Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Hard Rock Cafe - Paris




This was a no-brainer souvenir from my travels a long time ago. This was from the first or second time I was in the city of lights.
This is a shirt that can only be purchased at one location. To get this one you would have to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris, France, find the giftshop and grab one if these.
White's not a bad color on me. Or at least I would like to think so. These shirts are always a bit tight on me because I got a majority of them when I was younger and in middle school and a lot of washing has shrunk them. I wonder if they get a the shirts for the Hard Rock Cafe merchandise from the same source, print them, and deliver them all over the world or if each restaurant sources them locally.
This particular shirt goes back to their old style of logo. I have shown you guys a few of the variants but I really prefer this type. Not just because it is better designed and simpler but because it is their old -more traditional- logo. I feel like that gives it more cred somehow. Still nothing on the back. The front, features the logo prominently with the word "Paris" under it. While it is one of their standard shirts, one from Paris is important because it's one of the premier cities of the world. It is as if the New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo shirts all kind of have this power over the other random cities' shirts for being the chosen ones of the world.
Of all my Hard Rock Cafe shirts I feel like this one is special to me. I might pick another one just to save this for the right day. Some people have an affinity for Paris and the French in general. They love the idea of sitting in a cafe in the afternoon, of doing some plein air painting, of strolling down the Champs-Élysées in the starlight, and it is these type of people I am trying to effect with this shirt. Since I personally try to stay away from buying really gaudy tourist shirts that say I ♥ Paris or just FRANCE across the chest, I cherish shirts like this that have a bit of style while still getting the gimmicky travel message across. I'll let other people buy shirts like that and get them as gifts or something down the road.

I know there are a lot of Hard Rock Cafes. And I have a lot of shirts from there. But there is only one "Pari". It is genuinely a city of creatives, and history, and romance. The Hard Rock Cafe there may be wholly American but even a casual walk down the street can yield all sorts of new experiences and adventures! Maybe you'll run into a mime or two, you could see a veritable gallery of painters on the street dreaming up something new, or even stumble into a cathedral or two and witness some of history's greatest architecture. There's so much to see and to do you can't go just once. After you leave you take some of that... "je ne sais quoi" feeling with you home. I would love to travel there again someday, share it with someone I love, relive old memories, and you should go too! If you ever have the chance, and have any attraction to the Parisian lifestyle, jump a the opportunity to see Paris -and get me a shirt while you're there-.

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