Damn space invaders, the little suckers are everywhere!  Hi, there lovely readers – and no I have NOT been indulging in a little too much champers! You’d think so though, the way I’ve been stumbling over gutters, into fellow pedestrians and on one particularly embarrassing occasion, a street lamp. You see, I’ve discovered these perfect little mosaic depictions from the arcade games of yesteryear residing on walls high above eye level and I’m now obsessed with finding more – a risky business necessitating eyes to the sky and not to the sidewalk.

MUST FIND MORE!

So, why are they there, what do they mean and exactly how many of them are scattered across this fine city? And who’s the quirky artiste who put them there in the first place? My flatmate, a former WA chap who regards himself as more Parisian than Perthy, and thus the font of knowledge for all things French, doesn’t have the answer. Well dear reader, in the interest of reporting on the lesser-known quirks of Paris –  I’ve stepped up to the plate,. starting with a spot of research.

Seems there are over 500 space-invaders in Paris alone, all lovingly planned and attached by a French urban artist who goes by the name of ‘Invader’. Having started the project in this, his home city, he now pops little invaders high above the urban traffic in cities across the world, then documents this as an “Invasion”, with books and maps for those obsessed with finding every invader. Erm, that would be me!

The locations for the mosaics are not random, rather, they are chosen according to a diverse criteria which may be aesthetic, strategic or conceptual. He favours locations frequented by volumes of people but also has a few hidden locations. In Montpellier (France), the locations of the mosaics were chosen so that, when placed on a map, they form an image of a giant space invader character.

I”m on a mission and have so far found 10. I will need new shoes of fine leather, of course, perhaps those super cute boots with the gold hardware I found in the Marais, and that uber-cool pair of…oh sorry, I digress!. I’ve popped a few space invaders captured so far into this post to tickle your curiosity. Don’t ask me for their addresses as I was mostly lost at the time but you can visit the Invader’s website and Google maps also have a series that share invader locations. That’s it for today, lovely readers – I am about to justify the gutter trips as it’s champers o’clock and moi must find a sweet little bar and make a meal of free aperitifs  – this super-sleuthing takes energy!

 (photo below taken from Invader’s website)