Listed in the Huffington Post top 10 art and design bookstores around the world, Artazart’s bright red shop front can’t be missed as you walk along the canal path. Their hand-selected collection of photography, painting, graphic design, children’s books and magazines is visited by design professionals from all over the city. Since 2000 its founders Carl Huguenin and Jérôme Fournel have dedicated their store to the celebration of the image in all its forms. Labelled as a design bookstore, Artazart has the visual impact of an art gallery and museum of creative objects from the past and future. Camille makes every visitor feel a part of her family as she walks you through her array of jewellery, handbags, home decor, children’s accessories, designer labels and her unique designs. What really marks this store out as unique, however, is when exploring the details of its contents. The name is taken from a family joke and is a made-up word that describes the meal made from the leftover food from dinner the night before. Her father built the mezzanine that acts as a space to restore and up-cycle vintage clothes Camille has handpicked. This small, endearing boutique is filled with the passion and commitment that owner Camille Klarfeld has shown in creating her atelier, which is at once a workshop and secondhand clothes store. The store has a well-displayed showcase of stylish furniture, lamps and sofas. She explains that the concept of the store is for the furniture to have a practical purpose, along with simple design and sleek lines. Houssan’s wife and artistic director Meghedi Simonian was born in Iran and has lived in Paris for ten years.
There’s a strong commitment to the use of traditional methods of handcrafting, and this dedication is symbolised by the front counter of the store originally being his father’s old carpentry table. All of the pieces are made in Lebanon, where founder Houssan Kanaan originates. This concept furniture store sells and displays work by international designers who are inspired by the colours and designs of the 1950s, with a focus on Danish design from that era. Owner Nils Bouaziz, who opened the store 10 years ago, proudly boasts the likes of director Peter Greenaway as an example of the talent that speak at his events.ģ0 Rue Beaurepaire Tel: +33 1 40 18 01 81 Artists and creative media fashionistas hang out in the cafe to discuss projects, attend the well curated events and listen to special guest speakers. It’s bursting at the seams with special editions, rare copies of long forgotten films and modern classics.Īside from the flicks, Potemkine has become a hub for the city’s filmmakers. The name Potemkine comes from the seminal 1925 silent Russian film Battleship Potemkin, but this is no wilting DVD rental store, however. This boutique DVD store pays homage to the rich past of Parisian films. Here, experimental films by Japanese artist Keiichi Tahara are eerily projected onto its dark walls.Īrt-house movies from the French New Wave during the late 1950s and 60s changed the way we view cinema today. The boat takes a leisurely pace under 100-year-old trees and wrought iron footbridges that line the canal, but the most enthralling aspect of the journey is when the boat passes through a mysterious tunnel, called the Vault Of The Bastille. The cruises along Canal Saint Martin begin at the Arsenal Marina quay on Boulevard de la Bastille and terminate at Basin de la Villette. They’ve been offering panoramic cruises of Paris’ canals and the Seine for 32 years. The oldest company offering cruises on Canal St Martin is Canauxrama, established in 1983. If you want to experience life on the canal then you need to take a boat along its waters and watch Paris and its people glide by. The cafe-lined canal is now the place to be seen. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film heralded a change in public perception towards Canal St Martin, inadvertently ushering in the Bobo revolution. The 1938 love story Hotel du Nord was set in a hotel that still exists along the edge of the water, while a more recent homage was in the 2001 film Amelie, whose main character spends her time strolling along the arched iron bridges of the canal.
While its original 1802 build was to create an artificial waterway for transporting goods and fresh water, the canal holds a special place in Parisians’ hearts because it has been immortalised in some of the classics of French cinema. When you speak to Parisians about Canal St Martin there’s a word that is commonly used to describe its newfound trendy status: ‘Bobo’, which stands for bohemian bourgeois. 24 January 2016 Words / Images: Geoff Brokate
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