A compendium of good reads about Paris and France in English.
Paris in literature
Octave magazine, produced by the Opéra de Paris, has an excellent story on the way writers like Dumas and Balzac used the streets of Paris as a backdrop for their stories.
Art
ArtNews reveals a newly discovered Mona Lisa underdrawing and discusses its implications.
Paris has always been a haven for Black American artists, writers and entertainers like Josephine Baker and James Baldwin. Hypoallergic reports on rare footage of painter Henry Ossawa Tanner in 1930s Paris, seen in the new documentary Myth of a Colorblind France.
In The Art Newspaper, Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey takes a close look at the recently rediscovered original manuscript of Gauguin’s book Avant et Après (Before and After), in which Gauguin claims to have inspired Van Gogh’s sunflowers.
Fashion
The Guardian goes to the Chanel and Louis Vuitton shows during Paris Fashion Week.
Controversy
The Guardian reports on the evacuation of 700 people by French police from a migrant camp in Calais, where they had gathered in hopes of reaching Britain.
Clichés about French people abound. One of the nastiest is the belief that they smell bad. The Local takes on the subject.
Humor
For those of you who miss David Jaggard’s C’est Ironique column in Paris Update, here’s a link to one of his funny pieces on another website.
Recipe
And, for those who love French food and love to cook, but want to keep it simple, here’s a recipe for a seasonal pumpkin soup from Meg Bortin’s site The Everyday French Chef.