International Obscura Day

Saturday March the 20th has been designated International Obscura Day by the team at the Atlas Obscura website. It will be the opportunity to attend a selection of fascinating events around the world, including the curious Musée Fragonard in Paris. Here I speak to organiser Joshua Foer about the motivation behind Obscura day, and to Molly Guinness, organser of the Paris event.

Joshua Foer, along with Dylan Thuras, is the co-founder of Atlas Obscura, a website he describes as being “a user-generated guide to the world's wondrous, curious, and esoteric places”. The site is a series of recommendations from users of interesting and often overlooked sites around the world which may help visitors to gain more of an insight into a place than they would from standard tourist destinations.

To Joshua Foer though, this applies equally to our hometowns. “The idea behind the Atlas is that there is a whole lot of exploration left to be done. You don't have to strike out for the "Here be dragons" parts of the map to discover amazing places. They're all around us. Starting from a recognition of that fact can lead to a much richer experience of the places where we live”.

With this in mind, Foer and his team have decided to organise an International Obscura Day. “We want people going out and exploring these places” he explains. “Too often they are under-appreciated. We believe you don't have to go to the Grand Canyon to experience wonder. It's an experience that can be found all around us, if you only know where to look”. This event will not only help people to discover where to look, but will also help them to understand, as many of the places listed have some connection to the sciences.

The website looks to focus on “places that expand our sense of what is possible and tell us something about ourselves", and Foer definitely sees it as being educational. “Absolutely”, he tells me, “all science proceeds from wonder. First we wonder at, then we wonder about, and then we learn”. So what exactly will people be able to learn about on the 20th March?

“There are so many incredible events happening all over the world, I wish I could be at all of them” says Foer. “Near Sydney in Australia, a group is going out to explore an abandoned railway tunnel filled with bioluminescent glowworms. In Niagara Falls, New York there will be a full day of re-enactments of classic scientific experiments using original, antique equipment. In Portland, Oregon, we will see a demonstration of Chernekov radiation at the world's only undergraduate-run nuclear reactor. In Tokyo, we'll be exploring the world's largest underground drainage system. In Tennessee, we'll be getting a tour of the world's largest treehouse from the minister who built it. In London, we'll be taking a walking tour of the lost River Fleet”.

Do you have any excuse for not attending one of these events?

See http://atlasobscura.com/obscura-day for more details on events near you. For those of you in Paris, see below!

Obscura Day at the Musée Fragonard, Maisons Alfort
Atlas Obscura have organised a guided tour for a maximum of 35 people at the Musée Fragonard situated inside the Ecole nationale vétérinaire in Maisons Alfort to the East of Paris. Molly Guinness, organiser of this event, told me a little about the museum and her reasons for choosing it for the Obscura Day.

Can you tell us a little bit about Honoré Fragonard and the museum?
Honoré Fragonard became famous, or infamous, at the veterinary school in Lyon, where he began working on a series of ‘flayed figures’ in the 18th century. These were carefully dissected animals which were posed and mounted using a very difficult and, to this day, secret process similar to that of plastinisation. The collection at the Fragonard Museum contains around twenty of these ‘écorchés’, which can really be classed as works of art!

Why have you chosen this museum for Obscura Day?
I've always been very keen on medical curiosities. From the artificial body parts at the Arts et Metiers museum to the Irish giant and the world's smallest woman at the Hunterian museum in London to shrunken heads at the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford and the Catacombs in Rome. I'm not particularly proud of it, although I do feel ashamed about having enjoyed Gunter Von Haagen's Bodyworlds exhibition! It is also a museum that is not very well known in Paris, and also situated in a place that most people would never normally visit.

The museum is open to visitors on a regular basis. What will be special about the visit on the 20th?
It’s true that the museum is open regularly, but when does anyone really go so far as to book in for a guided tour? Also, being part of the Obscura day imbues it with an extra layer of excitement; the sense of taking part in such a huge event, where curious, imaginative and possibly also ghoulish people around the world are linked for one day. I hope it will attract a good crowd, too. I'm definitely planning to make a lot of new friends there!

To join the event at the Musée Fragonard, sign up here: http://obscuraday-paris.eventbrite.com/

The Paris Olympics 1924 (Part One)

When a city organises the Olympic Games today the most important word attached to the event is legacy. What will be left behind when the Olympic circus packs up and moves on to the next town? This was not a question that was asked in the early years, but surprisingly, several traces of the 1924 games in Paris are still visible. In this first post, a look at the Olympic Stadium in the north-western suburb of Colombes.

A Little Bit of History
Paris had previously organised the games in 1900, but given their length at the time (spread over nearly 6 months between May 14th and October 28th) it is impossible to look at them as resembling the modern event in any way. The 1924 games were different. Sport had become a universally popular activity, particularly as a spectator event, and around 1,000 journalists were present in Paris to report back around the world on the results as they happened.


44 nations and 3,089 athletes took part, and although the games are seen as being the first truly modern Olympics they were not completely so as only 135 of the competitors were women. Most of the athletes were hosted in the first ever Olympic village, a camp of temporary wooden constructions that had been put up alongside the stadium. The athletes here had access to a foreign exchange, a hairdressers, a post office and shops. They were also provided with three meals a day, although the British preferred to bring their own chef, and the Americans decided to organise their own camp next to the Château de Rocquencourt!

In the 1924 Olympics, medals were not only awarded for sporting achievements. There were also artistic competitions including literature, painting and architecture. It is interesting to note that three Soviet artists took part in these competitions despite the country not sending any athletes to the sporting event which they considered to be a “bourgeois festival”!

The Olympic Stadium
Originally a hippodrome holding horse-racing meetings, then a very minor stadium owned by a newspaper, the stadium was eventually converted into an Olympic sized venue with a capacity of 45,000 by the architect Louis Faure-Dujarric (who had previously been the captain of the local Racing Club rugby team).

Stadium capacity was later increased to over 60,000 when it was used as the venue for the 1938 World Cup Final between Italy and Hungary. It was also used for French international football and rugby matches up until the 1970s, with the all time record attendance coming on the 5th March 1969 when 63,638 spectators paid to watch a European Cup football game between Ajax Amsterdam and Benfica Lisbon.

During the 1924 Olympics, it was most famously the scene of victories for Paavo Nurmi, the 'flying Finn' who won five Gold medals, including two within an hour (the 1500 and 5000m events), and for the British victories in the 100 and 400 metres events which later became the subject of the Chariots of Fire film. Don't look too closely at the stadium when watching that film though - it was actually recorded at the Bebington Oval near Liverpool!

The Stadium Today
As I arrive at the stadium, the rain stops falling and the sun comes out from behind the clouds. The light is suddenly perfect, but the stadium is still a sad sight. Today it is used by the Racing Club football and rugby teams and is painted in their sky-blue and white stripes, but much of it is boarded up or crumbling into the ground.

Rather unexpectedly I am free to walk right into the stadium. I can stand on the racetrack and even walk out onto the pitch. Later someone challenges me when I start taking pictures, but when I explain that I'm interested in the crumbling remains of the Olympic stadium and not the Racing Club logos he is happy to let me carry on snapping. I'd previously studied many archive photos and seen that it is only the concrete terraces at either end of the stadium that remain from the Olympics. Although the stadium is still surrounded by open spaces and smaller sporting arenas, there are no traces left of the ramshackle wooden Olympic village.

Most of the terracing has been removed and today it is closed off to spectators. I'm surprised that any of it has survived at all, until I find some offices and changing rooms still in use beneath them.

The changing rooms are about as simple as it is possible to imagine, with long concrete troughs where football or rugby players stop to wash mud off their boots.

Behind the terraces is a rather odd looking building, and perhaps the only surviving structure that predates the Olympics. Used for many years, and almost certainly during the Olympics, as a 'buvette' or refreshment stand, it is today sadly boarded up and no longer in use. This building was part of the original hippodrome and was used as the pavillon de pesage, or the room where jockeys were weighed before being given permission to race.


Outside the Stadium: the Legacy?
Surprisingly the most visible remnants of the 1920s and the dominant Art Deco architecture of the period can be found in a pair of housing blocks just outside the stadium. Built between the Olympics in 1924 and the football World Cup in 1938, they are perhaps testimony to the increased importance these sporting events had brought to the area. Colombes had seen its transport links and other infrastructure improved, including a new train station which is still known as 'Le Stade' today.

Part Two: What is left from the 1924 Olympics in Paris itself?

Something for the Weekend (5th – 7th March)

The first weekend of each month is the date for a series of regular events, but I've also listed a last chance and a couple of random fun events!

If you have any events or activities you think should be promoted or which you would like to promote yourself, please add them in the comments. Let me know also if you have any events in the coming weekends you would like to promote.

Regular Events
Free entrance to museums

All state run museums are free on the first Sunday of each month, which can lead to big crowds, but can also be the opportunity to visit some of the lesser-known establishments. A full list of the museums concerned can be found here.

A Disco on Ice

The first Friday of each month sees one of the most surprising events in the capital - live bands and a disco in the middle of an ice-rink. This time round the organisers are Tiger Sushi, who have invited Joakim Guillaume Tessier, Principles of Geometry and The Death Club to perform sets.
http://www.pailleron19.com/
Friday 5th, 8.30pm

Brunch Bazar
A massive success first time round, it would probably be a good idea to turn up early for the second edition of the monthly Brunch Bazar at Le Comptoir General on the Canal Saint Martin. As for the first event, there will be stands, dancing lessons and workshops as well as food and drink (which quickly ran out last time apparently).
http://www.brunchbazar.com/

Last Chance
La Splendeur des Camondo
In his book, Le Dernier des Camondo published in 1997, Pierre Assouline argued that the inscription ‘Mort pour la France’ on the Camondo family mausoleum should be changed to ‘Mort par la France’. It would perhaps be a more truthful epitaph for a prestigious family that was shockingly treated by the country, with the last remaining members all dying in Nazi concentration camps.

The family home is now the rather sad Nissim de Camondo museum, but the exhibition at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsm, which ends this weekend, shows the incredible legacy they left behind and how much they donated to the French state. The fascinating tale of the family is told, from Constantinople in the 19th Century to the tragic conclusion in 1945, alongside the works of art (including Degas, Manet, Monet and Renoir as well as Chinese and Japanese sculptures) they accumulated during their lifetimes.
http://www.mahj.org/fr/3_expositions/expo-Splendeur-Camondo.php
Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, 71, rue du Temple, 75003
Friday 11am to 6pm, Sunday 10am to 6pm, closed on Saturday

Random Fun

Le Salon de l'Agriculture

If there's one event in Paris which takes you to the heart of France is it most certainly the Salon de l'Agriculture. It's an incredibly popular event, not only with the general public who fight to taste regional specialities or admire the many animals present, but also with politicians who are obliged to visit if they want to keep a good image in the country!

Porte de Versailles
Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015

Friday 9am - 11pm, Saturday & Sunday 9am - 7pm

Oyster Party at Le Rubis

I wrote about the place last weekend, and here's an event that might help you to discover the bar if you are in the neighbourhood. Oysters, wine, music and good company!
Saturday 12pm

140 Rue Saint Maur

Blogger's Delight
Blogger's Delight organises electro events with line ups of performers who have been heavily featured on blogs 'and beyond'. The evening will probably be much like others in the city but I've put it down here because I like the name!
Social Club
142 Rue Montmartre
Saturday 6th, 11pm, €15

The City in Sepia

Every now and again I come across a website that I know is going to take up far too much of my time. SepiaTown is most definitely one of those. The idea is a simple one, combining Google maps with historical photos, but the philosophy behind the site runs much deeper than that. Here I speak to Jon Protas, one of the three founders of the site, about his plans for the project and about how individuals can help recreate history.

Why did you create SepiaTown?
I was sitting on a rooftop in Amsterdam in 2005, daydreaming in that Amsterdam kind of way, and had a sudden urge to be able to see the city skyline with all the modern buildings blocked from view. I pictured a viewer that would be a historic image but with holes cut out for the buildings that were still standing in modern times. After thinking about it for a year or two, and not coming up with anything more practical than a kind of Viewmaster, the release of the iPhone made it clear that a website and mobile app were the best approach. I got in touch with designer Eric Lehnartz and developer Eric Warren, and after about a year of intensive work, we finally launched what we think of as the site in its earliest form, while we continue to develop new features like the mobile version, filtering by date and media type, and others.

What cities are featured so far? What will be featured in the future?
We launched with six cities; Paris, New York, San Fransisco, London, Moscow and Amsterdam. As for the future, well there's no limit. We built SepiaTown because we wanted anyone anywhere to be able to see the past in an instant. Anyone can upload images, which, if you choose, can be accompanied by a link to your site.

What purpose do you think your website will serve?
We'd like it to do a couple of things: bring history to life in a completely new way by giving people a site-specific window on the past; and inspire history lovers around the world by giving them a place to put their historical images, which we hope will lead to a broader and more complete picture of history as it was lived.

Before and after shots using an image of my street taken from SepiaTown and a photo I took last Sunday afternoon. It is interesting to see that McDonalds has replaced a dentist! The tramway is long gone and you no longer see horses on the streets of Paris, but very little else has changed.

How do you see it developing in the future?
First and most importantly, we hope that more and more people will upload material. That's the key to the future of the site--a history that's built by the public, using material from institutions and private individuals. Our plan is for institutions and archives to come to think of SepiaTown as a place that can help them to reach a wider community. We'd like SepiaTown to become the first place people go when they want to see how a place has looked through history. We see it becoming an educational tool, and a way for students to become more involved in their own local history, and we think it will give travelers a cool new way to tour the world, either sitting at their computer or by using their mobile devices while they wander around a new city.

There seem to be no suggested dates on the site. Where does history start or stop?
We have a rough sense of the cutoff date of modernity as being 25 to 30 years ago; this seems to be long enough for there to be real visible change in architecture and design that makes it a clear difference to the eye. We don't really have a maximum age; we'd be very happy to see people uploading old drawings of ancient Rome, for example, or sketches of setlements in pre-colombian America.

A picture of the Boulevard du Temple by Louis Daguerre from 1838, the
earliest photo to feature a human (here having his shoes shined).

You talk about wishing to 'map a virtual past'. Do you think it is important for cities to keep traces of how things used to be?
I'm not sure it's the responsibility of cities to do that, although it would be great if they could and would. In a way we're inviting people to take responsibility themselves and upload their own collections, or seek out publicly owned images to share.

We definitely believe that historical archives, as guardians of public memory, have some level of responsibility to share that memory with the community--not just in their immediate area, but the larger world. Most archives want to do this, and many of them spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out ways to reach the public. We think that SepiaTown can help them.

The project is interactive and community based. Is it important for you to involve as big a number of people as possible?
Definitely; the more people who are involved and who tell other people, the more images we hope will fill the maps, and the more complete the picture of the past we'lll be able to provide.

Our ideal is for people in small towns and foreign countries to be thinking "these photos from the Library of Congress are great, but my grandfather had a stack of old pictures from when there was only one street in town. Why don't I upload those?"

That's what we hope will happen as people learn about the site and start wondering where their slice of SepiaTown is.

Is it your intention to extend the service to include film and sound archives?
We're working on that right now. Sound, film, 3D images,and ephemera such as posters, souvenirs, etc, pertinent to the location will all have a place on the site.

http://www.sepiatown.com

Unearthing a Gem

I'm a firm believer in supporting local businesses, so I was delighted to see the renovations that had taken place in a neighbourhood café bar. 'Le Rubis' on the Rue Saint Maur looks like the kind of establishment that has been run by the same family for generations, but this atmosphere is actually the result of the hard work of the new owners.

In Paris it is fashionable to be retro, but most bars or restaurants buy their nostalgia from flea markets. At Le Rubis, the retro decor is completely original, but had to be dug out from behind more contemporary trimmings. It is the rebirth of a 1930s relic, and is now a wonderful art deco environment.

Finding a name for the bar was a simple job. 'Le Rubis' was the name of the original establishment and is still clearly visible, most notably on the door handles and on the magnificent lettering above the bar. It also gave the owners a theme to work on for the decoration, with the walls taking on the raspberry-red tones of the gemstone.

I'm delighted that the structure has at last found a resident who respects its history and design. The bar is the street-level entrance to a wonderfully atypical building which looks a little like a vintage cruise liner. Signed on the outside by its architect, the seemingly little-known J.A. Fouchet, it dates from 1936.

The inside is dominated by an island bar which echos the curve of the building and the road outside. The owners, three associates called Valérie, Marie-Caroline and Stéphane took the decision to cut off one end of the bar so that people could circulate around it. To one side, red bench seats add a slight American-diner feel to the place, a sentiment that is enhanced by rock-inspired decoration and music.

This love of music provides the only frustration for the new owners. The room is not soundproofed, meaning that live concerts would be impossible, 'except perhaps for some acoustic concerts from time to time' Marie-Caroline tells me.

I will come back regularly purely to drink in the atmosphere of the bar, but how do the owners hope to attract other regulars in difficult times and in a district where competition is legion? The choice has been to create a multi-functional space, with breakfasts in the morning, a limited but 100% homecooked lunch menu, goûters and tea in the afternoons, and a more traditional pub ambience in the evening.

"We really want to organise some regular activities" Valérie tells me, "perhaps some quizzes or even bingo!". The idea sounds like a good one to me, and somehow entirely appropriate. There is something a little out-of-sync about the bar, a slightly provincial feel that sets it apart from its noisier and more trendy neighbours on the Rue Oberkampf. This difference can also be summed up in one other word; it is authentic.

Le Rubis
140 Rue Saint Maur, M° Goncourt