Reviving the Abandoned ‘Life of Pi’ Art Deco Pool in Paris

If you ever got around to watching Life of Pi you might recall the hero of the film, a young Indian boy living in French colonial India, was ironically named ‘Piscine Molitor Patel’, after a historic 1920s Art Deco swimming pool (piscine) right here in Paris … At the start of the film, our lead character “Pi”, short…

THE PARIS SYNDROME

A London friend emailed me an article this morning about tourists visiting the French capital, specifically Japanese, who fall prey to what is known as the ‘Paris syndrome’. Around a million Japanese travel here every year (yeesh), many expecting the fairytale vacation they once saw in a Woody Allen movie. But an average of up…

The Curious Youtubers Building Fantasy Pools and Secret Temples By Hand

Youtube can be a weird and wonderful place. Let’s see, there’s the Oposom lady (the undisputed queen of Youtube in our opinion), the folk singing Kardashians of Eastern Europe and a guy who takes us around dead malls and motels on our lunch break – although perhaps you’d be more into watching Italian grandmothers making…

This is what a Ping Pong Pool Party looks like

This whole blogging thing is clearly overrated. Where are my invites to the ping pong pool parties of the world? (Note to self: order large amount of ping pong balls for the bathtub). With an aim to impress the pants off everyone (mission accomplished), event organisers Urban Daddy recently challenged Brookyln-based art and design studio…

The Secret Swimming Pools of the Paris Catacombs

It felt like the pavements of Paris could have melted these past few days. The city’s swimming pools were overflowing with splashing bodies and escape from the heat seemed futile. But there is one place, beneath the baking pavements, where only few will venture and plunge into the cool waters of the underworld. So let’s follow them…

Iceland’s Secret Swimming Pool in the Valley

This one wasn’t always in the guide books or on the tourist trail, but out there in the nowhere. Iceland’s oldest swimming pool, built into the mountainside in a narrow valley, has been gathering hot water trickling down from Eyjafjallajökull (I can’t pronounce it either) since it was constructed in 1923. Today it is abandoned and covered…

Metro Makeovers for the Abandoned Stations of Paris

Anyone who wants to make a swimming pool out of an abandoned metro station neglected for 75 years, has definitely got my attention. The ghosts of the Parisian underground could soon be resurrected if city voters play their cards right in the upcoming mayoral elections. Promising candidate, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who would become the first female to…

Forgotten Splendour of Victorian Spa Shuttered for Decades

“We all stink. No one smells,” were the alleged words of patron Saint Bernard when speaking of Europe’s general hygiene in the Middle Ages. For about four or five centuries, the Western world suffered a hiatus in cleanliness following the great plagues, when people believed that it was actually dangerous to bathe. Water was thought to carry…

Oh, Just Harvesting Edible Mushrooms inside an Abandoned Water Park

We don’t hear enough follow-up stories about abandoned places that find happy endings, but today I came across a familiar derelict site from my archives that has secured itself a bright future. The last time I stumbled upon the old Tropicana water park in Rotterdam, it looked as if the mould was making itself quite comfortable around the edges…

An Artist Dares you to go find his Secret Swimming Pool in the Desert

If you’re in Southern California this summer and up for a challenge, here’s something that might inspire a road trip rather more surreal than a cruise down Route 66. Somewhere in the Mojave desert, a secret swimming pool is waiting for you to dip your toes into its crispy blue water; a totally free desert oasis complete…