And so we arrive to the final post about my recent trip to Paris for the Design Week. Today I’d like to tell you about my visit to Merci, a wonderful concept store in Le Marais. Chances are you’ve already seen a million photos from Merci, particularly of the iconic red Fiat in the courtyard which you can probably recognise in a heart beat even if you’ve never been there. There is definitely no shortage of crazy love and articles written about this retail gem. In fact, if you’ve ever consulted to any kind of Paris design guide, it is more than likely Merci was top of the list of places to visit. And there is a number of very good reason for this…

Rei Kawakubo, the designer behind avant-garde Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons, created an intriguing exhibition of her spring/summer 2012 collection titled “White Drama”. The exhibition showcased monochrome pieces from the collection, which magnified the four stages of life – birth, marriage, death, and transcendence. Kawakubo conceptualised the installation design and styled it in the same way as they appeared in her runway show – in giant clear plastic bubbles…

I was going through some of my Paris photos the other day, and I realised there were still a few gems I never got to tell you about. So I decided to bundle them all together in a post which is mostly related to Paris Design Week, but also the awesomeness of Paris in general (as a couple of the things I am sharing with you here are not related to the design week). Due to a huge amount of images which I always have such a hard time culling, I will bring you a couple of other posts focussing on different topics. So here goes…

01 | Zona Tortona – Moroso, Neoreal Wonder, Foscarini, E15, Dedon, Design Junction, Moooi, Tom Dixon | MILAN 2011. 02 | Salone del Mobile | MILAN 2011. 03 | Baccarat Highlights | MILAN 2011. 04 | Bisazza, InterfaceFLOR, Established & Sons, Cassina, Cappellini, Poltrona Frau | MILAN 2011. 05 | Talking Textiles: An Initiative Curated by Lidewij Edelkoort | MILAN 2011. 06 | ‘This Way’ by Design Academy Eindhoven | MILAN 2011. 07 | Brera Highlights – Moroso, Missoni, Boffi, Nodus, Hermès, Fritz Hansen, Paola Lenti, Agape, Seletti | MILAN 2011. 08 | Spazio Rossana Orlandi | MILAN 2011. 09 | Rotor: Ex Limbo Installation at Fondazione Prada | MILAN 2011…

Well, well, well… I must admit that am both excited and a little bit sad to welcome you to this Travel Tuesday and the fifth and final post in the Barcelona Travel Guide Series. Like they say – all good things must come to an end, but before I get all emotional and shi… I mean stuff, let me just tell you about a few excellent places where you can spend you hard earned cash (or display restraint unknown to myself, and enjoy a good dose of window shopping, although that’s never as much fun, right?!)

One thing to keep in mind when planning your day is that shop hours are approximately 10am – 1:30pm and 4:30pm to 7:30pm Mon – Fri (and Sat mostly am). And when I say approximately, I mean very approximately, as you need to give or take …