Author Edith Wharton, whose social novels gently critiqued the morals and manners of Manhattan’s Gilded Age, might be forever linked to her birth city of New York, but she was at heart and soul a Parisienne, residing in the French capital and then countryside for her final thirty years of life — from 1907 to […]
Old Paris
In Search of Regency Paris
Defined as the period 1715-1723, Regency Paris is so-named because it’s when Duke Philippe d’Orléans ruled as Regent for an infant King Louis XV. But Regency Paris, despite its relative brevity, has gone down in history as a culturally significant moment for the French capital — which is why it’s currently the subject of a […]
Agatha Christie’s Parallel Parisian Life (and some Cosy Christie-esque Mysteries Set in Paris)
I have a theory that if you were to group Agatha Christie fans and Paris lovers in respective circles, you could create a Venn diagram with quite the overlap. Okay yes, Agatha is celebrated for cosy murder mysteries that mostly unfold in quaint ivy-sprawled, rose-scented, quintessentially English villages … Bear with me here … It’s […]
Heritage Weekend 2023: Unearthing Paris’s Hidden Gems
There are many reasons to love Paris in September. It’s the month of that slate-cleaning, fowards-looking, stationery-buying, wardrobe-polishing time known as la rentrée, for one. It’s also the first month of autumn/fall, when the turning leaves let you see the city in a whole, golden new light. And, as the temperature starts its steady descent […]