Wandering around a nice Saturday afternoon, I found myself close to the Botanical Garden of Montreal where a saw a poster of a “Butterflies Go Free” exhibition. This place was like in a little girl’s dream, warm, sunny, a lot of beautiful flowers and colorful butterflies flying around… Even if it sounds corny, you should definitely check it out! The exhibition is held till Sunday April 25th. More info here.
Archive for the 'discover brooklyn' Category
Saturday Feb 20, there was a free show given on Place-des-Arts in Montreal, 60 performers, good music, liiights and fireworks. The Festival Montreal en Lumiere is going on till Sat 27, ending with La Nuit Blanche. I checked the program of that night, there’s so much to do! The good thing is that public transportation is working all night, with free buses.
Here’s a video of the crowd dancing after the show:
(people in Montreal are not afraid of snow storms.. nothing could prevent them from dancing 
)
This is one of the artists I’ve been listening a lot lately and I’m very happy to learn that they are having a show in Montreal the 2nd of April at Club Soda.
Here’s their myspace: Miike Snow Myspace
The french Brooklynite migrated to a new hood for an afternoon - yes, I’m very adventurous! - to discover Long Island City, its art galleries AND the MoMa Annex > P.S.1
Now you must wonder why a furry, wooly Mammoth… Have a look at the photos, it will make much more sense!
On Saturdays afternoon, during summertime, music performance are housed within the architectural installation created by the winner of the annual P.S.1 Young Architects Program and the structure displayed this year makes me think of a giant creature that blows a very pleasant mist to cool you down after dancing and sweating like cavemen
This is the story of a little flower that made my heart melt.
Wandering in Brooklyn Heights this Sunday may 10th, taking random pictures I smelded a familiar fragrance. Under my nose a field of flowers that we call “Muguet” in french.
And there is a tradition in France on May first, to offer a bouquet of Muguet to your beloved, friends and family. As it was a private garden I just picked one stem to carry home and enjoy its smell till it dries out (thief!). Along the way I was trying to figure out the name of this flower in english, without success.
I hold that stem between my fingers as one would hold a cigarette and forgot about it while taking pictures. Then came the moment when I was flirting with the devil on a mysterious house…
… and I heard a sweet little voice saying
“A Lily of the Valley!”
And there she was, smiling at me, a 5 year old little girl talking about a “Lily of the Valley”. Voiceless, I stared at her and she understood that I had no clue of what she was talking about.
“The flower, it’s a Lily in the Valley” she repeated.
I had nothing better to say than
“Really?” and I was wondering how she could possibly know that, and again she read my thoughts and said
“Yes, and my name is Lily like the flower.”
She smiled at me and ran after her father walking further ahead.
“You have the sweetest name ever!” I shouted, stupidly.
My heart melted and by the time I realized what just happened, she was gone. I didn’t have the time to thank her. I wanted to offer her the stem, but it was too late. I guess she knew how I felt, as she was reading my thoughts during our 2 seconds conversation.
That little girl made my day. - Thank you MY “Lily of Brooklyn”
A week ago I left Park Slope and moved (back) in a neighborhood called Cobble Hill. I recently wrote about this nice area from Brooklyn on that blog - From Park Slope to Cobble Hill and also old photos from the time I first arrived in BK. And even if I spent two months here in dec07-jan08, there’s a whole part of it that I never saw.
The journey begins with a left turn out of the building where I live, I cross Henry Street and I can’t prevent myself to pull my camera out and shoot the restaurant signs across the street.
I continue my way to the west side after two blocks I cross an entrance of the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and arrive under the Heights of Prospect.
I’m walking under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and found myself in front of a construction area that is supposed to be the future location of Brooklyn Bridge Park at the waterfront.
The other side of the road are the BQE foundations and as you can see, it could need at little facelift! But there are very interesting shapes and textures.
At the end of that road is the Brooklyn Bridge and this is where to pass from Brooklyn Heights to Dumbo.
I decided to go back to Cobble Hill by walking on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade but my camera was too curious and I got lost in the paralell streets.
This post is already long enough so I will split today’s adventure in two. And stay tuned because there’s an upcoming heart-melting story! (I didn’t recover from it yet - oh Lily!)
NO DEJA VU is a travel blog focused on discovering cities from an “anti-touristic” perspective… for travelers on the quest for inspiration.
I had the chance to meet Véronique working as a web-strategist for Mint Birdy and Karl-Frédéric artistic director at Ekorce, on a 10 day trip to New York City. Both from Montréal, QC, they decided to create a travel guide/blog oriented to the artisitc aspect of the cities. Their goal is to seek out the latest and greatest design objects, various oddities and contemporary urban culture and share their finds with us.
New York is their first stage and they will cross the seas and land in Helsinki - Stockholm - Copenhagen - Paris to bring you the Best and the Unexpected.
And because Brooklyn is the Best of New York, it’s at Loki Lounge on 5th avenue and 2nd street that we met. Chatting about the great neighborhoods, my vision and experience of the borough, nice places they had to visit before they leave, etc.
I want to thank them again for the great time we spent together and the nice article featured on their blog.
