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 […]
Old Paris
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 […]
In Search of the Paris of Diane de Poitiers
Diane de Poitiers wears the bejewelled crown of France’s most intriguing, and infamous, royal mistress. The chief lover of Henri II, who ruled from 1547 to 1559, an all-powerful Diane made many enemies, and such was her dominant status that she has detractors to this day — many historians write her off as greedy and […]
In Search of the Paris of La Bohème
There are several quintessentially Parisian operas and one of the most popular, La Bohème — with its tale of struggling artists, chilly garrets and consumptive love — is currently playing at the Opéra Bastille. (Even if the opera’s words are Italian; and even though the current production is set in, err, outer space.) While Giacomo […]