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Category / Inspiration Vault

Who is the Girl in the Paris Bathtub?

I took a bath in front of the Eiffel Tower once and my naked back has since gone viral on the internet. You might have noticed. People even started painting their own watercolour interpretations of this photograph and one of the Kardashian sisters recently “borrowed” it for her Instagram account. Stumbling upon my own self-portrait on…

Who was Chet Baker?

I got really into the sound of Chet Baker this summer. I went through all the albums; the live sessions from Paris that made me feel like I could be on the Left Bank back in 1960-something; the “lost tapes”, the remastered classics and anything I could find with those smooth-as-butter vocals to get me through…

The Musician Searching for Forgotten Pianos Inside Derelict Wonders

Debussy said music is all about “the silence between the notes.” But for Romain Thiery, it’s about making sure that silence doesn’t grow too loud. Since 2009, the pianist, photographer, and overall urbex Renaissance man has been spotlighting the world’s grandest pianos in their final hour, in equally stunning and crumbling abodes, to give them…

California Dreaming in Thumbelina’s SoCal Mansion

There are architects and designers, and then there’s Chris Toledo. For the past two years, the miniatures artist and professional perfectionist has been creating the Spanish Revival home of our dreams, complete with glossy, red-tiled floors and Juliette balconies; vaulted ceilings, hand carved beams, and 1920s-inspired furnishings. He’s crowned it “Casa California,” and it’s the ultimate…

Princess Bonaparte’s Orgasmic Quest

Every family has its black sheep. For the Bonaparte clan, it was Napoleon’s great grandniece, Princess Marie (1882-1962). She was not only a pioneer of psychoanalysis who actually saved Freud from the Nazis, but a staunch advocate for women’s sex research on some pretty taboo topics. You see, she was on a war path —…

Whatever You Do, Don’t Tell the French About Tarrare

(A word of caution: this is not an article to read on your lunchbreak). He could wrap his empty stomach around his waist like a belt, and began eating his bodyweight in meat every day as a child. His lips were nearly non-existent, and his mouth was so wide, it could hold 12 eggs at…

Meet Lucy, America’s Oldest Surviving Roadside Attraction

If you build it, they will come. That was the logic behind American real estate magnate James V. Lafferty when he embarked on the most Edwardian PR stunt ever: to build a gigantic elephant. (Apparently it was a thing). The idea was to catch folks’ interest with it, and then lure them inside to show…

Chateau Miranda is Here to Break Your Heart

Her turrets sprouted mushrooms, and vines ate up her halls once filled with aristocrats, candelabras, and plushy velvet lounges. It was one of Belgium’s grandest castles, but the Chateau Miranda had run out of time —at least according to its guardian, the Count de Liedekerke-Beaufort. In October of last year, he set the 100-room giant ablaze…

A Lost Breed of Parisians

Without them, Paris would’ve stood still. They were immortalised in song by Serge Gainsbourg, and put into poetry by the cheeky Raymond Queneau. But by 1975, Paris’ metro ticket punchers, or poinçonneurs, were a dying breed. Their rise and fall traces the streamlining of the whole métropolitan system, which was inaugurated at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair to a crowd in…

For Sale: Your ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ Fixer-Upper Awaits

When Matthew Hampshire drops us a line, we know it’s time to head into the belly of yet another crumbling beauty. This time, the photographer gave us a peek inside one of his lushest expeditions to date, in the hills of northern Italy at the ghostly Villa Moglia. Step behind her gates for yourself, but…

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