This kind of markets have they origin in the XIX century when the councillors of Paris decided that the antique dealers, second hand goods dealers, were not able to sell in the city any more and they moved to the bordering area, to the Portes of Paris.

From that moment, the regular exhibitions start to follow each other until 1885 when it was born in Saint-Ouen what we now know as Flea Market.

The movement spread until becoming what it is now: a set of different markets located throughout Paris and where you can find absolutely everything.

In order to make it easier for you to visit them, we will provide you a list of the best markets depending on what they offer.

Marché aux Puces

It is the origial market and the biggest one in the world selling antiquities. It is settled at the Porte de Clignancourt. In this amazing market, you will be able to buy clothes, renaissance furniture, musical instruments, antiquities and other vintage objects. A must that, if you get the chance to visit, we suggest you take advantage of it!

Timetable: Saturday (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.), Sunday (10 a.m. – 6 p.m.) and Monday (11 a.m. – 5 p.m.)

Marché de Montreuil

It is another one of the original markets that emerged in the city. In this case, the main product are the clothes and the accessories. You can even find Yves Saint Laurent shoes, and any second-hand piece of clothing at incredible prices. No doubt, a market full of life from where you will not be able to go out bare handed.

Times: Saturday, Sunday and Monday (7 a.m. -7.30 p.m.)

Marché Bastille

If what you are looking for is food, the Marché Bastille will not let you down. It is huge, full of people and delicious gastronomy offers: fresh fruits and vegetables, local cheeses, seafood, aged wine… anything! It is one of the most visited markets in the city by the locals. So if you want to see and taste the authentic Parisian food, you need to go have a look!

Timetable: Thursday (7 a.m. – 2.30 p.m.) and Sunday (7 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Marché Monge

It is another must market for foodies. It is located in the heart of Paris, just next to the Rue Mouffetard, one of the most festive streets in the city. In fact, we suggest you go before you start shopping. This market is becoming a real attraction for tourists. No wonder why, given the quality of the food they offer on accurately well-decorated stands.

Timetable: Wednesday and Friday (7 a.m. – 14.30 p.m.), Sunday (7 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Marché aux Fleurs et aux Oiseaux

One of the most original markets in the city: they only sell Parisian flowers and birds. This market has two buildings and some shops full of colour and smell: roses, orchids, lilies, tulips, bird cages, gardening books, cockatiels, parakeets and even exotic macaws! No doubt, a different experience from which you will go out far more than satisfied.

Timetable: everyday (8 a.m. – 7 p.m.)

Today, we would like to introduce to you one of the restaurants of the city that never sleeps in order to deny this myth since, even if it is not always easy to find them, New York owns a wide and delicious range of gastronomy possibilities.

In this case, we have visited the Greenwich Village, on the West side of Lower Manhattan. The neighbourhood is famous for being a bastion of Bohemia and artistic culture and have been home of successful artists such as Bob Dylan.

On the Washington Street we found the well-known restaurant “The Standard Grill” of the Hotel The Standard. It offers different menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and it also has a wide wine and cocktail list.

As a proof of their delicious meals, several magazines and newspapers such as Vogue or the New York Magazine have qualified it as “perfection” and “delicious”. The Time Out New York wrote a whole article recommending what we should eat and drink.

The famous American gastronomy magazine, Gourmet, mentions also the chef of the restaurant, Dan Silverman, awarded with prices like the “Best New Chef” or “20 Top Table” two years in a row. The magazine of the premium life, Robb Report, also writes that “Silverman excels at taking dishes you know and love and presenting the best renditions of them”.

If you have the incredible chance to be in New York, do not miss this wonderful experience that the restaurant offers. Besides, you may be able to meet some of the celebrities that usually go to this fantastic grill!

After the sad and painful loss that the closure of this library represents in the book and in the culture sectors, from DHC, we would like to let you know and encourage you to visit these establishments devoted to the culture, a legacy that we must not lose; the bookstores in Madrid, Barcelona, London and Paris more mythical, new, old, independent or original, all worth visiting.

The mythical bookshop are much more than that, they are centers of cultural encounters, places that exude the love of reading and where the desire of knowledge can be felt in every hidden corner.

Barcelona still has, and despite the large number of associated bookstores that it has lost in the recent years, bookshops as “Negra y criminal” (Black and criminal) in which we find not only black and detective novels as “Ciudad de los Prodigios” (City of Wonders) by Eduardo Mendoza, but  also essays on the subject and a great selection of movies and shows of the genre.

On the other hand, “Laie” consists of ten bookstores located throughout Barcelona. In them we find centres specialised in humanity, literature and arts, contemporary culture, Gaudí, contemporary art, science, opera and classical music, Picasso and design among others. In one of the bookshops, located on the central street of Pau Claris, the pleasure for culture extends to gastronomy, in its cafe you can enjoy a quiet and relaxed atmosphere in which reading is the best pairing.

From the late fifties, you can visit the iconic bookstore “Fuentetaja” in Madrid, which in addition to abundant bookshelves, the space hosts all kinds of events related to literature. In addition, the first floor is a perfect literary cafe to read an interesting book.

Also in Madrid, we find one of the few bookstores in Spain specialised in cuisine: “A punto“. There, you will find more than 3 000 references to food and wine books in all languages​​. Furthermore, in the ground floor there is a tasting room and a kitchen, where activities and courses take place. As if this were not enough, the space is also available for any type of event, celebration or private meeting.

London also suffered a major loss when the legendary library “Marks & Co“, whose address names the book “84, Charing Cross Road“, became a restaurant. However, the street is home to a multitude of second hand and specialised libraries such as Quinto Bookshop or Foyles.

In the former we find a wide range of unique, antique or collector books, the latter, which entered in the Guinness Book of Records for being the library with more titles on display, used to be famous for its anachronistic practices and its eccentric business to the point that it became a tourist attraction. It has since been updated including an online store.

There is no doubt that in Paristhe famous bookshop specialised in Anglo-Saxon literature “Shakespeare & Co“, located in the fifth district of the city. Downstairs there is a “wishing well”, to which visitors often toss coins. The bookshops, which when was located in the sixth district was visited by Hemingway and Joyce among others, appears in numerous film productions as “Before Sunset” with Jesse Wallace or “Midnight in Paris” by Woody Allen.

Another major bookstore in the city of light is the “Calignani“, located in the first district. This Anglo-Saxon bookseller, which also includes French literature and fine arts, was settled in Paris in the early nineteenth century and has since been a leader both nationally and internationally for curious and educated readers in Paris and worldwide.

Since the end of December, London started its sales. In Barcelona and Madrid you can also already enjoy them. However, if you are in Paris, you will have to wait until tomorrow for the city to be filled up with the “Soldes” signs.

Harrods, the iconic department store in Knightsbridge, is well-known for its amazing discounts which will be up to 50% in bags and dresses for women and jackets for men. We also recommend you to stroll about Oxford, Piccadilly and Regent Streets, where besides of other establishments such as Selfridges & Co. or Fortnum & Mason, you will be able to visit traditional shops in the English capital.

In Paris, the synonym for luxury is definitely Boulevard Haussman, where the Galeries Lafayette are located with up to a 50% off. Moreover, on the famous Champs Elysées, at Place Vendôme and on the Rue Saint-Honoré, you will be able to enjoy shops such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Dior or Chanel, among others. If you still have time, the Rue de Rivoli and Le Marais offer an original alternative to shop in “boutiques” like Maje or Comptoir des Cotonniers.

In Madrid, the centric shops will open all the weekends and bank holidays so you can find what you wish for with no time restrictions. If you go to the Ortega y Gasset street you will enjoy the sales in shops such as Louis Vuitton or the 50% off discounts that offers Valentino‘s shop. If you are in love with Gucci, you’d better hurry up since years ago the people has collapsed the Serrano Street.

The Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona is a must for all the fashion and luxury lovers. No doubt, one of the noteworthiest shops during this sales will be Desigual, which will celebrate once again the “Seminaked Party”, reflecting the way they approach life with a funny and uninhibited clothe style. Moreover, on the same paseo you will find shops such as Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Chanel or Santa Eulalia. You can’t miss it!

]]> http://www.derbyhotels.com/blog/en/luxury-sales/feed/ 0 http://www.derbyhotels.com/blog/en/van-gogh-dreams-of-japan/ http://www.derbyhotels.com/blog/en/van-gogh-dreams-of-japan/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2013 08:51:43 +0000 Derby Hotels Collection http://www.derbyhotels.com/blog/en/?p=2349 A few metres away from the Tuileries garden and the Place de Vendôme, in the elegant Place de la Madeleine is the Art Gallery of Paris. This five-year-old exhibition space has won the hearts of art lovers with the originality of their exhibitions as well as their quality.

In this case, this small intimate museum hosts an exceptional double exhibition of Van Gogh and Hiroshige. Despite the belief that the master of the Japanese art is Hokusai, the Japanese consider that their most importatn artist and their own Leonardo Da Vinci is Utagawa Hiroshige.

We all know about Van Gogh’s passion for the Japanese art. Moreover, this exhibition allows us to discover how much the Dutch artist was inspired by Hiroshige. Marc Restellini, director of the art Gallery, has been working with specialists in these two big painters. The result: a surprising exhibition reflected in 200 engravings of Hiroshige and 31 landscape pictures of Van Gogh.

A few decades after the last Van Gogh exhibition in the city of lights, we can now appreciate first-hand the confrontations between these two artists and penetrate, as Van Gogh did at the time, in the exceptional universe of the Japanese artist.

This exhibition, where Hiroshige is presented as the second part of the Dutch artist, we can compare and contrast them very accurately and admire the composition and the details of Hiroshige within the tormented style of Van Gogh. No doubt, from DHC, we consider that it is a mixture worth seeing.

“Tutankhamun. Story of a discovery “pays tribute to one of the most authentic archaeological adventures in history. The Egyptian Museum of Barcelona proposes an “expedition” to get to know its protagonists, their working methods or the media impact generated by the discovery of the tomb of the king-boy.

In addition to this temporary exhibition, which will be open until May 31, some other interesting activities will be held: guided tours, debates, workshops for children, or even a trip to visit the excavation site. Directed by the curator, Luis Manuel Gonzálvez, we can discover many pieces of the Clos Archaeological Foundation which, until now, had not been exposed. A reproduction of the tomb itself and a model of the excavation will help us get in position. We also find a selection of fifty photographs of the tomb of Tutankhamun and  fragments of the excavation diary by Howard Carter.

In addition, the exhibition features an augmented reality app for smartphones and tablets that allow you to interact with objects and images of the sample.

This exhibition is held to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the discovery by Howard Carter and his patron Lord Carnarvon which still continues to generate so much controversy. In fact, the “curse of Tutankhamun” deserves its own chapter in the sample in the Egyptian Museum. Moreover, it is one of the topics discussed on 24 January by the President of the Clos Archaeological Foundation, Mr Jordi Clos and Marta Villanueva, expert of Egyptian Museum of Barcelona in one of the conferences that are linked to the exposure.

When we enter in the exhibition, in order to show that fantasy and surrealism are the keys to his success, we can see a giant egg in which the artist is curled in the fetal position. Once inside, the first image that visitors must face, which is not suitable for sensitive stomachs, is a knife severing an eye from “Un Chien Andalou”, the short film that Dalí co-directed with Luis Buñuel. The faces among the attendees expressed perfectly the impression that the images causes.  causala the image. Several decades later, Dali keeps surprising.

The exhibition is arranged in a large U shape where the different periods of his works are chronologically organised. At first, we find his cubist works although Dalí won all his reputation for his most provocative works when surrealism came up.

Among them, we can find his biggest and most famous works such as Lobster Telephone, the Metamorphosis of Narcissus and The Persistence of Memory, whose inspiration, as Dalí claims, came to him when he saw a Camembert cheese melting to the sun.

However, the most interesting ones are the lesser-known, small dreamy thumbnails where one can appreciate the meticulous work of the artist in a framework of a few  square centimeters and how, nevertheless, they convey a sense of greatness. Worth seeing it live!

The exposure intelligently illustrates the artist’s journey from figurative dreamy art to a more contemporary, conceptual, theatrical, approach without hiding anything about the polymorphous nature of Dalí.

Despite the words of the artist claiming he was a bad painter because he was too smart, the Pompidou Centre made ​​their first retrospective  over 30 years ago, which was and still is the one that received more visits. Hopefully this second one will have the same success.

From DHC we would like to recommend you a new store which is coming up in citis like New York, Milan or London and where it has had an incredible success. We are talking about the pop up stores. As the name suggests, these ephemeral shops, with relatively short expiration date, “jump” to the streets as the pop up windows on the Internet.

In these stores, in addition to the usual products, the brands take the advantage to unveil new products, provide different and unique components and to approach to customers with authentic performances.

The idea was born after the trip of a communications agency in Japan, where they saw a commercial space that opened only once a year. At the end of the campaign everything was sold out. Why? For the exclusivity and originality that this action brought not only to products but also to the sale and the clients themselves.

The pop up can come out anywhere, from art spaces, to popular places and even in hotels. They are in themselves a real show and where you can do something special and extravagant that could not be done in a conventional setting, as stated Panambí Martinez, the coordinator of the company Pop Up Store Spain.

Now you know, if you want to give something original and still enjoy the last minute Christmas shopping, you can take advantage and go to the Pop up stores which are currently being held in Barcelona, such as the Gori de Palma, and in Madrid, such as Madrid in Love or the Apartment.

The quintessential Japanese drink comes at a time when the Spanish culture is more open than ever to change and innovation as says Paco Patón, director of catering at the Urban Hotel, as well as the hotel team and the Glass Bar barman Jose Manuel and Oscar.

Sake, a drink that Japanese people take on the rocks, has found their perfect implementation on the Western world in cocktails. As there is a very wide range of different types of sake, says Paton, it is assembled with countless  of bartending products.

However, there are many people who still do not dare to embark on this new trend. Paton argues hat it is just a beer without added hops so a sake combined cocktail supposes a much lower alcohol consumption than the traditional ones.

Sake combines with both Western and Oriental dishes, even with the most difficult as asparagus artichokes and endive.

Different food professionals are already aware of this growing trend and they say that is a perfect pairing with oysters, a totally new proposal in Spain. A combination that, like sake, is perfect for the appetizer.

Paton attributes the success of Japanese cuisine to the fact that enjoying the food and drink from a millennial people as Japanese helps you to know the character, the spirit of education and their personality.

To conclude, they told us all about the coming trends from the Japanese world, such as the Japanese whisky which has already a consecrated reputation in Spain.

Do not miss the chance to taste this delicious drink at the Glass Bar at the Urban Hotel. Our special recommendation: try it with our delicious oysters, you’ll love it!

From DHC we would like to have a look at these markets, which have their origin in the fourteenth century, located in some of the most emblematic places of the city. Do not miss any of them if you have the wonderful luck to be in the city of lights during the Christmas period.

At Trocadéro Square, right next to the Eiffel Tower, the “Trocadéro on Ice” gives you the possibility to enjoy an ice rink in the heart of Paris! Besides an ice igloo and a snowman, the market offers a hundred wooden houses with gastronomy, handicrafts and numerous animations to keep the magic of Christmas.

Open from 11h to 20h from December 13 to January 6.

The Marché de Noël de Champs Elysées is one of the most amazing for visitors because of its unique location; an incredible opportunity to walk through one of the world’s most spectacular avenues while enjoying over a hundred wooden houses that offer handicrafts and cuisine. In addition, you will find numerous carousels and  other games perfect for children. In the Place de la Concorde, located at one end of the avenue, you will witness the largest Christmas tree in Europe with almost 35 meters high.

Open from 10h to 23h from November 16 to January 6 (Friday and Saturday is open until midnight).

The Marché de Noël de Montparnasse has similar characteristics, located in one of the most prestigious districts of the French capital, just below the Montparnasse Tower. Surely you will not be able to resist taking a small snack right there!

Open from 5 to 30 December.

On the Boulevard Saint Germain des Prés, near the legendary church of Saint Germain des Prés, is located one of these marchés with thirty wooden houses of spectacular decoration consisting of a very traditional offer.

Open from December 6 to January 2.

The Marché de Noël Alsacien is located in the Gare de l’Est, it lasts only two weeks, but differs from the others because, in this case, you can enjoy the Alsatian gastronomy: pretzels, gingerbread, chocolate, fresh pasta, foie gras, Alsatian charcuterie…  Moreover, this year there is a Christmas tree, entertainment for children and tastings of the treasures of this region of France.

The next market is found in the Italie 2 shopping center, in the Place d’Italie, which will held animations for kids and adults. The Marché de Noël de Italie 2 is an ideal opportunity to enjoy the food offered by the market and at the same time doing Christmas shopping.

Open from November 24 to December 24.

In the neighbourhood of the Moulin Rouge, the Marché de Noël du Haut-Montmartre, decorated with more than 70 wooden houses in the streets of the famous Parisian neighborhood. The program includes handicrafts, creations of artists, food, typical Christmas decorations …

Open from December 6 to January 6.

The Féeries d’Auteuil, 20 minutes from the Eiffel Tower, compared to the Trocadéro Market, it is a much more festive in which you can enjoy animations and concerts, as well as antique shops and gastronomic specialties of the regions in France famous for their wines, champagnes, cheeses and foie gras without forgetting the little touches like jewelry, ready-to-wear, decorative, and Provence nativity figurines and Christmas trees. It also has a caring house hold by the youth of the area.

Open from 8 to 16 December.

A few steps from the Eiffel Tower, in the seventh arrondissement, at the Marché de Noël du Mail Branly, a multitude of artisans will be there with their creations and, whilst you are shopping, you will be able to enjoy delicious local products such as marrons , gingerbread, tartiflette or hot wine.

Open from December 14 to January 6.

To conclude, itcould not miss the most famous cathedral in the world market. We are talking about the Marché de Noël Paris Notre-Dame. A score of exhibitors await you to show you their most original creations. A treat to enjoy the handicraft and culinary mix beside the Seine.

Open from 10am to 20pm from 15 to 23 December.