Matrimoine in Paris: A Guide to Women Who Made French History
Cherchez la femme? Even in Paris that’s not an easy task from a historical standpoint. Psychologist, author and feminist Edith Vallée sets out to rectify that in Le Matrimoine de Paris, a new guidebook that tracks the city's female history-makers through 20 itineraries, 20 arrondissements.
Arcs of War and Triumph
The France Revisited Newsletter: I write this in the wake of two major events in Paris over the past month that occurred by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe. On Nov. 11, the gathering of leaders of the belligerent nations of the First World War to commemorate the centennial of the armistice.
On Dec. 1, the vandalization of the arch by some affiliated with the Yellow Vest movement.
Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages: Magical Unicorns and Gothic Sculpture
When it fully reopens at the end of 2020, the Cluny Museum will regain its place among Paris’s major museums. Already, its 5-year restoration project is bearing fruit in the form of two concurrent exhibitions that explore the mysteries of medieval art and culture: Magical Unicorns (until Feb. 25, 2019) and Birth of Gothic Sculpture (until Jan. 7, 2019).
Benoît Castel: Bread, Brunch, Pastries in Eastern Paris
Brunch at Benoît Castel Ménilmontant, a pastry shop and bakery in the 20th arrondissement, is an ideal place to begin weekend wandering in the increasingly gentrified neighborhoods of eastern Paris. We came for the bread, we stayed for the brunch, and only later did we taste the heart of Benoît Castel’s trade, the pastries.
Paris Street Talk: Chadors, Communists, Cannibals
Some call it a no-go zone full of potential Islamist terrorists. Others pretend that the neighborhood is just one big hipster playground. What's really going on at the eastern end of Jean-Pierre Timbaud? Here, in a two-part illustrated vignette, is what two American travelers discover as they explore eastern Paris after brunch one Sunday afternoon.
Paris Street Talk: The Wall of 3 Crowns
Having survived an encounter with chadors, communists and cannibals in part 1 of this two-part vignette, two American visitors in eastern Paris encounter a graffer, a gardener, a homeless shelter and cheerful graffiti beyond the Wall of 3 Crowns. But first they have to get past the dog.
Green Paris: Smoking Is Out, Sparkling Water Is In
While Paris is test banning smoking in some of its parks and gardens, a new garden, Jardin Truillot, has been opened in the city's least green and most densely populated arrondissement.
A Montmartre Treasure Hunt: Been There, Not Done That
The Montmartre Museum is just 300 yards from Sacré Coeur and Place du Tertre yet it feels well off the beaten track. As it should since this is a connoisseur’s museum with a quiet garden café. An end your Montmartre treasure hunt.
Napoleon, Neanderthals and Successful Businessmen
Two temporary exhibitions in Paris are of special interest to those who sit in their office late at night trying to understand the real or imagined dominance or superiority of some men over others: Napoleon Strategist at the Army Museum and Neanderthal, the Exhibit, at the Museum of Man.