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When Miles Davis Met Juliette Gréco
November 6, 2026
Paris Stories
When Miles Davis Met Juliette Gréco
November 6, 2026
Paris Stories

A new film revisits Miles Davis and Juliette Gréco’s Paris romance—a brief affair in 1949 that became a lifelong attachment.

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November 6, 2026
Paris Stories
The Mohicans of Place Maubert
November 5, 2026
Paris Stories
The Mohicans of Place Maubert
November 5, 2026
Paris Stories

Who would imagine, walking along the Boulevard Saint Germain and through Place Maubert today, that this genteel corner of the Latin Quarter once had such a reputation? The place and its neighbouring streets were known for drinking dens and a criminal underworld.

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November 5, 2026
Paris Stories
Rediscovering Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in the Sentier
November 4, 2026
Paris Stories
Rediscovering Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in the Sentier
November 4, 2026
Paris Stories

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was Marie Antoinette’s favourite painter—and the artist behind a portrait that scandalised Paris. Her fame followed her through twelve years of exile, as she painted her way around Europe. Part of her Paris home still survives in the Sentier.

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November 4, 2026
Paris Stories
Miles, Juliette and My Local Bar
October 31, 2026
Paris Now
Miles, Juliette and My Local Bar
October 31, 2026
Paris Now

For one night on 28 October, 1940s Saint-Germain-des-Prés came to rue Maître-Albert, my street in the 5th arrondissement.

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October 31, 2026
Paris Now
The Edges of Paris: A History of the City’s Walls
October 28, 2026
The Making of Paris
The Edges of Paris: A History of the City’s Walls
October 28, 2026
The Making of Paris

In medieval times, Paris was a walled city, but did you know that it remained essentially so until the 1920s? 

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October 28, 2026
The Making of Paris
Zamor: From Court “Plaything” to Revolutionary
October 23, 2026
Paris Stories
Zamor: From Court “Plaything” to Revolutionary
October 23, 2026
Paris Stories

An enslaved child brought to Versailles, Zamor grew up in Madame du Barry’s household and later testified against her during the Revolution. Generations of writers condemned him as an ungrateful betrayer. Discovering that he had lived and died in my street made me question that verdict.

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October 23, 2026
Paris Stories
A Shoe Shine and a Place in History
October 16, 2026
Paris Now
A Shoe Shine and a Place in History
October 16, 2026
Paris Now

A shoe shiner and his customer became two of the first people ever photographed. Almost two centuries later, Paris has marked their spot—but their identities remain a mystery.

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October 16, 2026
Paris Now
The Lives Behind the Landscapes at the Musée Marmottan Monet
October 11, 2026
Paris Now
The Lives Behind the Landscapes at the Musée Marmottan Monet
October 11, 2026
Paris Now

At the Musée Marmottan Monet, the stories behind the landscapes lead from a painter’s return from Verdun to Mondrian’s experiments with abstraction.

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October 11, 2026
Paris Now
Where Wagyu Sizzles and Sashimi Shines
October 4, 2026
Paris Now
Where Wagyu Sizzles and Sashimi Shines
October 4, 2026
Paris Now

There’s a little theatre to dinner at Azabu, and the surprises aren’t all on the plate.

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October 4, 2026
Paris Now
Pondering on the New Paris at the Musée Marmottan Monet
September 25, 2026
The Making of Paris, Paris Now
Pondering on the New Paris at the Musée Marmottan Monet
September 25, 2026
The Making of Paris, Paris Now

Half an hour west of the centre, La Muette felt like a very different Paris.

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September 25, 2026
The Making of Paris, Paris Now
Kokoro: Quenelles, Girolles and Good Wine
September 18, 2026
Paris Now
Kokoro: Quenelles, Girolles and Good Wine
September 18, 2026
Paris Now

At this tiny restaurant, getting to know the chef is part of the pleasure.

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September 18, 2026
Paris Now
Rue de la Harpe: the Ancient Street Swallowed Up by Haussmann
September 10, 2026
Paris Streets
Rue de la Harpe: the Ancient Street Swallowed Up by Haussmann
September 10, 2026
Paris Streets

If you stand with your back to Boulevard Saint-Germain and look down Rue de la Harpe, the contrast is striking.

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September 10, 2026
Paris Streets
What Is a Faubourg—and Why Are There So Many in Paris?
September 4, 2026
The Making of Paris
What Is a Faubourg—and Why Are There So Many in Paris?
September 4, 2026
The Making of Paris

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September 4, 2026
The Making of Paris
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View fullsize The Palais-Royal is one of my favourite places for poking around. This is the Théâtre du Palais-Royal on Rue de Montpensier, with its elaborate iron staircases running up the outside.

The iron galleries and staircases were added around
View fullsize A night out in hell. This extraordinary doorway belonged to the Cabaret de l’Enfer at 53 boulevard de Clichy, photographed by Eugène Atget in September 1900.  The building is completely gone now. 

“Enter and be damned—the Ev
View fullsize The Théâtre de la Renaissance on Boulevard Saint-Martin, with its grand columns and pairs of sculpted figures supporting the balconies. It opened in 1873, adding a bit of Opéra Garnier glamour to a neighbourhood already known for
View fullsize Parisians walk every day by the massive Thermes de Cluny, Roman baths built around 100 AD, a huge landmark at the crossroads of Boulevards Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain, and now part of the Musée de Cluny, though visible from the street. 

Up
View fullsize I came across this magnificent building while exploring north of the grands boulevards.  This is the Hôtel Bony, tucked behind no. 32 rue de Trévise in the 9th arrondissement. Quite a house to find hidden away behind the street.

It was
View fullsize A vegetable seller at Les Halles, photographed by Eugène Atget in October 1900. This was inside one of Baltard’s market pavilions. Look at the cats among the baskets!  I can see that it's garlic in the basket at the front, but what veget
View fullsize It’s surprising that in today's Paris, no one has heard of the Courtille, once one of the great places to go drinking and dancing just outside Paris.

Its name meant an enclosed garden, recalling the gardens and small plots that once occupied t
View fullsize Do you recognise these houses?  This is a familiar little corner of Rue Galande, seen across more than a century—but without colour, you may not immediately recognise them.

When Eugène Atget photographed these two houses around 1899, a
View fullsize Afternoon sunshine on the old houses along the east side of Rue Saint-Jacques. Many were rebuilt or remodelled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with further alterations and additions giving them their uneven roofline.

Despite once being
View fullsize This is the old Saint-Côme anatomy theatre, at no. 5 rue de l’École-de-Médecine. Above the entrance, two winged figures carry the trumpets of Fame, while the dome rises behind them.

It was built between 1691 and 1694, under

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