Paris Werewolves

The 13th Arr. seems to be the epicenter of Paris street art. There are not only numerous building-scale artworks, but decent quality graffiti abounds. There are also quite a few Invaders (invading, I guess).   Slow down and check out the 13th Arr. This is not just my opinion. The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau has put together a street art walking tour of the 13th . I've seen most of the large-scale, commissioned works they include in the map, since they center around the apparthotel where we stayed for a month when we first arrived in Paris. But walking around the neighborhood for the first time since then reminded me of how much there is to see in between the major would--which, if you stopped to pay attention to all of it, would make the entire walk daunting. I may do it anyway, if the cold, rainy weather ever relents. I can at least skip the Shepard Fairy wall. It's nice, but he's more of a t-shirt company these days. It seems so familiar that, chances are, you...

The Great God Pan in the 7th Arr. A few years back, I read Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908) for the first time. I was not surprised that the book was very different than the story told in the 1949 Disney cartoon The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad , which was then my only point of reference. But I was not prepared for chapter 7 , in which Rat and Mole, after searching all night for Otter's lost child, have an eerie encounter with the great god Pan. “Rat!” he found breath to whisper, shaking. “Are you afraid?” “Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. “Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I am afraid!” Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.  It seems like an odd passage in a children's novel, and Pan doesn't reappear anywhere else in the book. Then again, it may be the key to the entire story, especially if the cover of the book's first edition is any indicati...

Walking from point A to point B in Paris is like strolling through a museum of France's artistic, cultural, and political history. Routine errands can take you to places of historic importance--the Place de la Bastille in the 4th Arr. hosts a marché every Thursday and Sunday--and past Beaux Arts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Haussmanian, Regency and Imperial architecture. You'll also see carefully curated public artworks--principally sculptures and statues commemorating historical events, personages, classical culture, and even the ideals of the reigning monarchy, republic, or empire. You'll also see a lot of street art--some of it professional and commissioned by building owners, some of it unsanctioned and guerrilla, and some just plain graffiti. I don't have a good definition of what street art is, except that you know it when you see it. Below is a street art example that stopped me in my tracks a few days after arriving in Paris. I was walking outside of a Monoprix (thin...