There always seems to be a festive atmosphere on the “piazza” at Place Georges Pompidou in Paris, in front of the modern art museum Centre Pompidou aka Beaubourg. Groups of street performers take turns putting on shows and funny sketches here. The Centre Pompidou was one of the first huge 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 …
One morning in September 2011, a group of VirtualTourist members met at the Square René Viviani in the Latin Quarter of Paris (with the church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre in the background) for a walking tour led by VT member Paul Smith, who took us through some side streets of the Latin Quarter, Read More …
Hippophagy, meaning the eating of horse meat, wasn’t even legal in France until 1866, although there was a black market for horse meat long before that, especially in times of crisis. According to the French historian Sylvain Leteux, horse meat lost its taboo status and became a popular food in France Read More …
On my last evening in Paris in June 2006 I was walking to the Opéra Bastille, feeling somewhat sorry for myself because I had already turned in my bicycle to the rental place, and would have to leave Paris the next morning. I was walking through the Place des Vosges, Read More …
In striking contrast to the nearby Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame, the Evangelical Lutheran Church des Billettes is austere and undecorated, with bare walls and plain-glass windows. I went there one evening in the summer of 2008 to hear a concert of Gregorian chants from the 10th to 13th centuries, sung by Read More …
In the fourth arrondissement of Paris, at the corner of Quai des Célestins and Boulevard Henri IV, there is a fine example of a belle époque apartment building from the beginning of the twentieth century. It is a solid stone building with seven floors above ground level, with the traditional 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 …
For those who have just tuned in, let me point out that the Hôtel d’Ecquevilly is not a hotel in the modern sense of the word, but rather a private mansion that was built in 1636 in what was then a new and upcoming aristocratic district of Paris, Le Marais 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 …