Recently, the press in France – and especially in other countries – has been whipped up to a frenzy with stories about Paris being infested by bedbugs (punaises de lit in French). After all, nothing energizes commentators writing about other … Read More
Wallace Fountains are among those elegant touches on Paris’s urban landscape that visitors marvel at and photograph without really knowing what they are or how they got there. In fact, they are perfectly functional public drinking fountains that combine practicality … Read More
Listening to early recordings of voices or sounds from the past is always intriguing, as it gives us an auditory glimpse into moments of history. However, sometimes the sounds captured on the earliest recording devices can feel strangely alienating or … Read More
At a time when so many of the usual pleasures Paris offers – cafés, bars, restaurants, theaters, cinemas, museums – have been denied us, I have rediscovered a quintessentially Parisian pastime: flâner. Meaning to stroll or to wander without any … Read More
The very sad news that Jean-Pierre Bacri died earlier this week at the age of 69 has resulted in a flood of tributes in France for this much-loved actor and screenwriter. Some have looked at the wide range of movies … Read More
With the devastation and terrible loss that Covid-19 has wrought across the world, it might seem churlish to bemoan the lot of anglophone lovers of all things Parisian, but communication by Zoom and its equivalents with my British and American … Read More
One of the world’s best-loved food bloggers, Paris-based pastry chef David Lebovitz started his career at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ temple of fresh, local, seasonal cuisine in Berkeley, California. Since then, he has published a slew of cookbooks, including The … Read More
Is it just me, or is the French capital now the jolliest of the big three? By that I mean Western civilization’s splendid PaLoNY: Paris, London, New York. The trio of major metropoles has long hewed to type: New York, … Read More
In the 20 years that I have owned a little studio apartment in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, the district has changed considerably. Almost every restaurant has been replaced at successive intervals by other restaurants; fancy gift shops have been transformed into Italian … Read More
In 1971, Bob Crimi, a young American painter who was living in Marseilles at the time, paid a couple of short visits to Paris, camera in hand. Two places in particular grabbed his attention: the Jeu de Paume, where France’s … Read More
