Weekend Conversation Starters

[Image]   Your Girl Friday here!  This weekend, let’s go to places we’re not supposed to …  Take a leisurely drive on the[forbidden road of the French Alps](. Try to make sense of [those Mysterious Knights Templar Rabbit Holes](. Discreetly sail over to [New York’s Forgotten Outpost of European Aristocracy]( Sunbathe on the beaches of [Hawaii’s Forbidden Island]( and try not to run into the real-life Swiss Family Robinson that controls it. Use our time machine to sneak[inside America’s Secret Atomic City](.  Speaking of government secrets … ever heard of the secret society summer camp in the middle of a remote forest where the global elite can take off their ties and behave like a bunch of lost boys who’ve tied up their camp counsellor? [Jump over the gates with me here](.  But if you’d rather stay in and relax, your weekend conversation starters await…  Stay curious, [Nessy]   [How Stuart Little Helped Recover A Missing Masterpiece Lost for almost a Century](  [0_0-2]( We love a good story about a missing painting missing. This one starts in Christmas of 2008: a Hungarian art historian is at home with his young daughter Lola, watching the popular children’s film Stuart Little, when he notices a painting in the background that shakes him up so much, he almost drops his daughter…  [Continue Reading](   [The World’s First Sex Therapist and his Temple of HymenÂ](  [0_0]( Self-styled Scottish ‘doctor’ James Graham may not have been the original snake oil salesman but he wasn’t far from it. The ultimate eccentric showman who spotted innumerable untapped business opportunities in the sex industry, James Graham gleefully administered a cocktail of somewhat questionable, shall we say, ‘fertility treatments’ to his well-to-do aristocratic patients, who were…  [Continue Reading](   [Your Ticket Aboard the World’s First Cruise Ship](  [4a20446v]( Let’s take a cruise through history (see what I did there) aboard the SS Prinzessin Victoria Luise, a German passenger ship of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1900 and credited with having been the first purpose-built cruise ship. It only spent six years in service before it was accidentally grounded off the coast of Jamaica (oops),…  [Continue Reading](   [The Forbidden Road of the French Alps](  [4a20446v]( It might look like a traveler’s paradise, but this picturesque road is counted amongst the most dangerous in the world. Known as les Grands Goulets and built between 1843 and 1854, the legendary route is carved out of the cliffs of Vercors, a massif of mountains in the Rhône alpes region of France. After 156 years of leading travellers through the mountains by its winding and narrow road, the French government were forced to permanently close the historic road in 2005 after a series of fatal accidents…  [Continue Reading](   [13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXLVIII)](  [swimwear](  [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](.