Wallace Fountains
Water, Water Everywhere – and Plenty to Drink
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
Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth
A Flâneur Discovers a Changing Paris Street
I was born and bred in Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Triangle, so when a friend told me that renowned French pâtissier Philippe Conticini had made a fancy rhubarb tart for springtime, I had to try it. The closest shop was at 31, … Read More
Ferdinand Brunot
Is That a South Parisian Drawl I Hear?
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
Paris Regained
Rediscovering the Art of the Flâneur
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
Jean-Pierre Bacri
An Appreciation
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
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