Photo by Sandrine Alouf

The air is discreetly laden with a haze of incense and tobacco smoke: welcome to a kingdom ruled by that stubborn vice. Though it is politically incorrect, the place is a favourite with many a dignitary from the Constitutional Council or Ministry of Culture, located nearby.

Beneath the 17th-century colonnaded mall at Palais-Royal, Rakel Van Kote, an Israeli woman of Afghan extraction, stocks snuffboxes, pipes, manicure kits, canes, umbrellas, and curiosities, all of them antique.

Photo by Sandrine Alouf

Her clientele, made up largely of collectors, includes Karl Lagerfeld and the great-grandson of Gustave Eiffel. The objects of their desire are arranged in stacks, sometimes precariously balanced one on top of the other, or overlapping in a charming puzzle of parts and pieces.

True, the shop is pocket-sized, but it is located in one of Paris's most strollable neighbourhoods. The renown of the proprietress is such that she often lends collectibles for use as movie props. For example, in the film Molière, Romain Duris puffs on a cigarette-holder straight from this boutique.

A L'Oriental; Arcades du Palais-Royal, 19-22, galerie de Chartres, 1. arr. Metro: Palais-Royal-Musée-du-Louvre
Open Monday - Saturday, 11 am-7 pm. Sundays by appointment

Extract from the French-English guide PARIS DECO, written by Edith Pauly and published at Parigramme.  

Summer is up and cities across Europe have planted palm trees and trucked in tons of sand to urban riverfronts to create the feeling of a lazy day at the shore. Urban beaches are a hit and Momondo guides you to our favourites.

BERLIN 

Raw, rainy and far from the ocean – Berlin is one of the least likely places for a beach bar. Never the less the German capital has several along the river Spree where artificial palm trees are set up and sand from the construction sites or the Baltic coast is brought in by truck.

Oststrand

Photo by Tajai

While the Bundespressestrand and Capital Beach close to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Railway Station) have an upscale - some might say posh - feel the Oststrand (East Beach) is set up more like a people’s beach.

The beach is located on the banks of the river Spree in the middle of a residential area behind the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain. It is the place where sun worshippers can find a quiet (and sunny) spot and their athletic companions can romp around on a sandy playground.

For those who need to cool down, there are inflatable swimming pools, showers and the compulsory cocktailbar bar. Oststrand covers 7,000 square meters and is Berlin’s biggest urban beach. At night there are concerts and special events.

Bar25

Photo by Timo_Pawelz

The offers of the ranch-looking Bar25 go way beyond those of a typical beach bar. Bar25 is a complex with a small amphiteather, budget bungalows, a restaurant with gourmet cuisine, a garden area right next to the river Spree and a bar famous for its louche afterhours vibe and minimal sound tunes.

Bar25 is located on Holzmarktstraße 25 next to another of Berlin’s favourite beach bars the 'Wild West' Strandmarkt.

KIKI BLOFELD

At Kiki Blofeld you can chill out in chairs made of grass (the lawn kind) along the beach front bank of the Spree while enjoying food from the grill and cocktails from Kiki’s well assorted bar.

At night, the fun happens inside the old boat bunker, where in between the bar and the dance floor you’ll find water, where you can actually see fish swimming around either enjoying the music or suffering from stress. It can be difficult to tell!

Photo by Melita

Kiki Blofeld is located across from Wild West Strand – on the left bank of the Spree at the kilometer marker 19. For those of you who prefer to arrive on foot, there is a somewhat hidden path leading from Köpenicker Straße 48/49 to the bar.

Arena

Even though the Spree is mucky and polluted it is actually possible to swim in the river. At Arena, an old river cargo container converted into a modern swimming pool is anchored in the middle of Spree and filled with clean water.

The container is 32.2 meters long, 8.2 meters wide and two meters deep and is connected to the ground by a wooden gangway that serves as a sundeck with recliners and basket chairs.

Swimming in the container is really amazing and the aim of the pool is fulfilled: you actually feel like you’re in the river itself summer and winter.

Other beach bars in Berlin:

Sommerwelt 

Space Beach

Strandgut 

Yaam 

Go further: Beach life in Paris.

Written by David Rich

What do you do when your country is bankrupt and is in desperate need of foreign currency? Well, you rent out the buildings that house your foreign embassies. At least this is what North Korea has done with parts of its Berlin embassy, which has been turned into a hostel.

The Cityhostel Berlin opened on July 1. 2008 and has around 100 rooms covering two floors in the former embassy building.

The embassy was built in the 1970s on Glinka Strasse in the old East Berlin and consisted of two buildings. After the Cold War, staff numbers at the embassy were cut and now one of the buildings has been rented out and turned into the Cityhostel Berlin. The other building on the site still houses the North Korean embassy .

We hope that the money North Korea recieves from renting out its embassies will be spend on improving the miserable living conditions in North Korea, but we fear that the money will be converted into sustaining Kim Jong-Il’s repressive regime and the 'Dear Leader’s reputed exorbitant private consumption.

The history of the building and Cityhostel Berlin's location right next to the North Korean embassy will probably be attractive to many. Communist kitsch is a big thing in Berlin where the Ostalgie vibe has been going on for several years and in May 2007 the city got its first DDR design-hostel.

Author David Rich Momondo

Go further: Experience a night in the old East Berlin together with Erich Honecker and other former communist leaders at Ostel.

Find more hotels in Berlin here.