The Samaritaine in Paris
Although I have never been a big fan of department stores (as a child I had a particular aversion to Marshall Field’s in Evanston, which I associated with stinky perfume Read More …
Tag: Victor Hugo
Richelieu-Louvois Library
The Richelieu-Louvois Library is one of four Paris locations of the National Library of France, which in French is called the Bibliothèque nationale de France, abbreviated BnF. The other three Paris Read More …
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
This park is on a hill in the north-east corner of Paris, in the 19th arrondissement. It is the third largest park in Paris, after Tuileries and Villette, and it Read More …
The Bagne prison colony
From 1748 to 1873 Toulon was the site of a brutal prison colony called Le Bagne Portuaire de Toulon. An exhibition on this prison colony was shown at the Naval Read More …
Felix Nussbaum House
The painter Felix Nussbaum was born in Osnabrück in 1904. He was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1944. More than 160 of Nussbaum’s paintings are now on display Read More …
Hospital of the Fifteen-Twenties
Right behind the Opéra Bastille in the 12th district of Paris there is a hospital called “15-20”. Since this is a national eye hospital, I first thought the name “15-20” Read More …
The square of Gavroche’s elephant
There is a persistent urban legend about American tourists going to the Place de la Bastille in Paris and feeling cheated when they discover that the Bastille Fortress isn’t even Read More …
Faubourg Saint-Antoine
The Faubourg Saint-Antoine is a Paris neighborhood that begins at Place de la Bastille (first photo) and stretches about 2 km eastward to Place de la Nation. The word Faubourg Read More …
Rodin Museum in Paris
The sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) lived and worked in the Hôtel Biron in Paris for the last decade of his life. (The word Hôtel is used here in the old Read More …
Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482
The original title of Victor Hugo’s blockbuster novel included the year, 1482. He chose that year because it was still in the Middle Ages but was a year without any Read More …