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| SiteBits |
| SiteBits is a web site for independent travelers, urban culture vultures and everybody who is fond of good things in nice places. |
| Language: English |
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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Visitors Out: 1977 |
| Total Visitors Out: 3937 |
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| Montreal to Get New Plaza in 2009 |
| 2008-07-17 08:30:00 |
The Montreal Jazz Festival 2008 has just finished
and the city is already fevereshly preparing for the 2009 edition. You might think this is an overstatement - after all, there's almost a year left! But in fact, in this short year, one of the most important concert spaces, the plaza between Place des Arts and Rue de Bleury will have to be completely redone.
The models and renderings for the new Place des Festivals were
made public a few days ago and the city's mayor took the opportunity to
assure everybody the project is "on schedule, on budget"......
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| Caixa Forum - Madrid |
| 2008-07-15 21:30:00 |
Few makeover projects have been handled with such a degree of
architectural audacity as the recent transformation of a disused
electric station in Madrid’s Las Huertas district into a cultural center
La Caixa Forum - Madrid.
Swiss architects
Herzog
&
de Meuron
not only gutted the building,
removing most of its interiors and changing its shape and size by
conspicuously adding a layer of several floors, they also literally
lifted it from its foundation, giving the whole structure a tense
“suspended” look.
The resulting space now houses a cultural center with its own exhibition
space, a large auditorium, a bookstore and a top-floor café......
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| Calatrava's Transit Hub Roof Gets Stuck |
| 2008-07-09 21:22:00 |
Retractable roofs have been architects' idée fixe for decades.
Moshe Safdie once wrote up an idea for
entire neighborhoods shielded by such roofs during the harsh season and
open to the elements when it's nice outside.
The path to these dreams' realization has been fraught with difficulties,
from budget overruns to full-blown engineering disasters like
Montreal's Olympic Stadium (after a decade of efforts to fix it, the
city finally gave up and installed a fixed roof in its place. It won't
be moving any time soon).
Nevertheless, projects like that pop up again and again. And so do the
difficulties. The latest example is Santiago Calatrava's project for the
Lower Manhattan Transportation Hub. Among the project's many innovative
features was a retractable roof. But will there be one in the final
implementation?...
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| Jean Nouvel Will Build La Tour Signal |
| 2008-07-08 13:40:00 |
A few weeks ago, l'EPAD - the government body
responsible for developing Paris' La Défense
district, announced the completion of an
international tender for the construction of
a new high-rise tower (La Tour Signal). The project went
to Ateliers Jean Nouvel.
The revered French architect (who is the
winner of this year's Pritzker Prize in architecture)
beat several well-known colleagues including
Jacques Ferrier Architectures,
Foster+Partners, Studio Libeskind,
and Wilmotte et Associés......
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| Waldorf=Astoria Hotel to Open in Montreal |
| 2008-07-05 16:10:00 |
As many press outlets have reported, the Waldorf=Astoria
hotel will open a Montreal outpost some time in 2011.
A 250-room, 76-residence monster (officially named
The Waldorf=Astoria Hotel & Residences Montreal) will rise
a few blocks west of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art......
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| If At First You Don't Succeed, Try It Again In Berlin |
| 2008-05-22 12:50:00 |
I generally dislike articles that sound like advertising,
especially when they are written about foreign cities. You
know the type? Like, how everything is good in XYZ and people
are nicer and girls/boys are prettier and
things are cheaper and nobody works and everybody's happy.
A couple of years back I felt it was appropriate to
comment
on the much promoted virtues of Buenos Aires.
Right now, I feel the same
way about Berlin, except I can not claim to have lived there
myself, so I only have my scepticism to go by......
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| Frankie Goes To... New York? |
| 2008-05-22 00:00:00 |
The writers' strike may be over, but not everything is going
well in Hollywood, I read in yesterday's Corriere della Sera (Milan).
The latest trend of shows and movies abandoning the city for cheaper
locales leaves the film industry capital increasingly isolated.
And if things continue down the same path, soon nobody will be filming
there (that prediction is courtesy of Carsten Lorenz who made it
in an interview with the Financial Times)......
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| Pedro's Spanish American Restaurant |
| 2008-04-22 21:00:00 |
This past weekend, we're wandering around Dumbo — that neighborhood that takes place between and beneath the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and seems comprised almost entirely of organic food marts and upscale designer baby clothes boutiques.
I was in the mood for a hot dog and beer, which is only a healthy meal when compared to my previous idea of a meal of ultra-rich chocolate. But there were surprisingly few hot dog vendors about the place, and in stark contrast to my own neighborhood, no guys wandering around offering to sell you a Corona for a buck fifty. However, while walking up Jay Street, I suddenly caught a whiff of…is that…is that taco? Yes it is. And suddenly all I wanted was tacos and beer. Luckily, Pedro's Spanish American Restaurant and Bar was waiting on the corner of Jay and Front Street (73 Jay St., between Front and Water) to give me exactly what I wanted....
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| Terminal 2E Reopens at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle |
| 2008-04-21 23:05:00 |
You may remember the tragic accident at Paris
Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E four years ago.
A large part of its glass roof collapsed killing
four people and injuring several others.
Well, it only took four years and about 150M€ for engineers to
fix the damn roof, but they finally did it. A couple of weeks ago first
scheduled flights started using the terminal......
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| Ristorante La Giostra |
| 2008-04-17 11:30:00 |
La Giostra is a fine restaurant in Florence where the flavors (and quantities) of yesterday coexist in peaceful harmony with the culinary and trends of tomorrow.
Just for its atmosphere, somehow combining old-school cordiality with a good-hearted laidback attitude, eating at La Giostra would be a worthwhile experience. The restaurant's history also makes it unusual, as does the fact that it is run by members of the Hapsburgs - a royal Austrian family.
And then there's food.....
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| Jean Nouvel is Awarded 2008 Pritzker Prize |
| 2008-04-02 12:00:00 |
French architect Jean Nouvel, 62, received
the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious
award in architecture (which is often compared to the Nobel prize in
science in the degree of honor it affords)......
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| Le Cartet Reopens |
| 2008-03-29 15:00:00 |
Le Cartet
(106 rue McGill, Old Montreal),
a combination of a high-end grocery store
(boutique alimentaire) and a café, reopened after
winter renovation. Our reviewers will soon be dispatched
to sample Le Cartet's brunch....
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| The Starck Surreality: Le Dali at Le Meurice |
| 2008-03-27 15:10:00 |
It's only natural that any project signed by
Philippe Starck
guarantees attention to an establishment, whether it be
a hotel, restaurant or a high-rise apartment tower.
But now the maestro seems to be making space for another
family member - his daughter Ara.
In the latest example,
she was charged with the only truly "artistic" part of
a restaurant renovation project for the
Meurice hotel, while
her famous father was busy desgnining the 600+ pieces of furniture
that went into the restaurant......
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| Le Rouquet: The Lesser Evil of St-Germain |
| 2008-03-14 21:45:00 |
When you feel like having a coffee in a classic
Left Bank café setting but shudder at the thought of
neighboring a group of starry-eyed tourists (which is almost
inevitable if you go to either the Café de Flore or
Les Deux Magots), I have an
alternative suggestion.
A few blocks away from the two oh-so-atmospheric
stalwarts of Parisian café life sits a slightly
less frequented etablishment: Le Rouquet......
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| Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio |
| 2008-03-13 16:30:00 |
Perhaps because it's more out of the way, smaller, and slightly less spectacular than the Mercato Centrale, the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio is frequented mostly by genuine Florentines and their wannabe compatriots.
However, since it's only a 15-20 minute walk from the Duomo, it can't really be considered off-the-beaten track, and certainly such a convenient yet relatively uncrowded market deserves a gastronomic visit......
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| Paris La Belle |
| 2008-03-09 23:08:00 |
Going to Paris this time was a treat – and that's despite the fact that, having lived in a warm climate for a while, I didn't have anything warm to wear. (Worse, I couldn't even make myself buy anything in Europe since the local trends in men's fashion don't really inspire me to get anything… call me old-fashioned). However, I didn't let the cold or the wet winter of Paris hold me back and I made the best of my weeklong stay in the city. Let me share a few places from my latest trip......
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| High on Thai at Restaurant Thaïlande |
| 2008-03-03 16:40:00 |
With few exceptions, I never order anything that I can cook well myself. Thai is one cuisine that I would love to wow guests with. Its distinguishing feature is the use of coconut milk, lemon grass, peanuts and chilli peppers in harmonious constellations for consumption. But sadly, I've never actually done anything about studying it, maybe because I am a regular at Restaurant Thaïlande. Let's face it, we're a lazy species, and if others can do it better, why not go to them?...
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| Kubic Volumes |
| 2008-03-01 18:00:00 |
Whether we like it or not, we live in an age
of product placement. Anyone doubting that can
ask the judges of "American Idol" how they're liking their Coke.
Kube Hotel in Paris is an appropriately modish collaboration
between Grey Goose Vodka and Murano Resort
centering on the concept of cubicity (cubicality?).
Its 41 high-tech rooms are cube-shaped, as is the foyer, the
elevators and the exterior spaces......
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| Rambling About (In) Cemeteries: Montparnasse Cemetery |
| 2008-02-28 18:00:00 |
One grey New Year's Day in Paris my sister and I decided to go for a walk. Our senses happily dulled from the night before, we wandered through Montparnasse; a high wall herded us along the sidewalk.
Suddenly, it broke into large gates: a cemetery lay beyond. We hesitated, but our curiosity was piqued, so we went in......
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| Lunch at Trattoria da Rocco |
| 2008-02-25 11:50:00 |
The Trattoria da Rocco, inside the Mercato Sant' Ambrogio is one of the rare places in Florence where you will still hear more Italian than English at mealtime. Everyone eats lunch here, from the occasional bewildered tourist to businessmen to construction workers. It's open for lunch, from about 11 to whenever they run out of food.
The market itself is wonderful and deserves a review of its own, so suffice it to say that the trattoria is the same size as the regular stalls in the market but it's the one that looks more like a greenhouse. Don't be concerned if you can't find the door, there isn't any. Simply open one of the windows/walls and slide into a booth and prepare for a cheap, simple, and simply good meal......
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| Glowing Above the Sun: the Tío Pepe Sign |
| 2008-02-14 21:00:00 |
One of the most frequently photographed sights in Madrid that's nevertheless completely ignored in the city guidebooks is the Tío Pepe sign in Puerta del Sol. Given the number of tourists taking pictures in front of the sign (with many opting for a silly trick where they pretend to be "holding" the giant bottle behind them... very creative, guys, but it's been done before) and consequently, given the sign's status as the city's de facto second emblem (at least in tourists' minds... the first still being the bear, of course), it seems almost unbelievable that no guidebook provides at least a cursory look at the sign's story.
Allow me to take the onerous task upon myself.....
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| L'Express Way |
| 2008-02-09 17:25:00 |
There are many restaurants in this town proving their worth by hiring the right chef, PR agency or interior designer, attracting the "in" crowd or serving the most "creative" (sometimes absurdly creative) nouvelle cuisine dishes.
And then there are restaurants that don't need to prove anything: as long as they stay true to their mission and character, they will be deservedly popular.
L'Express at 3927 rue St-Denis belongs to the second category. In the 20-odd years that the place existed, it slowly transformed its status from that of a "cool new thing" to that of a Montreal institution......
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| Sabatini Gardens: Chilling With the Kings |
| 2008-02-05 20:30:00 |
If there's one place that symbolizes the quirkiness of Madrid's
history for me, it is the Sabatini Gardens next to the Palacio Real.
Of course, it's not the quirkiness that draws hundreds of
people here every day - the gardens are beautiful and for
anybody who's tired of the city's heat (in summer), or
crowds (all year round) it's a perfect place to chill,
relax a little bit, read or just people-watch. And did
I mention the location? Quite literally in the shadow of
the Palacio Real, perhaps Madrid's most famous landmark:
it just doesn't get more central than that.
But still, that's not the whole story. The whole story
would need to mention a few quirky facts. Here's one, for
example: the Sabatini Gardens are named after Italian architect
Francesco Sabatini who... had nothing to do with them......
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| Stranded on Broadway |
| 2008-01-23 03:00:00 |
photo by newyork8080
I have a love and hate relationship with Strand. The "hate" part, for those interested, will be explained at the end of this posting, but let me start with the "love" one. For a hardcover-loving bibliophile rat I am, Strand is simply a great place - one of the best in the world. It's big, cavernous (they claim to offer "18 miles of books") and full of surprises......
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| Tea at Nocochi |
| 2008-01-07 23:15:00 |
I am not exactly a frequent visitor at tea salons
- a fact pretty much ensured by the very presence
of the Y chromosome in my DNA.
Yet, since about a year ago, I regularly find
myself at a place that ranks suspiciously well on
the tea connoisseurs' list of Montreal cafés and
restaurants.
And what do I order there? Tea. And cookies......
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| Testa di Maiale and Other Florentine Treats |
| 2008-01-07 01:15:00 |
This particular beauty was spotted at a grocery shop
(La Standa, via Pietrapiana, 42, near Piazza
Cesare Beccaria). And there's more good stuff in that
neighborhood (read on)......
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| Spring in Paris |
| 2008-01-06 03:20:00 |
Chicago native Daniel Rose (who originally came
to France intending to study philosophy)
runs his 16-seat restaurant called "Spring"
almost as some sort of a one-man show......
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| Le Bourlingueur: Three's a Charm? |
| 2007-12-16 23:00:00 |
I remember the first time being disappointed with Le Bourglingeur, a few months ago. Nevertheless, I took my chances and came back again, telling myself not to be too judgmental based on a single bad experience.
My second visit confirmed what I already knew: I don’t like this place...
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| Gastronomy Through the Backdoor: the Markets of Florence |
| 2007-12-10 23:15:00 |
The flavors for this venture are those of Florence, Italy – that famous Tuscan cooking! If you can go armed with some knowledge or at least a culinary guidebook, you'll be able to spot some of the most savoury and intriguing ingredients, which will aid you in your menu choices later on....
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| L'Absinthe Café: First Impressions |
| 2007-12-01 23:00:00 |
Located a stone's throw away from the Arts & Metiers station, on Rue Turbigo, this little bistro/brasserie offers a relatively simple menu based on French and North African cuisine...
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| Cinque Terre |
| 2007-11-21 01:10:00 |
Cinque Terre is situated in the Ligurian coast and without exaggeration, it's one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Italy. What's more, people are nice, the food is good and the scenery is fantastic......
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| Glühwein in the Crisp Air |
| 2007-11-16 14:45:00 |
Besides the clinical advantages of off-season prices and less tourists to contend with, what could be interesting about traveling in winter, if not for sport, that couldn't be done with less baggage in another season?
Glühwein, mulled wine. Now, does it sound more interesting?...
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| The Habitat |
| 2007-11-09 01:20:00 |
I am here to clear up the confusion and defend the merits of Habitat 67......
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| Paris Bouquinistes |
| 2007-10-24 21:30:00 |
They are a familiar sight on the banks of the Seine - those faintly weary people manning dark-green wooden stalls filled with used and new books, postcards, posters, paintings, compact disks, LP's other pre-digital-era media curiosities....
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| Dinner at Aszú |
| 2007-09-17 23:05:00 |
My mission for the night: to have a decent terrace meal in the Old Port and enjoy a nice conversation with my dining partner (who happened to be another SiteBits contributor)....
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| Nota Bene |
| 2007-08-12 23:02:00 |
Nota Bene sells an amazing array of imported designer stationery items – mostly of European and Japanese origin. If you're the type who prefers to think with a pen or a pencil in their hands, chances are you're going to love this store......
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| Skate Sailing in Paris |
| 2007-08-07 17:00:00 |
If skate-sailing is your thing and Paris your kind of town, I have the perfect location for you. By all means, try doing this on Quai d'Orsay next to the Air France terminal....
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| Marché Atwater |
| 2007-08-06 16:00:00 |
One of my favorites (not only for its nice building, which I really like) is the Atwater Market, situated very close to the Lachine Canal path, making it the perfect stop after a walk or a bike ride....
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