Arguably the most famous of all operas, La Traviata, which is currently playing at the Palais Garnier, has been one of the most enduringly popular pieces performed by the Opéra de Paris since the 1850s. Which is not surprising when you learn that, despite its Italian name, La Traviata is at heart a very Parisian […]
Haute Culture
How to … Draw Paris
Paris is a dream city for artistic types. There are the countless museums of all kinds, of course, but the city itself is also art, a vision worthy of capturing in a gilded frame. The beauty of Paris has long inspired artists, and even though the days of, say, Impressionism are long gone, the city […]
Celebrating Seventy-Five Years Since the Liberation of Paris
On this day seventy-five years ago, when it had become clear that Germany was losing the war, the French Resistance, along with most of the Paris police force, took control of the préfecture and adjoining buildings. It was the beginning of the Liberation of Paris, one of the most high-stakes and history-making weeks in French […]
Julia Child’s Paris
You don’t have to be a Le Cordon Bleu-level chef to appreciate Julia Child’s Paris. The bonne vivante, who taught the world how to cook French cuisine (or at least just appreciate it more), loved all aspects of her years in Paris, a city that showed her how to savour life in full. Much of […]