You can’t go back to 1950s Paris (sigh) but you can visually transport yourself there through watching the glorious first two episodes of the second season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel — and most of those locations can still be visited in the modern day (give or take some vintage set decoration). When Midge and […]

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Maybe this is just a case of wishful thinking, but you don’t need to have a Parisian address to be a Parisienne. Parisian can be as much a state of mind, and style of dress, as it is a status of residence. It’s partly because the concept is so demystified these days. Ever since the […]

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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 […]

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In 1560, a certain Jean Nicot introduced tobacco to Catherine de Medici, raving about its various healing powers. The queen and her court were soon hooked — and the ambassador would go on to be immortalised in the word nicotine. The backstory of tobacco in France has long infused smoking with an air of nobility; […]

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