The Cognacq-Jay Museum has nothing to do with Hennessy, Remy Martin, Courvoisier, or Martell. Rather, it was named after Ernest Cognacq (1839-1928) and his wife Marie-Louise Jaÿ (1838-1925), the founders and first owners of the Samaritaine department store on Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Cognacq and Jaÿ both grew up 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 …
This museum in the Marais district of Paris is devoted to Jewish artworks and historical artifacts, mainly from France but also from other European countries and from North Africa. Unfortunately no photography is allowed inside the museum, but some of the artworks and religious objects can be seen on the museum’s Read More …
This free museum in the Marais district belongs to the City of Paris and is devoted to the history of the city from its earliest beginnings to present times. In addition to documents, statues and antique furniture, the Musée Carnavalet also features hundreds of original paintings that illustrate various epochs Read More …
The Carnavalet Museum in the Marais district of Paris re-opened in May 2021 after four-and-a-half years of intensive renovation. This is a free museum about the history of Paris. It belongs to the city of Paris and is located in two historic mansions that were built four-and-a-half centuries ago, in Read More …
On February 27, 1654, the poet, novelist and playwright Paul Scarron signed a rental contract for this house at the corner of Rue des Douze-Portes (now Rue de Turenne) and Rue Neuve-Saint-Louis (now Rue Villehardouin). This is where he lived for the last six years of his life with his Read More …
It took me a while to realize that some of the most dreadfully over-motorized squares and circles in Paris were at places where three or four districts (arrondissements) come together. The Arch of Triumph, for instance, is at the place where the 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements come together. The Read More …
In Paris as in many other places throughout the world, the Chinese celebrate their New Year for fifteen days starting with the first new moon of the calendar year. Young people with cymbals and dragon costumes go through the streets of Paris and visit all the shops that have Chinese Read More …
This “Museum of Arts and Occupations” in Paris shows the history of technology from the eighteenth century to the present day. The word Arts in the name refers not to painting or sculpture, but to the skill of an artisan, technician or engineer. Foucault’s pendulum, which demonstrates the rotation of Read More …
On the pleasant and lively street called Rue de Bretagne there is a covered market with the unusual name Marché des Enfants Rouges (Market of the Red Children). It turns out that this is the oldest market in Paris. It was created in the year 1615 during the reign of Read More …