- Features a cobblestone street lined with Parisian buildings, cafes, and terraces.
- Bright and colorful illustration that elicit wonderful memories of time spent in Paris.
- Moderately challenging puzzle with good balance of distinctive and repetitive patterns.
Title: An Evening in Paris
Pieces: 1000
Artist: Artworld
Size: 27in x 20in or 70cm x 50cm
Company: Ravensburger
Year Printed: 2019
An Evening in Paris is one of those illustrations that elicit fond memories of backpacking through Europe, especially partaking in the Parisian cafe culture. One vivid memory is having a lively and friendly exchange with Parisians at a cafe near the Pablo Picasso museum about American imperialism. Initially, I thought they were just complaining about American’s military intervention in other countries. What I discovered was that it was about American cultural imperialism. Specifically, how United States of America is exporting its culture and taking over other cultures. Their specific examples were of McDonald’s and Starbucks setting up “cultural colonies” throughout Europe, even in the tiniest of villages. Disneyland was another example of how American culture was physically invading Paris. By end of my backpacking trip, I did notice that there was either a McDonald’s or Starbucks in all the small towns that I visited.
The cafe conversations were a fascinating experience that actually opened up my eyes to the locals’ perspectives. An Evening in Paris does a wonderful job of capturing Parisian culture without relying on romantic motif. The Eiffel Tower is so iconic that it appears in almost all puzzles set in Paris. The illustration focus on a quite cobblestone street overlooking Paris. It is bright and colorful for a night scene. Overall, a warm and welcoming illustration of Paris. If you like this illustration, then Paris in a Day maybe worth a consideration.
Build
Our sorting strategy was focused on grouping the pieces with distinctive colors and patterns first. Firstly, the border as straight edge pieces are fairly obvious to find. Secondly, the Parisian night and skyline had distinctive colors and patterns. Next, the cobblestone street had unique patterns. In addition, the colorful striped awnings and balconies had particular shapes and people. Lastly, the buildings’ facade had the most repetitive patterns and was clumped together as a large pile.
Difficulty
Overall, the puzzle was more challenging than it seemed. Slightly less than half of the puzzle had unique patterns or colors. The rest had repetitive patterns, which made the puzzle challenging to solve as pieces with repetitive patterns could possibly seem to fit in more than one spot. For example, the cobblestone pieces covered a wide area, so took a bit longer to determine exactly where. It took four puzzlers almost four hours and thirty minutes (4:26:38) to complete the puzzle. Surprisingly, it was a fun puzzle with beautiful illustration that captures the feeling of a summer evening in Paris.
Lastly, this is the 59th puzzle from the 87 puzzle collection. Leave us a comment, if there are any other 1000 piece Paris jigsaw puzzles that you would want us to review.
