Foreign Parts

À AIMER: The Tablet Computer-As-Camera Trend

The latest from the catwalk: computer tablets as cameras, captured at the Elie Saab fall/winter couture show.

I adore this trend only because it makes me laugh out loud every time that I encounter it.  

Although I have grown used to walking up my rue in Montmartre past groups of tourists standing in the middle of the thoroughfare holding up their cell phones the way priests hold offerings — steadily, reverently — in their attempt to snap non-blurry photos of Le Moulin de la Galette, the city skyline and sometimes me, if I happen to get in their way, I was a little jarred the first time I saw a guy on my corner holding up an iPad.

But now I see people doing this all the time.  It looks more than a little cumbersome, the wide tablet in the hands, as if the photographer were taking pictures with a sheet of paper or a full-fledged laptop, but maybe I just need to open my mind. Is a kitted-out Leica any less unwieldy than an iPad?  Is a man using a tablet computer to record a haute couture show any less strange than the people around him doing the same thing, but with cell phones?

And what devices will they be using to capture runway fashion in 10, 20 years?  Questions for a rainy mardi . . . 

À AIMER: Bastille Day, or French Summer Vacation

Bastille Day, 2011.  Fireworks explode next to a glittering Tour Eiffel.

Yesterday was Bastille Day or, in French, le quatorze juillet. Each year, Paris celebrates the national fête with a parade on the Champs-Élysées and a spectacular nighttime fireworks display.  The events are supposed to signify the French Revolution and the birth of la République Française.

Instead, for most Parisiens, they signify the beginning of les vacances, the long summer vacation period that kicks off on July 15 and runs until the end of August.  For the past couple of weeks, I have overheard many locals gushing about their upcoming holidays.  Wednesday evening at the department store BHV, I saw a cashier glance at his watch, grin, close his register and turn to his colleague to express his joy in two words: "Les vacances!"  That was all he said and all he needed to say.  His co-worker understood him completely and responded with a smile of her own.

Yesterday I, too, celebrated Bastille Day and the beginning of French summer vacation.  Not because I'm going anywhere — I will stay in Paris through August — but because half of the city's residents are departing, which means no traffic jams (except on the highways leading out of l'escargot), no crowded métro platforms and a reduction in the number of crottes de chiens on the sidewalks, as 50% of les Parigots are departing and taking their dogs with them.

Those of us that remain can now breathe easier, walk more freely and enjoy an almost village-esque atmosphere in the city.  And that is something to aimer.

À DÉTESTER: Summer at the Office

Cala Ganone, Sardinia.

Don't you hate it when you're sitting at your desk on a hot summer's day knowing that somewhere, out there, people are having fun at the beach?  Kind of makes you want to buy a plane ticket, doesn't it?