Later in the afternoon, Eddy suggested that we look for the paintings of Claude Lorrain, which he hadn’t seen for a long time. I thought this was a good idea, since I had missed the big exhibition called “Claude Lorrain — The Enchanted Landscape” at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt Read More …
The Louvre, being such a huge museum, is divided up into three “wings”: The big hollow square at the back, meaning the East, is called the Sully Wing, named after Maximilien de Béthune, the first Duke of Sully (1560–1641), who was the finance minister and chief advisor to King Henry Read More …
On the first floor of the Richelieu Wing of the Louvre in Paris there are several large rooms devoted to sixteenth-century Renaissance tapestries. In 2013, I had the privilege of going through these rooms with Eddy Dijssel (formerly “brueghel” on VirtualTourist), who is a connoisseur not only of paintings but Read More …
This is my nomination for the world’s most beautiful concert venue, the 13th century Sainte-Chapelle on the Île de la Cité in the center of Paris. On many evenings there are two one-hour concerts here, the first at 19:00 (7.00 pm) and the second at 20:30 (8.30 pm). I chose Read More …
The Place du Châtelet on the right bank of the Seine is unique in that it is flanked by two large and (from a distance) identical-looking theaters, both of which belong to the city of Paris. The one on the left is the Théâtre du Châtelet, which in 2006 was Read More …
The church of Saint-Roch on rue Saint-Honoré is one of the oldest and largest churches in Paris. It is also an attractive venue for chamber music concerts. For several years in the early 21st century the church hosted noontime concerts every Tuesday (except in mid-summer) under the title Les mardi Read More …
This statue of a nude woman, with the Eiffel Tower visible in the distance over her left shoulder and the Orsay Museum off to her right, is called Pomone and was created in 1910 by the French sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944). It is one of eighteen Maillol sculptures that are Read More …
The Pont des Arts (Bridge of the Arts) is one of the six bridges in Paris that are reserved for circulations douces, a nice French expression meaning soft or mild traffic, i.e. non-motorized. For several years the Pont des Arts was better known to tourists as the “love lock bridge”, Read More …
In earlier years I was puzzled by the name of this building, since I knew the word concierge only as a person who sat at the entrance to an apartment building to keep track of who went in and out. But in medieval times the Concierge was a high government Read More …
As the name implies, the Orangerie in Paris was originally built as a greenhouse for growing orange trees. The building is located in one corner of the Tuileries garden next to the Place de la Concorde, near the Concorde Bridge. Since 1927 the Orangerie has been used as an art museum Read More …