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 […]
Old Paris
The Champs-Elysées: Chic Again
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, for so long a flashy strip of cinemas and fast food eateries, is living up to its former glory thanks to a recent succession of glamorous openings. The grand street can trace its history back to 1670, when the famed gardener André le Nôtre (of Versailles fame), after having beautified the […]
Caryatids in Paris: Another Reason to ‘Always Look Up!’
A caryatid is a column craved in the draped form of a female (and occasional male). Popular in Ancient Greece, the most famous example from that time is the porch of the Erechtheion on the Athens Acropolis. Caryatids came to Paris during the French Renaissance, when everything classical became new again. The first Parisian caryatids, […]
In Search of the Lost Moulin Rouge
If you’ve long had the Moulin Rouge written in bright red on that Paris bucket list of yours, by all means feel free to tick it off. But be aware that the dinner-and-show cabaret is a far cry from its old dancehall days, catering as it does to tourist buses rather than nostalgia seekers. The […]