Apple’s new Paris flagship
WHAT’S not to love about the new Apple store, which opened last weekend in the Carrousel du Louvre?
If you’re a habitué of the NY or London stores, you may wonder what all the hype is about. Then again, the store’s cloud grey embrace should also make you feel at home… along with the racks of yummy pods, and an army of T-shirted staff primed to escort you with a can-do smile through every stage of your Macxperience.
Well, almost. Because, when it comes to the crunch, the Paris store hasn’t got quite got a handle on the service end of things yet.
The store assistants’ T-shirts tell me I’m going to be knocked out (“Vous allez être emballé”). But, actually, I’m not. Partly because it turns out to be quite hard to detach one of them from their self-absorbed huddles, and get them t to do some assisting. And also because, when it comes to paying for my purchase, the on-the-spot credit swipe system has developed a malfunction, so it’s back to the time-honoured French model…. you know, the one where you wait in a long and wooly queue, looking on as other johnny-come-latelys get served before you.
Just teething problems, no doubt.
Now the countdown starts for the real Paris flagship store. Almost twice the size of Apple Carrousel du Louvre, it’s due to open 2010, close to the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.
Bhutan’s hidden treasures at the Guimet
“WHY IS everyone going to Bhutan?” asked the New York Times, rather cheekily, in 2005.
Well, they weren’t then, and they aren’t now. Thanks to its strictly regulated tourist industry, this small, insular kingdom wedged between China and India is probably the most alluring country you can’t afford to visit.
All the more reason to check out the Musée Guimet’s current exhibition, “In the land of the Dragon“.
It comes at a time when Bhutan itself is becoming more westernized. There are still no traffic lights in the capital, but phones and televisions – banned until 1999 – are now making inroads. It’s still the only country in the world that dares to measure its success according to GNH (Gross National Happiness)* rather than GNP – and on the whole, it scores higher than most. Yet the country is also on the cusp of change, about to take its first tentative steps into democracy.
Ravishing photos and video footage (alas, no English commentary) open the expo before revealing Bhutan’s treasure… mystical silk mandalas intended to promote meditation on the way to the calm void at the heart of Buddhism; exquisitely-wrought gold-leaf bronzes of the gods, dating back centuries.
A privileged view, indeed. These national treasures are on show in France for the first time, and even in Bhutan, 
they are only brought out for special temple festivals. The Bhutanese government hopes that unveiling them will allow Westerners to gain a better appreciation of the country’s peaceful Buddhist heritage. Perhaps so – and its brilliant colours and movement will haunt you, too.
* French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has also expressed his interest in Gross National Happiness.
- Running until 10 January, 2010, In the Land of the Dragons: Sacred Arts of Bhutan is at the Musée Guimet (pictured, right) France’s national museum of Asian Arts.
Jean Sarkozy … at the mercy of wolves
THE EPAD row rumbles on. Here’s the latest from The Times.
Meanwhile, France’s Young Socialists have raised a smile with their Become a Sarkozy adoption campaign. Yesterday, they were outside the Elysee Palace, and now the campaign has gone live on their website. Over-qualified and unemployed, they think a change of family identity could work wonders on their job prospects.
Paris: Jobs for the Boys
- “I want one like that“
La Défense © PTB Henri Garat
EVEN FOR France’s bling-bling President Sarkozy, it was a pretty immodest gesture.
Cries of nepotism went up when Nicolas Sarkozy gave his son, Jean the plum job of heading up Paris’ business district, La Défense (pictured left). Feelings are running high, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.
Mr Sarkozy Jnr is 23 years old. With only two years on the conseil départemental under his belt, the President-designate of EPAD* hardly looks like the kind of heavyweight needed for the job. In his defence, he claims to be well briefed on the EPAD/La Défense files from his work as a councillor. That may be true. Trouble is, his chief qualification is that he’s the son of the Président de la République. Are we really supposed to believe there was no one else up to the job? Someone not just out of short trousers, so to speak?
A petition is currently doing the rounds, inviting Jean Sarkozy to do the decent thing (ie, turn down the post, get on with finishing his law degree and do a couple of work placements.) And, while it’s unlikely to attract quite as many hits as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s new online organ, it is gathering support.
So how much does the post really matter? The simple answer is, a lot. To the west of Paris, La Défense is lumbered with a legacy of ageing high-rises and a reputation for concrete soul-lessness. It has been hard hit by the recession, and yet it will play a pivotal part in the future of Greater Paris.
When (if?) Jean Sarkozy – aka “le Dauphin” – takes over the helm at the end of this year, he will have an annual 1 billion euro budget for modernising and humanising the district. Then again, if the challenge turns out to be tougher than expected, he can always count on Dad.
* l’Etablissement Public de l’Aménagement de La Défense
