Over the hills, under the moon - and off the beaten path

Who ARE our neighbors here on Cap Ferrat? Actually, these days, you don't find movie stars or glitzy celebrities - just the garden variety of usually Eastern European billionaires (with Paul Allen of Microsoft as one of the few Western exceptions). And, yes, President Putin of Russia, should, as far as the locals know, own one of the secluded palaces. No one knows exactly where it is.  Or they will not tell. When you're living on the Cap, you appreciate discretion! In the old days it used to be different and one of the few houses, which are actually visible from the outside, has experienced all the glitz you can dream of. The Fleur du Cap, lying just next to the bay, was once owned by Chaplin, and later, for many years, it was the home of the British actor David Niven. Standing on the small beach just next to the house, you can easily imagine the marvelous Old Hollywood parties, which have taken place over the years. Another famous and e...

The last week has been like a jump through a rabbit hole. A few days ago, we lived in Paris, in the poor, black neighborhood of Goutte d'Or. And now - here we are - living on Cap Ferrat, the peninsula of the billionaires, where the property value is supposed to be the highest in the entire world next to Monaco. While our neighbors in the Parisian 'Little Africa' were up close and personal, filling the alleys, the cafes, and the open-air markets, the extreme richness of the Cap is very much more secluded. Discretion is key on the Cap, and as an example, you don't see any Lamborghinis or Ferraris in the streets as you would in Saint Tropez, where the less wealthy (and much more flamboyant) playboys are hanging out. If the billionaires on the Cap are collecting expensive automobiles, they might be stowed away in some underground garages - and you can't get any idea of the life being lived in the villas, as they are completely hidden on vast grounds beh...

There are so many places to see in Paris, but the months of July and August are not the season for music venues, galleries, and crowded local bars, as many Parisians have left the city for the summer. We did explore some and here are a few of our best finds, even though many were pretty empty compared to how they will be this coming autumn and winter. The north One marvelous, huge arts center we happened to pass by was the Le Centquatre in Rue Curial. It was almost empty when we visited, but the industrial-type architecture is impressive even without the throngs of visitors, which, we were told,  are filling the building during the non-summer months. La REcyclerie in the former Gare Ornano at the Porte de Clignancourt is situated at the absolute perimeter of the touristic Paris, but it is well worth a visit - and not only for eco-warriors and the globally conscious. Here everything is - yes - recycled and you can...

    - This is the end, my only friend, the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end. Of everything that stands, the end... The lyrics come to mind as we stand next to   the grave of Jim Morrison  in the poetic Cimetière Père Lachaise.   It's late afternoon and  the last rays of the sun find their way around the gravestones, the pillars and monuments in all kind of shapes which comprise the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, where more than a million souls are put to rest.   Pyramids, towering monuments, elaborate miniature chapels and beautifully carved lime and granite headstones display the history of death as we walk through the yard.  Some could almost serve as inspiration for horror films like the one, where a pair of bare arms stretch up through the lid of a closed sarcophagus or the one, where  a bronze corpse try to slither  through the cra...

  Whenever we visit Paris, we tend to stay in the Butte Montmartre area, but this time we've borrowed an apartment in Rue des Poissonnieres, which, even though we're still in the 18. arrondissement, could better be placed somewhere in the sub-Saharan Africa. The surrounding  area, Goutte d'Or, is a multitude of exotic grocery shops, beauty stores, fabric stalls and hallal butchers and the streets are filled with stout, black men and women dressed in colorful kaftans and flat kufi hats. We've now lived in the area for several weeks and we enjoy it a lot At the small  market in Rue Dejean you find fishmongers selling capitaines and other exotic ciclids from Senegal - and at the green groceries you find an abundance of plantains and sweet potatoes Some Parisians think of 'Petit Afrique' as a dangerous no-go zone, but besides meeting an occasional, heavily armed police patrol, we've in the last few weeks only encountered joy and kindness when...

There is one question that we've been asked a lot: When visiting Rio de Janeiro, the marvellous city - why choose to spend a couple of months inside one of its favelas? We have several answers. One is the answer you can give when asked about climbing a mountain. Because it's there! Because you want to find out if it's climbable and more important: If YOU can climb it. To find out if it's at all possible for two senior Scandinavian gringos (with hardly any knowledge of Portuguese and with no prior experience of travelling in Latin America) to live in a Brazilian favela. But a more important answer: The favelas of Rio have for many years been notorious as sites of drug wars and disenfranchisement, but they are also known as the vibrant cradles of much of the Brazilian culture and in the last few years several of the favelas have undergone an immense transformation. They have blossomed into vibrant communities and a few are eve...

For many years Vidigal was a closed community - ruled by drug gangs and dangerous for  visitors. In 2012 the heavily armed UPP (the Pacifying Police Units) seized control of the favela, and in the last few years 'The Asphalts' (the common expression for the people living in the more formal parts of Rio) have been venturing into the favela on some Friday and Saturday nights. On these nights party goers are lining up outside the few clubs that are arranging midnight raves on their rooftop terraces. We (perhaps now almost considered as fellow favelians - or perhaps just considered so strange, we're thought of as a kind of local mascots!), were invited to one of these parties, and we were even offered free VIP tickets to be picked up at the entrance. Yeah! What's not to like about THAT! When we arrived, we jumped the lines of the waiting cariocan playboys and their scantily clad girlfriends and climbed up the stair...