At Home with George … And Frédéric, Franz, Eugène … George Sand’s House in Nohant. © Etienne Revault-CMN In 1821, a 17-year-old girl named Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, who would one day become George Sand, inherited a small manor house, the Manoir … Read More
Seven Deadly SinsIn the Garden “Le Domaine de Narcisse,” Photo © E. Sender A summer pilgrimage to the International Garden Festival at Château de Chaumont, a couple of hours from Paris, has become a ritual for many Parisians. Each year, … Read More
Furnishing Giverny for Its Former Residents “In the Woods at Giverny: Blanche Hoschedé at Her Easel with Suzanne Hoschedé Reading” (1887), by Claude Monet. As is by now well-known, the artist Claude Monet and his family moved into a house … Read More
A Destination, Not an Airport The Maladrerie Saint Lazare, where the lepers of Beauvais once lived. Photo: ParisUpdate.com Every time I mention to friends that I have visited Beauvais, they laugh. This can be explained by the fact that many … Read More
Jean Cocteau in front of his house in Milly-la-Forêt on July 24, 1963. © KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Keystone/Eyedea Presse Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) is a slippery character. It’s hard to get a grip on who he was and what he did, partly because he … Read More
The global economy may still be reeling, but you’d never know it from a visit to the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, where a small building boom is underway as part of the Ile Seguin-Rives de Seine redevelopment project, which … Read More
“Portrait of Z. B. Marenzi” (1737) by Paolo Bonomino. Caen’s Musée des Beaux Arts must be my absolute all-time favorite provincial fine-art museum. Set in a contemporary building excavated out of the main courtyard … Favorite
A psychedelic vineyard by artists Anne and Patrick Poirier at the International Festival of Gardens in Chaumont sur Loire. The annual International Garden Festival at the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire has become a regular pilgrimage for many Parisians, but visitors who … Read More
The city of Lille inaugurated a major cultural festival called “Europe XXL” on March 14 with a massive parade, the burning of giants papier-mâché falla sculptures (a heritage of the time when the city was part of the Spanish Netherlands), … Read More
Summer Parking The new Parc Clichy Batignolles is a huge success in park-starved Paris. The promenade plantée, an elevated park built on top of the Viaduc des Arts along the Avenue Daumesnil in Paris, is now a familiar part of … Read More
