La Glace

La Glace is a Copenhagen institution, and is usually crowded with old people, families and small kids. It's a cake shop, but behold! It's not just any cake shop, no, La Glace is the shizz. Their flagship cake is the so-called Sports Cake, but despite of the name you need many hours at the gym to be rid of this bad boy afterwards. It's worth it, though. Last time I was there, I was lucky any seats were hardly taken and I spoiled myself with a piece of HC Hat cake: lemon-induced caramel and chocolate mousse. Delicious!

Skoubogade 3
Copenhagen, Denmark

Amager Strandpark

Yes, I'm aware that the weather in Copenhagen fucking sucks these days, but when summer arrives (and it will) head out for Amager Strandpark, where there's sand, ice cream, half-naked people and all the stuff that defines a beach. Plus the things that don't, and that's why I love Amager Strandpark so much, because if (read: when) you get sick of the sand, there's grass right next to the beach where you can lay down without having tiny rocks everywhere.

Den Franske Bogcafé

Den Franske Bogcafe (The French Book Café) in Copenhagen is one of my favourite places to go and just be. Their selection is sparse (but their orange/cinnamon tea is pretty great nonetheless), they have no food and the tables are pretty much crammed into the tiny shop. But the atmosphere is always so friendly and down-to-earth that it's hard not to feel at home here. As you also might've guessed from the name it's not only a coffee shop, but also a book store (plus a petit music and film section). If you're fluent in French - or want to be - this is def a good place to pick up the new Houellebecq in its original language or (re-)read Le Petit Prince. And since I love both France, the French language and a nice cup of orange/cinnamon tea, this is my kind of place. If you happen to be in Copenhagen, you should also come and hang.

Fiolstræde 16

Copenhagen, Denmark

Den Sorte Diamant

Den Sorte Diamant, translated as the Black Diamond, is quite a place. First of all it looks like a big building, where corporate companies decide on evil thing and guys in suits make capitalistic plans. Not so. This is the Copenhagen's very own culture HQ, and the only place (as far as I know) where wellknown authors get to read from their novels and have Q&A's. I know there might not be a big market for that kind of thing in a small city like Copenhagen, but that's the one thing I missed the most since moving back from big, ol' NYC. Jennifer Egan just visited, promoting A Visit from the Goon Squad, and some weeks ago Virginie Despontes was here talking about feminism (she would). But wait! This is not the only great thing going on inside. Oh no. In Den Sorte Diamant there are sometimes doors leading to bizarre and colourful room you wouldn't have expected in a place like this, or anywhere for that matter. Because this is a place of culture. Not literary culture, or musical culture or anything like that. No, this is a place for anything that brings art to the people, and that's something it'd be hard not to freaking love.

In other words: this may look like a place of pure evil, but really it's one of the best things around.

Søren Kierkegaards Plads 1
Copenhagen, Denmark

La Marine

Best part of La Marine is not their AMAZING food or the location by Canal Saint-Martin (on the corner next to Chez Prune), but the staff. Especially the one with the hipster glasses (somehow I can relate to that, being that I walk around with a pair of my own) is the sweetest/sassiest girl in the history of French waiters. Sitting here is like being in David Lynch-land (remember the dancing midget in Cooper's dream?), and walking out is a little like waking up. Seductive and sensual, that's La Marine.

55 Quai Valmy

Paris, France

 

Les Deux Abeilles

There is a magical and dreamy place in Paris where trees grow inside and pies get served by smiling girls. This is a place where - once inside - you'll forget everything about the world outside and just breathe out in the bright room. This place is called Les Deux Abeilles and is reachable by mortals. It's the one place you mustn't miss.

189 Rue Université

Paris, France

Jardin du Luxembourg

Jardin du Luxembourg ain't no Parc Monceau, but it's still heavensent. You can either hang out with the tourists by the castle or play a game of pétanque with the locals. Kids hide in the hidden corners of the park to make out or read, and children just hide for a game of hide-and-seek with their not-knowing parents. Oui, oui, this is Parisian life.

Main entrance by Palais du Luxembourg

Paris, France

Cafe Flore

I am so sorry, but writing this blog post I can't avoid it: the rant. Let me start this unattractive monologue by telling you a story of the last time I placed myself in the famous and always comfortable Cafe Flore in Paris. Story starts here:

So I'm in Cafe Flore, the wellknown cafe on Saint-Germain and there's an American girl next to me. She doesn't know a word of French, which is fine, but when the friendly and hospitable waiter comes over to serve her, decides that it's not her job to know French in France, but his to know English. She wants a scone, she tells him. When he doesn't understand him, she figures that it's probaby easier to shout the word "SCONES!" in his face until she gets the bright idea to spell it out for the poor man, who desperately tries to understand her in his own broken English. She asks her if she doesn't want to come with him to see their pastries, but she strictly refuses and decides to just go with a hot chocolate, which she tells in a very. Slow. English. Now, I have a lot of American friends. Hell, some of my best friends belong to the big country. Sweet people who try to speak the language of the country they're in. When I lived there, when I travelled through, all I met were good people. But that's not the idea that the outside world get when Americans like this particular girl gets annoyed because the unfamiliar world around her doesn't speak her language. Only speaking one language is fine, but the least you can do in strange surroundings is try, try at least, to be open to the fact that not everyone is like you. Or as someone told me the other day: "if I sit next to someone who only speaks French (for instance), and I speak German, English, Danish and Swedish, then I don't feel like I'm the one with a problem". Lets be aware of the fact that they speak French in France, German in Germany, English in England and so on. Let's not try to impose our mother tongue when we're somewhere else. It's just rude. And that goes for everyone.

But that's not what this is about. This is about Cafe Flore of course, the charming place where waiters are friendly - even to people who aren't so friendly towards them...

172 Boulevard Saint-Germain

Paris, France

Musée Nissim de Camondo

Musée Nissim de Camondo isn't just a museum; it's the story of a family going from happy wealth to extermination. Hidden in a quiet street, you wouldn't just bump into Musée Nissim, but if you're smart enough to plan going there, you've got a great thing coming. Especially if you're like me and sometimes dream of a time when interiour decoration was warm and beautiful, and the world simple. And a lot of other things, but let's not get into that, this is a lifestyle blog for crying out loud.

Ok, so entering the mansion/palace/dream-like abode you get a pair of headphone and you'll wear them, yes, you will, because the friendly lade on the other end will tell you the story of the Camondo family, whose youngest members all died from various kinds of wars and how the father slowly deteriorated  into depression as the years went by. If you like that kind of thing, and why wouldn't you, it's real life tragedy that doesn't involve you, then hurry along.

63 Rue Monceau
Paris, France

La Pagode

If there's one thing I like it's an old-fashioned cinema , placed inside a pagode - hence the name. If there's another thing I like it's weirdness, and if you bring those two together you got yourselves a deal. La Pagode shows has two auditoriums, one of which is historically magnificent (and I mean the inside, not the size; this ain't a mainstream cinema, y'all). And for the love of film and tea, come before the showings so you can sit outside in their garden! It's crazy times!

57 Rue Babylone

Paris, France

Le Carette

Not so very long ago, I was adviced to go to Le Carette by a young, French girl who'd decided to let me know the very best ins and outs of Paris. I think maybe it was my slip of the tongue that I'd love to move to the French capital that got her so anxious for me to see the very best of it. The first thing she told me, in her wonderfully accented Frenglish, was "Le Carette!". I went, thinking I'd see a typical coffee shop where an 18-year old girl would hang out, but got freakishly surprised as I entered one of the fanciest lunch places by Places des Vosges. Already upon entrance I felt strange and out of place, but somehow that all changed slowly until I felt right at home amongst the rich people. In front of me was an elderly American woman (or Canadian? She struck me as being Canadian for some reason) who was completely snubbed by her husband who'd found a French comrade and was deeply investigated in a profound conversation with him. She even had to sit by a table to herself because there weren't room for her at theirs. That's just bad form, even in Le Carette. Which is a great place, and apparently the branch by Place des Vosges is the superior one (they have another by the Eiffel).

25 Place des Vosges

Paris, France 

Parc Monceau

Paris has Jardin du Luxembourg and a lot of other beautiful gardens or whatever. When I write "whatever" it's not because I'm not into Jardin du Luxembourg or any of the other places, but Parc Monceau owns my heart. This is not only beautiful, it's also extremely excentric and downright bizarre. And when the sun shines, dude, it's incredible. Parc Monceau is like being nine-years old and skipping for hours in some sort of adventureland. There you go.