Legendary soprano Maria Callas — surely the very definition of the word diva — was born a century ago. In many ways, Maria seems timeless, eternal — such was her artistic impact on the world. In fact, she died way too young: in 1977 at the age of 53, in her Paris apartment at 36 […]
Paris History
In Search of the Paris of Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoléon Bonaparte is never far from the cultural imagination; he is arguably the most famous French person of all time. But the one-time Emperor of France is back in the news in a big way, thanks to the release of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon. While the movie was mostly filmed in England, Malta, and Morocco, you […]
In Search of the Paris of Edith Wharton
Author Edith Wharton, whose social novels gently critiqued the morals and manners of Manhattan’s Gilded Age, might be forever linked to her birth city of New York, but she was at heart and soul a Parisienne, residing in the French capital and then countryside for her final thirty years of life — from 1907 to […]
Jean Seberg and Her Inner Parisienne
It’s one of the delightful quirks of Parisian history that the most iconic French New Wave figure — not to mention one of the most quintessentially à-la-parisienne beauties — just happened to have been born and bred far from the City of Light. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Edith Wharton and Joséphine […]