From Place To Space: Paris Travel Tips

Salut from Paris, friends! I am still in the ever inspiring French capital where I visited the Maison & Objet design show yesterday. Today and tomorrow I will be discovering new places and spaces in the City of Light to share with you. In the meantime, I want to give you a few Paris travel tips from my last trip to the City of Lights.

I will keep it rather short with text but rich with photography as I think Paris is a predominately visual city that tells more through its sights than words could ever describe! 

So here we go with a few tips for your next trip to Paris:

Printemps Department Store: The historical department store Printemps is located just next to the famous Galeries Lafayette and is a real secret tip - this is probably the best photo location in the city! Printemps consists of two big buildings and one of those, the building hosting the homes & beauty section, has a huge rooftop terrace and café on the 9th floor. It is free, rather quiet as hardly any tourist knows it and it offer the most superbe 360 degrees view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Sacré-Coeur and many more sights. You will not regret a stop-over there! Plus you can enjoy a cup of coffee or even a lunch break on a sunny day.

Café Pinson: For a healthy lunch break or coffee and cake moment, opt for the cute Café Pinson. It offer a full range of organic, vegetarian and gluten-free food and beverages with a cute and cosy interior design. There are two cafés in Paris, one in the 3rd and another one in the 10th arrondissement.

Bob's Food Etc.: Another fabulous hot spot in the 3rd arrondissement for good, organic food - very yummy and very popular, so feel free to squeeze in on the large, communal tables. 

Bistrot Vivienne: This charming Parisian bistro is located in the luxurious Galerie Vivienne close to the Parisian 'Bourse' - it is the epitome of a French café with chic guests and dapper garçons. 

Nord Marais: Another hip locations in the 3rd arrondissement! This restaurant offers good food and a great atmosphere - vintage furniture fills up a bright space with a little library - after all, we're in Paris. We drink a glass of red wine, eat a Croque Monsieur and we spice everything up with literature!

Grand Palais: Not only impressive as an architectural oeuvre, but also home to some of the best exhibitions in town, the Grand Palais should always be on the agenda of a Paris trip. The queue will be not as long as at the Louvre (especially if you buy the tickets online in advance) and you will enjoy great art - I visited the Depardon exhibit which is on until February 10th, 2014.

La Gâité Lyrique: The 'Space for Digital Cultures' in the 3rd arrondissement is one of my favorite discoveries from my last trip. This historical Parisian building hosts a very modern space for digital fans - mutual workspaces, a tiny photography studio, an open library. All this is topped off by an exhibition space that currently features 'The Happy Show' by the Austrian artist Stefan Sagmeister. The New York based artist detects the DNA of happiness through various installations - many of those requiring the active participation of the visitors. So fun!

I hope I could give you a few new travel tips for your next trip to Paris. I will share more over the next weeks so make sure you come back or drop me a line if you have any specific questions.

À bientôt!

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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From Place To Space: San Francisco - Part Two

What better way to start a new Monday than with travel and fun? After last week's first coverage of my recent San Francisco trip, here comes the second part of my happy voyage. Today I would like to focus on some shops, restaurants and cafés - just to give you a bit more of the unique flavor of the city by the bay.

I was a lucky duck cause I had local guides who showed me around and gave me real insider tips - Jordan of Oh Happy Day, Ana of Fluxi on Tour, Einat of Design Break Blog and Jeanne of Shop Sweet Things took me out on two subsequent days and made my trip not only cool but excellent. Thank you ladies!

To begin with, let me name a few areas that are sort of hot spots for shopping fans: Valencia Street in the Mission, Filmore Street close to Pacific Heights, the Ferry Building in Embarcadero, and Hayes Valley. But let me tell you about a few places that inspired me most. Off record: Don't miss the popular Lombard Street, also known as the crooked street, it is really lovely and the view of the city from up there is beautiful. Try to zoom out the hordes of tourists though. 

If you love a sort of curiosity shop with unique décor elements, lots of natural goodies like home plants and crystals, you will enjoy Paxton Gate on Valencia Street. It is like a curiosity cabinet and unlike any other store I've visited before. Of course, I was totally smitten by all the greens and bought an air plant and a vintage plant pot.

On the same street you will discover a pretty new store that is actually two stores in one. Until recently, Little Paper Planes and the Owl Cave were online stores but both owners united their forces and opened up their first mutual store in the vibrant Mission district. A fabulous assortment of fine homeware, books and magazines, handmade jewelry, fashion and body care products make it difficult to leave the store empty-handed. Here again, I bought a SF based magazine and some presents for a friend. 

Just opposite is Aggregate Supply, yet another cool store with home décor, home textiles, fashion and cosmetics - great to buy unique pieces just like my cast iron whale bookends. If you feel exhausted, you will find lots of great places to take a break in the area. Chocoholics should stop by at Dandelion Chocolates. From the moment you open the door yours nostrils will encounter the warm and sweet scent of cocoa and you will feel the pheromones rushing through your body. I recommend the hot chocolate - rich, velvety and delicious! Coffee lovers should enjoy a cup of poured coffee made with a Chemex right in front of your eyes at the hip and trending café The Mill. Oh and feel free to taste some of their divine pastries or buy a loaf of freshly baked bread.

If you need more cool, unique and handmade goodies, head to Rare Device on Divisadero Street. The shop has a huge selection of art prints, many of local artists, that are ideal souvenirs. If you head to Filmore Street don't miss the Jonathan Adler store, Steven Alan for great fashion and Le Labo for handmade, customizable perfumes and scented candles with fabulous packaging design (oh and they have a boutique in Paris too, I plan to go there in December). You can continue all the way to Hayes Valley for more shopping fun and lots of great sweets stores like Miette or the macaron place Chantal Guillon, coffee is great at Ritual Coffee Roasters and food is prime at La Boulange. Voilà!

The popular Ferry Building in the Embarcadero district is another popular shopping destination. Lots of small shops and food stalls will entice you into roaming around and - consequently - shop. Heath Ceramics features a little store in the Ferry Building, the famous Blue Bottle Coffee is just opposite, and great, local food and produce are to be found there, too. I bought some amazing Californian olive oil from Stonehouse Olive Oil. Recommended!

I'll draw a line here and let you go into your Monday - hopefully a sunny, not stressful and above all happy one. 

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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From Place To Space: Discovering Vancouver

It’s been a week now that I am back from my trip to Canada and the USA and my lightweight jet lag has been worked off properly so I thought I’ll start with my series of travel related posts covering my 3-weeks road trip experience to North America. Last week I had a soft launch with this post about a community garden in Vancouver. The Canadian West Coast metropolis was my first stop so here we go with a little Vancouver recap.

Vancouver is a great travel destination: You like city life. Check. You like nature. Check. You like mountains, you like beaches? Double check. Vancouver has managed to acquire an enviable image. It is the city where urban life & nature collide, where people are very, I mean very outdoorsy and where a sporty attitude is a prerequisite for future inhabitants. The possibilities for a healthy outdoor life are paramount: bike trails everywhere, an abundance of parks, water sport activities, hiking and climbing spaces just to mention a few. And that outdoorsy attitude is omnipresent on the city’s streets.

For a first time visitor like myself the most important to-see destinations were quickly determined: the busy waterfront, bustling Gastown with its cool shops, bars and restaurants, a stroll through Chinatown (did you know Vancouver has the largest Asian community in North America), walk’n’shop in the liberal West End, discovering the famous Granville Market, a cruise on the Burrard Inlet. And I herewith confirm – yes, do all of this if you end up in Vancouver one day.

And with all the outdoor activities you can count on one phenomenon: hunger. To tackle that problem opt for a healthy, locally grown lunch in the beautiful restaurant ‘Rainier Provisions’ in Gastown or a bite at ‘Nelson the Seagull’ followed by yummy donuts from the Cartems Donuterie (I had the earl grey donut with rose petals) and topped with a delicious cup of tea (and more tea to take home) at David’s Tea or a fresh coffee at Revolver Brew Bar.

But the best food experience will lead you on a boat at first: Take the water taxi to Granville island and discover the abundance of food at Granville market – you can’t resist the all the juicy, fresh fruits, the luscious delicatessen and fresh bread and pastries. You can easily spend the entire day there eating and drinking, walking around, visiting art galleries, the famous Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and one of the many breweries with local microbrews.

For a serene, almost zen-like experience head to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden – you can either join a guided tour or do it my way: Stroll around by yourself, discover hidden corners, sit down and contemplate, behold the beauty of the jade tigers, sip on a cup of Chinese green tea, and challenge yourself in Chinese calligraphy – at least you’ll know if your talented or not. I know now. I’m not.

For more nature in town experiences take a boat cruise on the Burrard Inlet to opposite North Vancouver, walk around the immense Stanley Park and sit down at sunset hour on Second Beach or the English Bay to immerse yourself in the flaming reds and oranges of a Pacific sunset. Don’t miss the trendy Yaletown quarter with cool shops, restaurants and a hip crowd. During my stay in Vancouver, I’ve discovered two very cool interior design stores that I will share with you in separate blog posts soon. Stay tuned!

I left Vancouver invigorated with a fresh spirit of an urban life that has embraced its surroundings – the beautiful and vast nature – and has defined urban life in its own terms: a life strongly bound to nature and outdoor activities. A pretty healthy city life.

Photography by Igor Josifovic

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From Place To Space: Bloggers In Hamburg

Today I am taking you to a super fun trip – a blogger meet-up in Hamburg. The past weekend some great German bloggers organised a meet-up in the northern German city and set the basis for a personal get-together of some of Germany’s finest lifestyle bloggers writing about interior design, DIY, food, styling. Our Hamburg ‚home base’ was the stylish design hotel 25 Hours Hotel.

For me it was a pretty exciting trip. First of all I got to meet some fellow bloggers that I’ve been following on the net for quite a time. Secondly, I had the opportunity to get a better introduction to the cool city of Hamburg.

Our blogger weekend kicked-off with a urban breakfast in a superb location called ‚Fabrik’. On Saturdays this industrial hall hosts a local farmer’s market, live music and delicious breakfasts and brunches.

After gallons of coffee and heaps of yummy food we headed to explore the western borough of Altona – a cool mix of suburban culture and non-mainstream shops like the ‚Kaufmannsladen’ or the famous candy store ‚Bonscheladen’. Later on we continued downtown to the so-called ‚Hafen City’, the harbour area with its huge cruises, a mix of old and modern architecture and a brisk ‚North Sea’ type of breeze.

After a good deal of fresh sea breeze, we went back to the famous Eimsbüttel area for some more shopping and interiors and decoration inspiration. We discovered the beautiful boutique ‚Interiör’ with a refined selection of design items and DIY materials like happy ribbons, witty gift tags and colourful packaging thread. I couldn’t resist and bought a roll of pastel blue packaging thread and an aqua-hued dip-dyed and handmade Raku candleholder. Just around the corner is another gem, the ‚Kongehus’ store with a stunning selection of paper, stationery and decoration items. I bought a few rolls of beautiful paper and the cutest hand-made cards with quotes from literature written with an old typewriter. A few steps further you will find ‚Lecker Wohnen’, a store with a rich selection of Hamburg inspired goodies and decoration. All these goodies will be featured later on here on Happy Interior Blog.

To add more fun we ended up in a tiny yet adorable little café called ‚Osterdeich’. This location is known for its signature cupcakes – and we were invited to design our very own cupcakes which was big fun. Now I know I am the chocolate-blueberry type. We had all the afternoon to network, exchange experiences, plan new projects and get to know each other more thouroughly which was a unique experience. Moreover we received some amazing goodie bags. Saturday was rounded up with a delightful dinner in the stylish restaurant ‚Klippkroog’ which made our interior design loving hearts skip a beat. A cool mix of urban and Scandinavian style with stuccoed ceilings and eye-catching pendants as well as old, bulky wooden furniture made me enjoy my dinner twice as much.

The entire blogger meet-up was brought to an end with a delish breakfast at the cute ‚Tarterie’ café in Hamburg’s entertainment quarter St. Pauli.

What else can a blogger wish for a weekend? Meeting other bloggers, discovering a new city, shopping in inspiring interior and decoration stores, eat in stylish restaurants? Have a happy week, friends!


P.S. Thanks to Clara, Ricarda and Susanne for the excellent organization!

Photography: Igor Josifovic

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