A caryatid is a column craved in the draped form of a female (and occasional male). Popular in Ancient Greece, the most famous example from that time is the porch of the Erechtheion on the Athens Acropolis. Caryatids came to Paris during the French Renaissance, when everything classical became new again. The first Parisian caryatids, […]
Haute Culture
In Search of the Lost Moulin Rouge
If you’ve long had the Moulin Rouge written in bright red on that Paris bucket list of yours, by all means feel free to tick it off. But be aware that the dinner-and-show cabaret is a far cry from its old dancehall days, catering as it does to tourist buses rather than nostalgia seekers. The […]
Fête de la Musique: The Day Paris Lets its Hair Down
Ancient France was a pagan kind of a place. Think Druidic rituals in forests (if you’ve read Astérix, you’ll well picture this) and Celtic chants around bonfires. And then along came King Clovis I, in the fifth century, who decided to convert to Christianity. One way in which he, and various other powers-that-be, successfully converted […]
Where to See Art Nouveau in Paris
Art Nouveau (“new art”) was an ornamental design movement that flourished in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. It enjoyed mainstream appeal for only around a decade, but its impact was forceful — it was a direct contrast to, and defiance of, the classicism that had kept Paris aesthetically in line for the […]