September 2016 – Parisian Clichés

Harvesting time in Montmartre ?

Harvest in Montmartre is ready soon.

The harvest of the the grapes in La Vigne du Clos Montmartre are very late in the year and generally starts around mid october, as for centuries.

In the eighteenth century, the hill was covered with 3/4 of vineyards with a north exposure, considered as an aberration for winemakers.

At that time, the wine was not subject to the rights granted because outside of Paris, favor the opening of taverns and cabarets in the neighborhood like the famous ” Au Lapin Agile ”.

When Montmartre was annexed to Paris in 1860, the houses grow at the expense of the remaining vines and in the thirties the vine is replanted from 2000 feets of Gamay and Pinot Noir.

With less than 1800 feets to date, the grapes are pressed in the cellars of the town hall of the 18th district and then auctioned.

Anayway the wine is still a product coming from the ground of Montmartre and Parisians are proud to get a wine from their 2000 square meters of productive land and we can still find Cuvée de la planète 2014.

To celebrate this event don’t miss the harvest festival beginning of october.

How to look like a Parisian ?

In the old parisian neighborhood hatters around the rue de Choiseul, a large haberdashery invites you to fashion your own style with incredible tissues, far from modern merchandising codes.

Popular with costumers or seamstresses from the neighborhood, workshops high fashion and interior designers this cavern is a place to find tresors.

This place is famous in the entire world and customers coming from the United States, Japan or Australia are very pleased to come there to find the most original and classic tissue.

Enthusiasts, that push the door of this magical world, discovers the smell of ancient time, know that this house holds treasures in its inventory of old fabrics stopped since many years.

The authentic wooden floor that unfolds at your feet will not forget to squeak during your visit to remember the history of this amazing and authentic neighborhood close to the Passage Choiseul.

A pleasure to share without moderation with a team of passionate employees who have provided a lot Parisian designers before to become the supplier of the royal court English Royal court during several generations.

Ask to Marc from Ultramod to show you how to make a hat with a piece of sisal tissue and how to be a be a chic parisian woman in five minutes.

Café restaurant le Petit choiseul.

Passion and pleasure of a luthier in Pigalle

The passion and pleasure of the luthier go through a strong background in music, acoustic and good experience of woodworking.

This job requires attention to detail, patience and a sense of aesthetics combined with high manual skills by using all the senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell but also big touch of love.

The luthier is in the center of a creative process of the instrument in conjunction with the composer who imagines the sound, the performer who creates this sound and the lute-maker as a performer too who makes it physically possible.

The craftsman working in a small workshop needs to give life to a few pieces of wood, each type wood emits a clean sound that varies more depending on the drying time, quality … and the sensitivity of a woman is an asset to achieve this goals in a profession mainly occupied by men.

Every day she perfects with love of music and instrument itself, constantly seeking to perform better with great rigor and adapt to the desired musical style, specially when you want to perform gypsy music.

How to make a gypsy guitar style ?

First, you must play gypsy music as Christelle does and her knowledge of Django Reinhardt music is an asset.

A good gypsy guitar is characterized by the choice of a small or a big mouth, the length of the fork (12 or 14 boxes), the quality of wood used, with good acoustic rendering, more or less bass midrange or treble, or rather a round metal. At least you must play comfortably with a good size of the handle and her sensitivity is the final touch.

To learn more about gypsy music richness as a good introduction of this style of music there is one movie, “The son of the wind” and a unique festival dedicated in June to the musical legacy of Django Reinhardt.

Sons of the Win is a fantastic documentary filming guitarists Angelo Debarre, Moreno and Ninie Garcia and Tchavolo Schmitt.

Django Reinhardt Festival held each year near Paris

Push the door of Christelle Caillot Guitars workshop when ready to talked about a customised gypsy sound.