Paris History

Arguably the most famous of all operas, La Traviata, which is currently playing at the Palais Garnier, has been one of the most enduringly popular pieces performed by the Opéra de Paris since the 1850s. Which is not surprising when you learn that, despite its Italian name, La Traviata is at heart a very Parisian […]

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On this day seventy-five years ago, when it had become clear that Germany was losing the war, the French Resistance, along with most of the Paris police force, took control of the préfecture and adjoining buildings. It was the beginning of the Liberation of Paris, one of the most high-stakes and history-making weeks in French […]

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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 […]

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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, […]

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