Paris Werewolves

Prototype for a scaphandre (atmospheric diving suit) invented by Alphonse and Théodore Carmagnolle (1882), and the inspiration for the Big Daddies in Bioshock (2007). Despite my love of coastal areas and lighthouses, I don't have any burning interest in naval and maritime history. Don't get me wrong: I wish I were nautical (or at least had a friend with a sailboat and a generous disposition towards lubbers). Treasure Island is one of the few books that I can read over and over, and I enjoyed both The Sea Wolf and The Terror . I'm eighth on my library's waiting list for The Wager . I can bait a hook, tie a few knots and I don't get seasick. Other than that, I've never really felt the lure of seafaring per se. But I do like museum exhibits with practical items, and that was enough to get me to the Musée National de la Marine, just across the Seine in the 8th Arrondissement. It's jam-packed, not just with all the oars, anchors, sextants, cannonballs, cutlass...

Little Big Bear, bedecked in glorious Blue and Gold, 6th Arr. For reasons I have not figured out, there seem to be more than a few allusions to Berkeley and its iconography around France. So far I have found two restaurants in Paris named "Berkeley;" another in Lyon was painted Blue and Gold, as is the Little Big Bear Pub in Paris' 6th Arrondissement. One wall of honor in Harry's New York Bar--operating in the 2nd Arr. since the 1920s--rightly places a vintage Oski pennant above hundreds of others.  Oski glowers from atop a wall in Harry's New York Bar, 2nd Arr. A trio of Berkeley establishments in Lyon, and in the 8th and 7th Arrs. The restaurant names probably refer to either Berkeley Square in London--which sits on land originally owned by the third Baron Berkeley of Stratton (1663-1697)--or to the Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753), Bishop of Cloyne. From what I can recall from my undergraduate philosophy courses (not much), Bishop Berkeley (pronoun...

"Nest in Liaigre" (2023), Tadashi Kawamata, 8th Arr. What more can you say? Curiously, though just a block away from the frou-frou shops of the Champs-Elysées, no one else seemed interested enough at that moment to snap a photo.  Or maybe because it's just a block away from the frou-frou shops of the Champs-Elysées.

Fontaine du Fellah (1806), 7th Arr. Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest (and looting) of Egypt set off a flurry of interest in the arts and culture of ancient civilizations that thrived along the Nile. The design motifs that made it back to Europe were of course a pastiche, jamming together different epochs and dynasties of the region that now includes both Egypt and Sudan. The pastiche approach is understandable. By the time Alexander III of Macedon conquered the region around 330 BCE, there had been about 3,000 thousand years of pharaonic rule, very little of which would be interpretable to the West until after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by French scholars in 1799. But Egyptian motifs show up in quite a few places in Paris, such as the Fontaine du Fellah (1806) near the Vaneau metro station. Despite the name (which connotes "peasant fountain") the fountain is based on statues of Osiris, Egypt's ruler of the dead. You can also find sphinxes around town, including a...

Tyrannosaurus Terrorizes Tower! Timorous Tourists Tremble! Ray Bradbury's 1951 short story "The Fog Horn"--inspiration for the cinematic masterpiece " The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms "--relates the age-old tale of a relict prehistoric beast's unrequited love for a lighthouse, and the destruction that ensues. Sadly, such occurrences are all too common.

If your apartment overlooks Place Rodin in the 16th Arr. and you love art, you might feel lucky to see a cast of Auguste Rodin's "l'Âge d'Airain" (The Bronze Age) every time you look out your window. There are casts of it in the Musée d'Orsay, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Met in New York. So I feel like I'm getting a good deal when I walk by it for free a few times a week on my way to Jardin de Ranelagh.  If you don't like art, it's just a guy flashing you--which may or may not be an issue. He's been there since 1947, so there would be little point in complaining if you didn't want to see it. Two perspectives of Rodin's "l'Âge d'Airain." Not that many people in France would bother complaining. Nudity in public art in the U.S. isn't very common, and is almost unheard of as exterior decoration on buildings. That's what made Attorney General John Ashcroft's cover-up of the "Spirit of ...