Patek Philippe...(28/8)

Visiting the museum has been one of my plans when I first arrived at Geneva this summer, but it was until the last weekend before my departure that I had a chance to visit the museum. Out of my expectation, the collection house showed off its abundant reserves of gorgeous ancient watches and clocks. It was a great pleasure for me to look at the stylish classic watches during the art nouveau and art deco era. From the glance of the collection, the skillful use painting technique has featured one of the successful reasons to explain the brand's best of its class during its centuries of history. A watch in the museum is like a historical approach to the modern development of watches and clocks. One of the most attractive vitrines is definitely its display of different pocket watches the brand manufactured for royal families and rich people in the 19th century. See how the company could commercialise its production with the different taste of kingdoms and clientele. The aesthetic focus of the exhibition unexpectedly under-weighs the technical side of its fine artisan mechanics applied to their products. Just to learn about the Czech heritage of the brand and to me, the product itself is a classy demonstration of art and technology overtime. See how waterproof was made a century ago, the evolution of multi-timing design, the retro-style of pilot watches in the 30's...imagination has never been compromised over time.

Ten of the many vieux restaurants, Paris...(9/8)

Gastronomy - this is the privilege of the French, and for me, I am particularly fancy of the old restaurants in Paris, not only because of the quality of food or the history of who ate where and what, but the 'art deco' features and design inside these restaurants, brasseries or cafes depict a very nostalgic image to me about the Parisian culture of the old days...it is always amazing to check out those remaining facade or wall paintings, old photos and decorations, classic staircases or interior structures like the royal ceiling, classic doors or rococo columns inside these eating place. Of course utilities including glamorous lightings, old-fashioned clocks and drawers or historical ventilation fans etc. are all valuable appetizers that you would usually find in the century-aged eating salles. By chance, the above photos are just some views of ten old restaurants I visited in Paris, and all of them preserve their pride and fame since the old days. Not necessarily better than other famous old dining places, these restaurants, however, have collected some piecemeal memory of my dégustation...

Brasserie Lipp - 151 boulevard Saint Germain
La Closerie des Lilas - 171 boulevard du Montparnasse
Restaurant le Fouquet's - 99 av Champs Elysées
Brasserie Terminus Nord - 23 rue de Dunkerque
Brasserie l'Européen - 2 rue de Lyon
Bouillon Chartier - 7 rue du Faubourg
La Taverne - 24 boulevard des Italiens
A la Petite Chaise - 36 rue de Grenelle
Le Roi du Pot au Feu - 34 rue Vignon
Le Procope - 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comedie

Daum...(8/4)

...et des roses sortaient des eaux, et des esprits sortaient des roses...

Premiere of Paris Cinema...(30/6)

The avant-premiere of an opening film, l'avion, directed by Cedric Kahn was played at Grand Rex this evening. This was one of the programmes of the Paris Cinema. The screening venue, Grand Rex, is actually an impressive cinema with spacious seats and lovely statues. It possesses the features and sense of old-style grand cinema - an art-deco facade, classic cinema chairs, nicely installed cinema lighting and enhanced accoustic features, a buffer zone outside the screening room and the outside roads, a transition space for a separation of reality and virtuality - a classic design of true fantasy for cinema audience inevitably. The salle was first opened on Dec 8, 1932, and it has been a landmark on Boulevard Poissonnière since then. The design and construction work was managed by Bluyssen, the architect of the cinema as well as the US engineer, John Eberson in 1930. The cinema can now accommodate 2,800 audience. Again, this is just another evidence of the history of film in the city.
On Oct 5, 1981, the building was inscribed to be historical structure by the Ministère de la Culture.