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Tag Archives: Napoleon Bonaparte
The ugliest building in Paris
In the last blog, I mentioned Gabriel Davioud, who is credited with designing some of the classic street furniture of Paris. I wanted to know more about him. That proved to be a challenge. The ordinarily helpful Gallica offered 25 … Continue reading
Posted in Paris architecture, Paris expositions, Paris history
Tagged Aquarium du Trocadéro, Charles Blanc, Charles Percier, Charles-Marie Widor, Exposition Universelle de 1878, Gabriel Davioud, Jacques Carlu, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Jules Bourdais, Jules Simon, Marcel Proust, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon II, Palais de Chaillot, Palais du Roi de Rome, Pierre Fontaine, Trocadéro
10 Comments
The Rise and Fall of the Visual Telegraph
Sometimes we go looking for blog ideas, and sometimes they come along and tap us persistently on the shoulder. This one did – three times. First, I spotted an “advertorial” in a 1912 issue of a small American magazine called … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history
Tagged Abraham Chappe, Abraham-Louis Bréguet, Belleville, Claude Chappe, Ecouen, François Blanc, Louis Blanc, Napoleon Bonaparte, Père Lachaise, Réné Chappe, rue Chappe, rue de l’Université, Saint-Martin-du-Tertre, semaphore, St-Pierre de Montmartre, St-Sulpice, telegraph, Tom Standage
14 Comments
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
Pugin’s Picturesque Paris
For us, no trip to Paris is complete without time browsing through racks, boxes or bins of old engravings of Paris. We find them at antique fairs, flea markets, galleries, book stores and many other places. Quite a few were … Continue reading
Posted in Paris art, Paris history
Tagged Alexander Books, Andrea Quinlan, Augustus Charles Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Canal de l’Ourcq, Charles Heath, Fontaine de l’éléphant, Gordon Russell, Henry IV, Jennings and Chaplin, Kate Murdoch, L.T. Ventouillac, Lead shot, Marie de Medici, Napoleon Bonaparte, Paris and its Environs, Place Vendôme, Pont Neuf, Robert Jennings, Taylor-Murdoch-Beatty bookbinders, Toronto International Antiquarian Book Fair, Tour St. Jacques, William Watts
11 Comments
An honourable education
Every time we plan a trip to Paris, we have a list of things we want to do there. And every time we get to Paris, we end up doing fewer than half of those things. After all, opportunities arise … Continue reading
The Other Great Nineteenth-Century Tower of Paris
The story begins in a photograph shop in the Village St-Paul. I was browsing among the stereograph cards, when I came across something that looked like this. It captivated me. I say “looked like,” because this is not the same … Continue reading
Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris history
Tagged abattoirs, Abattoirs de Grenelle, Abattoirs de Vaugirard, Abattoirs des Invalides, artesian wells, champ de mars, Constant Delaperche, Fontaine du Puits de Grenelle, François Arago, Louis-Georges Mulot, Napoleon Bonaparte, Puits de Grenelle, slaughterhouses, universal exposition
8 Comments
Food, drink, and lodging in Paris postcards
In a sense, all postcards are a form of advertising. Some advertise the sender’s good fortune or superiority: “Hi. I’m here. You’re not.” Others advertise the attraction itself: Kozy Kabins in Niagara Falls, the highest rotating restaurant west of the … Continue reading
Posted in Paris food, Paris hotels, Paris postcards
Tagged Alexandre Legrand, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Arthur Conan Doyle, Benedictine, Benedictine Liqueur, Bishop Maurice de Sully, Boulevard des Italiens, Café Anglais, Camille Pissarro, Dom Bernardo Vincelli, Fécamp, Ferris Wheel, Frédéric Delair, Hotel du Louvre, Hotel Régina, International Exposition of 1900, Julia Child, La Madeleine, La Tour d’Argent, Louvre des Antiquaires, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III, Place du Palais Royal, Quai de la Tournelle, Robespierre, Sherlock Holmes, Treaty of Amiens
12 Comments
A most unusual water system keeps Paris clean
I was alarmed the first time I saw water pouring out of what looked like a sewer grate and onto the road. Now, I watch for such a sight. It is another manifestation of the enlightened engineering, design, and vision … Continue reading
Posted in Paris streets
Tagged bouches de lavage, Eugène Belgrand, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Marché Port-Royal, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III, Ourcq Canal, Paris engineering, Paris sewers, Paris water supply, River Ourcq, rue du Faubourg St Jacques, Street cleaning in Paris, technology of tourism, washing outlets, WOs
43 Comments
A walk in the snow
No trip to Paris would be complete without at least one lengthy visit to Des Photographies, an intriguing shop in Village St. Paul in the Marais. There, with some help from Sylvain Calvier, I have found and bought some wonderful … Continue reading
Posted in Paris gardens, Paris parks
Tagged Arsène Alexandre, Candide, Des Photographies, Gilles Vigneault, Henri Riviere, Louvre, Mail aux pommes, Napoleon Bonaparte, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Robert Lowell, Sylvain Calvier, The Expiation Russia 1812, Victor Hugo, Village St-Paul, Voltaire
3 Comments
