Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Monday, February 25, 2013

The Best Culture Watching - Hulu & Netflix

Cold days and long nights entice me to hibernate. So what to do in my little Chelsea cave? Well, cook and watch some great TV shows from around the world. Hulu & Netflix are my new travel/culture buddies. Offering an incredible amount of television series and movies from across the globe, these video streaming sites give me a chance to see what's popular in other countries, visually visit new places, learn some key phrases in other languages, get a taste of the law in faraway lands, and just appreciate what other cultures find entertaining. I've watched some great Korean soap operas, Bollywood movies, Thai trilogies, Vietnamese action films and more.

Right now I'm obsessed with Spiral (aka, Engrenages in France) - a French police series that is very entertaining and well, very French. I've picked up some new words like "flic" - slang for the police or po-po. I've noticed that the characters like to "tsk" quite a bit, but not in a condescending way. And well, the cast is phenomenal.  Gregory Fitoussi definitely stands out in the series and he is bound to become a household name here once the new PBS series "Mr. Selfridge" takes off. So, check out Spiral on Hulu and Netflix!


Friday, September 21, 2012

Paris Shopping: Kapra Hiska

Fall is almost here, and it's time to break out your favorite cool weather accessories! Oh no, what is that you see? A hole in your stole? An unraveling knit? Cashmere pilling not worth shearing? What to do? Where to go? There are stores for restoring, but there are also stores for exploring... And I enjoy the latter. I love seeing the latest colors, textures, fabrics and styles the new season offers. One store I wish I could visit this very moment is Kapra Hiska located in my favorite area of Paris - Le Marais. 

What is Kapra Hiska? It's simply the best cashmere store I have ever visited. Their scarves are simply sublime -- light, airy and drenched in color. The first time I felt one of their scarves, I thought I was touching the rare (and illegal) shahtoosh (the ultra-fine cashmere once prized by Persian princes for its warmth and ability to slip through a ring). The owner promised me the cashmere was not shahtoosh, but a very refined cashmere from Mongolia!

Indescribable softness, gorgeous colors and light as air -- what more could you want from a cashmere scarf? How about a great price? Say half of the price of an iPhone 5! And when your iPhone bites the dust, this scarf will still be with you. A great investment and well worth a trip to Le Marais when you're in Paris.

P.S. I believe the store is relatively new (so new I could not find a website, just a Facebook page), so I am unsure of its capabilities of selling outside of the EU. However, email them to see if they can or where they may be sold outside of Paris. Their email is kaprahiska@gmail.com .
Kapra Hiska, 43 rue de Turenne, Le Marais, Paris

Here are some images from their 2012 Look Book: