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Author Archives: Parisian Fields
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
Cheap eats
The very first time we went to Paris as a couple, we took along a book called Cheap Eats in Paris by Sandra Gustafson. This was in the days before the Internet and iPhones made restaurant recommendations easy to find, … Continue reading
Posted in Paris food
Tagged C.R.O.U.S., Centre Régional des Oeuvres Universitaires et Scolaires, Cheap Eats in Paris, Cheap Sleeps in Paris, commensality, congregate dining, CROUS, Malakoff, Morgan Spurlock, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Sandra Gustafson, Sudent cafeterias in Paris, Super Size Me, tripe à la mode de Caen, workingmen’s café
2 Comments
The photograph I didn’t take
It was winter and we were walking back to our rented apartment in the 14th arrondissement from Monoprix, with a borrowed buggy filled with basics – toilet paper, dried pasta, yogurt. We traipsed down a road called rue Campagne Première. … Continue reading
Jules Verne in the Métro
As a young boy, I longed to live in the fantastic worlds of Jules Verne, to explore the depths of the ocean in the Nautilus with Captain Nemo. I had not told Philippa this, but as we set off to … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris metro, Paris museums
Tagged Antoinette Lesueur de Pérès, Benson Bobrick, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, François Schuiten, International Exposition of 1900, Jules Verne, Labyrinths of Iron, Les Cités Obscures, Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris in the 20th Century, Paul Séjourné, Pont Antoinette, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
8 Comments
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