Paris created the concept of the café as well as the restaurant, of fine dining along with the picnic, so it’s little surprise that in this city each type of eatery has come to have a fairly set definition. A brasserie is not a bistrot, for example, and a bar another thing altogether. Some distinctions […]
Paris History
Romantic Paris: Two Exquisite New Exhibitions
Before Paris became a city of romance, where misty-eyed lovers could stroll hand-in-hand along beautiful boulevards or lock lips on the city’s graceful bridges, it was the city of Romanticism. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Paris was not yet the City of Light, but rather a dark place, still medieval in design, […]
May Day in Paris (and a Pretty Perfumed Souvenir)
Labour Day in France, La Fête du Travail, is also known as La Fête du Muguet — lily of the valley being the signature bloom for today. On this much-loved public holiday, it has long been a ritual to give family and friends bouquets of this sweet bell-shaped flower, which is considered a lucky charm. […]
Notre-Dame de Paris: a Tribute
It’s not that we’re not used to destruction in this world. Terrorism has sadly ensured that we now live with the inevitability that violence will break out at random moments, in unpredictable places. We’re even attuned to expect regular bouts of destruction through natural causes. A tsunami, say. We’re resigned to that. But destruction through […]