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If this Newsletter were an Ice Cream Truck

If this Newsletter were an Ice Cream Truck

Vanessa Grall
June 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

French word of the day: Canicule

Europe’s heatwave is officially underway and if temps are stifling where you are too, consider this your Sunday popsicle delivery; a summer breeze bulletin of stories and cherry-topped ideas to help you chill out and escape...

First up, give your brain an ice bath with the untold history of the ice trade (it’s more interesting than you think it is).

Forget the sweltering seaside crowds and head for the hills to the world’s highest villages, frozen in time, discover Europe’s most secret corners travelling with a nomadic sheep herder or take a leisurely drive on the forbidden road of the French Alps.

Shed your inhibitions and take a virtual vacation at Saugatuck’s bohemian art colony or take a peek into this secret 1960s drag resort in the Catskills.

"What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains." — Tennessee Williams

June might be wrapping up but we like to think of every month as Pride Month, and I’ll never quit spotlighting the brave and fabulous souls who’ve shaken up our planet for the better.

Before I get back in my ice cream truck, I’m handing out secrets for exploring the neighbourhood around Messy Nessy’s Cabinet in Paris. So if you’re coming to visit soon, check out Part One and Part Two of my Guide to the Latin Quarter. You’ll also find it all neatly organised in a free guide here in the A-Z directory.

Lastly, I’ve got your 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today on ice. Best read with a Spritz.

Stay curious,

Nessy

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 744)

Check out this vintage diner for sale in the Hudson Valley!

www.messynessychic.com/2025/06/27/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-vol-744

Ode to the Ice Man

In his autobiography Timebends, Arthur Miller recalls an occupation lost in time – that of the ice man, who wore “leather vests and a wet piece of sackcloth slung over the right shoulder, and once they had slid the ice into the box, they invariably slipped the sacking off and stood there waiting, dripping, for their money.”

www.messynessychic.com/2021/07/23/ode-to-the-ice-man

Built in the Clouds, they're the Highest Villages Frozen in Time

When you're looking to escape the tedium of modern and mainstream tourism, sometimes the only way is up. Today, our armchair travels will take us to some of the most remote (and highest) villages in the world, from Europe to middle America to Egypt.

www.messynessychic.com/2023/04/21/built-in-the-clouds-theyre-the-highest-villages-frozen-in-time

Hiding Homosexuality on the Cover of America's Magazines a Century Ago

One of the first things you'll start to notice about Joe Christian Leyendecker's work is that his women were never quite as good-looking as his men, who were devastatingly handsome. He gave us the elegance of Gatsby 20 years before F. Scott Fitzgerald had even invented him.

www.messynessychic.com/2019/02/05/hiding-homosexuality-on-the-cover-of-americas-magazines-a-century-ago

The Forbidden Road of the French Alps

It might look like a traveler's paradise, but this picturesque road is counted amongst the most dangerous in the world. Known as les Grands Goulets and built between 1843 and 1854, the legendary route is carved out of the cliffs of Vercors, a massif of mountains in the Rhône alpes region of France.

www.messynessychic.com/2013/10/03/the-forbidden-road-of-the-french-alps

Found Snapshots of a Secret 1960s Drag Resort in the Catskills

If you were to journey to Jewett, NY today, you would find yet another semi-abandoned white hamlet, deep in the hillside, ramshackle and in need of a facelift. Nothing out of the ordinary to the naked eye, but delve further into this particular dwelling’s history and you’ll discover that it was here, almost 60 years ago, in this otherwise extraneous dwelling, where dozens of men found a safe haven to learn all the intricacies of femininity as a form of relaxation and release. Welcome to Casa Susanna…

www.messynessychic.com/2020/04/15/found-snapshots-of-a-secret-1960s-catskills-resort-where-men-could-become-women

The Time Capsule Ghost Town waiting to be brought Back to Life

On the north coast of British Columbia in Canada, where the Alaskan border is closer than the nearest town, lies a mysterious hidden place, accessible only by a long arduous gravel road behind a locked gate. Ninety-four homes, two hundred apartments, a hospital, shopping mall, Town & Country restaurant, movie theatre, sports centre, a Royal Bank; all the amenities you could possibly need in this remote part of the world await behind the towering mountains. The only thing missing are the people.

www.messynessychic.com/2013/09/04/the-time-capsule-ghost-town-waiting-to-be-brought-back-to-life

Discover the Curiosities at Messy Nessy’s Cabinet

Browse a selection of the unique oddities on the shelves of our Paris boutique

shop.messynessychic.com/collections/creature-craftsmanship