Corinne LaBalme
Corinne LaBalme is a travel writer and novelist living in Paris. Her most recent book is French Ghost, a cozy mystery published in 2022 by The Wild Rose Press.
Paris Hotels: 7 Secret Garden Bars
From a glamorous 4-star hotel to a hip budget hideaway by way of an elegant BnB, here are seven Paris inns offering unexpected oases, notable whether you're lodging there or just looking for an open-air bar away from car fumes.
The Coulée Verte: A Green and Gentle Promenade in Eastern Paris
Sixteen years before New York's instantly celebrated High Line opened, Paris inaugurated its own planted promenade, a strip of green cutting east-west through the 12th arrondissement along the path of old train tracks. The 3-mile long path of greenery called the Coulée Vert René-Dumont flows from near the Bastille to the Paris beltway, offering views of urban architecture along the way.
What’s THAT at Versailles? Anish Kapoor and “The Queen’s Vagina”
Despite the fact that Louis XIV dragged every artist he could find to Versailles in the 17th century, bringing contemporary sculpture to the palace in the 21st century has been fraught with controversy ever since the domain instituted an annual summer exhibition. Case in point, the work of Anish Kapoor presented in the palace gardens June 9 to Nov. 1, 2015.
The Marquis, the Hounds and Château de Cheverny
The elegant Château de Cheverny is "chez moi" for Charles-Antoine de Vibraye and his family. Call him "marquis" if you like. His ancestors have resided on the premises for the better part of 600 years. Cheverny was one of the first private French estates to open its gates to the public, and de Vibraye welcomes on average 350,000 guests per year to his castle-sweet-castle.
Château de Beauregard: A Castle Road Less Taken
Tourists in the Loire Valley generally head only for the A-list castles. But for sightseers who dislike crowds and relish the possibility of running into a congenial chateau owner, quieter slices of 16th-century splendor are a few minutes away at the Chateau de Beauregard, 3 miles southeast of Blois.
Chambord, the Loire Valley’s XXL Château, Gets a Tourist Makeover
When you can't get any bigger, you just have to get better. Chambord, the massive chateau in the Loire Valley, 9 miles east of Blois, is in the midst of a major development plan (€4.5 million invested in 2014) to make the castle more user-friendly and, ultimately, self-financing.
La Toilette: The Invention of Privacy
In a delightfully exhibitionistic exhibition running February 12-July 5, 2015, Paris's Marmottan-Monet Museum examines French personal hygiene (and lack of) through the ages. (Spoiler alert: Lots of dirty pictures!)
On the Rising Edge of Paris: The View from Batignolles
Journalist Corinne LaBalme, a resident of the Batignolles Quarter of Paris’s 17th arrondissement, puzzles over the construction of a 525-foot glass tower that will house the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI), the centerpiece of a 123-acre development on the northeastern edge of the city.
Cookbook Beat: Le Grand Cours de Cuisine Ferrandi
The Ferrandi School, the most hands on of Parisian culinary academies, has come out with a mega-cookbook for amateurs and professionals looking to hone their culinary skills and try recipes from simple to gastronomical.