Goth is Not Dead: 5 Notre Dame Alternatives to Seek Out in Paris

On 15th April 2019, millions of people around the world watched as Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral was engulfed in flames. Masses gathered on the banks of the Seine to sing hymns to Our Lady as a reported 500 firefighters battled the 15-hour blaze. That evening, as first the roof and then the spire fell to…

Journey to Zealandia, Earth’s Hidden 8th Continent

Beneath the crystalline waters of the South Pacific, 32 scientists from 12 countries emerged after a nine-week voyage to the depths. They’d been drilling for samples from a long-lost world, on a quest that sounds a whole lot like the premise of a Jules Verne novel: the expedition to Zealandia. Not that far beneath the…

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

1. Anyone like this idea of Notre Dame’s roof as a greenhouse? As you might have heard, France announced an international competition to be held to find a replacement for the Notre Dame spire destroyed in the cathedral fire. Some of the designs making the rounds on the internet so far have been er, interesting,…

The Lost Floating Pools of Paris

Once upon a time, the banks of the river Seine were lined with giant floating swimming pools. In the 19th century, one could take swimming lessons next to the Pont Neuf and in the 1970s, sunbathe topless on the upper deck of the Piscine Deligny, which was moored in the 7th arrondissement right in front…

Don’t be a Tourist in Portugal Mini Guide

So you’re thinking about a trip to Portugal. When travelling in Europe, Portugal tends to be an afterthought for Mediterranean sun seekers, whose first instincts are to look at France, Italy, Greece or Spain. Portugal once owned half of the new world and it’s the oldest country in Europe – four centuries older than Rome…

Stalin’s Fashion House: Style Spying behind the Iron Curtain

For many, “Soviet fashion” reads like an oxymoron. One simply can’t imagine that funding fashion ateliers was high up on Joseph Stalin’s to-do list, and it wasn’t, but still — it was there, and apparently it was utterly extravagant. “Eclectic mannequins were turning slowly as they displayed rather bewildering clothes,” wrote Elsa Schiaparelli of the…

Did Jesus Escape to Japan?

Greetings from Shingo, a rural village, 650km north of Tokyo that is believed by its inhabitants to be the last resting place of Jesus Christ. Make the pilgrimage to its quiet hills, and you’ll find yourself in a veritable slice of the Twilight Zone where the Christian prophet led a double life as a garlic…

The Last Great California Hippie Commune is still going Strong

They came from the mountains, and kept to themselves. If you were lucky, you might have seen them frolicking in the hills under the glow of the buttery, golden hour sunshine that California does so well. Collectively, they were known as “The Brotherhood of the Sun,” and in the 1970s, they emerged as one of…

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

1. That 1970s Vegas Underground Bunker Home is for sale again This time it’s listed for $18 million. Before the house became internet famous, our original article on the property from 2013 reveals that it first went on sale for just $1.7 million. 2. Parisian woman with her cat in her cannabis garden, 1910. ⁣…

A Pit-Stop in Japan’s Time Capsule Post Towns

We’ve got an achilles heel for places stuck in the past, and today on our armchair adventures, we’re stopping off in the sleepy streets of Japan’s cinematic post towns, known locally as Shukuba (宿場). What is a post town, you ask? Essentially it’s a pit-stop, albeit a very charming one lost in time, which popped…