Category Archives: Paris civic functions

Paris Camino, part two

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Parisian Fields

Here we are at the intersection of the rue St-Jacques and the boulevard Port-Royal (aka Carrefour de la Mort – our name for it; you won’t see it on the walls!), heading south. Once you have crossed the tricky intersection, … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris hospitals, Paris streets | Tagged Ecole Normale Supérieur, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Hopital Cochin, Hotel de Massa, Jacques Hillairet, Port Royal maternity hospital, Porte d’Orléans, Protestant Institute of Theology Paris, Reservoir Montsouris, rue de la Tombe-d’Issoire, Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, Société de Gens de Lettres | 6 Comments

The Zone

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Parisian Fields

Our visits to Paris always begin and end with a trip through the outskirts of Paris. The train or taxi from the airport travels through residential and industrial suburbs, passing warehouses, high-rise hotels, office buildings, and large sports facilities. Beside … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris automotive, Paris civic functions, Paris history, Paris hospitals | Tagged Adolph Thiers, bibliothèque historique de la ville de paris, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Donald Pittenger, Enceinte de Thiers, Eugène Poubelle, Eugene Atget, flea markets, fortifications, Franco-Prussian War, habitations à bon marché, HBM, Laurent Baziller, Paris Commune, Paris wall, Périphérique, Porte de Reuilly, portes de Paris, Saint-Mandé, zone non aedificandi, Zoniers | 10 Comments

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Reconsider.

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Parisian Fields

Wherever we go in Paris, we see signs exhorting us to respect the environment, on garbage containers or in shops. The sign in the photograph below (look carefully) says, “L’environnement au coeur de nos priorités” (the environment is at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris civic functions | Tagged Emmaus, garbage collection, incineration, Institut Protestant de Théologie, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Petite Ceinture, recycling, sanitation, Viaduc des Arts | 5 Comments

Stepping back into the river

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Parisian Fields

Hello again. Rebonjour. Our sabbatical from blogging lasted a year. We are uncertain about how and how often we will continue, but we did want to say hello to our readers (if you are still there) and post an update. … Continue reading →

Posted in History of the blind, Paris civic functions, Paris streets, Paris travel | Tagged bus routes, Fondation Custodia, gilets jaunes, May Day, RATP | 18 Comments

Les petits bleus

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Parisian Fields

Elderly guidebooks let you visit Paris in the past. We have three. Two date from 1927 – Muirhead’s Paris and its Environs (Blue Guides), and the Express Guide to Paris and Environs (Publications Anglo-Américaines) – and one from 1950: Nagel’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris history, Paris maps | Tagged Baisers Volés, Bourse, cartes-télégrammes, Central Telegraph Office, François Truffaut, George Medhurst, Grand Hotel, Petit télégraphiste, petits bleus, pneus, télégrammes pneumatiques, William Murdoch | 10 Comments

A question of time

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Parisian Fields

What do you remember most vividly about your first visit to Paris? For me, more than 20 years ago, it was the astounding range of merchandise in shops and galleries, the parks, and the cleanliness of the city. For a … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris history, Paris hotels, Paris streets | Tagged Carl Albert Mayrhofer, Charles-Augustin Meurice, Compagnie Générale des Horloges Pneumatiques, Ernest Resch, Flood of 1910, Hotel Meurice, Jules Albert Berly, Paris Flood 1910, pneumatic clocks, rue Ste-Anne, Scientific American, Victor Popp | 13 Comments

A city street, a lamppost

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Parisian Fields

It was the photograph that caught my eye from a high shelf in a bookshop. A street with a lamppost and the corner of a building; two men walking in opposite directions. It was only later that I registered the … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris books, Paris civic functions, Paris postcards, Paris streets | Tagged du Gaz et de l’Eclairage, Dufayel, Frédérique Bousquel, Jacques Lusseyran, Jo Baker, Joseph Epstein, Journées du Patrimoine, Marcel Epstein, Mémoire de l’Electricité, Mémoire des rues, MEGE, Ronald C. Rosbottom, rue de Clignancourt, rue Ramey, Second World War | 21 Comments

A walk in the snow led us to Paris

Posted on August 13, 2017 by Parisian Fields

Our first trip to Paris together was only about 20 years ago, but already it seems to belong to the distant past. It all began with a walk in the snow. We are Canadians of a certain age, so the … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris automotive, Paris civic functions, Paris hotels, Paris nostalgia | Tagged American Express, Cheap Eats in Paris, Cheap Sleeps in Paris, Cimitière de Montmartre, Grand Hôtel de Balcons, Le Petit Prince, Montmartre, Place de l'Opera, rue Cavallotti | 34 Comments

Borders, boundaries, and snails

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Parisian Fields

Toronto has recently completed a Ward Boundary Review, its first since, oh, 2000. City councillors were concerned that some wards had far more voters than others. Population was growing downtown and declining in the inner suburbs. After 17 years, Something … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris history, Paris quartiers | Tagged Ancien Régime, Anne Hidalgo, Arrondissements, Assemblée Nationale, Charles VI, French Revolution, Hotel de Ville, Mairie, Philippe Auguste, Quartiers, St-Jacques de la Boucherie | 2 Comments

The art of the gasometer

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Parisian Fields

The major summer exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario is devoted to the work of Canadian artist Lawren Harris (1885–1970). I associate his name with bold, abstracted images of Canada’s Far North – mountains and glaciers and frozen seas. … Continue reading →