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- A parachute in the Parc Monceau
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- The Twelve Fleas of Christmas
- What a croque
- The Mystery of the Missing Suspension Bridges of Paris
- A French family in wartime
- The Other Great Nineteenth-Century Tower of Paris
- A virtual walk through old Paris
- The Technology of Compassion
- On reaching 100 – blogs, that is
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Category Archives: Paris history
The man who gave Paris 50 fountains
On our first visit to Paris together, Norman took a picture of me standing beside a Wallace fountain. I liked the dark green caryatids and the elegant dome. Later, on a visit to the Pavillon de l’Eau, we learned that … Continue reading
Posted in Paris churches, Paris history
Tagged Bagatelle, Bois de Boulogne, Café de Paris, Charles Auguste Lebourg, Commune, Fragonard, Franco-Prussian War, Hertford Hospital, Julie Castelnau, Maria Emilia Fagnani, Marquess of Hertford, Père Lachaise, Richard Wallace, rue Laffitte, rue Taitbout, St. George's Church, Wallace Collection, Wallace fountains
9 Comments
Postcards of a Working River
We don’t often think of Paris as a port city. But the city handles about 20 million tonnes of cargo a year, and with more than 7 million people travelling on the river each year, Paris is the leading river … Continue reading
Posted in Paris bridges, Paris history, Paris markets, Paris postcards
Tagged Antoine-Rémy Polonceau, Bassin de l’Arsenal, bateaux mouches, Bercy, Colonne de Juillet, La Seine, Les Halles de Bercy, Paris Flood 1910, passerelle Debilly, péniches, Place de la Bastille, Pont Alexandre III, Pont au Change, Pont des Arts, Pont des Saints-Pères, Pont du Carrousel, Pont Mirabeau, Port de l'Hotel de Ville, Port du Louvre, Port Saint-Nicolas, Quai d'Austerlitz
7 Comments
A parachute in the Parc Monceau
On Christmas Day, before it was time to go to dinner with friends, we wandered into the Parc Monceau. We have walked in the quiet park many times before, but had not noticed the little plaque near the path running along … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris parks
Tagged André-Jacques Garnerin, ballon perdu, Francois d’Arlandes, Henry David Thoreau, Jacques Charles, Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, Jean-Baptiste-Olivier Garnerin, Jeanne-Geneviève Garnerin, Jerôme Lalande, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, Louis XVI, montgolfier brothers, Nicolas-Louis Robert, Parc Monceau, Philippe d’Orléans, Pilatre de Rozier
12 Comments
What a croque
It all started so innocently. I was going to write a blog about a simple and unremarkable café meal, the sort of thing that warms one up on a cold December day with a glass of vin chaud, and before … Continue reading
Posted in Paris food, Paris history
Tagged A Moveable Feast, boulevard de Capucines, Café Americain, chocolate and zucchini, Clémentine in the Kitchen, Clothide Dusoulier, Croque monsieur, Ernest Hemingway, french cookbooks, Gallica, Ginette Mathiot, Hole in the Wall, Je Sais Cuisiner, Julia Child, Larousse Gastronomique, Marcel Proust, Nigel Slater, restaurants, Samuel Chamberlain, Trou dans le mur
13 Comments
The Mystery of the Missing Suspension Bridges of Paris
In the first half of the nineteenth century, France was a world leader in the design and construction of suspension bridges. And yet today not a single one of Paris’s nineteenth-century suspension bridges over the Seine remains. Why? It was … Continue reading
Posted in Paris bridges, Paris history
Tagged Adam Roberts, Angers, Basse-Chaine Suspension Bridge, Bercy Bridge, bridge failures, engineering failures, Gustave Eiffel, Ile de la Cité, Ile Saint-Louis, Louis Joseph Vicat, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Pont de Constantine, Pont de la Réforme, Pont Louis Philippe, Quai aux Fleurs, Quai St-Bernard, Saint André-de-Cubzac bridge, suspension bridges, Tom F. Peters
18 Comments
A French family in wartime
Today, November 11, is the anniversary of the end of the First World War. In France the Jour de L’Armistice or le Jour du Souvenir is a day of military parades and ceremonies. But there is more to remembrance than … Continue reading
Posted in Paris history, Paris postcards
Tagged Armistice Day, Bernigaud family, First World War, French postcards, Henri Bernigaud, Jeanne Bernigaud, Jour de L’Armistice, Jour du Souvenir, Louise Bernigaud, Lyon, Montreal, Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, Vimy Ridge, World War I, Yvonne Michaud
13 Comments
The Other Great Nineteenth-Century Tower of Paris
The story begins in a photograph shop in the Village St-Paul. I was browsing among the stereograph cards, when I came across something that looked like this. It captivated me. I say “looked like,” because this is not the same … Continue reading
Posted in Paris civic functions, Paris history
Tagged abattoirs, Abattoirs de Grenelle, Abattoirs de Vaugirard, Abattoirs des Invalides, artesian wells, champ de mars, Constant Delaperche, Fontaine du Puits de Grenelle, François Arago, Louis-Georges Mulot, Napoleon Bonaparte, Puits de Grenelle, slaughterhouses, universal exposition
6 Comments
A virtual walk through old Paris
In the novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Emma Bovary does something that may sound as familiar to some of you as it does to me. She lives in the countryside, but she wants to be in Paris. So what … Continue reading
