The Bonjour Rule
Along with Beware of Pickpockets and Travel Curiously, the Bonjour Rule is one of the top rules to live by as you visit France.
Wanderer
Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Beckett, Miller, drama, poetry. On her first visit to Paris, Scottish playwright Morna Young is looking for something as she wanders through the celebrated bookshop Shakespeare and Company but she doesn’t know what… until she finds it.
Contraception in France, where the Pill is Queen, and the Condom King
Books tell us how the idealized Parisienne dresses, what she eats, where she strolls, how she flirts and how she raises her children. But they fail to follow our perfect pouty-lipped Parisienne to her doctor’s office, where she discusses birth control and STDs, or to the boutique in the 11th arrondissement where she shops for condoms.
You know you live in Paris when… BHV Marais and the vocabulary of complaint
There’s no greater sign of your acculturation in Paris than seizing the right moment to râler (grouse, gripe, grumble) during an in-store complaint, while avoiding the emotional pitfalls and using the proper vocabulary.
At the Flea Market: Leyla’s Antique Textiles
An encounter with Leyha Ahi, seller of antique textiles in Marché Dauphine at the Saint Ouen Flea Markets on the edge of Paris, Porte de Clignancourt.
Jean Paul Gaultier Fashion Freak Show at the Folies Bergère
Jean Paul Gaultier has always been the offbeat enfant terrible of French fashion culture, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that his life and work are presented in a Barnum & Bailey version of Gay Pride in Las Vegas. His Fashion Freak Show plays at the Folies Bergère until April 21, 2019.
Tumbleweed: Playthings for the Whimsical Shopper
Meet Lynn Rovida, the joyful American owner of Tumbleweed, a playful Paris shop with a whimsical selection of handcrafted toys, finely cut puzzles, inlaid puzzle boxes and animated sculptures.
Luxury Silversmith Maintains Tradition of French Savoir-Faire in the Northern Marais
The formerly workaday neighborhood of the northern Marais has been increasingly gentrified over the past 15 years, but something that hasn’t changed is the discreet presence of one of France’s few remaining creators of luxury silverware, tableware and decorative accessory: Lapparra.
Plumbing in Paris: the Marble Bathtub of the Marquise de Païva
Nicolas Beboutoff's odd shop for old and antique porcelain and metal plumbing furnishings holds the supposed bathtub of the Marquise de Paiva.