Parisian Pads You Can Borrow for an Epic Party

So I heard Paris is cracking down on Airbnb landlords again. The city is officially making it mandatory for landlords to register their lodgings with city hall before listing it to vacationers online, as well as imposing a 120-day limit to rent their properties. For French entrepreneurs trying to make the most out of their…

Searching for a Lost Wine Village in Paris

Parisians often talk about the great travesty that was the loss of Les Halles, a legendary food market in the heart of Paris, fondly referred to as “the belly of Paris”, a seemingly indestructible monument to the great tradition of French markets. It was demolished in 1971 and the hub of all food distribution in the city…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLV)

1. An abandoned Playboy mansion in Tennessee The Tiki Palace party mansion was built in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1972 by strip-club tycoon Bully Hull. A Playboy bunny shaped swimming pool just off the main entrance is the focus of the 5,600 sq foot 3-bedroom mansion. The Tiki Palace mansion fell into disrepair when its owner was nicked for income…

10 Things You Probably didn’t Know about Hugh Hefner

I never thought I’d say this, but I think Hugh Hefner and I might have shared a lot of common interests– yes the same Hugh Hefner that plastered naked women across its semi-gloss pages and the very one that’s often credited with laying the foundation for mainstream porn culture. When news broke of his death…

Artists and their Bohemian Ateliers

This is the Parisian atelier of painter Jules Thulot, little-known today, but in this photograph we get an intimate look inside his personal space. A fabulously bohemian lair, begging to be explored inch by inch. It was the discovery of this photograph that sent me on my hunt for today’s compendium of artists in their…

If Romeo & Juliet had gone House-Hunting Together

What if Romeo hadn’t drank the poison? What if Juliet had awoken to find her beau alive & kicking at her bedside and they’d ridden off into the sunset in search of a love nest, to live out the rest of their days happily ever after? Now that would be a house I’d like to visit. And…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLIV)

1. Long before Tesla, Electric Cars were all the rage in 1905 For a brief period in the early 20th century in the United States, the electric car was high society’s hottest commodity, sought after by socialites and businessmen alike. Electric cars might seem like the vehicles of the future, but they are actually a status…

A Failed 1930s American Town, Lost in Time in the Amazon Rainforest

Typical American houses and mid-western streets sprang up as fast as the jungle could be stripped and cleared. Fordlândia– foreign outpost for one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies, dream of an American business magnate, and one of the worst ideas Henry Ford ever had. It was the motor industry giant’s epic jungle adventure, an experiment…

Not Your Grandma’s Cross Stitch

Say what you will about the internet, while we so often feel like it’s taking us away from the simple pleasures and quality time with our hobbies, only the internet could bring back a thing like cross stitch. And is there even anything more quaint and nostalgic out there than cross stitching? Not only is the internet spreading the…

For Sale: The Brontë Sisters Café makes for a very Tempting Life Swap

I can picture myself now, leaned over the counter, reading my dog-eared copy of Wuthering Heights for the umpteenth time, waiting for one of my pies (voted best in the village) to finish baking to perfection in the oven. My only worries are whether I’ll have enough cakes ready for our Saturday morning book club or remembering to buy firewood…