“I lived the first 21 years of my life in Indiana, the second 21 years in California, and the last 10 years in Paris,” says Ian Rogers. The executive’s many addresses are as diverse as his resume, which includes a chief digital officer appointment at LVMH and working as Senior Director at Apple Music, where he helped launch Beats 1 Radio. He now serves as chief experience officer at Ledger, a Paris-based crypto-hardware company. Despite hopscotching across fashion and music and crypto, Rogers’s skillset remains singular: He gets to know a cultural scene, then he brings more people into it. The talent comes in handy when traversing continents, though the French capital has kept Rogers particularly enraptured.
Recently, he sat down with industry leaders including Antoine Gilbert of Snap Inc. and Michel Levy-Provençal of TEDxParis as part of “The Cultural Index: The Future of the Connected Experience” series, hosted at Tishman Speyer‘s Campus in Paris, to discuss the future of technological integration into the city’s cultural makeup. He also offered CULTURED a look at the map he’s developed of the city’s best dining, music, and fashion spots–honed with help from locals and a lifetime of bringing these scenes to the fore. Planning your own trip to Paris? This is how you get caught up as quick as the frequent flyer.
Where are you right now? What do you see, hear, and smell?
I write to you from row 8 on an Air France flight spiriting us from Paris to Italy. My eyes experience a mix of travelers, mostly men, unnecessarily grumpy, wishing they were already at their destination. Some are thoughtfully dressed; others wear what they were taught they ought to. Most are staring into a small, hand-held attention vortex, but one reads a book and one sleeps with his bald head against the closed window. Thanks to my headphones, Apple Music, and the magic of Bluetooth, my ears are in their own universe, hearing “The Old Man’s Back Again” by Scott Walker. The odor reaching my nose is that patented small-plane-from-France fragrance: jet fuel plus a bit of “we have a perfume culture, not a deodorant one.”
What is your favorite neighborhood in Paris?
Paris is a neighborhood; part of the charm of the city is its small size. It’s easy to skate from one end to the other in a day, and you should. Start at Palais de Tokyo, skate through the city to République, and end up at the mini ramp by the Jardin des Plantes.
What is something someone can do, wear, or say to look like a local?
It’s simple. Watch the video “Bonne Bonne Humeur Ce Matin” by Tristan on YouTube. Memorize every move. Act it out in the street. You have now unlocked “I am Parisien” level 12.
What is the best music venue in the city? What show made you realize it?
For dancing, the spot these days is La Fête–disco sounds best on systems made by San Francisco Bay Area-based Meyer Sound, and La Fête has the only Meyer Sound system in Paris! For live music, it would be hard to beat The Comet is Coming at Trabendo, but that was more about the band than the venue. Drop into 38Riv or La Gare any night and see what’s happening. If you can catch Pablo Saavedra de Decker on the turntables anywhere in town, you will have made what is today too rare a sighting, but leave Paris a changed being.
What is your pick for a local restaurant you can actually get into for dinner?
Chef Braden Perkins has just taken over Le 21 (21 rue Mazarine) from the irascible Didier, and it’s the place you must eat on your next visit. As of this moment it’s not well known so you can still get in. Formerly the chef at Verjus, Ellsworth, and 22 Club, Braden will never reach the Benny Hill comedy of Didier, but he is funny enough and will blow you away with the menu.
Best clothing shop off the beaten path?
Satisfy Running is the best brand native to Paris, and a store is rumored… But until there is such a thing as a Satisfy store, show up for one of their Saturday morning LSD runs or pray for a sample sale in their showroom.
Where do you go when you’re craving inspiration?
Stating the obvious: The museum scene in Paris is no joke. Palais de Tokyo never disappoints. The Jeu de Paume and Maison Européenne de la Photographie are always worth a visit. The Fondations Louis Vuitton, Pinault, and Cartier compete with each other for great exhibitions and we, lovers of beauty and creativity, win. The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and Carnivalet are often overlooked but truly underrated. But the future of art is in Paris, too. Paris is home to some of the world’s finest code-as-métier artists including William Mapan, Alexis André, and Florian Zumbrunn. Familiarize yourself with their work before you visit. If you’re lucky, you can find them in the wild about town.
Spend a Sunday morning and early afternoon at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen (the flea market). Listen to a set at the Django Cafe. 100 points if you can find the spaceship. Finally, the rooftop at Ledger’s offices features the best view in Paris. Days which start with a coffee on the roof leave me floating. See you there?
Best place for a late-night drink?
I find the music in my flat to be hard to beat, but on the rare occasion we leave home we find ourselves drinking Palomas and dancing at a vinyl bar in the 11th called Fréquence (rue Keller). Hungry? Babylone Bis is the late night spot! Just ask Killer Mike.
In the digital age, how do you make sure to connect with the physical city around you?
Paris is one of the best running cities in the world. Starting anywhere along the Quais, you can run all the way to Versailles (it’s only 18K from the Eiffel Tower). Or head in the other direction, toward the Bois de Vincennes along the Coulée Verte (Paris’s version of the High Line, an old train trestle turned into a parkway). It’s not well-advertised, but it’s true: You can run nearly infinitely in Paris without crossing too much traffic, if you know the routes.
in your life?
