Paris Métro line number 4
As a cyclist I seldom use the Métro in Paris, but in recent years I have had occasion to take line # 4 several times, mainly going to and from Read More …
Category: France
Jana & JS on Joan of Arc Street
In February 2011, the street artists Jana & JS (Jana Balluch and Jean-Sébastien Philippe) were commissioned to make two large wall paintings on these new buildings at 110 rue Jeanne Read More …
Museum of the Sewers (Les Égouts)
The Museum of the Sewers is one of the few places in Paris that was not closed down by the coronavirus pandemic — but only because it was already closed Read More …
Lyon’s unmistakable opera house
One thing I’ll say for the Lyon opera house: you can’t mistake it for any other building in Lyon, or for any other opera house in the world that I Read More …
Bizet’s Carmen in Toulon
Whatever else you might have heard about Toulon, you should be aware that it has a gorgeous nineteenth century opera house — one of the largest opera houses in France Read More …
Bizet’s Carmen in Marseille
The sun never shines on the façade of the Municipal Opera House in Marseille because the building faces north (or more precisely north-northwest). So whatever time of day you take Read More …
Opéra de Lille
The original Municipal Theater in Lille was built from 1784 to 1787 and served its purpose for over a century, until it burned to the ground in a mysterious fire Read More …
Lully and Strauss in Nancy
The opera house in Nancy is on an elegant public square called Place Stanislas, which was designed and built in the 1750s on orders of the Duke of Lorraine, Stanislas Read More …
Crash of an Airbus at the Opera
Instead of being shipwrecked, captured by pirates and sold into slavery, the Italian travelers in David Hermann’s staging of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri were flying comfortably in an Airbus when it Read More …
The Royal Opera in Versailles
In the Royal Opera in the north wing of Versailles Palace I saw an elaborate performance of the musical comedy Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by the playwright Molière (1622-1673) and the Read More …