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 […]
Paris History
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, […]
Fête de la Musique: The Day Paris Lets its Hair Down
Ancient France was a pagan kind of a place. Think Druidic rituals in forests (if you’ve read Astérix, you’ll well picture this) and Celtic chants around bonfires. And then along came King Clovis I, in the fifth century, who decided to convert to Christianity. One way in which he, and various other powers-that-be, successfully converted […]