-
-
Most viewed posts & pages
-
Recent Posts
- Helping Lazarus rise again
- Cold cases: The snake-oil salesman and the thief
- The music master
- Hidden rivers, white queens, and squaring the triangle
- Look up
- The private life of a public man
- Double vision
- What to read in the bath
- The Emperor, the cabaret of women, an ill-advised gift, and the porcelain painter
- When bombs fell on Paris
- Words in the Métro
- A geranium in winter
- Funeral march for a dead parrot
- A St. Helena Lullaby
- The missing link
- Silent witnesses
- Eclairage Chauffage: Helen McNicoll and the painting of light
- A convent education
- Astérix and the lost streets of Montparnasse
- The boating party
- Up Stairs. Down Stairs.
- Beer and sandwiches from the Brasserie Dauphine
- A museum of images in a garden of peace
- Napoleon slept here
- Lorette
What our readers think
Parisian Fields on Helping Lazarus rise agai… Parisian Fields on Helping Lazarus rise agai… supernaturallytransp… on Helping Lazarus rise agai… supernaturallytransp… on Helping Lazarus rise agai… Nicola Jennings on Helping Lazarus rise agai… Blogroll
- Bonjour Paris
- Buttes Chaumont blog
- Days on the Claise
- Decoding Paris
- French Girl in Seattle
- French Today
- Invisible Paris
- One quality, the finest
- Paris (Im)perfect
- ParisPerdu
- Part-time Parisian
- Restauranting Through History
- Rue Rude
- Sound Landscapes Paris
- Spotted by Locals
- Taste of France
- The Paris Blog
Tags
- Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville
- Champs Elysees
- Charles Marville
- Eiffel Tower
- Eugene Atget
- French Revolution
- Georges-Eugène Haussmann
- Gustave Eiffel
- Gustave Rives
- La Samaritaine
- Les Grands Magasins Dufayel
- les Halles
- Louis XIV
- Montmartre
- Montparnasse
- Napoleon
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Napoleon III
- Parc Monceau
- Paris flood
- Paris metro
- Paris postcards
- Petite Ceinture
- Stanley Loomis
- Val de Grace
Categories
Most liked posts & pages
Archives
Category Archives: Paris history
Cold cases: The snake-oil salesman and the thief
Let it never be said that archival research is dull. My recent forays into the archives at the Institut national des Jeunes Aveugles uncovered a crime nearly 200 years old, and a con man who exploited a legal loophole to … Continue reading
Posted in History of the blind, Paris crime, Paris history
Tagged Alexis de Noailles, Alphonse Alexandre Raymond de Rubat, Asnières-sur-Seine, General Claude-François de Malet, Hippolyte Martin Cardeilhac, Institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles, Jean Auguste Jaurès, Louis Balthazar Caffe, Louis Prosper de Rubat, Marie Angelique Bisson, Sebastien Guillié, Wellcome Collection, Zélie Cardeilhac
11 Comments
Hidden rivers, white queens, and squaring the triangle
On a blustery January day, two friends and I set out to walk the route of the Bièvre river across the Left Bank. Jill, who lives in Paris, had done most of the walk before and suggested the route. Elizabeth, … Continue reading
The private life of a public man
When our friend Mireille in Paris asked me to research the descendants of Valentin Haüy, the man who pioneered education for blind children, my first reaction was, “Wait – he had children?” I knew about Haüy’s work with blind students. … Continue reading
Posted in History of the blind, Paris cemeteries, Paris history
Tagged Alexandre Fournier, Alexandre-René Pignier, Caroline Horson de Forville, Catherine Madeleine Victoire Justine Haüy, Foire St-Ovide, François le Sueur, Hotel de Mesmes, Institut des Aveugles Travailleurs, Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, Just Haüy, Louise Marguerite Allain, Philodème Just Haüy, Pierre Henri, Quinze-Vingts, René-Just Haüy, Sebastien Guillié, St. Vincent de Paul, Valentin Haüy, Zina Weygand
7 Comments
Double vision
The other night I couldn’t sleep, and to pass the time I got out Norman’s collection of Paris stereocards and looked at the images. After a while, I realized that one thing was missing from nearly every image: the Eiffel … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris photography, Paris streets
Tagged Alfred Brack, Cafe de la Paix, Debitte & Hervé, Eiffel Tower, Grand Hotel, Henri Guerard, Hippolyte Jouvin, Hotel de Ville, Jean Andrieu, Keystone View Company, Maison Francois 1er, Place de la Republique, Place du Chateau d'Eau, Place Vendôme, Pygmalion, rue de Fleurus, stereocards, Tour St. Jacques, Tuileries Palace, Underwood & Underwood
17 Comments
The Emperor, the cabaret of women, an ill-advised gift, and the porcelain painter
Opinion is divided as to whether Napoleon Bonaparte was a tyrant or a genius, or both. But perhaps we can all agree that he left something to be desired as a husband. His divorce from his beloved Josephine de Beauharnais … Continue reading
Posted in Paris art, Paris history
Tagged Art Gallery of Ontario, Clark Art Museum, Comtesse de Ségur, Drouot auction house, Duchess of Monmouth, Empress Josephine, Empress Marie-Therese, Etienne-Charles Le Guay, Jean Comairas, Joan of Arc, Madame de Sevigné, Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, Napoleon Bonaparte, Sevres porcelain
9 Comments
When bombs fell on Paris
The church of Sainte Jeanne de Chantal at the Porte de Saint-Cloud in the 16th arrondissement is a striking example of mid 20th-century architecture. With its dome and tower, it almost looks like a mosque with a minaret. You enter … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris metro, World War II
Tagged air raids, Chatou, Courbevoie, Défense passive, Dietrich von Choltitz, Grands Magasins du Louvre, Halle aux Vins, Ile Séguin, Paris Historique, Porte de la Chapelle, Porte de Saint-Cloud, Renault, rue Richomme, Sainte Jeanne de Chantal
13 Comments
Funeral march for a dead parrot
I was working in the kitchen, half listening to the radio, when something caught my attention. The radio announcer, in introducing a piece of music, was describing a Parisian composer and musician who was extremely reclusive. The story went that … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris music
Tagged Alkan Morhange, Alkan Society, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Elie Miriam Delaborde, Erard pianos, Frederic Chopin, George Sand, Hugh Macdonald, Joseph Zimmerman, Lina Eraïm Miriam, Marc-André Hamelin, Paris Conservatoire, Ronald Smith, rue Daru, rue du Mail, Square d’Orléans
18 Comments
A convent education
As I was leaving for the hospital, I grabbed a book from the bookshelf near the bedroom door. I chose it because it was a small paperback I could slip into my little bag of belongings. Just as well. There … Continue reading
Parisian Fields 