A SUNDAY COCKTAIL 20.11.11

Photography by Ari Marcopoulos & Jeremy Kost, as seen at the Unfound Photo Fair 

I once spent a year in Paris, I think it was on a Sunday.

So said W.C. Fields, except it was Philadelphia, rather than Paris, but I share his sentiment.  As a notoriously irritating morning person, I have dedicated my Sundays in Paris to engaging with the world, whatever that might be. Here, for this week's Sunday Cocktail, are some of my recommendations for a Sunday in Paris, or a Sunday spent anywhere.

Photography by Audrey Rodgers, Kate Woods, Zora Beer & Hugh Ferguson

...Explore one of Paris' many temporary and permanent exhibitions. Seen above, the Unfound Photo Fair 

The Upstairs Library at Shakespeare & Company has a vast selection of diverse reading material to be explored in the reading room. The library seen here during the launch of literary arts journal A Tale of Three Cities, which can be bought from the bookstore.

... Watch the winter sun disappear behind one of the city's glorious architectural wonders. Above, the Petit Palais as seen from the courtyard café.

Photographed in Café de commerce, 75018 and Les Parigots, 75010

Chance upon a Kate Moss print. Photography series : The New Gypsies by Iain McKell

Photographed at Le Petit Palais / Sarah Bernhardt by Clairin

...Admire the beauty erected to honour the dead of the past century. Pick your hero, bring a picnic. Photo from Père Lachaise, Paris 75020.

A TALE OF THREE CITIES

This Friday night in Paris, hebdomadaire literary soirée The Book Club, which has been gracing Le Carmen since February, throws a special party to celebrate the launch of new literary arts journal A Tale of Three Cities, linking Europe's golden artistic triangle of Paris, London and Berlin. A Tale of Three has been many, careful months in the making - contributions from Zadie Smith, Joss McKinley and Todd Zuniga along with some of the three cities' most promising young writers and artists are all bound together in the inaugural first edition, hand-numbered in an exclusive print run of 500 copies and produced by boutique publishing house Ditto Press. A Tale of Three will only be available as a hard copy, to have and to hold, forevermore. As Paris Editor Rosa Rankin-Gee expressed : "We believe in paper and ink. Good art and writing should be able to exist without electricity. This journal has a beautiful textured dust jacket - you can't get that on a Kindle." A Tale of Three will be available to buy on Friday night at Le Carmen in Paris, at B Store in London or on the Tale of Three online store.

As for Book Club, the concept is thus : bring a book you don't mind passing on, and swap it for someone else's over a cocktail (Tequila Mockingbird perhaps), whilst flirtatiously perching on a stranger's knee. As illustrated by the pictures below from last month's club, I warn you that this isn't any ordinary book club. It involves champagne, dancing to old-school garage, good-looking men in hats, and possibly ... motorbikes. But what did you expect? Turns out people who love books, don't just love books.

Photos by Un Autre Quelqu'Un and Audrey Rogers