Marie Antoinette — a villain to some, victim to others — is endlessly fascinating. The ghost of France’s last queen has haunted myriad books, countless hours of screen time. The latest quest to understand this much-maligned but also much-admired woman is Marie Antoinette, an eight-part television series co-produced by the BBC and Canal+. Read on […]
Paris History
Mimosa: The Signature Bloom of Paris in January
Paris’s Christmas lights twinkle well into January, and suit the City of Light so well that it seems most reluctant to take down its decorations, some of which stay valiantly a-sparkle through to the middle of the month. Fortunately, Paris has found another lovely way to remain bright and cheery beneath its (usually) grey winter […]
The Best Paris Books of 2022 (Part Deux)
The first half of this year saw the release of so many wonderful books set in or about Paris that it was hard to imagine that the second half would see a repeat performance. Happily, for francophiles and bibliophiles alike, the publishing trend is powering on, especially when it comes to historical fiction. Read on […]
In Search of the Paris of Pierre Beaumarchais, Playwright of The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro, showing at the Palais Garnier from now until the end of the year, is one of those ballets and operas that are perfectly placed on the to-do-in-Paris list. That’s because it’s so quintessentially Parisian in soul as well as story. Sure, it does have a Spanish setting … But Mozart based […]