-
Most viewed posts & pages
-
Recent Posts
- A month of Sundays
- Helping Lazarus rise again
- Cold cases: The snake-oil salesman and the thief
- The music master
- Hidden rivers, white queens, and squaring the triangle
- Look up
- The private life of a public man
- Double vision
- What to read in the bath
- The Emperor, the cabaret of women, an ill-advised gift, and the porcelain painter
- When bombs fell on Paris
- Words in the Métro
- A geranium in winter
- Funeral march for a dead parrot
- A St. Helena Lullaby
- The missing link
- Silent witnesses
- Eclairage Chauffage: Helen McNicoll and the painting of light
- A convent education
- Astérix and the lost streets of Montparnasse
- The boating party
- Up Stairs. Down Stairs.
- Beer and sandwiches from the Brasserie Dauphine
- A museum of images in a garden of peace
- Napoleon slept here
What our readers think
Parisian Fields on A month of Sundays Parisian Fields on A month of Sundays Parisian Fields on A month of Sundays Jan Whitaker on A month of Sundays Narelle Jarvis on A month of Sundays Blogroll
- Bonjour Paris
- Buttes Chaumont blog
- Days on the Claise
- Decoding Paris
- French Girl in Seattle
- French Today
- Invisible Paris
- One quality, the finest
- Paris (Im)perfect
- ParisPerdu
- Part-time Parisian
- Restauranting Through History
- Rue Rude
- Sound Landscapes Paris
- Spotted by Locals
- Taste of France
- The Paris Blog
Tags
- Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville
- Champs Elysees
- Charles Marville
- Eiffel Tower
- Eugene Atget
- French Revolution
- Georges-Eugène Haussmann
- Gustave Eiffel
- Gustave Rives
- La Samaritaine
- Les Grands Magasins Dufayel
- les Halles
- Louis XIV
- Montmartre
- Montparnasse
- Napoleon
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Napoleon III
- Parc Monceau
- Paris flood
- Paris metro
- Paris postcards
- Petite Ceinture
- Stanley Loomis
- Val de Grace
Categories
Most liked posts & pages
Archives
Author Archives: Parisian Fields
The bouquinistes and the photographer of shadows
To quote from last week’s blog by Norman: “The sense of continuity is part of the fascination of learning more and more about Paris.” But it’s not just about the continuity of major monuments and landmark buildings. It’s also the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris bookstores, Paris postcards
Tagged bouquinistes, David Downie, Dominique Lesbros, Editions d'Art Yvon, First World War, gargoyle, Kurt Ulrich, L'Illustration, La Carterie, Les Editions Yvon, Notre Dame, Paris postcards, Pierre Petit, Quai de la Tournelle, Quai Malaquais, Robert Stevens, vintage postcards, Yvon, Yvon's Paris
12 Comments
Food, drink, and lodging in Paris postcards
In a sense, all postcards are a form of advertising. Some advertise the sender’s good fortune or superiority: “Hi. I’m here. You’re not.” Others advertise the attraction itself: Kozy Kabins in Niagara Falls, the highest rotating restaurant west of the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris food, Paris hotels, Paris postcards
Tagged Alexandre Legrand, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Arthur Conan Doyle, Benedictine, Benedictine Liqueur, Bishop Maurice de Sully, Boulevard des Italiens, Café Anglais, Camille Pissarro, Dom Bernardo Vincelli, Fécamp, Ferris Wheel, Frédéric Delair, Hotel du Louvre, Hotel Régina, International Exposition of 1900, Julia Child, La Madeleine, La Tour d’Argent, Louvre des Antiquaires, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III, Place du Palais Royal, Quai de la Tournelle, Robespierre, Sherlock Holmes, Treaty of Amiens
12 Comments
Connaissez-vous Paris?
On the avenue Franklin Roosevelt, not far from the Champs-Elysées, is an unusual bookshop. The name, Livre Sterling, is a peculiarly anglophile pun on the fact that the word “livre” in French can mean either “pound” (₤) or “book” and … Continue reading
Posted in Paris bookstores, Paris travel
Tagged avenue Franklin Roosevelt, Claude Debussy, Connaissez-vous Paris?, Emmanuel Delhomme, Exercises in Style, Félix de Rochegude, Henri IV, Jacques Hillairet, L’Intransigeant, Les Enfants Rouges, Livre Sterling, Père Lachaise, Raymond Queneau, Saint-Louis Hospital, Un libraire en colère, Zazie dans le Métro
7 Comments
A most unusual water system keeps Paris clean
I was alarmed the first time I saw water pouring out of what looked like a sewer grate and onto the road. Now, I watch for such a sight. It is another manifestation of the enlightened engineering, design, and vision … Continue reading
Posted in Paris streets
Tagged bouches de lavage, Eugène Belgrand, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Marché Port-Royal, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III, Ourcq Canal, Paris engineering, Paris sewers, Paris water supply, River Ourcq, rue du Faubourg St Jacques, Street cleaning in Paris, technology of tourism, washing outlets, WOs
43 Comments
A walk in the snow
No trip to Paris would be complete without at least one lengthy visit to Des Photographies, an intriguing shop in Village St. Paul in the Marais. There, with some help from Sylvain Calvier, I have found and bought some wonderful … Continue reading
Posted in Paris gardens, Paris parks
Tagged Arsène Alexandre, Candide, Des Photographies, Gilles Vigneault, Henri Riviere, Louvre, Mail aux pommes, Napoleon Bonaparte, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Robert Lowell, Sylvain Calvier, The Expiation Russia 1812, Victor Hugo, Village St-Paul, Voltaire
3 Comments
Postcards from a Snowy Paris
Although it snows occasionally in Paris, it seems to be rare enough that only a small amount wreaks havoc. The city just isn’t prepared for snow. Parisian winters are normally mild, but there have been some very cold ones that … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris parks, Paris postcards
Tagged 1910 flood, Bois de Boulogne, gasometer, ice skating in Paris, January 1910, Jardin du Luxembourg, Marche St-Martin, Nanterre, Paris flood, Paris postcards, Snow in Paris, snow load, St-Martin market, twig brooms, vintage postcards, winter in Paris
7 Comments
Colour commentary
In the 1840s, my great-great grandfather came to Paris to study at the Gobelins Tapestry Factory. He was not a weaver or tapestry-maker, but a chemist who specialized in the science of colour and dyes, and the Gobelins was the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris architecture, Paris art, Paris streets
Tagged 32 rue Eugène Flachat, 51 boulevard Berthier, Accords chromatiques, Alain-Charles Perrot, Bon Marche, Build Up, F.-G. Dumas, François-Guillaume Dumas, Gobelins Tapestry Factory, Jules Loebnitz, La Samaritaine, Lycée Molière, Monceau Fleurs, Opéra Garnier, Paris Illustré, Paris Opera, Paul Sédille, Pavilion de l’Arsenal, Pompidou Centre, Printemps, Revue Illustrée, rue des Thermopyles, rue du Ranelagh, Simon Texier
6 Comments
Dateline Paris 1900: The Astounding Moving Electrical Sidewalk
In 1900, if you were lucky enough to have a ticket such as this one—and almost fifty million people did—you were in for an astounding treat. Paris and France went all out to make the Paris Universal Exposition the biggest … Continue reading
Sailing ships and rowboats
Père Lachaise Cemetery, spring 2010. I took this photograph, wondering what on earth a “caveau depositoire” might be. Turns out it is a temporary storage spot for bodies awaiting burial. But what attracted my attention at first was the image … Continue reading



















