XOXO

It's that time of year again: when I scramble to pay my summer tuition. (The world needs more graphic designers, no?) To mark the occasion, I'm having a fire sale of my favorite pieces in my Etsy store — they're all basically for sale at cost. (I swear to God: I just looked at one of the prices and shook my head.) Maybe you were looking for a vintage globe? A painting of Montmartre? The cutest map of the U.S. ever? Or a best-ever present for a cat lover? It's all there. 

Also! Everyone who wrote in for a postcard: They're on their way! And in fact there are precisely 7 left, so hit me up, as they say, if you'd like one. 

Now, on to other, less transactional issues: 

1. IKEA — which just opened its first center-city location here — redesigned a métro stop and it's basically art.

2. American (and lots of British and Canadian) veterans will mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in just a couple weeks, and some of them are raising money to come to Normandy one last time. Gratifyingly, it's pretty hard to find a GoFundMe that's still taking donations (because they meet their goals so fast, hurrah), but this one is, if you're in a charitable mood this afternoon. I gave! (LOL not one of the $1000 donations.) Interesting fact: If everyone getting this newsletter gave a dollar, they'd be ... just about there! Finally, here's the story of a 95-year-old D-Day veteran parachuting into Normandy: "It is a stupid thing to do at my age." (Fact: He was a good-looking man, see story for details.) 

3. The Eiffel Tower turned 130 this year, and celebrated with a light-and-sound show that looks ridiculous (and included an extremely rough version of the cancan). Video here. If lasers aren't doing it for you, perhaps these "13 things you might not know about the Eiffel Tower" might, including the number of times it's been painted. (Significantly fewer than I'd thought.) 

4. I have not read this book about an American expat in Paris, but I did enjoy the reviewer's take on it: "It remains annoyingly unclear how he affords the membership to the chichi pony club." 

5. Here's what happens when you eat mostly baguettes for four days straight, at Paris's yearly all-out baguette competition. 

6. I.M. Pei died this week at 102: "If there’s one thing I know I didn’t do wrong, it’s the Louvre."

7. The end of the influencer: a thoughtful critique of a most insidious practice. Honest to goodness I was out in La Défense this week, and saw an inordinately well-dressed woman giving her photographer direction. We are all living in someone else's photoshoot. 

8. If you've ever wondered what Les Miserables 2019 might look like, one director has an answer, and everyone is catching it in Cannes: "It contains no singing or romance, but rather a tough, “The Wire”-like street-level portrait of the Parisian banlieue of Montfermeil." 

9. "My €62 Paris taxi bill for a journey of less than 2km."

Passez un bon week-end! 
D.