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Author Archives: Parisian Fields
Learning French at Monoprix
When French is not your first language, every visit to a French supermarket is like walking into a three-dimensional visual dictionary. Even though we have bilingual labelling here in Canada, we still learn new vocabulary each time we go shopping … Continue reading
Posted in Paris food, Paris shops
Tagged Graphic design, Havas City, Le relooking, Marketing, Monoprix, Packaging, Visual identity
13 Comments
Knock knock
Visits to Paris flats or offices often begin with the ubiquitous buzzer and intercom, or the guarded keypad entry code, followed by the click and release of an electrically operated door lock. Mail goes into small boxes in the lobby. … Continue reading
Posted in Paris streets
Tagged Charlotte Perriand, chasse-roue, digicodes, door knockers, doorbells, doorways, Galeries Lafayette, intercom, keypad, Le Corbusier, letter boxes, letter slots
Comments Off on Knock knock
The art of the chasse-roue
Paris often reveals itself in the details. And as a historian of design and technology, I am drawn to the many different ways that the French seem to find for doing the same thing. In this case, protecting the sides … Continue reading
Posted in Paris streets
Tagged architecture, B. Dubuc, bouteroue, cast iron, chasse-roue, Invisible Paris, Louvre, Marais, portes cochères, Somme
16 Comments
The balcony scene
The painter Gustave Caillebotte and his brother, photographer Martial Caillebotte, loved balconies. They frequently painted and photographed people standing on ornate balconies overlooking wide boulevards, gazing down at the passing scene below.* And sometimes they set up an easel or … Continue reading
Don’t go there
On a recent trip to Paris, we arranged to meet up with a friend, a Canadian architecture-school librarian. As the three of us wandered about Montmartre, she asked us an intriguing question: “What are those spiked things for?” I replied, … Continue reading
Posted in Paris crime, Paris streets
Tagged balconies, crime prevention, fences, Petit Palais, pigeons, security, spikes
7 Comments
Rattled in Raspail (adventures in banking)
In 1910, Stephen Leacock wrote a short story called, “My Financial Career,” which began with the words, “When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me; the wickets rattle me; the sight of the money rattles … Continue reading
Posted in Paris travel
Tagged American Express, Banking in Paris, Banque de France, Boulevard Raspail, Stephen Leacock
10 Comments
Traces of tragedy on a quiet street
Not many people walk the length of the rue Jean Goujon in the 8th arrondissement. Either they are strolling along the river, or gazing at the likes of the Christian Dior boutique on avenue Montaigne (fashion central), the next street … Continue reading
Signs of Paris
On the first day of our first shared trip to Paris, signs such as this made me realize we were walking through history. We had bought the makings of a picnic lunch, which we ate on a park bench. We … Continue reading
