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Author Archives: Parisian Fields
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
Nine minutes, twenty-one seconds
A recent New York Times article pointed out that the traditional division of Paris into Left Bank / Right Bank might be giving way to a more East-West distinction. (Some people will say that has long been the case.) And … Continue reading
Posted in Paris gardens, Paris history, Paris maps
Tagged Charles Perrault, Claude Perrault, François Arago, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Greenwich Mean Time, Institut d’Astrophysique, International Meridian Conference, Jan Dibbets, Jean Prouvé, Map Addict, Mike Parker, Paris Mean Time, Paris Meridian, Paris Observatoire, Paris observatory
3 Comments
Notre Dame du Travail: more than meets the eye
If I had to pick only one place to visit on a trip to Paris, it would be Notre Dame du Travail. What makes it so special? It starts with the eye, but there is more than meets the eye. … Continue reading
Posted in Paris churches, Paris history, Paris quartiers
Tagged 14th arrondissement, Eiffel Tower, Exposition of 1900, Father Soulange-Bodin, Gare Montparnasse, Gare St-Lazare, Jules Astruc, Napoleon III, Notre Dame de Plaisance, Notre Dame du Travail, Paris architecture, Paris bridges, Paris urban renewal, Plaisance quartier, Structural steel
14 Comments
Leeks Vinaigrette
I have my favourite French food writers, but among my best-loved cookbooks are those by Canadian food writer Lucy Waverman and the English Nigel Slater. Recently, I came across the following words by Slater that got me thinking: Sourness in … Continue reading
Posted in Paris food, Paris markets
Tagged Alberto Herráiz, Anne Willan, Banyuls vinegar, Beauvau market, Editions de l'Epure, La Varenne, Laura Calder, leeks vinaigrette, Maille, Martin Pouret, Molly Wizenberg, Montorgueil market, mustard, Nigel Slater, Orleans, Restaurant Fogon, sherry vinegar, vinegar
1 Comment
Goosebumps
One day, at a flea market, I bought an old board game called Le Jeu de l’Oie (the Game of the Goose). I was attracted to it because I had seen a reproduction of a similar board in a newspaper … Continue reading
Posted in Paris flea markets, Paris nostalgia, Paris popular culture
Tagged Le Jeu de l'Oie, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders
5 Comments
A tricycle built for work
Head down and shoulders hunched, the lead cyclist pedals furiously through the streets of Paris. He is barely a cycle’s length ahead of his closest pursuers. Anxious onlookers line the streets. We are not witnessing the final moments of the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris popular culture
Tagged Alexandre & Juéry, antique cycles, antique triporteurs, Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville, cycle racing, cycling, delivery vehicles, La Petite Reine, Mark Twain, Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle, Roger-Viollet Collection, rue de la Lune, Rue Rambuteau, tricycles, triporteur racing, triporteurs
2 Comments
The queen in the tower
Last week, Norman posted his picture of a “melting bicycle” and it got me thinking about the place and time we saw it. Then a reader wrote in and asked about places to stop and sit in the Marais, and … Continue reading
Still life with bicycle
Paris has a long association with cycling. Consider the early 19th-century velocipede craze or Art Nouveau advertising lithographs by artists such as Alphonse Mucha. Since it began in 1903, the Tour de France always ends with a dash into Paris. … Continue reading




















