Photo: Wahiba

Christophe Abric got his start as a traditional journalist in Paris before launching the revolutionary music website la Blogothèque. Along with album reviews, essays, and other writing, the site's Take Away Shows video series (Concerts à Emporter) has earned la Blogothèque a legion of fans. The innovative concept takes musicians - ranging from internationally known bands like R.E.M to rising locals like François Virot - and records them while performing in unusual locations. Their popularity helped to land Christophe and collaborating video artist Mathieu Saura on Variety's list of "10 Innovators to Watch." This is his Paris.

Where's the most interesting location in Paris that you have done a Take Away Show?

Well, to be frank, the interest is not into the location itself, but in the life that's in it. Most of the time, it's the people aorund, the noise, the life that give their strength to the Take Away Shows. In this respect, the best areas are the working class neighborhoods. But if I had to talk about one place in itself, it would definitely be the Grand Palais. The place is just INCREDIBLE, big and beautiful, full of history. We were recently filming the Fleet Foxes and had access to some private part of the Grand Palais that used to host a university. It was abandonned, like after an epidemic, with all the administrative ugliness of a university - and et surrounded by all the beauty of the Grand Palais. It was just a great experience.

Photo: Interzone00

Where would you dream to do a Soirée/Concert à Emporter, if it were not illegal?

It used to be the old Pompes Funèbres, an immense place that in the past was opened just for one night a year, for the very first Nuit Blanche. But it has just been renewed as a 'cultural spot', so I suppose it's no longer illegal. So now, I suppose it would be the Opéra Garnier, just the most beautiful monument in Paris. No need to go inside the show room, we could just film in the hall with the stairs and all.  

Photo: scarletgreen

What's your favorite bar right now, and what's the crowd like there?

Have a baby, wait for the government to ban cigarettes in public places, and it turns out that you're not so much into bars. I'm much more into terraces and looking for bars that combine a nice bistrot aspect with a nice terrace. Winners: Le Pure Café on 14, rue Jean Macé near Faidherbe-Chaligny and La Fusée, 168, rue St Martin. Both of them are packed with people that are gonna be 30 and kind of don't want to grow up too quickly. 

 
Photo: onionvincent

I also really like a small café on lower Oberkampf called Paris-Féni. it's a Bengali fruit bar, and it's where I go when I wanna sit and enjoy the sun. They're at the corner of a semi-pedestrian street, surrounded by antique shops. Nearly no cars, large terrace, sun half the day (from 11 to 12.30 and from 15.30), it is just the perfect terrace just to have a coffee or a juice in the sun and read your paper quietly. There's nothing exceptional there, it is just very quiet, nice and so Paris.

To see more of Christophe's Paris, check out the Take Away Shows online, or click on the video below to watch the Shins as they play in the streets of Montmartre. You can even see him in some of the early shots as he is leading the American band down the sidewalk.