Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   Paris vs New York. Do we really have to choose? Call it destiny, or an intercontinental love affair, but I think these two cities have always had an electric sort of chemistry ... which is why you might have noticed that while MessyNessyChic was and always will be “Made in Paris”, your favourite cabinet of online curiosities is starting to become... well, a tale of two cities. We started out the week at a [secret rooftop farm above one of Paris’ most famous department stores](. Ensuite, we hopped across the ocean, where our US Editor Francky has been tagging along with a pair of [lovesick treasure hunters](, getting the dirt on how to (literally) dig up the city’s greatest secrets... Then we decided we should cook up an online guide for Parisians and Parisphiles [missing Paris in New York](. And to top it all off, I’ve just booked myself a ticket to see New York in the fall for the first time. I’ll be working on a top secret project in ze big city from late October so watch out New York! Nessy’s coming! But like I said, do we really have to choose between New York and Paris? Stick with me and you can live vicariously in both… Bon week-end...and à bientôt, New York! With love from Paris, [Nessy]   [Missing Paris in New York](  [DSC00743]( If you happen to be a Parisian, like our new US editor Francky (hey, it’s me), who suddenly found herself plopped down in the Big Apple with a case of culture shock, you might be yearning for a cheat sheet of sorts — a means to finding a little bit of Paris in New York.  [Continue Reading](   [Who was Chet Baker?](  [Lucca, Chet (1)]( 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…  [Continue Reading](   [Digging for Treasure (and Love) in New York City](  [DSC00658]( Their’s is a love of strange and beautiful proportion. The kind measured in porcelain, peanut-sized dolls, and antiqued oysters as big as your face. “It’s hard to imagine a time when we’d stop digging,” says Belle, back-lit by a wall of technicolour glass bottles, “I mean it’s addictive. And when you have someone who gets…  [Continue Reading](   [California Dreaming in Thumbelina’s SoCal Mansion](  [21577000_1083195421817750_5508701444414373888_n]( 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…  [Continue Reading](   [The Secret Rooftop Farms you can Visit above Parisian Department Stores](  [Processed with VSCO with k3 preset]( In the early hours of the morning at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the elevator doors open on the ground floor and out march a team of country bumpkins lugging crates of plump tomatoes, strawberries, fresh herbs and edible flowers, through the perfumery section, past the gleaming cosmetic counters and out the front entrance. They’re met…  [Continue Reading](   [Sneaking into the Forbidden City with our Travel Heroine du Jour](  [Screen Shot 2018-09-13 at 23.59.22]( “Why isn’t her face on a bank note yet?” is one of several slack-jawed questions you’ll ask yourself when reading about Alexandra David-Neel, the Franco-Belge éxploratrice whose life reads like an Oscar-winning film. She was an opera singer, and an anarchist; a student of philosophy, feminism and (rumoured) seductress of monks. And when she wasn’t meeting in…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXIV)](  [14533601701_a523f80f44_h]( 1. Declassified Photos of Atomic Tests in Colour Declassified photos from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Archived Images of Atomic tests by artists Greg Mac Gregor and Clay Lipsky. Taken at the Nevada test site in the 1950s, when the US army put mannequins within the radius of nuclear test explosions to see what would…  [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](.