Author Archives: Parisian Fields

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About Parisian Fields

Parisian Fields is the blog of two Toronto writers who love Paris. When we can't be there, we can write about it. We're interested in everything from its history and architecture to its graffiti and street furniture. We welcome comments, suggestions, corrections, and musings from all readers.

Paris, City of Reflections

The words Paris, reflections, and mirrors conjure up images of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. But Paris holds many more mirrors and reflections. The streets and shops of Paris are a City of Reflections best revealed to the unhurried … Continue reading

Posted in City of Reflections, Paris art, Paris shops | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

How to Make a Surprisingly Enduring Film

It’s not the best movie ever made in Paris. Nor is it the best movie made by either of its stars or its director. And yet, with its stylishness and wit, it remains watchable when so many other movies from … Continue reading

Posted in Paris film | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

A Flâneur’s Advice on Parking in Paris

Baudelaire’s nineteenth-century flâneur explored the city by strolling. A flâneur walked, observed, listened, and had no destinations, appointments or deadlines. With due respect to Monsieur Charles Baudelaire, I have proclaimed myself un flâneur de la circulation et du parking when … Continue reading

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“A vile business clumsily done”

In 1847, the year that Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre, Paris society was riveted by a similar triangle –a wealthy and prominent man, his unbalanced wife, and a young governess. Their story, however, had a very different ending. In August … Continue reading

Posted in Paris crime, Paris history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 54 Comments

Parisian cats

Le Chat Noir is undoubtedly Paris’s most famous cat, or at least its most commercially reproduced cat. But it is only one of many cats who are part of the city’s story. Countless millions have seen Le Chat Noir on … Continue reading

Posted in Paris art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Paris piquant

I’m going to swim against the current here (the Salon du Chocolat is, after all, coming up at the end of October) and state that if you are the sort of person who goes to Paris merely for the boulangeries, … Continue reading

Posted in Paris food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Scooting through Paris

What is your Paris? Beauty, colour, art, elegance, fashion, intrigue, rich and varied history? Or work? Think of the great Paris photos and novels about working people. My Paris is often mirrored or expressed in the scooters buzzing about Paris. … Continue reading

Posted in Paris automotive, Paris popular culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The lady is not a sofa

Not far from the Bon Marché in the 7th arrondissement is a short dead-end street that terminates in a quiet space enclosed by the surrounding buildings, with trees, paths, and some flowerbeds: the Square Récamier. Récamier. When we first entered … Continue reading

Posted in Paris history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Stained Glass Less Seen

Paris’s many churches are treasure troves of spectacular, often monumental, stained glass windows. The cemeteries of Paris have stained glass windows too, but these are small, less visible, and easily overlooked except by those who walk slowly and peer through … Continue reading

Posted in Paris cemeteries | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Oscar the Grouch goes to Paris

Paris is full of incongruous juxtapositions. A moment after leaving the square around the ancient Fontaine des Innocents, we were confronted with the image of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street near the Banana Café (also decorated with some unbananalike … Continue reading

Posted in Paris popular culture, Paris street art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments