After a week that felt like sloughing through mud, the best thing I could think of for returning to my inspirational headspace would be indulging in the creative delights that are easy to find around any corner in Paris. If I couldn't feel productive on my own work, I could at least celebrate the creative work of others and get back to a place of remembering anything is possible. I went out to find things that gave me hope, and was not disappointed.
An architectural moment, catching my eye and sparking my curiosity to learn more...
The Hemmingway Bar, tucked into the Ritz Paris, inspiring me to get wrapped up in a completely different character's world...
Hidden deep inside the The Ritz Paris, the Hemingway Bar is known for a dry martini, but perhaps more famously known for Barmaster Colin Field’s ability to work the room and find just the right cocktail for a guest. The cocktails were great, but I have to say, getting a front row seat to watch him in action is a fantastic lesson in how to make everyone who comes to your bar feel like family, or at least like they truly deserve the 30€ cocktail price and one of the few seats in the very intimate setting. It is both masterful and entertaining. When I first entered, I could swear I smelled smoke and thought cigars may be allowed (they are not), but I later discovered the reason. In order to control the smell that may waft in from the Paris streets and old sewers, occasionally rosemary will be burned to clear the air- as if to sage the room of the unpleasantries of the outside world. Another touch of pleasantries? How about a rose in full bloom placed on nearly every cocktail delivered to a lady in the room. Fruit salad in a glass with a spritz of champagne? No problem- whatever will delight you. However, should you doubt Mr. Field’s ability to deliver the driest martini you’ve ever had, he may bring the head of Hemingway to the bar to judge you earnestly while you take a sip and then dehydrate in front of him before conceding and needing a sip of the cucumber water and bite of bar snacks before you can think clearly again. My intuition leads me to wonder if Mr. Field has a witchy ancestry of spirits behind him that stir his passion for concocting potions and spells in this cabinet of curiosities. We’ll see if my curiosity is strong enough to lead me to return and pay the price to pry a little deeper. 😉
The possibility of creating fantastical and modern public infrastructure that defies traditional tastes...
Like my crown? 🤣 This Paris metro station entrance always make me smile when I see it. I think about the audacity and courage of the artist, Jean-Michel Othoniel who had to be doing work like this for years before a city council might have enough trust and faith in his sculptural work to allow him to take over the design of a metro entrance that would defy tradition while still needing to be public infrastructure. Do you have the courage to create art people may say is crazy, weird, ugly, or trash and to keep doing it for decades without giving up before landing a project like this?!? That’s how I recognize the heart and soul of an artist... it is a person who can keep creating, keep refining, keep experimenting, keep playing, keep daring, keep standing up for an individual vision of creation, no matter what anyone else thinks.
New and experimental music not once, but twice! With supportive audiences willing to pay for tickets and sit through hours of acoustic boundary pushing.
The audacity of turning backstage areas into an amusement ride filmmaking experience!
A bar that feels like a lava lamp? Brilliant!
Flowers blooming in February?! Why not?!
Macarons that taste like fruits and flowers? Yes, please!
Writers who overcame hardships and told deep and powerful personal stories through their own poetic written forms- so inspirational.
The flow of water, reminding me that life has its own flow, and it doesn't have to be hard all the time- yes please.
Of course there are inspirational things to be found wherever we are, not just in Paris. However, Paris definitely makes it easy to find and celebrate a wide variety of possibilities all in one place. Thank you Paris, for reminding me that there is still plenty of room for creative work in the world.
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