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Author Archives: Parisian Fields
Make do and mend
I took my umbrella to Paris in March. It was not that I needed it to keep off the rain. It was so that I could do something with it in Paris I could not do in Canada: get it … Continue reading
Posted in Paris flea markets, Paris markets, Paris nostalgia
Tagged apprenticeship, Atelier Cerami'K, brocante, campagnonnage, guilds, Musée du Compagnonnage, Passage de l’Ancre Royale, Patrimoine Vivant, Pep's, rebus, serrurerie, Sophie Jehan, Thierry Millet, umbrella, vide-grenier, Yves Lapellegerie
23 Comments
Getting married in the City of Light
Many people dream of getting married in Paris. How romantic. How fashionable. Like this 1998 image of a Christian Dior wedding gown on a beautiful model, a Paris wedding seems like a dream too good to be true. The fantasy element appears … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris popular culture
Tagged Le Petit Journal, marriage, Montmartre, Paris en Images, weddings
5 Comments
Carnival of the Animals
Norman likes to say that Paris is like Alice’s Restaurant: you can get anything you want there. Whatever you can think of, there is always a Paris connection. Let’s take camels and elephants. In 1881 camels carrying advertising kiosks appeared … Continue reading
Posted in Paris gardens, Paris history
Tagged Abul-Abbas, Café Voisin, camel, Camille Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals, Castor and Pollux, chameaux-réclames, Charlemagne, elephant, Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots, Emmanuel Frémiet, H. Hazel Hahn, Jardin des Plantes, Jean Camescasse, Jumbo, Louis XVI, Louise E. Robbins, Scenes of Paris Modernity, Siege of Paris, Société Financière Française et Coloniale
15 Comments
Greeting the New Year in French
We’ve never been very good at New Year’s resolutions. I’m still carrying around that five pounds I meant to lose in, um, 2012, and Norman still hasn’t cleaned out the area around his basement work bench. But this time, we … Continue reading
Posted in French language
Tagged Edith Piaf, francophile, Frantastique, Jacques Prévert, Victor Hugo
6 Comments
Paris is a billboard
Viewed through the long lens of time, 19th-century photos of advertising broadsides glued to the sides of buildings seem so charming, so urban, so Parisian. But what if it were your wall, or you were the printer whose fine work … Continue reading
Some corner of a foreign field
To the memory of Raymond Hummel, 1886–1916, and John Sieber, 1893–1917, and to the 166 men and 1 woman of Perth Academy who died in the Great War. The remains of my great-uncle Raymond Hummel lie in France, in a … Continue reading
Posted in Family history, World War I
Tagged Colincamps, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Dar-es-Salaam, First World War, Flowers of the Forest, John Hardie, John King Morrison Hardi, John Lonsdale Sieber, Perth Academy, Raymond Hummel, Royal British Legion, Sucrerie Cemetery, University of Leeds, War diaries, West Yorkshire Regiment
26 Comments
Designer of the invisible
When you arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, one of the first things you will see is the work of a man who died on September 10 of this year: Adrian Frutiger, type designer. You won’t give it a … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris metro, Paris travel
Tagged Adrian Frutiger, André Gürtler, Arcueil, Bernard Parmegiani, Bruno Pfäffli, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Charles de Gaulle airport, Deberny and Peignot, Erik Spiekermann, Helvetica, Henk Gianotten, Herculaneum, Iridium, Mark Simonson, Ondine, Paris metro, Paul Andreu, Peignot, Roissy, Serifa, Univers, Versailles typeface, Villa Moderne
19 Comments
Geraniums by any other name
We are fairly laid-back gardeners. Our Toronto garden is small and shady, and nearly all the plants are perennials that come up every year on their own so we do not have to “put in” the garden every spring. We … Continue reading
