On a walk round Habitat last week for something substantial to sit on, a couple of things for the wall actually drew my attention – these retro-style maps of London and Paris by Alice Tait.
They're canvas prints, each one with a really cool retro illustration of the major sights of each city. Slightly informative, very eye-catching.
Each one is 60 x 80cm and is digital image printed onto a canvas backing. They sell for £89. An image of the Paris map is over the page.
Themed hotel rooms are nothing new, but the 007 Suite at the Seven Hotel, Latin Quarter, Paris might just have the ability to draw a gasp out of you.
This 60s-inspired boudoir is just one of 28 themed suites at the hotel – everything from Alice in Wonderland through to Marie Antoinette, plus some simply based around colour schemes. But the Bond-inspired suite looks like the one to book.
A great take on three of the world's great cities, courtesy of Bianca Gomez and her prints of London, Paris and New York.
Each print depicts a different city in the style of a classic travel poster. While the simple elements are the same in each image – a man in the city, the name of the place running across the print – she manages to inject a bit of personality into each scene. The New York print, for example, looks like its come straight off the cover of a vintage New Yorker magazine, while the London print cleverly uses the font traditionally used for the capital's transport system. The Paris print is suitably full of Gallic charm.
Each print is A4 sized and you can buy them individually for $30 each, or $75 for a set of three. Alternatively you can get larger individual prints for $60 each.
Buy them from Bianca Gomez's Etsy store
No prizes for guessing where the Eiffel Tower Table Lamp With black shade got its inspiration from.
Yes, it's a mini replica of the iconic 1889 structure, the work of Gustave Eiffel and still the most obvious symbol of Paris to this present day. This mini version is a rather stylish metallic tribute, standing around 56cm tall and finished off with a plain black shade.
Graham and Green is doing pre-orders for it now, priced at £95.
Paris-based Claire Fontaine is a contemporary artist whose work intentionally looks like someone else's or indeed something else. I think we all know where The Cube Fontaine takes its inspiration.
Available at Colette, this is obviously a Rubiks Cube, but with a hip artistic twist. That being the colour, with the six colourful side replaced by 'views of the surface of the sea', which is said to mix 'the solid of the cube and the liquid of water while discreetly evoking ecological disasters that surround us'.
If that's a bit deep for you, let's just say an 80s icon has now been thrown into the contemporary world of art and available to you for 32 Euros online.
Vogue is well known for its heritage in mapping changing fashions. Couple that with a touch of French style and this book, Paris Vogue: Covers 1920–2009, is tantalizing prospect.
It's been written by Sonia Rachline with foreword by current French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld and, over its 208 pages, it illustrates shifting trends in both clothing and magazine design. There masses of famous faces that show up, from photographers like Man Ray or Guy Bourdin, to cover stars like Twiggy, Brigitte Bardot and Audrey Hepburn.
A great book to sit and flick through, it costs just £14.22 from Amazon
