VINGT Paris News

Jules Verne Festival Le Grand Rex

Text: Omid Tavallai

For years, springtime has meant the invasion of France by movie stars and their rabid fans. The red carpet is rolled out, flashbulbs pop, and someone invariably brags about having rubbed elbows with Gérard Depardieu or Malcolm McDowell at the festival.

No, this isn't along the sunny esplanade in Cannes, but the corner of the boulevard and rue Poissonnière on the cusp of the 2nd and 9th arrondissements. Every year, Le Grand Rex theatre plays host to the Festival Jules Verne, which has given Parisian film fans a chance to play insider for a long weekend.  In addition to catching a glimpse of movie stars in the flesh, the festival offers non-glitterati the chance to be part of a properly-produced awards ceremony and see big-name movies before the rest of the world.

Cerveau Collectif + Nuages de Saveurs at Le Laboratoire

Araceli Salgado Pintor writing for VINGT Paris 
Le Laboratoire's innovations are presented in the exhibit “Cerveau Collectif”. A showroom  filled with tables on which multiple objects sit, inviting visitors to guess at the intriguing inventions purpose. With Mustrek, an interactive application for iphones, the visitor can follow the original steps used by the inventor, by either reading, listening to, or watching the stories behind each object. Mustrek is used here for the first time in an exhibition. 

Another section, called “Nuages de Saveurs” (Flavor Clouds), was created by food designer Marc Bretillot and Le Laboratoire’s director, David Edwards. Inventions presented at the exhibition include “Andrea” – a live air filter powered by a natural plant – and the “Whif”, a chocolate inhalator. Michelin starred chef Thierry Marx and physicist Jerome Bibette invented a new form of flavor encapsulation; Harvard University students created a way of eating by aerosol. With the two inventions together, the technologies create an aroma diffuser for tasty cocktails. The visitor gets to ingest the Whaf's (pictured; different than the Whif) delicious flavored smoke through a straw. Smoking cocktails may certainly not be your typical museum visit, but they should be!

"Cerveau Collectif” and "Nuages de Saveurs": through January 4^th 2010.

Open: Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 12 to 7 pm.

Le Laboratoire

4 rue de Bouloi, 75001, Paris

Metro: Louvre-Rivoli / Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre

Le LABO Shop - Weird Science

Stephanie Wells writing for VINGT Paris

Le LABO Shop is a specialized concept store for the scientifically-inclined, but this laboratory is more akin to Jonathan Adler than Dr. Frankenstein. The inventions and experiments of French-American scientist David Edwards (who also happens to be Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard), bring science to street-level. Le LABO Shop's chicly plexiglassed design belies a warm and highly informed staff who gladly explain the ins-and-outs of their mad scientist's latest brainchild.