Haute Culture

It’s not that we’re not used to destruction in this world. Terrorism has sadly ensured that we now live with the inevitability that violence will break out at random moments, in unpredictable places. We’re even attuned to expect regular bouts of destruction through natural causes. A tsunami, say. We’re resigned to that. But destruction through […]

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Paris has a way of making you wax lyrical, get all poetic about even the most commonplace of things, likes a sprig of sage at the local market, a sun-faded pastel door, or a striped awning over a terrace café. So when the greatest wordsmiths get to the subject of the City of Light, you […]

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Behind the grand cobalt-blue coach doors of 52 rue de l’Arbre-Sec, the old Hôtel de Trudon (in the eighteenth century it belonged to the family of Cire Trudon 1643 candle fame, once the King’s official wax providers), you’ll find another portal into old-world Paris. Nestled into the back corner of the calm cobbled courtyard is […]

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Leave it to the French to turn such a thing of practicality into one of beauty. These six sets take stairs take to a whole new level of gorgeousness. Musée Picasso This is one of the most beautifully preserved Parisian staircases, and — with its lacy balustrade and floridly carved ceilings overhead  — one of […]

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