Thieves steal rhino horn from Paris museum

by Kraig Becker on

Earlier this week, two people entered a museum in Paris, used some kind of gas to neutralize the guards, and made off with a rhino horn from one of the stuffed animals on display. This was the fourth such robbery in Europe this year, as thieves look to sell the valuable horns on the black market in Asia.

The incident took place on Tuesday at the Museum of Hunting and Nature in the Marais district of Paris. Around noon, the two individuals entered the building used what is described as “paralyzing” gas on the guards, and then proceed to remove the rhino horn from the display. When they had claimed their prize, they disappeared into the streets, and at this time, there are no leads in the case.

Rhino horns continue to be a hot commodity in Asia, where they are used in traditional medicines. Because of the demand there, a single horn can fetch as much as $100,000 on the open market, which has contributed to the rise in thefts from European museums this year. Worse yet however, is the continued poaching of the animals throughout Africa, resulting in the black rhino recently being declared extinct in West Africa.

I’m guessing these thieves don’t care about the source of their rhino horn and that stealing them from museums is just out of convenience. If they lived in Africa, they would probably be brutally slaying the animals there as well.

[Photo credit: Selber Fotografiert via WikiMedia]

Blogger Jessica Marati

by Jessica Marati on

Introducing another new blogger at Gadling, Jessica Marati…

Where was your photo taken: This photo was taken on my family’s beach in the southern part of Guam, the tiny Pacific island territory where I grew up. It’s probably one of my favorite places on the face of the earth.

Where do you live now: I’m based in New York, but I’ve spent the last several months living in Phnom Penh, where I’ve been researching and writing about ethical fashion, sustainability, and travel.

Scariest airline flown: Laos Airlines, on a particularly memorable flight from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. I had been warned that their track record was less than perfect, so I was hyper-sensitive to every unfamiliar whirr and pressure dip. The landing was bumpy, but thankfully I’m still here.

Favorite city/country/place: Are four-way ties allowed? New York, Paris, Bali, and the aforementioned beach.

Most remote corner of the globe visited: Probably Carp Island, a private island in the Palau archipelago in Micronesia. One night, we were sitting on the dock when the sea started lighting up in brilliant blues and greens — my first encounter with bioluminescent plankton. All seven people staying on the island came out to watch. Combined with a star-filled sky, it was pure magic. Tierra del Fuego was pretty quiet too.

Favorite guidebook series: These days, I’m really digging my iPod Touch and the variety of travel tools available in the iTunes App store. Triposo offers free interactive city guides, World Nomads has great phrasebooks, and nothing beats TripAdvisor for the latest hotel and restaurant reviews. I also like to save travel articles, like the New York Times 36 Hours series, to my Instapaper for later reading. It’s allowed me to ditch the massive Lonely Planet budget guides I used to haul around.

Solo or group traveler? A little bit of both. I love taking trips to visit friends living abroad, because I get to experience the place with more context and better restaurant recommendations.

Favorite means of transportation: Hopping on the backs of motorbikes here in Cambodia used to terrify me, but now I’ve become quite used to it. Nothing beats weaving through oncoming traffic with the wind blowing through your hair.

Favorite foreign dish? Restaurant? My Roman grandmother makes the absolute best parmigiana di melanzane (eggplant parmesan). Beats any restaurant in Italy, or anywhere else for that matter.

Dream travel destination: Havana, Cuba. I think this might be the year!

Photo of the day – Skies above Paris

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Oh, the skies above Paris…

There’s a reason so many people love Paris. The city itself seems to be bathed in a special light. It’s a place of tempestuous moods and lovers’ quarrels. It’s like one big all-encompassing set for a film about the glory or tragedy of love.

Concurrently, it’s just a city. But what a grand city it is. Flickr user Aypho captures the City of Light’s basic grandeur in this awesome photograph.

Got an image of one of the world’s most romantic cities? Upload it to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. If we fall in love with it, we might just choose your interpretation of romance to be a future Photo of the Day.

The Gadling young family travel gift guide

by Meg Nesterov on

If you are traveling with a baby over the holidays, visiting with children on your next trip, or just hoping to convince a new parent that you don’t have to hand in your passport once the new addition arrives, we’ve compiled a gift guide for families traveling with babies. Traveling light is the best advice you can follow when traveling with a baby (even without a baby, it’s just good sense) but there are some gear and gadgets that make the road a little smoother for family travel.

Boba baby wrap (formerly Sleepy Wrap)
One of my favorite purchases so far in Turkey is the Cybex first.go baby carrier, unique due to the horizontal infant insert used up until 3-4 months. The lie-flat insert allowed me to set the baby on a flat surface without worrying she’d roll over (with constant supervision, of course), perfect for traveling. Everywhere I went with it, we got comments and questions. Unfortunately, it’s not available in the US, but if you can get your hands on it, I recommend it. My other favorite carrier is the Sleepy Wrap (now called Boba), suitable from birth without any special insert, up to 18 months. It’s very easy to pack in a handbag or tie around yourself without having lots of straps to get tangled in. Since it’s all fabric, it works well for airports and metal detectors, and unlike other wraps, the stretch means you don’t have to retie it after taking the baby out. Choosing a carrier is different for everyone, a good comparison chart is here.
M Coat convertible winter coat
Leave it to the Canadians to make a winter coat that can stretch (pun intended) to accomodate a pregnant belly, a baby carrier, and then return to normal, while keeping you both warm and stylish. While not cheap (it retails for about $366 US), it’s a good investment that will work for many winter trips, and potentially, many babies. Filled with Canadian down and available in a wide array of colors, it would suit any pregnant or babywearing traveler.

Traveling Toddler car seat strap
For the first year or so, most car seats can fit onto a stroller, creating an easy travel system. For older babies and toddlers, having a gadget that makes a car seat “wheelable” frees up a hand and makes airport transit easier. This strap essentially attaches your car seat to your rollaboard, creating a sort of hybrid stroller-suitcase. Now you probably won’t want to carry your suitcase on the street throughout your trip, but at under $15, it’s any easy way to get through layovers until you reach your destination. If you want a car seat that can do double duty and then some, our Heather Poole recommends the Sit ‘n’ Stroll, a convertible stroller-car seat-booster-plane seat. It’s certified for babies and children 5-40 pounds, but as it doesn’t lie flat, may be more appropriate for babies over 6 months.

Kushies easy fold baby bed
Most so-called travel beds for babies are about as easy to pack as a pair of skis, more suited for road trips to Grandma’s house than increasingly-restricted airline baggage. Not every hotel has baby cribs available and sometimes you want something that works outdoors as well to take along to a park, beach, or on a day trip. The most useful travel product I’ve bought since my daughter arrived was the Samsonite (now Koo-di) pop-up travel cot; it’s light, folds up like a tent, and takes up less room than a shoebox in my suitcase. The Samsonite cot is not sold in the US, but Kushies Baby makes a similar product for the American market. Their folding baby bed weighs only a few pounds and can be collapsed into your suitcase. It also has mosquito netting and UV-protected fabric for outdoors, and loops for hanging baby toys.

Puj and Prince Lionheart bathtubs
With a steady set of hands and some washcloths for padding, small babies can be bathed in most hotel or kitchen sinks, or even taken into the shower (beware of slipperiness!). For more support, new babies can lie in the Puj baby tub, a flat piece of soft foam that fits in nearly any sink to cradle your baby. Children who can sit up unassisted can play in the foldable Prince Lionheart FlexiBath, which can also serve as a small kiddy pool. While both products fold flat for storage, they may be too cumbersome and take up too much room in a suitcase for airplane travel, and thus may be better for car trips.

Lamaze stroller toys
The best travel toys are small, attach to a stroller or bag so they don’t get lost in transit, and don’t make any annoying sounds to bother fellow passengers (or the parents). Spiral activity toys can keep a baby busy in their stroller, crib, or in an airplane seat with no batteries required. Rattles that attach to a baby’s wrist or foot take up little space and are hard to lose. Lamaze makes a variety of cute toys that can attach to a handle and appeal to both a baby’s and parent’s visual sensibilities. We’re partial to this Tiny Love bunny rabbit who can dangle from her car seat, makes a nice wind chime sound, and can fit in a pocket as well (we call him Suleyman since he’s from Turkey but I’ve seen them for sale all over the world).

This is…books by Miroslav Šašek
Get your child excited about visiting a new city, or just add a travel memento to your library. Originally published in the 1950s and ’60s and reissued in the last few years, these are wonderful children’s books visiting over a dozen cities worldwide (plus a little trip to the moon) as Czech author Miroslav Šašek originally captured them. Fun for children and adults to read and compare the cities in the books to how they’ve changed. Going to Europe? The Madeline books are French favorites, Paddington is essential London reading, and Eloise is a great companion for Paris and Moscow. For more wonderful children’s book ideas published this year, check out Brain Pickings’ Best Illustrated Books of 2011.


Snuggle Pod footmuff
In a perfect world, we’d always travel with children in the summer while days are long, you can sit at outdoor cafes, and pack fewer layers. Adding a warm footmuff to a stroller makes winter travel more bearable for a small child or baby. While not the cheapest gift, the Snuggle Pod adapts to any stroller up to age 3, and can be used in warmer weather with the top panel removed, or as a playmat when unfolded. It’s also made of Australian sheepskin, which is safe for babies when shorn short and used on a stroller (babies older than 1 year old can sleep directly on a lambskin, younger babies can lie on one for playtime or with a sheet cover for sleeping). A more budget-friendly option is the JJ Cole Bundleme with shearling lining.

Have any favorite gear or gadgets to add to our family travel gift guide? Tell us about your favorites in the comments and happy shopping!

The hidden gem museums of Paris

by David Farley on

The City of Light. The City of Love. The City of Museums? Why not. With the Louvre’s 30,000 paintings and the Musée d’Orsay’s thousands-strong art collection, it’s easy to forget that there are other museums in the City of Light. In fact, almost 200 museums-both plus-sized and petite, illustrious and obscure-are sprinkled throughout the French capital, featuring everything from Picasso to Edith Piaf, submarines to sewers, eyeglasses to medical implements.

I spent a few months in Paris and, after I grew tired of dealing with the crowds at the popular museums, I sought out the lesser-known spots, the hidden gem museums of Paris. What gems did I find? I’ve included them below, plus asked a few Paris-loving friends to chime in.

Rachel Kaplan, author of Little Known Museums in and Around Paris and owner of the Paris-based tour guide company, French Links, is enamoured with the Jacquemart-André. This small museum was founded by the wealthy Edouard Andre and his wife, painter Nélie Jacquemart who would travel annually to Italy on art-amassing trips. By the late-19th century, they had the best collection of Italian art in France, including works by Donatello, Bottecelli, Tieopolo, and Perugino. In Kaplan’s words, it’s “the only museum where you can have Sunday brunch under a Tiepolo ceiling after visiting the greatest number of Italian Quatrocentro masterpieces outside the Louvre.”

Another gem of a museum where you can also eat well is the Baccarat Museum, which Kaplan says “manages to combine the Surrealism of Philippe Starck with the beauty of Baccarat crystal and also boasts one of the finest restaurants in Paris.” The former home of Marie-Laure, Viscountes of Naoilles, the Phillipe Starck-designed space on the Place des Etats Unis is the perfect venue for the near-priceless glassware on display, including a candelabra that once belonged to Tsar Nicholas II and an ornate chandelier plunged into water. The piece de resistance, however, is in-house eatery, the Baccarat Cristal Room where, as you’d expect, diners nibble on haute French fare in a crystal-laden ambience.

If all this clean glassware has you yearning for something murkier, then head to the sewers. The Musée des Égouts de Paris, or the Paris Sewers Museum is a subterranean tour taking visitors through the bowels of the city in more ways than one. But you don’t necessarily need a proclivity for ancient plumbing to appreciate these former sludge-strewn pipelines. Located under the Quai D’Orsay (next to the Musée d’Orsay), the one-hour tour includes a film and educational and interesting displays on how the 19th-century sewers functioned. So, plug your nose (yes, it’s a tad aromatic) and take the plunge.


The Musée Dupuytren exhibits artifacts of a different sort of unsavory nature: anatomical oddities. Founded by famed 19th-century surgeon, Baron Guillaume Dupuytren, this “freak show” boasts deformed skeletons, jarred mongoloid infants, displayed brains, and formaldehyde-preserved conjoined animals. Truly hidden behind an unmarked wooden door on the Rue de l’Ecole de Medecine, the museum is only open in the afternoon on weekdays, after lunch.

For historical artefacts that you can stomach, be sure to stop by the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais, one of Paris’ most charming neighborhoods. Crammed into two adjoining Renaissance-era mansions, the Carnavalet is dedicated to the history of Paris, starting with the Gallo-Roman period through the Middle Ages and up to the 19th century. Edmund White, who penned several books while living in the neighborhood, including The Flaneur: a Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, says this is one of his favorite museums in the city. “There’s so much memorabilia of the history of Paris, everything from the crib of Napoleon III’s son to Proust’s bedroom intact, with its shabby furniture, the pile of notebooks that were next to his bed, the heavy awkward furniture his parents had bought.” This mishmash of historical objects also include the final letter French Revolutionary leader Robispiere ever wrote and an ancient recipe for frog leg soup.

Now that there’s a smoking ban in the City of Light, perhaps this museum is more apropos than ever: Musée du Fumeur. The Museum of Smoking is less kitschy and more interesting than you might think. Located in the 11th arrondissement, this diminutive museum boasts ancient toking instruments (including antique hookahs and 18th-century carved wooden pipes), illustrations and placards on the history of “lighting up,” and an intriguing picture gallery of famous smokers. If you’re suddenly inspired to light up, the gift shop sells plenty of smoking-related paraphernalia, including bongs. But before you get any wise ideas, it’s good to know there’s a police station next door.

If drinking is more your vice, put the Musée du Vin on your agenda. Located near the Eiffel Tower, the Wine Museum is part of a 15th-century stone query and displays historic viticulture artifacts. The museum’s frequent wine tasting events and two-hour wine-education classes in English help make this bibulous trip through wine making history a more sensory experience. Temporary exhibitions focus on history of vino producing such as the wine of ancient Egypt. The restaurant, housed in a medieval cellar, serves up classic French fare with, you guessed it, wine.

Model-turned-novelist Paulina Porizkova had a childhood dream of being locked in a museum over night. And, if she had to get shuttered in one, she’d most certainly choose the Nissim de Camondo, a mansion loaded with 18th-century decorative arts like fragile needlepoint chairs, paintings, and antiques. The Belle Époque-style kitchen is big enough to feed an army of aristocrats. “I’ve always loved visiting period houses that have been turned into museums; it’s like taking a time machine,” says Porizkova, a former Paris resident whose underrated novel A Model Summer takes place in the French capital. “I loved going to the Nissim and imagining myself living there.” Porizkova even liked the museum so much she had a smaller-version of the Nissim kitchen built for her New York townhouse.

The Musée de l’Orangerie may not have all the art of the nearby Louvre, but it has something you’ll never find at Paris’ largest art museum: rooms loaded with Impressionist and post-Impressionist works-from Monet to Matisse to Cézanne to Picasso-that you can have all to yourself. Or at least you’ll share them with far fewer art gawkers than you would elsewhere. The airy glass and stone building, formerly an orangery, is located between the Place du Concord and the banks of the Seine.

Ernest Cognacq and his wife, Louise Jay, may have become rich after founding La Samaritaine, the famed department store on the banks of the Siene, but their real legacy lies in the Musée Cognacq-Jay, their private art collection housed in the 16th-century Hotel Denon in the Marais. Go for the paintings by Boucher, Canaletto, Fragonard, and Tiepolo, but linger for the city’s best collection of 18th century decorative art, including Dresden China and elaborately carved snuffboxes.

After the popularity of the film Le Vie en Rose, interest in French singer Edith Piaf has never been greater. The eponymous two-room museum might not be the easiest place to find-it’s housed in on the fourth floor of a non-elevator apartment building in the Belleville neighborhood-but fans of the singer won’t regret the trek. Longtime Piaf friend, Bernard Marchois, runs the place and has crammed the two-rooms with many of Piaf’s possessions, including clothes, gold records, photos, and even a life-sized teddy bear. Admission is free, but visitors have to call ahead to get a security code.