ow based in the fame City of Love , KC Concepcion talks about the Paris she sees and experiences—from the flea markets to pop-culture museums to meeting her favorite French actor

“It's so romantic and artistic. You cannot get into your artistic side,” KC Concepcion reveals, talking about Paris , where this 18-year-old is currently based. Studying communications and business, KC also has her firs job-working as a secretary with a French TV production company that works with the European Commission. On her last visit to Manila MEGA managed to catch up and chat with this multi-brand endorser (she's an image model for Human, PHCare and Palmolive Shampoo). Not surprisingly, a lot of her adventures have to do with living by herself—from window shopping to going to the Cannes Films Festival to finding that perfect coffee drink.

FAVORITE PLACES TO SHOP IN
You can lose your whole bank account in Paris ! You know they up the prices there by as much as 30% because people are willing to pay high there? I took two business courses and studied it. In Zara, there was one instances where an employee had to mark down a wallet for like five euros and he accidentally marked it 50. It was sold at 50 euros so they kept it at 50. And Zara is 30% cheaper in Spain , which is just beside France .

There are so many [places I like to shop in], but I love going to GG Vintage—a vintage store hidden in the Jardins du Palais Royal—and also Concept Nature on Rue de Rivoli where they sell tous les tresors du monde: organic perfumes, room sprays, wooden furniture and other materials made form nature, basically! Another favorite store in Collette, the concept store down on St. Honore, that has an international collection of every modern Pop-Art thing—art, fashion, books, gadgets, cosmetics and clothing. Another one like this is Kiliwatch, at Etienne Marcel. I also love going down certain creative streets like Rue d'Orsel and get lost in thought.

I also like boutiques like Antoine et Lili, with overpriced stuff from India , Tibet and Thailand . There's also this small shop near my apartment that (very stubbornly) remains nameless. [The owner] goes around the world, collects all these hats, brooches, earrings, rings, belts, necklaces sunglasses, and mirrors, puts them in her store and sells them. They're not even displayed right, they're just there, hats hung up and jewelry scattered and such. I think she just “Mighty Bonds” all of it. It's really interesting though, because you walk in and you never know what in the world you're gonna walk out with!

There's also the flea market, which is around up north of Paris . I like going to the Montmarte area—there is so much freedom of expression there. I recently went to watch the sunrise up on the steps of the hill (you'll see it in the movie Amelie Poulin), with an old friend who came to visit form Madrid . We got on the first Metro at 5:30 in the morning and even went to church (the Sacre Coeur, even though I'm not Catholic!), right after the sun came up! I also like going to much history! They have all these things—even paperweights form Napoleon's time, that cost like a thousand euros each and they're smaller than your hand.

FAVORITE PLACES TO HANG OUT AND EAT
There's one sidewalk café called La Tourville, which is right by my school. I've become friends with the manager and bartender because I was there from the time it opened! It's a Costes (brothers) production, which is always creative and their employees are usually interesting, if not just interestingly dressed. Actually, they're two brothers who started it like, 30 years ago, and they only really picked up 10 years ago. Now they're the biggest café designers, creators, whatever, businessmen… And each of their café's have a specific design. It's really cool, top-quality stuff such as this jellyfish chandelier by the BATHROOM and it's so cute! I like their cafes or the interiors and because their food is so healthy. Like seriously, if you ask super sarap [way] and it's all healthy.

There's place I found, a small ice cream parlor/coffee/dessert shop called Scoop, which opened in April. I go there for the “modern child” ambiance and Wi-Fi for when I do homework! They have the best coffee milkshake: they mix it with coco and stuff, like coco-coffee. I made friends wit the girl who makes them, and she does make the best coffee milk-shakes. I mean, I've been drinking so much coffee—like, after every meal, which just tells you how much I eat in a day! (Laughs)

I have to tell you though they make the worst cappuccinos there. I have an Italian friend who came in one week, went to like 20 cafes and did not find a cappuccino he liked. He kept saying “This is the worst, the worst, they shouldn't even be serving this!” He was really disappointed, it was really flat.

On Champs-Elysees, I like going to Atelier Renault Café, which is really an automobile showroom that came up with a marketing tactic in the form of a not-so-little café upstairs.

FAVORITE MUSEUMS TO VISIT
I like the Centre Pompidou a LOT. They always have something new going on that has to do with modern and Pop Art. They had an exhibit of one of my favorite artist, Jean Cocteau. Weird, eccentric, out-of-this-world artist have exhibits there. The best!!! Another one is the Palais de Tokyo, which is really a modern museum. The Louvre is full of history. It's not really someplace you go to when well, you really don't know anything and you just want to. Bring artist friend with you—I mean, I have one friend who I brought to The Louvre and he was in front of one painting for 30 minutes! You really need to know a lot of art and national history to appreciate it. And you need more than two days to do it. It's HUGE.

There are also little museums around that are only interesting depending on the project. (There was one that I don't even remember the name of, but I went for a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit). I went to Belgium , to a museum called Atomium, which is really a building that was built to mimic an iron atom on steroids—the branches are escalators and circular parts are the actual themed sections of the museum. Like Sound and Balance, so they have sculptures capturing that. Another one is Light, so they have shadowy visual brainteasers. It's really cool.

In Paris also you can hire a limousine and the whole day it'll take you to all these shows and exhibits. You can [even] have champagne in the limousine—I really want to try that, but I'm sure that it'll be expensive.

FAVORITE PLACES TO DAYDREAM
A garden, they have so many there. The Tuileries garden, right by the Louvre museum, and the Jardins du Palais Royal, where there are sculpture exhibits form time to time. There's a place on top of one mall, a department store, where it's free. You don't need to pay anything but it could be a tourist attraction—you go the very top and you'll see a really good view.

There are also places by the bridges, little places with stone benches, so they're part of the bridge. [ Paris ] is a very sensual city—even their lights, their doors are so intricate. There was one I was looking at, it looked so nice and my friend said, “Step back five meters and look at the door.” I did, and it [looked like] the door came from a whorehouse!

FAVORITE TRIPS MADE
I went to Cannes ! I saw one of my favorite French actors, Pierre Richard. I was talking to him about the Philippines , the [movie] industry; I saw some magazines that they had, and Crying Ladies was presented there. I was saying, “It's a good film, watch it” and laughing, because mom's there.

[The conversation was] a little nerve-wracking because I was having this conversation in French and half the time I speak I don't know if I'm being understood or if I'm really being a complete francophone disaster! But it was surprising to me that I had the change to even speak about the Philippine film industry, and see that he was interested, considering it was the first time he was hearing about it. We were talking about how much more Philippine talent could do and make of themselves and their craft, if only we had more opportunities to expand the work and the budget to use our resources. Things like that. He was relating it to indie films and how they become successful in experimenting, not just because of what they have, but also what they don't have.

I have to tell you, I went to the Indian quarter in Paris , and they have cinema where they only air film from Indian, like Bollywood. They are usually dubbed in French and subtitled in Indian, or subtitled in English. At first I was thinking, “Oh my god it's like in Pinoy films.” It was really cool. You can really see the culture was still there.

I lived in the South before in Toulouse . I've also been to Brittany and took a plane to Germany one time, to Brussels . I wanted to go to Amsterdam but I was on my way here. I have yet to go around…

I want to learn German, it's really cool. And everybody knows so much about their history! It's normal for them to know the little details, like the dates and where the sculpture is and there's a story behind everything. We've only been independent a hundreds of years with thousands of artifacts. They know all about it—and we're just..wala lang…it's cultural amnesia, [as if] everything was bombed.

On weekends when there's no school is [the time when] you can take side trips and all that. After all, Spain 's only an hour and a half away by train. My friends live in the south, and they do their groceries in Spain because it's cheaper. - -