Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   So today I learned about Jólabókaflóð, an Icelandic tradition where books are exchanged as Christmas Eve presents and the rest of the night is spent reading them and eating chocolate. Sounds like my kind of night. [Image] Jólabókaflóð (we can’t quite pronounce it either) has turned Iceland into a nation of bookaholics, and roughly translates as ‘Christmas book flood’– which perfectly sums up the current vibe at the MessyNessyChic HQ. We’ve been sending off “[Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris](”, the first MessyNessyChic book, to homes all around the world in time for Christmas– and hopefully you’ll be devouring it with plenty of chocolate by the fireside too. But as the final cut-off date for deliveries via Santa’s slay is fast approaching, we’re ringing the bell for “LAST ORDERS!” So if you’d like to give the [“Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris” book as a Christmas gift](, make you order before Monday using the DHL Express Shipping option at checkout to ensure your book finds its place under your tree. And a merry Jólabókaflóð to you too! With love from Paris, [Nessy]  PS. Find your weekend conversations starters below.   [The Long Lost World of the Luxury Flying Boat](   [5ff3086f57f67937689f163636d669ab]( For glamorous, long-distance travel in the 1930s, there was nothing to quite match the grandeur of the Flying Boat. Whilst ocean steam liners and plush sleeper train cars have their charms, surely no other travel vessel can beat the Pan Am Clipper Class. These sleek, hulking seaplanes were the ultimate luxury– flying and floating five…  [Continue Reading](   [The Charming Village with a Billion Dollar Secret](   [csm_Fo_76134231_Sergey_Novikov_2e8d8d5c58 (1)]( Disguised by two seemingly innocent village homes, none of the locals of Cochem knew that for two decades during the height of the Cold War, 15 Billion German Mark– the vault of West Germany’s central bank– was being stashed below the streets of their sleepy town nestled in the slopes of the Mosel valley. As…  [Continue Reading](   [The Forgotten Houdini](   [houdini1]( Known as the “Monarch of Manacles,” Harry Houdini’s younger brother Theo “Dash” Hardeen, was also once a famous magician and escapist artist, but somehow, his story has been forgotten by history… Theo was a handcuff and straightjacket escape wiz (he’s actually the one who pioneered the straightjacket act). Another of his specializations was escaping from…  [Continue Reading](   [Lonely Lighthouse Perfect for Surviving the Zombie Apocalype](   [964727]( Guard duty at this lighthouse is probably not the best job for anyone with a tendency to go sleepwalking. Precariously perched on a rock pillar in the Westman Islands around six miles from Iceland’s mainland, the Þrídrangaviti lighthouse is arguably the most isolated lighthouse in the world, and most definitely the scariest. The solitary structure, sitting…  [Continue Reading](   [The Fascinating Abandoned Island You’ve Never Heard Of](   [mcnabs-island-12]( On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, Canada to investigate the cemetery where many of the victims of the Titanic were buried, a chance conversation in a bar in Halifax, brought up a fascinating island lying abandoned just in the harbour, called McNabs Island. I was told that this island was home to the some of…  [Continue Reading](   [The Secret Newspaper Published from inside a Prison](   [25129978_321544788343282_281257982_o]( Doftana Prison sits abandoned near Romania’s Carpathian mountains. Its foundations have been rocked by earthquakes, its roofs have been brought down by heavy snow and storms, and every winter the building crumbles a little more. There is still enough remaining to show the scale of the place and a sense of how a prisoner’s life was,…  [Continue Reading](   [12 Places in New York To Celebrate New Year’s Eve Like A Local](   [Happy New Year]( The Messy Nessy Guide to spending New Year’s Eve in New York starts off with what not to do! That would be to go see the dropping of the ball in Times Square! Despite being probably the most famous way to see in the New Year in all of America, the dropping of the giant,…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXV)](   [tumblr_p0mhiayb3B1rviw11o1_1280]( 1. The Floating Cabin of your dreams Claudius Schulze’s first attempt to get around Hamburg’s rising rent prices was a treehouse. He was met, however, with the gargantuan might of German building regulations, which led him to discover how much simpler it would be to build on water, where anyone can build a structure under…  [Continue Reading](   [12 Places in Paris to Celebrate New Year’s Eve like a Local](   [277257]( When it comes to celebrating New Year’s Eve, I’m usually torn between staying in with friends and a bottle of wine and, oh, I don’t know — jumping on tables at one of Hemingway’s favourite bars? Ordering cocktails by a pirate ship? Sounds about accurate. You see, when it comes to offering up an eclectic…  [Continue Reading](   [Don’t be a Tourist, Episode 3: Fencing and Frogs](   [fencingfrogs]( Forget Hemingway. I’ve fallen for a chivalrous musketeer in Saint Germain! In a brand new episode of our web series “Don’t be a Tourist”, we’ll discover a time-capsule fencing club wherein I develop a crush on my charming fencing master, followed by a culinary joy ride into the world of frogs legs. It doesn’t get any…  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessyAmbassador? [Get Your Ambassador Link And Start Sharing!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To ready more from MessyNessyChic visit the Blog]( and make sure you keep getting these email by adding contact@messynessychic.com to your address book or whitelist us. Our postal address: In a Café, Paris 75001 Want out of the loop? [Unsubscribe](.