How Can Paris Let this Museum of Music Treasure Close Down?

I wasn’t exactly expecting the world when I was emailed by a local record collector urging me to visit an endangered private music museum in Paris at the foot of Montmartre. The Phono Museum? Never heard of it. Within my network of vinyl fanatic friends and small museum hunters, surely we would have come across such…

Welcome to One of the Last Cinema Prop Houses in Paris

Alright, you can forget about all those other times, this time, I really did find Paris’ best-kept secret. It’s taken me almost a year to gain access to the 4,000 square meter prop house hidden in central Paris, one of the last three to still survive within the city. After several attempts at emailing them, I luckily discovered that I have…

Time Travel to a 1930s Dance School in Paris

“Forget your troubles and dance” were the wonderful lyrics once sang by Bob Marley and he wasn’t far wrong as we stepped into an old dance school that sits quietly at the bottom of a paved courtyard in Saint Germain. (7th arr) Not to be fooled though as the seemingly quiet exterior says nothing about…

Travelling Modern Europe with a Victorian Railway Guidebook

Are you looking for a way to travel back in time? Well, we haven’t cracked the laws of physics yet, but we have the next best thing – a guidebook from another time. Move over Lonely Planet, Bradshaw’s was one of the original guides that inspired the British to travel the Continent for leisure. Bradshaw’s…

Can’t Sleep? Here’s 20 Free Documentaries to Soothe the Mind

Ah, the good old fashioned documentary. They teach us about our planet’s wildlife, architecture, culture, people, and ideas. They also put us to sleep. And that’s not a bad thing on a day like this! Is there a better way to drift off to dreamland, than with the gentle cradling of Orson Welles’ voice, or…

10 Time Travelling Paris Movies to Cozy Up With

On these dark winter nights, is there anywhere else you’d rather escape to than Paris? In a time machine no less… 1. Monpti (1957) Starring an adorable young Romy Schneider, this is an often overlooked film for Parisphiles who can’t resist gorgeous streets scenes of the city in the 1950s. Many of the sights and…

On Dating David Bowie in the Seventies

From a distant galaxy, far, far away, Ziggy Stardust made his last public appearance in 1973 before David Bowie retired the glamrock persona and sent him packing for good. But the infamous last hurrah in London would also his first public collaboration with another equally unique being who would go on to make a profound…

So Matisse, Chagall, and the Headless Horseman Walk into a Church…

Tucked along New York’s Hudson River is the town of Sleepy Hollow, where old carriage roads can still be walked, and the woodlands feel just a bit darker than they should. It’s also home to the Union Church of Pocantico Hills, a gothic style church built in 1921 by the Rockefellers. Oh, and it happens to…

The Vault

Your Dream Fairytale Library is Hiding in Midtown Manhattan

A miniature palace of rare books is hiding in one of the busiest parts of Manhattan. All you have to do to enter is walk past the foyer of 225 Madison Ave and push a button deep in the back right corner. A door will swing open into a space that feels like it rolled right out…

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Isn’t it About Time We Rediscovered The MiniDisc?

This one goes out to Generation Y. Part of being a collector means taking a bit of risk and making a prediction that something might appreciate in value. The key is often to find something that’s cheap and rare, and buying it before everyone else discovers they want it too. I was in the car…