A walkabout in the filming locations of the movie:

"Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain"

The movie "The fabulous destiny of Amélie Poulain" takes place in its majority at the neighborhood of Montmartre, in Paris, where we can find some of the places which the wonderful movie photography transforms into pure magic. The first mandatory stop is in the "Cafe des Deux Moulains" that is on Lepic, 15, right on the corner.

This place has almost the exact environment that is shown in the movie, even though the tobacco shop which Georgette felt suffocated is not there. It is possible to observe the predominance of the colors yellow and red, to enter in the restroom and imagine the place where Georgette and Joseph made love, besides appreciating two posters of the movie and some photos in Polaroid with the gnome’s trips, held behind the coffee counter.
Tourists are welcome in the place and there are no problems in taking pictures. Moreover, the food is excellent and they make a wonderful "crème brulée" for you to appreciate; one of Amélie’s small pleasures that was to break the hard topping of melted sugar from the sweet, very cutely dessert. Going through Lepic street, turning the first street on the right, go straight on rue des Abesses (Abesses's street) and rue de la Vieuville (Vieuville’s street) till the Abesse subway station from the Paris subway, that appears sometimes in the film and has one of the remaining Art Nouveau metro entrances. The subway station has a lot of staircases, full with decorated walls and paintings from the district of Montmartre, what makes it a pretty pleasant journey.
That was the place where Amélie meets the blind man. You can imagine his transcendence experience as Amélie describes the mouthwatering sights of the bustling market on rue Lamarck until you reach the beautiful metro station Lamarck-Caulaincourt with the double staircase. marck. Next, by the street of Trois Fréres and rue Gabrielle, we reach the grocery’s store named "Au Marche de la butte" and Collignon’s house. Although there is no grain bag at the door that we can sink our hands in and appreciate their textures, which was another pleasure from Amélie, you may buy some post cards and posters from the movie that are sold there in the grocery shop.
Keep climbing the up hills of Montmartre until you arrive at the "Sacre Coeur" Catedral and at the corner of Saint Michel, from where we can enter into the park scenario from the love meetings between Amélie and Nino, where she raised an amazing atmosphere of mystery and drew seven blue arrows on the floor. Unfortunately, there is no sign of the phone booth, but the place holds a very beautiful view from Paris and a carrousel that is full of charm: that is, a perfect place to feel the atmosphere of the movie. It is also possible to take a look at Gare du Nord, one of the train stations that appears in the film and where Amélie goes to her father’s house and also at Gare de l’Est railway station where Nino loses his collection book of automatic photos and where Amélie and Nino finally discover the secret of the photo-machine. It is even possible to appreciate the Channel of Saint Martin, where Amélie throws rocks into the water and you can have an idea of how genius the photography of the movie is!
Do not forget, finally, to visit one of the booths of automatic photos that are the essence of the film! Au revoir!

Winner challenge #5

Glad too see that a lot of you joined us on this challenge!Some of you totally went creative with the tearing,how awesome!We did our votes,and the winner is:

Gaelle

So send your info to inspiredbyamelie-owner@yahoogroups.com and we make sure you get your price.

Here are our favorite's!

Challenge #5 Tearing pictures

In the movie,Amelie finds an album with repaired photobooth pictures.Her crush collects photobooth pictures that have been teared and thrown away.He repairs them and put them all in to albums.Inspired by these teared pictures,we wanted to use them for our next challenge.So go ahead and tear those pictures into pieces!Or just ripp of a piece of the picture,it's up to you.Just make sure you also use the color red on your layout!The deadline is the 21th of July. Our sponsor this month is the fabulous kit club Story of My Life.They make the most fantastic kit's,so the winner will not be dissapointed.
We have our first Guest Designer this month and her name is Kirsty Hansen A.K.A. messyhappyfunkirsty.Her work is amazing and original and there are no words that can describe how awesome her layout is for our 5th challenge.

Please tell us something about yourself.

Almost 30, live in sunny oz, love all things cute & quirky, fav food cereal, collect antique furniture, just engaged, can't live without chai lattes.

Where can we see your work?

You can check out my work over at Embellished and SISTV .

Can you describe your style?

Messy, random, playful, bright.

How does Amelie inspire you?

I love her randomness and complete abandon for order and structure. Her innocent, playful nature is so refreshing and enchanting.

Anything you would like to add?

This is so cool. My first ever guest spot. You girls rock!!! Thanks so much.Celine
Cindy
Dina FauveLarissa
Lindsay
Lucy RhianSally
Sofie
We can't wait to see your entries,Happy Scrapping!

Artist Feature - El Lohse

Hello all! How have you been? Hopefully feeling inspired, like the rest of us here at Inspired by Amelie!

As scrapbookers, paper artists, and all around crafty people, we're all here because of our shared love for this lovely little movie. But, did you know we're not the only ones taking inspiration from "Amelie"? That's right, and right now I'd like to introduce you to one artist extraodinaire bringing "Amelie" to life on canvas, El Lohse.I was taken by El's work immediately upon discovering it. Like with the movie, there is a certain indistinguishable charm in all of her pieces and this includes not only her "Ode to Amelie" series, but all of her others as well. The colors, style, ability to capture scenes from pop culture so wonderfully...it's magic. El currently sells prints of her pieces (most in limited edition) in her Etsy shop, Elloh.

Here is a little bit about her, in her own words...

Hello, my name is El, short for Ellen, Lohse. I am an illustrator in Philadelphia, with a love of storytelling, traveling, humor, color (including black and white movies) and pop culture. Portraits of people, places and things, both in words and visually as a painting or drawing is a passion of mine. Although life can be on the glass half empty side of things at times, I prefer my work to be always half full, with someone just about to add some ice, a lemon wedge, straw and paper umbrella to it, with a waiter waiting to pour you a refill.
1. What about "Amelie" inspires you most? Everything. The cinematography and saturated color. Paris. The French language (although I rely on the subtitles). Nino and his amazing photobooth scrapbook. The likes and dislikes of all the characters. Traveling gnomes! The magical storytelling accompanied by the lovely musical score. Did I mention Paris?! Her neighbor the painter. The character Amelie and her good deed secret agent ways. And yes, the happy ending.

2. How do you choose which scenes in "Amelie" to depict in your pieces? It's so difficult! I have a list of scenes just waiting to be finished. My first piece dealt with her childhood. I loved the way the film captured Amelie's younger years. It was filled with so many little quirks and details in such a short time. The scene where she is checking the heartbeat of her imaginary monster friend reminded me of when I was little, so much, I just had to draw my interpretation of it. I'm working on the Zorro scene of Amelie in the photobooth along with the scene where she guides the blind man down the street to the train depot, describing the visuals to him as they walk. It reminds me of my grandmother, Helen, who passed away when I was 8. She was blind. Whenever I watch that scene I think of how much fun it would've been to be her guide. Oh and I plan on doing another gnome portrait (with Amelie and her Dad) because ever since watching the cartoon 'David the Gnome' when I was younger I've loved them. Oh and a tshirt design too. Can we add a few more hours in the day? please? 3. If you could be Amelie for a day, what would you do? It would be a usual, wonderful day. Have a caffé with Nino before he goes to the area photobooths to repair them (his new job given to him by the converse wearing former repairman). He loves it because he can go to more booths each day and collect even more photos for an exhibition he's having of his work in Amelie's (my) cafe. Well, the one I used to work at. I now opened the 'Lady Di Good Deed Agency'. People hire me, Amelie, to be their secret agent good doer. It is tiring, but rewarding work. I take a break reading a letter from my father who is on Safari. He has included a postcard for me to give to his gnome at home. I visit my painter friend to give him another tape I made for him, and to see his new work. He is also having an exhibit with Nino. One of the scenes I videotaped is of the carousel near the Sacré-Coeur. He plans on painting it now. Renoir can wait. I leave him to his work and go back home for the evening filled with tea, book reading, movie watching and lastly dreaming of what the next day may bring.

4. If you could describe "Amelie" in 3 words, what would they be? good-deed (we'll pretend it's one word ;)) secret agent

5. Do you own your own garden gnome? Yes. Near a cactus. Actually I don't own a cactus. I sadly don't have a green thumb, unless I am painting with green paint.A big thanks to El for taking the time to speak with us and letting us share her amazing talent with you all!

Remember, when the inspiration strikes, embrace the magic and just let it flow. Also, don't forget to come back on the 7th for a brand spankin' new challenge! You'll be inspired, I promise! :)

-Lindsay

Winner challenge #4

We were happy that many of you came over and play with us.The submissions were absolutely stunning!We did a vote as alway's and it was very hard again!We finally choose this beautiful piece from maria.

She wins a fabulous price from the company Color Conspiracy's!So send your info to inspiredbyamelie-owner@yahoogroups.com and we make sure you get your price.

I like to give a big shout out to Cindy!

Our Amelie girl Cindy turned our blog into a beautiful Amelie world.We love our new banner and avatars,and we hope you like it too!Don't forget to show Cindy some love and tell us if you like it/ have any cool idea's!

I wanted to share some pictures from my visit to Les Deux Moulins in Paris.I had a great time and a lovely lunch at the pretty cafe where Amelie works.I also spotted a beautiful Amelie drawing at the Sacre Coeur.I love Paris,and can't wait to go back to visit more Amelie places.

Thanks for letting me share,and don't forget to play along with our new challenge!The deadline is the 21th.

xoxo

Challenge #4:Quote's

Time for challenge #4!!It's a common fact that we scrapbookers like to use quote's on our layout's...And in this movie there are a lot of fun and original quote's being used.So for this challenge we like you to use one of the quote's from the list (or other quote's from the movie) somewhere on your layout.This can be as your journaling or title or any other original idea you master brains have :) The deadline is the 21st of June.

Our sponsor this month is the fantastic brand Color Conspiracy!They have their own papers,overlays,journaling cards etc. So be sure to link your layouts on time,and maybe you will win this great prize! Quotes:
Amelie: It's better to help people than garden gnomes.
Amelie: At least you'll never be a vegetable - even artichokes have hearts.
Hipolito, The Writer: We pass the time of day to forget how time passes.
Hipolito, The Writer:Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's.
Bretodeau, The Box Man: Time's funny. When you're a kid, it passes slowly, and next thing you're fifty and your childhood fits into a rusty little box.
The Newsstand Woman: A woman without love wilts like a flower without sun.
Eva: Times are hard for dreamers.

And here are the projects from the Amelie girls.They are so good :) Don't forget to show them some LOVE!

Cindy-Blatant Female Conspiracy
Dina-Times are hard for dreamers. Fauve-Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's.(Hidden journaling)Larissa -A woman without love wilts like a flower without sun. Lindsay-Times are hard for dreamers.
Lucy-Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's.
Rhi-A woman without love wilts like a flower without sun.
Sally-We pass the time of day to forget how time passes.