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Category Archives: Paris history
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
Up Stairs. Down Stairs.
One of our favourite walks starts close to the apartment we often rent that overlooks the Boulevard de Port Royal. It begins when you go through a hole in the sidewalk and down a set of stairs. Just west of … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris parks, Paris streets
Tagged Bièvre River, Boulevard de Port Royal, Butte Bergeyre, Buttes Chaumont, Combat Quartier, Folles Buttes, Le Verre à Pied, Mont Ste-Geneviève, Pierre Berton, Pierre Gripari, Robert Bergeyre, rue Broca, rue Michel Tagrine, Secret World of Og
16 Comments
A museum of images in a garden of peace
With such an abundance of museums and galleries in Paris, should it be a surprise that on occasion, the one you had your heart set on visiting happens to be closed? But then there is the flip side of the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris gardens, Paris history
Tagged Albert Kahn, Alfred Duterte, Archives de la Planète, Auguste Léon, Édouard André, Boulogne-Billancourt, Bourses de Voyage autour du Monde, Charles et Edmond Goudchoux, Fumiaki Takano, Gérard Planes, Kengo Kuma, Léon Busy, Lumière Brothers, Musée Départemental Albert Kahn, Stéphane Passet
13 Comments
Napoleon slept here
I don’t remember where I bought the postcard, although the price on the back shows that I lashed out a whopping 5 euros on it. It shows an undistinguished shopfront covered in advertising. It must have been the caption that … Continue reading
Lorette
“What is the significance of the name Loretto?” asked Norman, looking at a picture of the former Loretto Academy in Niagara Falls. “It reminds me of that church in Paris.” Notre-Dame-de-Lorette in Paris is an imposing Neoclassical edifice in the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris churches, Paris history, Paris quartiers
Tagged courtesans, filles publiques, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, grandes horizontales, grisettes, La Nouvelle Athènes, Lorette, maisons closes, Maurice Alhoy, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Paul Gavarni, prostitutes, rue Bréda, rue Henry Monnier
10 Comments
Red children and foundling wheels
Some Paris names evoke long-gone places in the city’s past. The name Tuileries now represents a garden, before that a palace with a violent history, and before that, an area where tiles were made. I’ve always found it interesting that … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris hospitals, Paris markets
Tagged Assistance Publique de Paris, Île de la Cité, Boulevard Denfert-Rochereau, Charles Marville, Enfants de Dieu, foundling wheel, Hôpital de la Trinité, Hôpital St-Vincent-de-Paul, Henri Pottin, Hospice des Enfants Assistés, Hotel Dieu, Institution de l'Oratoire, Jean le Rond d’Alembert, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marché des Enfants Rouges, Rachel Ginnis Fuchs, St Vincent de Paul, St. Vincent de Paul, tour d'abandon, wet nurses
14 Comments
The strange case of the disappearing hotel
Norman recently bought, sight unseen, a shoebox of French postcards from a man in Winnipeg. Among them was a series of images from a Paris hotel called the St-James and Albany. They set me off on a hunt that led … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris hotels, Paris postcards
Tagged Charles-François Lebrun, Drouot auction house, Earl of Bridgewater, Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henriette Anne Louise de Noailles, Hotel de Noailles, Hotels St-James & d'Albany, Lady Verney, Lord Egerton, Marquis de Lafayette, Musée Carnavalet, rue d'Alger, rue de Rivoli, rue St-Honoré, Thomas Mann, Unsinkable Molly Brown
20 Comments
Asylum
Last month, when I learned that absinthe had been known as the “Charenton omnibus” – Charenton being the site of a famous mental hospital – I became curious about mental institutions in the Paris area. There are many interesting stories … Continue reading
A taste of France
Many years ago, a friend gave me a birthday present consisting of three small objects, with a card that read: “What every young woman needs: a car, a taste of France, and a chance at a million.” The car was … Continue reading
Posted in Paris flea markets, Paris food, Paris history, Paris popular culture, World War I
Tagged absinthe, anise, fennel, pastis, Paul Verlaine, Pernod, Ricard, tarragon
21 Comments
Parisian Fields 