Fields of Battle - Terres de Paix 14-18 (Jardin du Luxembourg)

Le Jardin du Luxembourg is one of the best gardens in Paris, and so it's worth visiting in it's own right. However, over the next few months you can also see a photo exhibition on display at the gardens, by photographer Michael St Maur Sheil. The exhibition takes a look at World War I, through photos of what remains in todays landscapes.

To give you an idea...photos include what remains of trenches, weapons, forts, mine craters, and of course, the cemeteries. Some stunning photography, and it's free.

There is also a giant walk-on map that gives you a quick history lesson on the movements of the World War I front lines.

59 Rivoli - An artist collective in a legalised squat - review

An art gallery you won't find in the guidebooks - 59 Rivoli. The website touts that there are 30 artists at any given time, with 20 permanent and 10 temporary, spread over 6 levels. It has a street art vibe, but you'll find other styles of art here as well.

Entry is free, and you can wander and see many of the artists working away in their studios, who are more than willing to chat.

The ground level apparently presents a new exhibition from an outside artist every 2 weeks, and you'll find small free music gigs at 6pm every Sat and Sun. Music festivals are also held twice a year which take over the whole building.

Ikea - from Paris - by train

I'm not sure if I should be supporting Ikea, but love it or hate it...Ikea is very handy when you need to furnish and create a functional Parisian apartment - quickly and on the cheap.

(Let's face it, given the condition of most Paris apartments, you're lucky if you had light fittings when you moved in).

But moving on....you won't find Ikea in Paris proper, but there are a few in the suburbs.

So...can you get to any of them by train? Yes.

1.  Find your way to Montparnasse Bienvenüe using the metro lines.

Current exhibitions at the Grand Palais - review

Monumenta 2014

These are my picks for the current exhibitions at the Grand Palais. There are others, and more coming soon, so you can check the official website for more options. And you can check out my post on the Grand Palais for for general info on the site.

1.  Monumenta 2014 - this is an exhibition that is held every year where a different artist is invited to do their thing in the vast main hall of the Grand Palais. This year it's a Russian duo - Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Strange City.

The artists have attempted to transform the Grand Palais into a fantasy world, like something out of a comic book. As you move through each room, you learn something new about the fantasy world, and slowly immerse yourself into the "strange city". The layout is like a labyrinth, which lends itself to disorientating the viewer, and is very effective at pushing the viewer to become even further immersed in the fantasy world.

Le Grand Palais - a newbie's guide

Another must see landmark in Paris - The Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées. Originally built for the 1900 World Exposition, the building now houses a variety of exhibitions and events.

Accessing the building can be a little tricky, as there are several entry points. Each entry leads to different isolated sections of the building, as summarised below:

••  The main hall under the glass vault - this is the architectural highlight of the building. It houses the large temporary exhibitions and events. Entry is only possible during exhibitions and events, so it's worth checking the website for current and upcoming events if you want to go inside. Annual events include the Art Paris Art Fair, a car show, a horse show jumping event, and the Monumenta exhibition. If nothing is showing, you can get a small glimpse through the doors at the main entrance (facing Av Winston Churchill).

Monet's house and gardens - a Paris day trip review

If you have even the slightest interest in Monet, then this is without question, the best day trip from Paris. Approximately one hour from Paris, Monet created a garden which I would say is his most beautiful piece of art (I won't say beautiful again, but it applies to everything I mention in this post).

What's there? 

1.  The garden - the place that provided the inspiration for many of Monet's most recognisable paintings. The garden consists of two areas...

The upper area is a large garden packed with flowers...I've never seen so many flowers in one space. I'm not sure how true it is to Monet's original garden, but it certainly is spectacular.

The Forest of Fontainebleau - Les circuit des 25 bosses

This guide takes the shape of me simply sharing my weekend adventure / challenge, and letting it serve as inspiration, or not, for your own expedition.

The challenge? To hike Les circuit des 25 bosses without using a car to get there. It's a bit risky, but I like that element of danger and trouble to keep everything on its edge.

So what is Les circuit des 25 bosses? Well it's one of the more interesting and rewarding hiking trails in the forest of Fontainebleau. It's name roughly translates to 25 bumps, so as you can imagine, it involves hiking up and down at least 25 times.

It's the perfect place to see the large boulders for which the forest is known. The catch is that it's on the western edge of the forest, about as far away as you can get from the normal train access point. As a result, normal access is by car. And hence my challenge...

The best free iPhone apps for Paris...

This post has been written for the iPhone 5S using iOS 7.1, however almost all of these apps are available for other smartphones, as well as tablets. Note that these apps are mostly from the French app store, and so their availability may differ in other countries (learn how to change your country setting at the bottom of this post).

So...what are the best apps for Paris? Well here's what I think, in no particular order:

1.  RATP - The official and well made app for the Paris public transport system covering the metro lines, RER lines and buses. It's particularly useful when using the bus network. Includes maps.

Spring exhibitions at Musée d'Orsay - review

There are two temporary exhibition treats to enjoy at d'Orsay this spring.

1.  Gustave Doré: Master of Imagination - This one was a nice surprise, as I went in knowing very little about Doré...so much so that the gallery staff felt sorry for my ignorance, and she gave me the audio guide for free!

The exhibition covers Doré's life works, from his early caricatures, his illustrations (his strongest body of work), his paintings, as well as other things he dabbled in such as sculpture.

Some of the highlights include the creative illustrations he did for the bible, his illustrations of Shakespeare's plays, and his landscape paintings (my personal favourite). You'll also see how his works have had a sizable influence on the comic book world, and the cinema world.

Musée d'Orsay - a newbie's guide

The Musée d'Orsay is one of the must see galleries in Paris, with a focus on the impressionist and post-impressionist art. In terms of art periods, roughly speaking, d'Orsay takes over where the Louvre drops off, and carries the baton through to where the Centre Pompidou picks up.

The building itself is worth the visit alone - a converted train station over 100 yrs old, which was almost demolished.

For the artworks, the big names include Monet, Cézanna, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Rodin, to name a few.

Paris housing prices

This is a short post for now, but this is such a good link, I just had to share it...

This cool interactive webpage has been developed by a real estate agency, and presents the housing prices per square metre according to the nearest metro station. Click the link to check it out.

The search for a decent takeaway crêpe...

I'll start by saying that when it comes to crêpes, you really need to find a good crêperie sit down restaurant. The range and quality is in a different league to your takeaway crêperie, and you get to enjoy it with a traditional glass of cider.

But where to go if you just want a takeaway crêpe? Where to go if you just want to tick the "eat a crêpe in Paris" box on your tourist to do list?

Unfortunately Paris seems to be swamped with sub-standard crêperie stands which are designed to suck money out of tourists. These are ok for a basic sweet crêpe (crêpes sucrées)...let's face it, it's a pancake with a blob of nutella on it...we're not talking rocket science.

Exhibitions for your inner geek - DC, Marvel & Star Wars!

Crisis on Infinite Earths - A storyline from 1985, allowing writers to
reboot the DC universe, which over 50 years had become a mess of
continuity errors 

Paris has three offerings at the moment for the nerd inside all of us (you know you have one).

1.  Super-Héros: l’Art d’Alex Ross - This is the smallest of the exhibits on my list but well worth the visit. It follows the works of Alex Ross, who (for the nerds that are not yet nerdy enough) is one of the most recognised comic book artists of recent times. The exhibition spans from his scribbly childhood drawings through to his works for both DC Comics and Marvel. The overall focus is on the DC Comics universe; think Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and all other things Justice League. 

••  Runs 5 Mar - 15 Jun at the Mona Bismarck American Center for art & culture (16e).

Grom - the best ice-cream in Paris...possibly the universe

What could possibly be a better recommendation for my first post on my first blog. Grom - an ice-cream store originating from Italy. And fortunately for Parisians, they have a store in Paris (in 6eme). What makes it the best?

••  quality ingredients, whether it be the seasonal fruit, the milk, the cocoa, the coffee beans, the eggs or even the water (apparently??).

••  no artificial colourings or additives.

••  unique and innovative flavours and an ever changing menu.

All this equals ice-cream flavours with party in your mouth freshness.