Most of you are too young to remember this, but back in the twentieth century it was customary for department stores to consist of — departments. If you were looking for, say, men’s trousers, all you had to do was take a deep breath, enter the store, find your way Read More …
The Théâtre des Nouveautés (Theater of Novelties or News or Innovations) is one of the many theaters along the Grands Boulevards in Paris. Most of these theaters specialize in contemporary French comedies, which are notoriously difficult for us poor foreigners to understand, even those of us who have some acquaintance Read More …
The opera Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) by Georg Friedrich Händel takes place in Egypt in the year 48 B.C. and has to do with Caesar’s Egyptian war and his love affair with Cleopatra. As it was staged at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, however, the opera took place in the Read More …
The library-museum in the Opéra Garnier is one of the public sites of the French National Library (Bibliothèque National de France or BnF). It is located in the Rotonde de l’Empereur, the west pavilion adjoining the main façade, which as the name implies was originally intended for the use of Read More …
Even for those of us who are not particularly fascinated by Symbolist painting in general or Gustave Moreau in particular, his house in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, now the Musée National Gustave Moreau, is well worth a visit. I especially liked the moment when I walked up the stairs Read More …
This museum is about The Romantic Life, but not “romantic” in the sense of people falling in love and giving each other flowers. Rather it is about a group of artists and writers who lived in Paris during the period of Romanticism in the nineteenth century. The house originally belonged Read More …