The French newspaper Le Monde has moved four times in its seventy-eight-year history. Its latest move was in 2020, when the company’s 1,600 employees (at least those who were not working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic) moved into this striking new building at 67-69 avenue Pierre Mendès-France, in the Read More …
The French word Gaîté means cheerfulness or happiness, and this historic theatre was certainly a cheerful place in the middle-to-late 1870s, when several of Jacques Offenbach’s comical operettas were performed here. Offenbach himself was the theatre’s director and impresario for two years, but he was not so happy with the Read More …
The Place de la Bastille is one of several squares in Paris that have been completely rearranged in recent years, to reduce the amount of space devoted to motor traffic and increase the space allotted to pedestrians and cyclists. The July Column, at the center of the square, was previously Read More …
Paris has finally found a good use for its Bourse de Commerce, an impressive circular building that was originally used as a wheat market in the eighteenth century. (I imagine that this was where Balzac’s Père Goriot made his fortune as a wholesale grain dealer during the French Revolution.) François Read More …
One of the big changes in Paris in the last few years has been the proliferation of co-working spaces throughout the city and the nearby suburbs. I have never used any of these co-working spaces, so I can’t speak from personal experience — I’m just trying to figure out what Read More …
Boulevard du Palais This is a Wallace Fountain that I must have walked or cycled past dozens or even hundreds of times over the years, without ever stopping for a closer look — which is perhaps not surprising, since Paris has over a hundred of these ‘large model’ fountains (the Read More …
The Cluny Museum (National Museum of the Middle Ages) in the Latin Quarter of Paris has reopened after being closed for a year and a half. The displays have been totally reorganized and are now mainly in chronological order. Ramps and elevators have been installed to connect the different levels Read More …
After going on an excellent Jewish guided walking tour of the Marais district in the morning, I was ready for some Jewish entertainment in the evening. Fortunately, the historic Théâtre de l’Œuvre, in the 9th arrondissement, was showing a musical called Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi’s Cat). Several years Read More …
Some time ago, on a whim, I typed “7 rue des Rosiers Paris” into Google Maps, just to see the building where I lived for two months in 1962 and for a month and a half in 1966. I was surprised to find a listing at this address for “Flora Read More …
This house in the Marais district of Paris is where I lived for two months in the autumn of 1962, and again for a month and a half in the autumn of 1966. I learned of this place from a handwritten notice that was taped to a light post nearby. Read More …