Tag Archives: Louis XIV

Trespassing at Port-Royal

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Parisian Fields

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 →

Posted in Paris history, Paris hospitals, World War I | Tagged Alexander Sedgwick, Antoine Arnauld, Catherine Arnauld, Jacqueline Arnauld, Jansenism, Louis XIV, Mère Angélique, Port-Royal, The Travails of Conscience | 8 Comments

A city built on air

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Parisian Fields

A few years ago, we found this postcard in a street market, showing a sinkhole in the Place Saint-Augustin. What on earth (or under the earth) had happened during the storm of June 15, 1914? We found one account in … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris cemeteries, Paris civic functions, Paris history, Paris maps, Paris streets | Tagged Antoine Dupont, Barrière d’Enfer, Catacombs, Charles-Axel Guillaumot, Cimetière des Saints Innocents, Cimetière Sainte-Catherine, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Feuillants des Anges Gardiens, Graham Robb, Gypsum, Inspectorate General Service of Quarries, Limestone, Louis XIV, Mouth of Hell, Place Saint-Augustin, Plan de Jaillot, Quarries, Rue d’Enfer, rue Denfert-Rochereau, Storm of 15 June 1914, underground Paris | 2 Comments

Lighting the City of Light

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Parisian Fields

Opinion is divided on whether the name “City of Light” refers to the brilliant minds of the city’s 18th-century philosophers, or to the brightly illuminated streets of the capital. There are arguments to be made on both sides. If the … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris streets | Tagged a la lanterne, bateau mouche, City of Light, French Revolution, Gabriel Nicholas de la Reynie, gas lighting, Louis XIV, Pont Alexandre III, streetlighting, streetlights | 11 Comments

Hiding in plain sight

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Parisian Fields

When we rented an apartment near the Val-de-Grâce, the lady who owned the flat told us that the church and buildings there were very beautiful, but the only way to see inside was to go for mass on Sunday morning. … Continue reading →