Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   How do you say TGIF in French? Here at the Paris HQ we’re in the midst of planning another upcoming soirée of story-swapping over red wine. Wanna join? If you’re in town this month, I’ve picked one of my favourite spots from [the book]( – a local watering hole since the 17th century. Rendez-vous at [the ambassador’s lounge]( for all the information on our Paris meet-up this March. It’s time to raise a glass with you on my own turf ;) Until then, your weekend conversation starters await. Cheers, [Nessy]   [I Dream of a Dacha](   [1322219_900]( I‘ll never forget the first time I watched Dr. Zhivago and the chills it sent down my spine as Yuri and Tonya walked into their abandoned ice palace; the winter dacha of the Varykino estate. I haven’t been to Russia yet, but I dream of it; of boarding the Trans-Siberian Railway, travelling deep into mother Russia, blanketed…  [Continue Reading](   [7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Mark Twain](   [Screen Shot 2018-03-15 at 15.24.05]( All of American Literature, declared Hemingway, owes its lifeblood to Mark Twain. The author’s stories of life on the Mississippi river, as seen through the mischievous eyes of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, have become national treasures. And Twain himself was quite a character, but far from the quiet, cob-pipe smoking cliché you might think. From…  [Continue Reading](   [Searching for the Last Dance with Old Berlin](   [2712960013_b0ac3b615d_b]( Looking for the remnants of old Berlin is difficult. Not so much the churches, museums and monuments, but the bars, restaurants, theatres and cafes that once graced the city. For a brief while between the two World Wars, Berlin was one of the most decadent, thrilling and glitziest of European cities. “The city had a…  [Continue Reading](   [Walk through the Paris Flea Market in 1941](   [0_1fd383_997e079_orig]( In 1941, Paris was under the heel of the Hitler’s army during the occupation of World War II. The photographer behind the lens is André Zucca, a French photojournalist and Nazi collaborator. It was the year he’d been contracted by the Germans to work as a correspondent for Signal, a propaganda magazine of the German Wehrmacht. His assignment:  [Continue Reading](   [A Pilgrimage to the Ancient Penis Monastery](   [dragon]( Deep in the Himalayas you’ll find Bhutan, an ancient kingdom with an equally ancient Buddhist monastery that is bound to make you blush. It’s called Chimi Lhakhang, and it’s a temple dedicated to fertility and the “sacred phallus.” Emphasis on the phallus. A carved “welcome” sign invites Western visitors to explore the monastery and its surrounding village,…  [Continue Reading](   [Manhattan’s Last Farmhouse](   [with-visitors-2-1170x500]( In the midst of towering apartments and neon-lit bodegas, you’ll find the Dyckman Farmhouse, Manhattan’s oldest abode and only farmhouse. The white clapboard cottage has been perched on a hilltop on present-day Broadway for 234 years, slipping under the radar of tourists and New Yorkers alike and looking like a bit of a mirage in its…  [Continue Reading](   [Who Remembers London’s Revolving BT Tower Restaurant?](   [btowerresto]( And here’s another reason why I was born too late: I’ve only just discovered that there was once an awesome 150 meter-high revolving restaurant and cocktail bar at the top of London’s iconic British Telecom Tower. It was the most famous places to dine in the swinging sixties when Billy Butlin (the famous entrepreneur behind…  [Continue Reading](   [The Abandoned Half of Ellis Island](   [IMG_7317 copy]( Sailing to the Statue of Liberty and near-by Ellis Island is one of New York’s most popular attractions. And with good reason; the Statue of Liberty remains one of America’s most iconic landmarks– but it’s also estimated that a staggering 40% of all Americans can trace at least one ancestor who passed through the famous…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXXVIII)](   [8476257428_144bc13ede_b]( 1. “University L”, somewhere in Belgium Captured by this urban explorer, with an excellent Flickr account of urban decay.  2. Karen Leadlay working on computers in the space division of General Dynamics, 1964 “Note to self:  [Continue Reading](   [The Real Princess Leia](   [leas]( Could it be that Princess Leia hails from an ancient Native American tribe called the Hopi, short for Hopituh Shi-nu-mu, meaning, “The Peaceful Little Ones”? Hollywood didn’t give them much credit for one of cinema’s most iconic hairstyles, so in the interest of learning and being curious, let’s put the spotlight on these real-life Princess Leia(s)… According to George…  [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](.