to really identify this puzzling trend as its really not something one consciously looks for. Nevertheless, as I became aware of it, this construction habit became glaringly obvious. Examples of this odd architectural fixation are almost ubiquitous. I asked myself if this was just a perceptual thing, and if filleted corners where just traditionally part of French form language. This theory was quickly abandoned as observation soon proved the phenomenon is limited to inside corners between vertical planes. C'est bizarre! Eventually I began to snap photos of random occurrences for documentation and future reference just such as this. These are but a fraction of the examples I personally came across, and they don't stop with masonry. Many inside corners are cordoned-off by iron grates or single, quarter-circular railings.
Inquiring with numerous people, I found nothing more than conjecture...and perhaps equally as curious, a seemingly complete lack of awareness of the trend (which is odd given France is the only place I've ever seen this). I was offered some creative hypotheses, however, ranging from preventing people from hiding in dark corners, to abatement of places to discretely urinate in public, or even an effort to compensate for the pervasive sharp corners found in provincial French architecture.
*In my best Robert Stack voice* Effectively it remains an unsolved mystery. If you, or anyone you know, has information regarding this trend, please contact me at your earliest convenience.