La Felicita

Location: Paris, France
Address: 5 Parv. Alan Turing
Date: May 2023
Website: www.lafelicita.fr

    La Felicita is the largest food court in Europe. It features a variety of Italian eateries. Where would it be located?  In a former train depot in Paris, France of course.

 

    The former train depot was named la Halle Freyssinet and fell into disrepair when it closed in 2006.  It was formally re-opened by French President Macron in 2017 as Station F. The F is for Freyssinet.  There are still some old trains inside the eating spaces. These days the trains are covered in artwork and hanging lights.

    There were also some trains that you could go inside.  The train above had an ice cream shop inside.

    The ice cream shop had a disco ball inside to make everything even more fun. They also had Big Mamma cookbooks for sale. The Big Mamma group owns and operates many restaurants across Europe including La Felicita.

   La Felicita takes up 48,000 square feet of space. The rest of the almost 370,000 square foot Station F is taken up by offices for small business start-ups.

 

    Outside the main entrance to Station F stands the giant legs of L'Arc. L'Arc stands about 36 feet tall. La Felicita is located at the opposite end of Station F.

   Back inside La Felicita we decided to figure out what we wanted to eat and found a seat in between the trains and plants and hanging art.

    The restaurants are all cashless and you have to scan a QR code to order and pay from a menu. This one restaurant had France's favourite private investigator holding a giant ice cream on a stick. It was Magnum holding a Magnum.

 

    La Felicita also hosts many event nights and often has deejays and other performers. The night we visited it was up to the crowd to entertain us. We visited on Karaoke night and were surprised by the mostly English music selections.

  There are plenty of drink and food options. One restaurant had a brightly lit wall highlighting its drink selection.

    Anyone can come inside and enjoy the decor of La Felicita. You don't have to eat or drink. If you find yourself passing this neighbourhood of Paris be sure to check out how new life has been brought to this giant space.

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Map of Our World
La Felicita

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Post # 338

Mona Lisa

 
Location: Paris, France
Address: Musée du Louvre, 75058
Date: Oct 2007
Website:  www.louvre.fr/

  The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best known painting in the world.  It was painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the very early 1500's.  The painting has been at the Louvre in Paris since the start of the 1800's.  It has left the Louvre on several occasions.  It was moved to protect it during wartime, it took a world tour in the early 1960's, and once it was stolen from the museum and missing for two whole years.  After a few attempts at vandalism, the Mona Lisa now resides behind bulletproof glass in order to keep her safe.  Since the value of the painting is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, this was a wise decision.
  When we visited the Louvre, the Mona Lisa was one of the paintings we had on our must see list.  Our first impression was that it was much smaller than we expected.  Compared to some of the huge paintings in the gallery that cover entire walls, it looked like someone had printed her out on standard 8.5 by 11 paper.  In reality it is a bit larger than that at about 30 inches tall by 21 inches wide.
   The painting has been analyzed by many art critics over the years who discuss Da Vinci's choice of background, how the woman is seated, and of course the famous Mona Lisa smile.  We enjoyed the privilege of seeing the most famous painting in the world.  Since the Louvre is such an enormous place you can quickly find the Mona Lisa by going to the First Floor of the Denon Wing.  In the centre of that wing look on the wall between rooms 7 and 6. You may not be able to see her at first until you make your way through the crowd.

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Map of Our World
Mona Lisa

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Post # 21