Paris

S1, E2: Presenter Toby Amies meets Gaspard Delanoe, the charismatic leader of one of Paris’s most audacious artistic squats and witnesses exactly what contemporary struggling artists can achieve when they all work together to breathe life into a disused Paris bank. Inspired by Gaspard’s surreal bicycle, Toby decides to make a junk-art bike of his own. At Europe’s largest flea market Toby meets casting agent Speedy Yellow, who sources models for fashion shoots from ordinary people she meets on the street. Toby gets an insight into Paris trash-chic and a forgotten dance culture when Speedy decides Toby fits the bill for an upcoming fashion shoot in a traditional Parisian guingette ballroom. Society dandy Emmanuel de Brantes dissects Parisian social mores and teaches Toby the meaning of Paris chic and the serious art of fine dining, before a little gentleman’s grooming at the city’s finest barber and an invitation to a high society soiree at the Paris Film Festival. Toby visits the Friday night Pari Roller, where thousands of skaters take over the city’s streets, and has a memorable Buggy Rollin’ encounter with a strange man who negotiates the pavements of Paris like a human luge. Sound sculpture Jacques Rémus shows Toby there’s more to Parisian music than meets the eye when he makes music from washing machines and industrial cast-offs. Trendspotter Jöelle Dirringer gives Toby a backstage look at the Paris perfume industry when she takes him to the Givaudan perfume laboratory to meet the ‘noses’ who develop the world’s favourite toilet cleaners and exquisite new fragrances. Toby learns a new French art involving ice cubes, irons and chainsaws from Joelle’s boyfriend Michele Amann, the world ice-carving champion.