Weekend Conversation Starters

[Messy Nessy Chic]   Let’s start a book club this weekend! I’ve got [just the place to host it](, surrounded by old books and twinkle lights. We’re right around the corner from Shakespeare & Co by the way … but have you ever [seen inside the original Shakespeare & Co in Paris](?  So, does anyone have a book to recommend? I’ll go first. Before there was Breakfast at Tiffany’s, before there was even “Emily in Paris”, [there was Sally Jay Gorce in The Dud Avocado](. Published in 1958, it tells the story of a young questing American in mid-century Paris, “hellbent for living.” It’s one of those cult classics you might never have heard of. Oh, and I’d recommend anything by Lady Caroline Blackwood – but the question is, [who should play her in a Hollywood biopic](? Off topic, but has anyone been vintage book shopping lately? When you’re in the antiques section, just keep in mind [there might be a secret painting hiding in one of those old books](. In fact, we should go hunting for them at Paris’ [oldest auction house](! Or scour the shelves of the Parisian libraries. Naturally, there’s a whole section dedicated to book havens in Chapter 1 of [Don’t be a Tourist in Paris](. And [New York]( too. Anyhoo, shall we order another round of [tea](? Stay curious, [Nessy]   [Men in Tights and Tutus: The Decadence of the Sun King’s Male Ballets](  [FMtpX-ZXIAIEpqy]( The cool thing about being royalty, is you get to go all out on your hobbies. Enjoy miniatures? Not as much as Queen Elizabeth II, whose miniatures collection is truly eye-watering. Into beauty and self-care? Not as much as 17th century France’s King Louis XIV, aka the Sun King, who took his baths in a rare marble basin filled with the eau de parfum of his exotic citrus trees. Which brings us to another one of the Sun King’s extravagant hobbies: ballet...  [Continue Reading](   [The Enduring Urban Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles](  [FMtpX-ZXIAIEpqy]( Imagine literally stumbling across a colorful tile in the road with some version of the bizarre inscription “Toynbee idea in movie 2001 resurrect dead on planet Jupiter.” This seemingly incomprehensible mambo-jumbo has flummoxed lovers of urban legends for decades, since they first started appearing in the late 1980s in Philadelphia, spreading to other North American…  [Continue Reading](   [In 1920s Berlin She Was the Pioneer of Punk](  [49569671_2108520545872433_811673970548932608_n]( Thought punk was an invention of the 70s? Think again. A diminutive ravenette bombshell with animated eye-brows, brash blue eyeshadow, chalk-white skin and red lips was eons ahead of the curve and had laid the foundations of the punk movement w-a-y back in the 1920s already. Dance performance artist, cabaret queen, pantomimist, big & small…  [Continue Reading](   [The Secret Art of Marbling](  [49569671_2108520545872433_811673970548932608_n]( It’s the DIY to rule them all: marbling. As in, those hypnotic patterns you find inside antique books, posh stationary, and packaging where it seems as if the whole of the colour spectrum has been syphoned through a kaleidoscope and poured onto a piece of paper...  [Continue Reading](   [Where the Statues of Paris were sent to Die](  [49569671_2108520545872433_811673970548932608_n]( The stony gaze of the statue upon his executor says it all. Most of the bronze “men” that once watched over Parisian streets and public squares of the French Third Republic met a most undignified end many years ago, snatched from their pedestals and erased from the history books. During the Nazi occupation of France...  [Continue Reading](   [A German Toulouse Lautrec, his Dancers and the Darkness](  [walter]( You’ve probably never heard of Walter Schnackenberg, a draughtsman, and illustrator of the early 20th century who could conjure up nightmarish images as easily as he could convey the decadent and jovial bourgeois Berlin of pre-war Europe. From his flowing effervescent studies of costumed dancers to his dark ethereal post-war illustrations, he would mix a…  [Continue Reading](   [What’s Up With Death Valley’s Bespoke Coffin Workshop?](  [lass-id-original-1563997070-5d38b38ea2b26]( The Nevada desert is arguably home to some of the strangest attractions in North America. From Clown Motels and Ghost Towns to haunted dolls and Area 51 there is no shortage of places to satisfy your taste for weird America, but none like Coffinwood, a custom coffin factory, wedding chapel, hearse garage and pet cemetery…  [Continue Reading](  Interested in Becoming a MessyNessy Keyholder? [Apply now to unlock the Vault!](    [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [Blog]( [To read 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](.