-
Most viewed posts & pages
What our readers think
Most liked posts & pages
Category Archives: Paris history
The lost neighbourhood
Last month, I was inspired by one of Lawren Harris’s paintings to investigate gasometers in Toronto and Paris. A second visit to the Lawren Harris exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario evoked another parallel between the two cities: the destruction … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris maps, Paris museums
Tagged Abbé Delagrive, Augustus Charles Pugin, Chateau d’eaux, David Hanser, Eaton Manufacturing Building, Ecuries du Roi, Empress Josephine, Hotel de Crequi, Hotel de Crussol, Hotel de Longueville, Lawren Harris, Machine infernale, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III, Quartier du Louvre, Quinze-Vingts, rue de Chartres, rue St-Nicaise, St-Louis-du-Louvre, St-Nicolas-du-Louvre, St-Thomas-du-Louvre, The Ward, Theatre du Vaudeville, Toronto City Hall, Tuileries Palace, Turgot map, Viljo Revell, William James
14 Comments
The art of the gasometer
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
Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris history
Tagged Alfortville, Belleville, Boulogne, Clichy, Compagnie parisienne de l’éclairage et de chauffage par le gaz, Courcelles, gasometer, gazomètre, Grenelle, Ivry, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, La Presse, La Villette, Maisons Alfort, Passy, Paul Signac, rapeseed oil, Robert Doisneau, rue de l’Evangile, St-Denis, St-Mandé, Ternes, Vaugirard, Vincent van Gogh
17 Comments
Trespassing at Port-Royal
Tuesday, June 24, 2014. A hot day in Paris and Norman was feeling under the weather. He’d finally drifted off to sleep and I decided to go for a walk – not far, just to get some air. The bedroom … Continue reading
Rescued from oblivion
On the morning of April 12, 2016, three of us set out from this courtyard on an astounding walk through the Marais. But the story starts much earlier. In 1980, a sharp-eyed passerby spotted some photographs in a Paris dumpster … Continue reading
Posted in Paris architecture, Paris history, Paris markets, Paris quartiers, Paris streets
Tagged A. Cayeux, André Malraux, îlots insalubres, Creaphis Editions, F. Nobécourt, Janvier Graveur Estampeur, Le Pas Sage, Malraux law 1962, Marais, Marché des Enfants Rouges, Paris Marais 43, Paris Occupation, Patrice Roy, rue Michel le Comte, Second World War
26 Comments
Getting married in the City of Light
Many people dream of getting married in Paris. How romantic. How fashionable. Like this 1998 image of a Christian Dior wedding gown on a beautiful model, a Paris wedding seems like a dream too good to be true. The fantasy element appears … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris popular culture
Tagged Le Petit Journal, marriage, Montmartre, Paris en Images, weddings
5 Comments
Carnival of the Animals
Norman likes to say that Paris is like Alice’s Restaurant: you can get anything you want there. Whatever you can think of, there is always a Paris connection. Let’s take camels and elephants. In 1881 camels carrying advertising kiosks appeared … Continue reading
Posted in Paris gardens, Paris history
Tagged Abul-Abbas, Café Voisin, camel, Camille Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals, Castor and Pollux, chameaux-réclames, Charlemagne, elephant, Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots, Emmanuel Frémiet, H. Hazel Hahn, Jardin des Plantes, Jean Camescasse, Jumbo, Louis XVI, Louise E. Robbins, Scenes of Paris Modernity, Siege of Paris, Société Financière Française et Coloniale
15 Comments
